trike project xv 750 virago

[zakboy]

hi tbone thank you for the welcome, i think your self and toad have saved me a few quid and thanks for the info on the thickness of the pads that is something i would of over looked with out that info, many thanks to you its much appreciated.  all the best. zak                                                       

[Manky Monkey]

Hi Zak,
good to see everyone rallying to the rescue & pooling knowledge.
I came up with the disc conversion many years ago now & am still suprised, (& quietly pleased), that trike builders are still using it.
Several forum members have produced short runs of caliper mounting plates for sale on Ebay & elsewhere.
Keep us up to date Zak. Lookin' good. 

[zakboy]

hi there manky monkey,yes you must be very proud of your disc conversion where ever you go on the net  looking for info on reliant disc conversions yours is the one every one talks about and wants to go with,it was the first time today i needed a bit of help and and the responce was great it not only saved me a few quid but i learned something to, its a great forum and I'm really enjoying it and glad to be hear.  all the best and thanks for popping in and showing an intrest in my project.zak

[zakboy]

good morning all,well will be back in the bird room later today and on with the project,no chalky today shes banished to the house when you ask a parrot to fetch you a 12mm spanner and it comes back with one stamped 1/2 inch then she is just getting above her self who's project is this any way, off to the engineers to see whats happend to my new swing arm bolts there a week over due

[zakboy]

well back from the engineers my new swing arm bolts will be ready tomorrow I'm told, so with the prob yesterday with my disc conversion but with the help of manky monkey members which was very much appreciated i now know what the set up is and what i need to get to finish  it 2 vw mk2 caliper carriers  so the disc conversion is on hold till i can locate a pair,so not a lot to be going on with at the moment,so for now as the virago's drive rotation looking at the bike from the rear is clockwise i needed to flip the axle and if this is correct the the diff housing oil filler plug will be to the right looking from the rear before for doing this i located the breather hole in the outer shaft tube which after fliping the axle would be underneath, so as not to leak oil dropped a spot of weld on it and drilled a new hole on the top

[zakboy]

hi to all,when i started this project i decided i was not going to grind,bend,weld or drill any thing on the bike frame,and as a trike i wanted the ride height to be the same as it was as a bike or as near to as poss so not  to change the fluid levels oil etc,  of the 3 trikes i had owned in the past they had all been hard tails and that is how they had been when i brought them with my thoughts turning to if i should go hard or soft tail with this project i  decided that with a simple device to lock up and un lock the movement, of the swing arm it could be change from one to the other,as a soft tail using the bikes rear springs as a soft tail  the springs would be in the same place as they were as a bike great if you only have one wheel at the back as it was meant to be, but with two wheels at the back and the reliant axle the only spring movement i was going to get was going to be up down and would only be an advantage if i hit two pot holes of the same depth with both rear wheels at the same time, what i really need is to build my swing arm so that each side  had some movement independent of each other with out changing the reliant axle,  having spent a lot of time helping a Friend out on his small holding driving the tractor and remembering how the two arms work that carry what ever implement your using at the rear of the tractor i don't think this would be to difficult

[Manky Monkey]

Certainly sounds like you've done your homework on this one Zak. We can all learn something new, so the more info shared the better. Onwards!

[zakboy]

hi there manky monkey,i think doing your home work saves for a lot of head aches later and as a newbie that home works made a lot easyer by guys like your self and other members that are happy to pass on there knowledge and are happy to advise when things are going wrong. keep up the great work.all the best zak

[zakboy]

hi to all once again, well back in the bird room and with my new bolts for my swing arm not ready, been told now hopefully tomorrow  so again theres not a lot to be going on with,so with the main arms that were to form the starting point of the swing arm one to be from the n/s pivot point on the frame and the same on the o/s these would have to be bent, as i was using box secsion and i do lack some welding skills i decided any welding that needed to be done on the project i would pay some one who knew what they were doing to do this and i would only tack every thing in to place first,so i did not want to cut the angle i wanted out of the box secsion then bend the joints together and weld them,so i decided i would bend them in the pipe bender,first i found some old 20mm solid bar cut a short length about  56mm or so just a little wider than the former that i was going to use which was normally used for bending pipe, i then formed two groves on the outer walls of the former(as in the pics) for the short length of bar to sit across, the groves would stop the bar moving whilst i made the bend,as i had only brought enough box secsion for the build and did not want waste any,i filled the box secsion with damp sand made two good bungs out of wood and with as much sand as i could get in to the length of box secsion i hammered the bungs in to each end to compress the sand,i would only normally do this when bending thin walled tube to help stop it collapsing as i only have a pipe bender and not a tube bender so just to help the bend and not waste any box secsion i applied it hear

[zakboy]

just to help the bend i added as much heat to the bend as i could and removed the paint from off the form at the point where i was going to apply the heat so i was not going to breath in any nasty fumes.

[terry t]

Hi zac.why don't you cut and weld the box section.by bending it you are putting a lot or stress on the out side bend.how are you intending to fit the swinging arms to frame and axle

[zakboy]

hi terry t thanks for popping in,i think that because the angle i need to get to, the bend is not to extreme  but point taken, but if need be will have some extra plates welded on the point of the bend top and bottom and the outer and in side of the bend.cheers and all the best zak

[zakboy]

well good news on the disc conversion,just manged to win a pair of vw golf mk2 calipers on ebay,i know i only needed the carriers but brought a pair of calipers with the carriers and pads but at least i can now finish the manky monkey conversion,when they arrive of course.

[zakboy]

 well on wards and up wards as they say, brought a prop off ebay a while back £45,so while still awaiting other bits to arrive thought i would prepair it ready, was not sure what the final length was going to be at this stage so thought i would not weld it up until every thing else was in place and new where i needed to be on the length, so hacksawed a length off the diff end of the prop and ground off the balance weight,to make up the insert had a piece off 50 mm diameter bar cut to a length of 54mm allowed 10 mm from one end before the stepdown then had the rest turned down to around 47.25 witch would make a nice  fit in to the cut off end of the prop, i then had a hole bored out throw the center of the insert just a little smaller than the diameter of the drive shaft from the bike so with a little heat to the insert and using mallet would be able to tap it in and have a nice tight fit, i all so had the hole each end of the insert counter sunk to a good depth,so when it came to welding the shaft in place on the  insert end that was to go in to the reliant prop i could get a good weld on it grind the exes shaft and weld off  flush  so as not to have any exes shaft and weld throwing the balance of shaft out and also grind the weld flush the other end then plan to pin it as well,so last thing for me to do at this stage was to grind the gear of the end of the shaft from the bike

[zakboy]

few more pics