Boxerworks.com

Garnet wrote:

bbelk wrote:What is the advantage of a mono shock over the twin shocks? There must be one since everything has gone that way now. I thought production cost could be part of it, but that would hardly be a motivator for your project, which looks very nice, by the way.

It cenertalizes some of the stress points on the frame to help reduce flex. The subframe now just holds the seat in place and can be made much lighter. The swingarm will be much stonger as well.


And it looks real cool too

Production cost is involved, as you can make one better lighter shock for the same money as two lesser quality heavier (combined) shocks. It's also pretty much impossible to make the two shocks perfectly identical in damping (especially if adjustable). As Garnet says, it makes it WAY easier to make a stiff mounting point on the frame, and thus it makes it easier to make the frame lighter. The biggest advantage (which, I believe, this example will not be taking advantage of) is that it makes it much easier to mount linkages which allow easy adjustment (in design) of a rising rate rear suspension: where the rate of both springing and damping rise together as you move toward the end of the suspension's travel.

On a Cafe bike though, the cool factor is probably the most important. That, and the "nobody else has one like this" factor.

Good work, Chuey -

As for unchartered waters, though,
mono airhead chassis w/ a centrally located shock
have been on the scene
since very early in the 1970s.

2 such builders:
Udo Gietl & Rob North.

vanzen@rockerboxer.com wrote:Good work, Chuey -

As for unchartered waters, though,
mono airhead chassis w/ a centrally located shock
have been on the scene
since very early in the 1970s.

2 such builders:
Udo Gietl & Rob North.

Uncharted for Chuey I meant.
Chuey has been quite an inventor over the years that I've seen.
How will the brazed joints stand up to operating stresses I wonder? One must have the utmost faith in his creations where the chance of failure can present a dangerous situation. I've never done it, so I don't know.

Vanzen, how goes the Old Crow?

Pretty much stalled for lack of discretionary funds.
Riding more - but project progress suffers.

vanzen@rockerboxer.com wrote:Pretty much stalled for lack of discretionary funds.
Riding more - but project progress suffers.

Dammed modern motorcycles.

Garnet wrote:

vanzen@rockerboxer.com wrote:Pretty much stalled for lack of discretionary funds.
Riding more - but project progress suffers.

Dammed modern motorcycles. :roll:

True. Go fast stop now miles & miles
And with a minimum
of personal / mechanical intervention.

REALLY SUCKS !
(but I'll try to endure ...)

ME 109 wrote:Uncharted for Chuey I meant.
Chuey has been quite an inventor over the years that I've seen.
How will the brazed joints stand up to operating stresses I wonder? One must have the utmost faith in his creations where the chance of failure can present a dangerous situation. I've never done it, so I don't know.

I don't see myself as an inventor, especially as far as the swing arm is concerned. As far as trusting the brazed joints, I do trust them. It's not that I'm a hot shit brazer but I'm good enough for this job, I think. My original sub frame for my existing Cafe' just got an update/improvement. The bicycle fork based assembly that supports the muffler used to be bolted onto the main subframe assembly. The bolts were not really big enough for the job and it never gave me an actual problem but I think it would have if it was a high mile type of bike. I brazed the whole assembly up and now it's essentially one piece.

It may interest those who didn't think brazing or making the subframe of bicycle forks would work to know that it has withstood the usage it's gotten so far. The shocks act directly on the original subframe just as they do on the original ones. In addition to that, there is the part that suspends the very heavy BMW R1100S assembly. No problems there as well; other than me thinking the bolted assembly wasn't up to the job for the long run. That said, tomorrow, one of the projects I hope I get to is looking at a less "ghetto" way of supporting the "up pipe" that goes to the mufflers at the point where it passes under the subframe. I had been using tie wire and it had worked very nicely. I will try to make something that is more elegant.

I hope, soon, to be able to sandblast the assembly and paint it. I think that would be a nice time to put up a picture of it.

Chuey

I, for one, appreciate Chuey's personal approach
of creative problem solving
and always enjoy seeing his work.

Any "metal joining" process
will be defined by it's strengths & weaknesses -
Having said that, braze welding (mc) frames
also has a rich historical precedence of integrity.

... Did I mention ?
Rob North's mc frames were braze-welded.

And Rickmans.

I am not even close to the level those guys were at.

Chuey

Chuey wrote:And Rickmans ...

... in fact, most British mc & auto Racing frames of the era.
Air- frames, too.
The integrity of bronze-welding in these applications
is well proven.