Let the build begin

[union]

Little earlier then expected but the new bike is here

[The Snowman]

[lrrs313]

WTF do you have to build? Looks ready to go! Do they still put the 6 speed in the SMR? Badass bike, looking forward to hearing what you think of it.

[Kurlon]

I think all thats left are stickers, and taking a piece of asphalt to it to knock some of the shiny down as a sacrifice to the race gods.

[JettaJayGLS]

Sick.

[lrrs313]

I think all thats left are stickers, and taking a piece of asphalt to it to knock some of the shiny down as a sacrifice to the race gods.

Come on Josh, you and I both know your brain is in overdrive right now thinking about all the stuff you'd do to that bike....... (I have a couple ideas too, but nothing too extreme)

[kumpy]

nice!!!!!!!!

[Kurlon]

Come on Josh, you and I both know your brain is in overdrive right now thinking about all the stuff you'd do to that bike....... (I have a couple ideas too, but nothing too extreme)

True, fortunately my CC's are already smoked and I have three projects in my garage that need tinkering to keep me from going TOO far off the deep end plotting that SMR build.

[xrocket21]

Nice pickup man

keep posting progress pics

[union]

Ok a little work has been done. Nothing huge or very visual yet.

The biggest thing was break in day. I was lucky enough to ride at the July Bomo day. Found out where the bike is good and where it needs some help.



Got a few small parts in.

Super Moto Engineering axle sliders. These things are awesome and I have tested them on the 525 on a few occasions. Sadly they are hard to find now since they are no longer in business.



I do need to make a few changes to the swingarm. In comparison to the 525 (orange plates) the 450 Swingarm needs a little milling to make them work perfectly.





Since the bike doesnt need as much to make it raceable like my R6 did I decided to splurge a little.

Some Ti bolts



Next on the list of things to get.

New brakes. They are plain old awful. Ill be getting a new brembo master and caliper for it. I also have a line on a machinist that will be making a set of triple clamps and if I decide some Ti axles.

[union]

Ok we had one small update and one large one

After the break in ride it was very apparent that a steering damper was needed. I looked over my options and decided to go with an Ohlins 2.1.



I went with this because I felt it had a couple advantages over the scotts version. The first was I can adjust the damping level like in any scotts but I can also adjust the return to center damping separately. The other advantage is the way it mounts. The damper itself bolts to the steering stem. No need for special mounting brackets or tapping of the clamp. The pin that the damping arm connects to replaces the top bearing race instead of clamping around the neck like the scotts does. The only catch is you need to get it right the first time.







Also swapped the wheels from the 525 over to the 450



The big change although no pictures yet is a set of clamps. My guy came out today to get the design settled. We made a change to the offset from stock. Hopefully in a week or two they will be ready for a test fit and then we can send them out to get anodized.

[csmutty]

Sick! What offset are you going with?

[union]

Sick! What offset are you going with?

I think it a 6mm offset on this bike. It has an adjustable stem so Ill be able to to choose from 7 or 5.

[union]

Oh ya. After seeing this Im ready to go and really wish we had a track like this close by.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=SPLKCNiFlAY

[Brendin87]

And I thought getting lapped by Eric was cool. I'd probably have a heart attack if Rossi did it!!


Bike seems to be coming along nice btw. Hope I get to see it when I come out to the shop.

[JettaJayGLS]

Holy crap. My 450 is going to get absolutely smoked by this bike. Looks awesome, I'm very very jealous.

[Pigman]

Looks sick....................nice build James

[soofle616]

Can I ask what your guy is charging for the new triple? I have a couple designs I would like to get fabricated but the cost of a custom top triple from my usual sources is pretty ridiculous.

[JettaJayGLS]

I think it a 6mm offset on this bike. It has an adjustable stem so Ill be able to to choose from 7 or 5.

I wish I knew more about all of this stuff and had better benchmarks for comparison. 6mm sounds extremely low to me, but considering what you do for work I'm assuming its spot on. I've heard so many different things from different people on the CRFs that I'm hesitant to drop the big coin on triples when a lot of people are quite successful on the stock 24mm.

[Chippertheripper]

Does it wag coming down the straight, or the front end chatter REALLY badly in corners?
If not, I wouldn't worry, you've got bigger fish to fry. Keeping that thing behind you is task one.

[union]

Can I ask what your guy is charging for the new triple? I have a couple designs I would like to get fabricated but the cost of a custom top triple from my usual sources is pretty ridiculous.

Now that is the question. He is helping me out so it will be a bit cheaper then normal but the final price hasnt been determined.

I wish I knew more about all of this stuff and had better benchmarks for comparison. 6mm sounds extremely low to me, but considering what you do for work I'm assuming its spot on. I've heard so many different things from different people on the CRFs that I'm hesitant to drop the big coin on triples when a lot of people are quite successful on the stock 24mm.

The offset is determined by the bike geometry and what you want to do with it. My ktm came with a 16/14 offset. The CRF might be better with a larger offset. As chip said save your money for now. I wouldnt put the money into an older bike. Id wait until you upgrade to something newer in the next couple of years.

[csmutty]

Trevor Arvidson is running stock triples on his CRF and is running 17's. You should be fine haha.

[JettaJayGLS]

The offset is determined by the bike geometry and what you want to do with it. My ktm came with a 16/14 offset. The CRF might be better with a larger offset. As chip said save your money for now. I wouldnt put the money into an older bike. Id wait until you upgrade to something newer in the next couple of years.

Yeah, not ready to change the front end yet. Martire was doing 18s on the bike, so I know a lot more can be done here.

Trevor Arvidson is running stock triples on his CRF and is running 17's. You should be fine haha.

Kid is an animal. I pick his dad's brain for knowledge on the regular. He is also running a much newer crf with different ergos (pretty sure they run 20mm offset as compared to my 24mm, 48mm fork tubes as compared to my 47mm, and a bit higher ride height in the rear) and fuel injection, so everything that is right on that bike won't be exactly the same for me.

I'm excited to see what he can do with more time on his middleweight.

But my threadjack is over. Back to James' kick ass bike. Thing really is gorgeous.

[union]

Got most of the rest of the parts this bike will need.



Most of it is pretty self explanatory.

Akrapovic exhaust

Acerbis SM hand guards. Went with these over the others because of the steel brackets and replaceable plastic sliders.

Ballistic Battery. Needed to save a little since the hand guards are pretty heavy. Weighs under 1lb.

Moose footpegs. Wider then stock.

Resettable hour meter with tach. Always nice to know what the motor is doing.

31lbs radiator cap. For those nice long grid pauses on hot days.

Axle sliders. We all know Ill toss it down at some point.

Extra levers and shifters.

Ordered a few small pieces ar Cliffs today.

Forks are currently on the bench waiting to be revalved.

Waiting on the clamps to get done and will order the braking system next month when I have some money again.

[hatchet]

Great looking bike James