From The Ground Up

   When last I posted up my progress, I was reworking the solo tail to have a more factory fit when using the F4i tank. I pulled, bent, cut and rewelded new mounts to the existing tail but it just didnt look right. I decided to cut the entire top bar off the tail so I didnt need to work around the constraints of the stock F2 geometry. This also retained most of the mount points for everything else...

As my various frankenbike implementations progressed, it became apperent that in order to do all this right, the bike needed to be stripped down to a bare frame and refactored from the ground up. This was a great opporunity to do some of the more aggressive work that I had wanted to do from the start like the F3 engine transplant.  I decided to cut the entire tail off and just fabricate my own so that everything would be in a very factory looking place that didnt look hacked up. Once mocked up with the correct seat/tail geometry, the frame was notched for the F3 carbs, all non essential or factory F2 artifacts were cut off and stripped in preperation for paint.

 Many coats of primer, base and clear later, the bike began to take shape again. While the tail looks extremely long, it all fits within a shorted length than previously mocked up while providing an easy d-zues mount at the far back.

The frame notch is shown below, which is a requirement of the F2 frame for an F3 engine. Just a few more notches and a little bit more fab and I could have slapped the 900rr engine in here (I was really considering this!).

I did my first post paint assembly just to get an idea of what it was going to look like. You can see the access panel that is blended into the solo tail which exposes enough free space to store all my jacket/pant liners, video camera, tool set and a six pack of soda. Before I could barely store a pencil!!!  

Here you can see the swingarm mocked up with its new triangualtion. I used my F3 swingarm for this but didnt realize that it uses a 17mm diameter bolt, where the F2 uses a 14mm. Luckily, they both drop to 14mm on one side so I simply needed to ream my frame (carefully) up to 17mm on one side and use the factort F3 swingarm bolt.

The tail came out real well as a once peice which was merged from the fiberglass solo tail and ABS undertail. It looks extremely simplified and very sleek. The tail lights absorb the black around them and they look tinted when off. You can see the bolt hanging off the back as only the 14mm end would slide in.

One more from the back:

Next, in goes the engine. I had to slide the F2 and F3 engines next to each other to do a complete audit of the wiring harness and connections. Going from the F2 cluster to the F4i cluster was quite a reduction in overall bulk.

Installing the engine was a snap. I placed the engine on the floor, placed the frame over the engine and sinched in the lower rear engine mounting bolt - then proceeded to add the rest. Once completed, I attached tie straps to the roof and rased the assembly up off the ground. I attached a few accessories while it was easy to get at, like the passenger footrests which will get used.

Having the bike up off the ground makes attaching the front forks, wheel and rear wheel a snap. Within minutes it was all back together. From here, I needed to take some time and look at ways I could route the wiring harness inside the frame as well as places I could tie up loose cables.

Once everything was tightened down, it was a good time to drop all the body pieces back on and check the mockup. So far, so good. The passenger footpeg retains a clean shock reservoir mount.

And finally out on the hills: