Fat frame Triumph

[roger]

Winter in SA , freezin cold and wet. ( if a guy wuz rich he'd move to Queensland or Darwin or somewhere )



These pics are sometime back but " oh wat a feeling ". Gotta share with you guys that fabulous time Road Test , at last ... at looong laaaast.!
In the shed you've sweated and worried , stuffed up an fixed up , changed and changed again , check check an double checked but at last , 1st ride.

Will the forward controls work ? Will the clutch and brakes perform? Whats the ridgid and seat like? Will it handle OK? Will it behave?... ( it better after all this or the scrap metal bin beckons ).





For the record everything worked a charm bar the handling.
One guy said " nope , don't like it ... dangerous.
Another " yeah alright , you've just gotta work at it a bit .... y'know concentrate.

Be interested in any guys experienced with front end rakes comments.

Cheers

[KeithinSB]

It looks real cool.....
Do it ride as good as it looks...?
Good job!

[Bearcx]

Have seen this bike in the flesh, VERY NICE.

Hey Rog, thought about building a bike with a sidecar or trailer?

[78gold]

Roger,
Well done that is one exceptionally good looking ride. I normally prefer bobber style without the extended forks etc but man that is sweet.
I showed my 18 year old son and he thought the same, cross generational.
How you think it handles and being comfortable and at peace when riding thats what counts.
That tank is exactly like I want but might put a toaster rack on top.
Again very nice bike.

[cjmeg]

That looks good, Roger!
That rake looks pretty steep though - 45 degrees?
Handling issues are?

[ShovelShane]

Lookin damn good there Roger

I will have to keep an eye out for it on the road

[wayne]

sweet ride Roger

[Skip]

Yep nice lookin' ride Roger...yeah move to Qld mate, more rider friendly weather up here, although we are having a colder winter for once!
Regards handling it's a case of elimination I reckon...headstock bearings, wheel bearings, how the wheel is spaced, even what fork oil & tyre pressures play a part...what rake & length tubes is it? To my eye when the front end pushes out from a low headstock they just don't look right whereas when higher they look, sit & handle better..plenty of guys on here with more knowledge than me so pretty sure you'll get some sound advice re trail etc.......cool build mate.
Catch 'ya Skip

[roger]

Thanks for the comments all.

No , never considered a bike wif sidecar or trailer bear.

Forks are 8" over , never bothered about working out the rake , maybe one day?
Handling issues are that its different to a stocker in that it is normal under acceleration/decceleration but feels a bit weird at cruise speeds.

Dunno , probably something you just have to get used to.

[74chopper]

Now that i`m used to my rake etc, i find it strange to ride a stock bike, i suppose its what you get used to riding mate.

that Bike is lookin real cool too, great job.

[Prof]

Looking at all your pics, there is probably too much "rake" in your triple trees. For stability at anything above 60ks you need a minimum of 4" of trail. I doubt that you have that.

Whole point of rake is to do it in your steering head and get at least 6" for rock steady cruising.

Under 3" trail and you are guaranteed instability at any reasonable speed and a bad accident if you hit an unexpected obstacle on the road.

If all rake is in steering head, head bearings are correctly tightened, wheels are aligned and forks bushes are fine, you should have a floppy steering at low speed (say up to 40km or so) and then it should steer itself from then on up and be very stable.

Six inches of trail will allow you to ride hands off at 160k and bike feel like its on rails.

Cornering should be different... ie hard to put into a corner and then at a certain angle, want to fall into it. It won't like small roundabouts... you probably really need to haul it around.

However, at that rake, front fork sliders may bind and give you a rough ride.

Measure the trail by standing bike up right and running a line through the steering head to the ground. Mark the spot. Drop a vertial line from the axle. Trail (positive which is what you need) is the distance you axle is BEHIND the steering head mark. I needs to be at least 4".

Sports bikes often have less trail for quick cornering, and that's why many have steering dampers, so you don't kill yourself on them at speed. Jap bikes of the 70's were pretty bad for speed wobbles because of borderline trail and 50's bikes and earlier either had a steering damper or it could be purchased as an accessory... and were notorious for speed wobbles and tank slappers.

See article on trail in another CA forum and in a previous newsletter.

[KeithinSB]

Rake and trail 101 : http://www.chopperhandbook.com/neatstuf ... dtrail.htm

I bet the rake on that isn't too bad.
It looks like it has raked trees and pretty long forks.
From here it looks like it may be close to just a little over stock.....
You just got to get used to the flop of the long forks......
The more trail you got, the stiffer the hold will be at speed but the flop will be worst cause of the fork length when you're going slow.
You just have to find your sweet spot and get used to it.
I think.....
Bike looks real nice to me!!

[petergs850]

I've also seen this bike in the flesh and I can tell you pics don't do it justice. Seriously it is one sweet lookin' ride. well done mate look forward to catchin up soon

Pete

[Tbear]

yes seen the bike this week and it look great the pics dont do it justice