What Special would you build?

[fredintoon]

I just read "Big Sid's Vincati"
The book is about a father and son building a Vincent engine into a Ducati rolling chassis to make dad's dream bike.
Now what would I build if I had the time, the money and the build skills?
Nothing so pretentious as a Vincati for a start, even if I did have the many thousands it'd take to buy the parts.
For nostalgia's sake I'd build a Velocette Special. In my youth I owned several KSS Velocettes and I always loved that bevel gear driven SOCS 350cc single engine design.
Alas, while the girder-forked rigid frame cornered superbly on a smooth road it was an uncomfortable ride and didn't do well on bumpy roads and the brakes were a travesty.
The last KSS was built in 1946, still with the rigid girder-fork frame. In that year Velocette introduced the tele-fork & swingarm versions of their MAC and MSS pushrod singles which in their later Viper & Venom Thruxton versions became the last bastions of the British big single.
What I'd build would have a late model KSS engine grafted into a Viper frame with the double drum front brake from an early Suzuki Water Buffalo.
That'd make my perfect Sunday pie & ice cream run machine.
How about you?

[bookem]

Well I do have the time, my skills are a matter of debate but i have built several choppers so far. Money is never an issue cause I have no money man. Right now the build on my horizon is a '78 DT125 dirtbike to trike conversion. I will take the rear suspension and extend it 2 feet as well as widening it. with a 90 degree gearbox and a few pillow bearings I think it will work. The whole thing will be street legal and able to register as an antique. With any luck it will be done by next spring as it will be my 17 year old sons suprise graduation gift. A shiny new 2stroke trike chopper should make him the envy of his peers as well as draw a crowd at the rallies, even from the Hardly riders.

[fredintoon]

Hi bookem,
ever neat! could you scrounge up the rear end from a wrecked quad cheap? That'd bring in all the rear end hardware without too much home-building?

[bookem]

plan on using a rear end from a chevette or something similar, The problem with a quad rear is that they have no differential action. Makes steering tricky at high speed. The newer quads may have open diffs I haven't checked.

[fredintoon]

plan on using a rear end from a chevette or something similar, The problem with a quad rear is that they have no differential action. Makes steering tricky at high speed. The newer quads may have open diffs I haven't checked.

Hi bookem,
I'd suppose that even a small car axle would look kinda massive on a 125cc trike but you gotta do what you gotta do, eh? There's some posts about triking the XS11 that say that car drive shafts all turn the wrong way so take care which way you mount that bevel box.
If late model quads do have diffs that'd be the way to go.
The other ifs, like if you can find one and if you can afford it, may lock you into a Chevette axle after all.

[ManitoulinLad]

chopper out my MNS

A few yrs ago when I had the xs650 I would have put the 750 kit in it with the Delerto carbs & redo the whole motor with all there xs performance parts, & the major would be 6" longer on front forks with the 200 tire rear end. Still a softail. But now the the XS1100 MNS I can't give up the weight (like heavy) & the power (to great to loose) Now I would still length the forks by 6", & rake corrected to handle it & get the 200 tire conversion - love the wide tire look, gold plate all remaining gold accents and have a two into two exhaust ending with those long fishtail ends (they sell them with the different steel baffles. Of course I would get the 'green" coils too, & change all parts with 'new" or upgraded ones that I could get my hands on, stainlees brake lines etc. I know the above don't seem like much but then again I am really happy with what I got already. Oh & Fred it still would be a softail with the shocks. Thats about it. I still get the 'grin" just lookin at it now - Dan

[fredintoon]

- - - Now I would still length the forks by 6", & rake corrected to handle it & get the 200 tire conversion - love the wide tire look, - - - Dan

Hi Dan,
it'd be a real chore to fit a 200 wide tire and keep the shaft drive.
I see having to cut'n'weld the rear wheel to get a wider rim and having to offset that rim to clear the driveshaft case.
This means widening the swingarm which is no big deal but now the bike will run dog-tracked but WTF, some bikes are deliberately built that way.

[ManitoulinLad]

final chain drive

Hey Fred: With the 200 tire conversion I would just go with the chain drive. Y'know the kit more less that member xschop rigged up with the sprocket up front. I don't really like the chain (shaft is so maint. free) but wtf if I had the $$ & time why not to get the 200 rear end. I'd play with the sprockets too to get a great gear ratio. On my old xs650 I put a 17 up front with a 32 on the back I it jumped all the gears up by one. was alot better with that than the orginal 36 'stump puller" on the back. - Dan

[fredintoon]

Hey Fred: With the 200 tire conversion I would just go with the chain drive. - - - On my old xs650 I put a 17 up front with a 32 on the back - - -

Hi Dan,
the one thing I don't like on Xchop's conversion is how the casting shape limits the sprocket size to 13T or less, which is just too effin' small to run nice at the speed it's going.
Unless you put a U-joint on there instead connected to an outboard sprocket mounted on it's own bearings which could be a sensible 17T instead.
And space the sprocket off far enough to put as wide a rear tire on as you fancied.
Why stop at a 200, eh?
My XS650 Heritage Special came with a 36T rear and I did wonder why it came with sidecar gearing. (38T is even better for that purpose)
Earlier XS650 stock gearing is 17T/34T back to 1970 but consensus agrees that your 17T/32T works better.

[ManitoulinLad]

Hey Fred: Didn't realize that it fit only a 13T sproket. Yeah thats too small for me, the rpms would be crazy. Oh well its only a dream. The 200 tire is big enough for me - still like the bike to handle okay. - Dan