Beta EVO MKIII build Part 4

It Lives!!

Its looking more like a bike now!

Mike had finished the exhaust pipes during the week. As such we set about getting the bike ready for the dyno next week. We did not need to have clean air or the airbox ready, so we focused on getting the wiring loom back on, and the coils mounted up and the bike running! With some engine oil in we gave it a go....

Yes it lives, and it sounds totally horn! Hmmmm. I can't wait!

Beta EVO MKIII build Part 3

Putting it all together!

See a little different to the 800 but not by much. 10am start time

Today we threw the 1100 motor into the chassis and set about working on the chassis. Mike ground off all the mounting tabs for the airbox, while I played with the rear shock linkage.  One of the big changes we had in mind this year was to lift the whole bike up by about 30mm. We used two Ducati 999 as our baseline. Measuring the crank centre to ground on both gave us a number of about 394mm. We inverted the rear shock linkage to get the ride height and swingarm angle we wanted. This caused a few problems with the tie rods to the swingarm needing to be shorted by about 10mm. Still small is lighter right!

With the backend done we threw the front end on. This proved what we had suspected with the forks needing to be 20mm further down in the clamps. While we were on the front end I fitted the lighter front fork springs we got from Nick Dole at TekNick. From 8.5kg to 7.5kg finally allowed me use some preload on the springs. Something I have been unable to do last year.

A few more adjustments saw us reach the 394mm we had in mind for the crank centre. The bike certainly looks taller which I think will look cooler to!

For the rest of the day Mike worked on the exhaust pipes. The heads on the DS engine have the exhaust ports at a very different height to the 800M. Mostly due to the extra bore, but there is certainly some design work to keep the port flatter on exit on the DS engine from the 800M. The rear header had to be dropped down further to clear the pump tank. Mike also wanted to put a mount on the frame supporting where the header meets the muffler. This is where the pipe broke at PI last year.  The mount was designed to hold both header and muffler in place.

Once we had the rear header pipe put together we used this as a template for the front pipe to get the same length. With the work to match the header length, and put a new mount on the front pipe the right hand muffler had to be moved. This actually worked to our advantage with the new location providing room for the brake line and brake master cylinder.


We knocked off at 17:00 to have a beer and figure out what we'd do next.

Bike by days end! 17:00

Bike by days end! 17:00

Beta EVO MKIII build Part 2

A REAL HARD CASE!

A big box had turned up during the week. Inside the desperately needed cases from Tim at Imperial sports bike. The forward engine mount was broken pretty much where they always break along the casting line.

It took Mike about an hour and three welding rods to re-attach the broken section. These cases are not very good castings, and the section that had cracked off had a cold shut in the join. Meaning that the aluminum was not hot enough to join correctly around the flashing points in the casting process. Mean while I spent those three hours with my hands in the parts washer cleaning everything up for reassembly. With the cases finished I put them through the washer while Mike had a well earned smoke.

Repaired engine mount!

Mike set about shimming up the engine, while I continued in the parts washer. The washing did not last long before we hit a road block with the crank shims being to small, and Mike was all out of the correct size. I took a long shot and returned home to pick up the remains of my Ducati 800M, hoping that they might contain the correct shims. I stripped down the 800M and removed the crank, gearbox and shifter drum. Much to a massive fluke the crank shims were the right size. All the shims went into the shim box at Mikes for safe keeping, and I ordered another set off the net when I got home.

We made good progress with the main cases going together quickly once the shimming was right. The barrels and heads jumped on. Although the clearance of the conrods to the timing shaft raised our eyebrows. There is less than 3mm from the rods to timing shaft. After that progress slowed due to the starter motor and starter gears from the Hypermotard not fitting. As a result we had to mix and match using those from the 800M. As a result of the Sportclassic cases not having the timing trigger mounted in them, we had to use the 800M timing gear, alternator and alternator side cover as well.

Clutch side the bike flew together and by nightfall we had the thing all bolted up!

Ducati SportClassic cases repaired and loaded!

Beta EVO MKIII build Part 1

Some major changes in the BEARS club rules meant some major changes for the Beta EVO!

Our Plans:

    •    Install a Hypermotard 1100 engine
    •    Redesigned airbox to make it larger
    •    Set the bike up higher in a new stance

Hypermotard 1100 engine
What seemed like a pretty easy thing. Putting a Hypermotard 1100 engine into the db1 Beta EVO, after all the engine mounts are all the same right? Yes, but some one, aka me forgot that the HM1100 does not have the swinging arm pivoting in the cases. There are no bearing mounts in the HM1100 to support the swinging arm like in the 800M cases. A frantic call to Tim Meiners at ImperialSportsBikes from ebay yielded me a set of 1000DS cases from a Sportclassic.

Meanwhile we dismantled the Hypermotard and had it already for the cases when they turned up.

Hypermotard engine mocked up in the db1 chassis.... Tonnes of room.