Well I finally ended up with an actual bike. It was free so I can't complain. It is a 1985 Honda Sabre V65 1100CC. In pretty rough shape and I'm doing a complete tear down and rebuild.
I was wondering if anyone was using a shaftdriven bike. It has a 6 speed and it would be nice to leave stock of course but I'm not sure how easy that will be. The great thing about this bike is there is very little frame modifications that will need to be made. That v4 1100CC takes up pleny of room under their. I higly doubt the output shaft on the two motors are the same as I'm sure the 1100CC is quite larger. I'm going to go start tearing it down this morning and see what else I can find out I just wanted your opinion.
If it is going to be a real PITA then the bike would be pretty awesome with the engine (suppossedly running) that is in it now. Would just sell it and get another bike. This bike is really heavy by the way. I hope most of the weight is in the engine.
Shaft Driven
Moderators: Dan J, Diesel Dave, Crazymanneil, Stuart
Shaft Driven
No bike yet...but working on it. A Yanmar 10HP clone hopeful on whatever frame I can get or build.
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Byrdman
- I luv the smell of Diesel...
- Posts: 156
- Joined: Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:43 am
- Location: Chicagoland, Illinois, USA
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It's possible to utilize the stock tranny but it won't be easy and it might not work too well.
1. Typically Japanese bikes had the tranny and engine as a one piece unit with shared oiling systems. If you can saw the engine part off and just keep the tranny, that would be the only way. Don't forget to address oiling. On my 1975 Goldwing, the engine fed oil under pressure to the transmission shafts. Separating the two would have required a separate oil pump.
2. The gearcase and final drive has ratios setup for the rev range of the original V-4 engine. You diesel engine will spin at a much lower speed so you might only go 30-40 mph wide open.
1. Typically Japanese bikes had the tranny and engine as a one piece unit with shared oiling systems. If you can saw the engine part off and just keep the tranny, that would be the only way. Don't forget to address oiling. On my 1975 Goldwing, the engine fed oil under pressure to the transmission shafts. Separating the two would have required a separate oil pump.
2. The gearcase and final drive has ratios setup for the rev range of the original V-4 engine. You diesel engine will spin at a much lower speed so you might only go 30-40 mph wide open.
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roverthetop
- I luv the smell of Diesel...
- Posts: 94
- Joined: Thu May 17, 2007 3:37 am
- Location: portland, oregon, us
jason,
if the engine and tranny arent mated, it shouldnt be too hard. otherwise, cutting may provide too many problems, ie the oil pump issue stated previously. there has been someone who pulled off the top end of a mated pain and ran a chain to the old crank somehow. not sure and would love to see it. seems it would take up way too much space though. if its a separate tranny, as on some hogs, some bmw's, older brit preunits, my dnepr, etc, all it takes is mounting the flywheel to the new engine, and fabbing your new bellhousing. the gearing will be off, again, as stated previously. you may be able to get away with the final drive change, but still not likely to attain great speed.
best of luck in nc and keep me posted!
b
if the engine and tranny arent mated, it shouldnt be too hard. otherwise, cutting may provide too many problems, ie the oil pump issue stated previously. there has been someone who pulled off the top end of a mated pain and ran a chain to the old crank somehow. not sure and would love to see it. seems it would take up way too much space though. if its a separate tranny, as on some hogs, some bmw's, older brit preunits, my dnepr, etc, all it takes is mounting the flywheel to the new engine, and fabbing your new bellhousing. the gearing will be off, again, as stated previously. you may be able to get away with the final drive change, but still not likely to attain great speed.
best of luck in nc and keep me posted!
b
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balboa_71
- I luv the smell of Diesel...
- Posts: 257
- Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:27 pm
- Location: Fort Worth, Texas
It is possible to use a shaft drive bike, there are two of them I know of: one a CX500 that used the shaft, Kubota 2 cylinder driving a jackshaft with Comet drive unit mounted on it, and the driven unit on the shaft, I believe. Two, my bike (GS850) that I converted to chain drive with a modified GS750 swing arm. It can be done.....
Cris
Cris
1980 GS850 converted to 10hp diesel clone power.
2006 Jetta TDI for road work.
2007 Bonneville
2006 Jetta TDI for road work.
2007 Bonneville
I would like to hear how you mated a chain drive. I know the shaft is part of the frame so I could see it taking some fab work to cut it out and weld a new arm in, but I can do most of that in my small garage if need be. I just have not seen any examples. I have a ton of room in this thing to put my engine and mess around so I am not worried about that. I called a shop about doing the work on the carb on this thing as it is a pain to rebuild and it was close to a grand. So instead of getting it to run and selling it for a different bike with less mods needed I still kind of want to make due as it is an OK looking bike. I'm going for function and finance on this one and I'll worry about looks on another bike. I'm no Fab guy like Roverthetop. Speaking of some day down the road if I do get this into a diesel I think there is almost room for a Vtwin in this bike. I will try and ad some pics somewhere later tomorrow.
Jason[/img]
Jason[/img]
No bike yet...but working on it. A Yanmar 10HP clone hopeful on whatever frame I can get or build.
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balboa_71
- I luv the smell of Diesel...
- Posts: 257
- Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:27 pm
- Location: Fort Worth, Texas
shaft to chain conversion
Jason,
Chain drive was easy. I took the 850 shaft drive swing arm and the 750 chain drive swing arm and compared the two. Found the 750 arm needed to be wider where it pivots in the frame, so I turned two adapter bushings and pressed them into the 750 arm. I removed the 850 pivot bearing (tapered roller) races, still in almost new condition, and used them in the bushings I made. Ended up with nice swing arm with tapered bearings to boot. Since I wanted chain drive on right side of bike, I had to remove 850 brake arm mounting tang (for a lack of better terms) and weld it to 750 arm on left side.
Took stock caliper and bolted a small aluminum tang to it for brake anti-pivot arm and put it all together. This is the weakest part of the design and could probably just turn the caliper around and use it, but didn't. I've used the rear brake pretty hard in testing and all seems to be okay. On the right side, I bought a 70 tooth #50 sprocket (yes, BIG) and bored the centre hole to fit the hub, added 6 bolt holes and it worked fine (used old stock sprocket for pattern). Used a 16 tooth sprocket on jack shaft for a 4-3/4 reduction which is necessary for good acceleration on a 400 lb bike with 250 lb rider (10hp will only go so far
). Kinda repositioned rear brake master cylinder, but rear chain is still too close 
, so I need to do something there one of these days. I still need a chain tensioner, but am lazy. I ride the bike back and forth to work and putt around the neighborhood.....nothing serious. If I could buy a factory built diesel bike, I would, and retire my current one 
Cris
Chain drive was easy. I took the 850 shaft drive swing arm and the 750 chain drive swing arm and compared the two. Found the 750 arm needed to be wider where it pivots in the frame, so I turned two adapter bushings and pressed them into the 750 arm. I removed the 850 pivot bearing (tapered roller) races, still in almost new condition, and used them in the bushings I made. Ended up with nice swing arm with tapered bearings to boot. Since I wanted chain drive on right side of bike, I had to remove 850 brake arm mounting tang (for a lack of better terms) and weld it to 750 arm on left side.
Took stock caliper and bolted a small aluminum tang to it for brake anti-pivot arm and put it all together. This is the weakest part of the design and could probably just turn the caliper around and use it, but didn't. I've used the rear brake pretty hard in testing and all seems to be okay. On the right side, I bought a 70 tooth #50 sprocket (yes, BIG) and bored the centre hole to fit the hub, added 6 bolt holes and it worked fine (used old stock sprocket for pattern). Used a 16 tooth sprocket on jack shaft for a 4-3/4 reduction which is necessary for good acceleration on a 400 lb bike with 250 lb rider (10hp will only go so far
). Kinda repositioned rear brake master cylinder, but rear chain is still too close , so I need to do something there one of these days. I still need a chain tensioner, but am lazy. I ride the bike back and forth to work and putt around the neighborhood.....nothing serious. If I could buy a factory built diesel bike, I would, and retire my current one Cris
1980 GS850 converted to 10hp diesel clone power.
2006 Jetta TDI for road work.
2007 Bonneville
2006 Jetta TDI for road work.
2007 Bonneville
Thank you for the write up. I got rid of the bike and will go for something else a little closer to what I'm looking for. I have enough projects as is. So I figure I will find something that is what I want and at the same time doesn't involve and entire redesign.
No bike yet...but working on it. A Yanmar 10HP clone hopeful on whatever frame I can get or build.