hello from Towcester.

[dan]

hi,
my name is dan.

have been lurking in the background for a little while.
currently hacking around on an MT350 in good weather.
getting around 65 Mpg on a 40 mile round trip commute.

have arranged to purchace Sserpent's yanmar engine + burman box off him
& im hopeing to marry it into a suitable mother-ship over this winter.

would like to use another MT350 to keep most of my bikes parts common,
but they are a little "too well built" & heavy.
could strip it back to reduce un necessary weight & sell any surplus parts
on a well known internet auction site.....
help subsidise the build.....
a decision to be taken at a later date me thinks.....

used to be a tig welder, sheet metal worker so those bits dont phase me much
BUT there is a good possibility of me asking for advice from time to time.
will do my best to research it first to prevent the same old questions rolling round.

anyway, cracking site here...
will like to start a build thread when things really begin to cook.
best rgds dan.

[Stuart]

Welcome to the forum Dan and good luck with the project

[OilyPhil]

Hi Dan, welcome, Ive got a MT500 I,ve had for years, I wouldnt think it would be a good starting point for a conversion, the MT swingarm bears on the gearbox of the rotax engine, which is a short engine anyway, not much space to fit a seperate engine and box and the frame is open at the bottom, with a seperate engine and box you would need to add rigidity in this area. Hope that doesnt sound too negative as if you could manage it it would produce a great go anywhere bike.

Good luck Phil

[dan]

hello again,
thanks for the welcome Stuart.

Phil's obversations on a possible MT mothership are greatly appreciated.
these are points which i had not taken into account.

im going to offer the engine up to my every-day MT & see what happens
before aquireing a second one to sacrifice to the project.

had an idea of useing the old oil tank in the frame & space where the air
box was to make more fuel tanks.
we will see.......

dont mind altering the frame but if it would no longer look like an MT,
then may be im barking up the wrong tree.................

picking the engine + box up in 10 days time all being well.

thanks again lads...
best rgds, dan.

[dan]

got the yanmar L100AE.


Many thanks to Neil (Sserpent) for the sale.

the shaft rotation is anti-clockwise as viewed in this second picture.

there was a pre-unit 4 speed box in with the engine but im not too sure if im going to use it.


have dropped the idea of using my MT350 as a donor bike.......
too heavy,
too nice to cut up,
chain on the wrong side,
i lose my back-up transport until the project is complete
& all of Phils reasons in his previous post here.

my daughter's 50cc pee-wee in the background of pic 2 is also a no-no .

im now thinking along the lines of a Kawasaki GPZ400 with the pots cut off.
not too sure if it will work.
going to trawl around the site build & technical pages alot more.

Any suggestions will be greatfully received
i really dont want to be making a bike with 5 reverse gears !

Best Regards,
dan.

[realnutter]

Hi Dan...

You're going to hate me!

But first, ccw rotation is what you need if the primary drive is to be on the left, that old brit gearbox would do the job, as input and output rotate the same way.... so looking from the left of the bike engine, gearbox in/out and wheels all go ccw.

If you want to use a Jap bottom end for a gearbox, you need to be aware of several things! If it's reasonably modern (with gear primary drive) then there are three shafts in the engine, all geared together.... so looking at the left hand side...

Crankshaft goes ccw, clutch goes cw, output goes ccw.

So, if you drove the crank from your diesel, (by chain, on the left) you'd be fine.... some people have done this, but replaced the crank with a straight shaft (extended out to the left) to save weight. You need to choose an engine where a) the primary pinion is removeable, and b) the crank spins in ball/roller bearings (otherwise you have to worry about oil pressure in yr gearbox) and c) the gearbox is just splash lubricated (again, so you can forget about the oil pump).

For these reasons, the RD250 engine seems to be a popular choice.

You could turn the engine round in the chassis, so it now goes cw as viewed from the left..... you could now drive by chain to the clutch basket (on the right of the bike) and again , you'd have forward gears. However, your nice gearbox is now no longer sealed.... This approach has been used too.

Now as to why you're going to hate me.....

My diesel (a Honda v-twin) goes round the opposite way.... so with the engine going ccw (viewed from the left) i need to take the drive from the right hand side.

So i need a 3-shaft engine that fits all my criteria above, where I can replace the crank and extend it out to the right... basically a mirror image of most motors.

MT350!

[pietenpol2002]

Hi Realnutter,

Kind of highjacking Dan's welcome here I fear, but I wanted to respond to your comment. For your transmission need I wonder about the old Honda ATC250 engine. I don't know whether they were sold much on your side of the pond, but there are millions of them here in the states. They are a left side clutch with right side stator and right side chain drive. And if workable, it would be in keeping with your Honda theme. I wonder also whether it could be mounted vertically to save space, however you would soon interfere with the kickstart shaft. Would perhaps require that the primary drive from the engine be angled up. At the very least it could be shortened a bit by amputating the starter.

Next, could one drill out the rivets on the magneto flywheel crankshaft hub (or call it what you will) and bolt/rivet the driven sprocket/pulley to it instead. Or is it too small to take the torque?

[realnutter]

Hi Ron... that engine looks perfect for my needs, but ATCs never really took off over here.... The Rotax 350 lump is similar, and yes I do plan to stand in on end!


Matt

[dan]

would you believe i flogged a 250 big red ATC on a well known internet auction site last year ?

thanks for the guidance on how to avoid 5 reverse gears Matt.
will be on the hunt for an RD250 lump.
there are a few MT350 lumps appearing on the above mentioned internet auction site lately.
i seem to recall a BIN price of £150 on one of them.

best regards,
dan.

[realnutter]

Hi Dan... Yes, £150 is what I paid for mine!

Surplus parts of it are already on sale on the well known auction site!

Matt

[dan]

Hello again,

I'm clearing out my MT350 + all spares on the
above mentioned well known Internet auction site.
This will help fund "Doris the Diesel".
Will be using my magpie skills for parts over the next few months.

Still have lots of research to do.
Im sure all the info I need is here, just spread about a bit.

Hope to start a build thread called "Project Doris" when I get going.
Feel free to drop by to leave comments & advice if you have the time.

Best regards,
Dan.

[dan]

Hello again.
Doris is a step closer with a good lead on an RD box & suitable doner bike close by.
will post any progress made.
rgds dan.

[dan]

Hello again.

Sold my MT 350 a while back.
sorry to see it go.

But on the plus side i'm another step closer to a diesel bike with this little baby.

Honda CB 450 SG.
German import & stored since 2003.
these were only available in the UK as a 350.
The big question is will the gearbox be suitable to graft on to my Yanmar lump ?
if it is, the un-wanted top parts & original exhaust will be sold as an upgrade for a 350
& a little more cost saved.
if not, the whole lump gets sold & its a RD250 box on the shopping list.

getting closer to the build.
Will rename it from Doris to Yanda.
Yanmar spliced to Honda. (but you already knew that didnt you ?)

im going down the pub now.
all the best,
Dan.

[dan]

Hello again,
For some reason, all my pics have disappeared !

There is an update,
I now have 3 x Yanmar L100 engines & 3 x Honda cb350s bikes
For conversion.
The cb450s I originally got for the conversion was too
unique & un - molested, I coldnt bring myself to hack it about.
Will post piccies when I can fathom out how to.
Best regards,
Dan.

[dan]

pics should be back now.

here is the hack which im using for the summer. (what summer ?)


here is 1 of the 2 extra ones which i still have to collect.


gonna run out of space if i'm not careful.

according to the "how many left" iphone app, there is currently 137 licenced & 184 SORN in the UK.
(+ the red one which isn't UK registered yet)

will start to post in the build / project section when things begin.

best regards,
dan.

[gilburton]

This might be a good choice of bike if the engine will slide up into the frame as all you'll need then is a sling type subframe made up to mount the engine/gearbox.
As the chain is on the left on the CB350/450 would it not be better/easier to use the brit gearbox?? Then everything will be turning in the correct ccw direction.

[dan]

Hi,
Thanks for the comment.
I may be being a little prude but I'm trying to avoid a Brit pre-unit
box although there are advantages to this layout.
The 2 additional bikes were collected 2 days ago.
With 3 engines & 3 bikes to convert, I must get at least 1 right.
It's a bit busy at work with the Olympics on (im a train driver)
& the wife keeps making lists for me but I hope to get on with them soon.
I'm laying awake at night thinking of 100+mpg.

Will post any progress made.
Thanks for stopping by.

Regards,
Dan.

[gilburton]

I know what you mean my brain used to hurt as well

[Rhynri]

Hey there! Good luck to you, and i love the source bike. I've always been fond of honda's small bikes, like the hawk and such.

[Sphere]

Looking forward to pics where you mate the gearbox/clutch to the engine. Seems pretty usable, although I don't know how easy they are to come by. At least for Enfield boxes they still make parts.

[dan]

Hello again,
got rid of my old windows laptop & got a mac.
having to learn all this guff over again.


trying to post some piccies.
here goes.........

offered an engine up to a frame & got a little excited.


need to whip off the tank & silencer for a better look sometime.


engines 2 & 3.


Got a heavy duty CVT on its way.
just need time on it now !

[coachgeo]

Looks like a great start. Time to start a thread in the Technical forum under Build threads. PM a moderator and Im sure they can transfer most of this thread over to a build thread and put a link to it this introduction thread of yours.

Looking forward to watching this build progress.

[gilburton]

Looks like a good frame for a single cylinder also relatively simple to fabricate an underslung mounting and just bolt it all in

[dan]

Thanks,
will start a build thread when i have some progress to report.
hopefully soon......

best regards,
Dan.