SUIT YOU, SIR
There’s a serious bout of customisation on the cards for our Moto3 bike...
Have you ever tried fitting a quick action throttle? What a barsteward! It was an essential modification as we’d lost the high mounted MX ’bars in favour of low positioned clip-ons, meaning we had enough excess throttle cable to loop around the world. Well, maybe not quite that far but there were a good few inches that needed to be binned off. That plus the fact that the original RM-Z throttle is more suited to a dirt bike than the wannabe GP machine we’re crafting. I opted for Venhill’s 888 kit which comes with a million different pieces and custom cables, plus two cams that allow you to choose just how feisty you want your throttle.
Like most men, I really don’t do instructions but I had to in this instance as the job wasn’t that intuitive. Anyway, after a good few hours of swearing, a bit more swearing and a few more swear words, I had the cable located and working like a good ’un. Best of all, I didn’t even have to touch a soldering
iron as the kit came with grub-screw nipples (ooh er!) which meant I could just tighten down on the cable and avoid smouldering my fingerprints off. I was quite happy with the end result, though in reality it’s just one more step along this very long road. Charlie (Ad Man) called me up while I was working on the bike and mocked me about the speed of the project. He’s right, this thing is taking a lifetime, but that’s because it’s a build that requires so much customisation. Nothing’s off the shelf, like the rear sprocket for instance. That had to be made especially as we’d opted for a Derbi 50 rear wheel – which would typically take a sprocket pitch of 420.
Because the Suzuki motor has a fair few ponies on tap we couldn’t risk running a chain set so spindly, so it was a case of having to get a custom sprocket made by the boys at B&C express. They’ve got a load of blanks in different pitches that they machine to suit whatever fitment you’re after. It’s a hands-on job, as I learned when I got a 40-tooth blank cut to suit our needs. The original plan had been to drill the blank ourselves, but for the extra tenner it cost, I’m seriously chuffed we didn’t. It looks pretty mint on the bike, and the chain we got sent would’ve finished the look off nicely… if I hadn’t cocked things up by cutting the thing a link too short. What can I say, mistakes are part and parcel of the process.
Full factory
Thankfully, I’ve employed much wiser and more capable folk to help with the modification of the standard RM-Z tank and subframe. I’m not sure if you’ve seen any of those Freeview channels where there’s some madly skilled Yanks making anything and everything about of whatever they can get their hands on? Well, Neil and Chaddy of CC Engineering are Hull’s finest equivalent, only far less pretentious and loads more talented. Their workshop’s like an Aladdin’s Cave of genius, rammed full of bikes and the kind of projects you just don’t see anywhere else. Just because he liked the look of it, Chaddy built his RVF a MotoGP HRClook-a-like exhaust system out of 200 titanium pieces. You know, one of the spiral under seat jobbies.
It would look unreal on our Moto3 machine, but I think my wife would divorce me when the invoice came through. Plus, it’d take a lot of time to make and that’s something we’re keen to limit. As well as building the custom subframe and tank, the guys are also going to sort the exhaust pipework so it can facilitate an underseat muffler. I was originally after a twin-can look, like a lot of the Moto3 bikes run, but it might look a bit stupid when paired with our sleek Tyga fairings. The guys had a load of old cans kicking around and began placing them up to the seat unit to see how they appeared. Surprisingly, a Honda CBR600 item looked pretty trick so that’s a potential direction for us to pursue. You’ll know more when we do.
The last thing to fill you in on this month is the rear shock. The original plan was to buy a whole new unit and get it custom fitted to the bike, but Neil (of above fame), said that he’d done many conversions of this nature using the original linkage. He got his drill out, remounted the bottom pin, and the end result is that we’ve now got the standard shock sitting pretty. Don’t get me wrong, things aren’t so simple as that, because the MX unit was produced with much softer spring and damping than we’ll need, so it’ll have to go away and get re-shimmed and sprung to suit our needs, but for now it means we’ve been able to set the ride height and achieve the profile needed for the tank and subframe to be produced. It really is a one step process this custom building malarkey, but it’s bloody exciting. We’re getting there, slowly but surely.