[young-pup]

Wow, great work!!

I appreciate the input, Dutch. Thanks.

 

[flitecontrol]

Nice to see a well thought out build from the beginning.

 

[young-pup]

Nice to see a well thought out build from the beginning.

Thanks, flitecontrol. I still had a :banghead: moment earlier when I checked to see if the axle tensioner would stick out the cut end of the old swing arms... It does, though only a little.

I have a question for everyone who has used springs under their solo seats- does one type work better than another? I want to go with the classic styles only.

 

[little dave]

i have coil type. but want to get scissor style so i would be intresterd in the answers too.

 

[bB2NER]

I like my coil ones cause they help locate the seat side to side. But the sissor ones look cooler.

 

[brett7777]

You definitely need to get a run of these produced. I would be on the list to buy one & there would be many others in the queue with me.

 

[topher]

Oh man this is looking great, please keep the post coming... i like the stock fender when its trimmed down, especially trim the sides of it down

 

[young-pup]

You definitely need to get a run of these produced. I would be on the list to buy one & there would be many others in the queue with me.

Thanks, brett7777. A question I have is whether or not this would fit on the newer bikes. Does anyone know if the old/new swing arms are the same dimensions? Also are the old/new frames the same in that area? It would only be worth it if there was just one version of the bolt-on.

Oh man this is looking great, please keep the post coming... i like the stock fender when its trimmed down, especially trim the sides of it down

Thanks, topher. I am trying figure out the mounting for it, and then I will try trimming the sides... if not I also like how the Shadow 1100 front fenders look on the rear Rebel wheel - thanks to bB2NER for the info. The big issue for me is keeping this as low cost as possible and making what I have work if I can.

 

[bB2NER]

The swingarm and rear shocks are the same thru the years of the CMX250.

 

[young-pup]

The swingarm and rear shocks are the same thru the years of the CMX250.

Sweet. Good to know. Thanks.

 

[Henryinva]

Everything looks good to me so far. Only thing that looks iffy is using some of the original swingarm instead of just using some thick solid steel slid into slots cut into the tubing like a conventional hardtail. The thickness of the stock swingarm steel is kinda thin.
Is the adjuster plate gonna stick out the front when it's slid all the way forward?

What he said! I realize this is prototype sort of thing, but doing another, yeah, definitely solid plate as the stock swingarm on these is a joke material wise..And to be honest, after putting all this work into what your doing, ya really shoulda just done it right on the axle plate. Kudo's though, it looks good and will look better once ya put in a couple cross tubes on the lower and upper tubes. I dig it!
:thumb:

 

[young-pup]

What he said! I realize this is prototype sort of thing, but doing another, yeah, definitely solid plate as the stock swingarm on these is a joke material wise..And to be honest, after putting all this work into what your doing, ya really shoulda just done it right on the axle plate. Kudo's though, it looks good and will look better once ya put in a couple cross tubes on the lower and upper tubes. I dig it!
:thumb:

Alright, Henryinva, you guys win. I have to admit that I think I would kick myself every time I saw the bike if I went ahead and went to all this trouble but didn't go all the way... So next step is to fab some axle plates and make an accurate jig to weld the whole thing up. It will take some time so everyone bear with me. One thing that will be an issue is the axle is designed for two swing arms that are 1.1" thick, so going down to 3/8" thick plate for the axle mounts will either require (2x) .75" spacers on the outside or the axle to be shortened.

 

[mojorisn]

Alright, Henryinva, you guys win. I have to admit that I think I would kick myself every time I saw the bike if I went ahead and went to all this trouble but didn't go all the way... So next step is to fab some axle plates and make an accurate jig to weld the whole thing up. It will take some time so everyone bear with me. One thing that will be an issue is the axle is designed for two swing arms that are 1.1" thick, so going down to 3/8" thick plate for the axle mounts will either require (2x) .75" spacers on the outside or the axle to be shortened.

Could you use 1x2 square steel tubing in place of the old swing arm and still use the old chain tensioners?

 

[young-pup]

Could you use 1x2 square steel tubing in place of the old swing arm and still use the old chain tensioners?

It would probably work well. At this point though I think I will base it on the VLX 600 swing arm tensioner-

I will probably make axle plates with slots that go all the way through towards the front, and then weld in threaded spacers to close the ends. A bolt and jam nut like the picture would make a pretty simple tension mechanism. If I am going to treat this like a prototype part I need to make it like one.

 

[mojorisn]

It would probably work well. At this point though I think I will base it on the VLX 600 swing arm tensioner-

I will probably make axle plates with slots that go all the way through towards the front, and then weld in threaded spacers to close the ends. A bolt and jam nut like the picture would make a pretty simple tension mechanism. If I am going to treat this like a prototype part I need to make it like one.

That is kind of why I was thinking of 1x2 tubing. I agree the old swing arm is flimsy thus the tubing. But if your thinking of producing it to sell then retaining as much of the stock axle assembly as possible will keep cost down and make it an easy bolt on only having to swap the swing arm out and reuse the rest of the stock parts. If you go with the vlx style then you will have to include a new axle and spacers with the "kit". Either way would work I just want to give you something to think about.

 

[Shadow Shack]

If you can get away from the OEM tensioners, more power to you. Those tensioner bolts are extremely fragile and break too easily. Seriously, ask any Honda technician how many times he's had to order new ones after servicing a Rebel chain. A wise service manager keeps a generous inventory of them on hand.

I've managed to break two so far, one per Rebel...and after the first one I learned the inherent value of keeping a few extras on hand (and before anyone asks: no, they're not for sale ).

 

[young-pup]

That is kind of why I was thinking of 1x2 tubing. I agree the old swing arm is flimsy thus the tubing. But if your thinking of producing it to sell then retaining as much of the stock axle assembly as possible will keep cost down and make it an easy bolt on only having to swap the swing arm out and reuse the rest of the stock parts. If you go with the vlx style then you will have to include a new axle and spacers with the "kit". Either way would work I just want to give you something to think about.

Thanks, mojorisn. I see what you mean.

If you can get away from the OEM tensioners, more power to you. Those tensioner bolts are extremely fragile and break too easily. Seriously, ask any Honda technician how many times he's had to order new ones after servicing a Rebel chain. A wise service manager keeps a generous inventory of them on hand.

I've managed to break two so far, one per Rebel...and after the first one I learned the inherent value of keeping a few extras on hand (and before anyone asks: no, they're not for sale ).

Shadow Shack, thanks for the information. What has been your experience with the VLX-style tension system?

 

[Shadow Shack]

Put into perspective, the VLX's much thicker tensioner bolt uses a double 14mm locknut compared to the Rebel's 10mm nut. You can torque on the VLX tensioner all day, but overtorque the Rebel's by a few pound/feet and it snaps like a potato chip.

Look at enough used Rebel's and you'll see the shadetree fix for the broken bolt syndrome --- the square plate between the locknuts and swingarm gets reversed to permit additional thread when the bolt breaks...assuming it didn't break too close to the swingarm anyways.

 

[mojorisn]

I don't see why the rebels tensioner would break easily. There shouldn't be that much torque on the bolt just tightening the chain. The only part that gets much torque is the jamb nut.

 

[Shadow Shack]

True, yet they still snap easily enough.