Project 185 - old school racer

[ShaneNP123]

Ever since since flipping through a 1982 issue of DirtWheels and looking at the pictures of Curtis Sparks and Tommy Gaian Tearing up the track on Team Honda's 200's I knew i had to build something like that. The old school 200's just look so bad ass. I then read through an article of the installation of a PK suspension kit on atc 185 collecting ideas. I did lots of research and parts collecting and reading through others builds on suspending a hardtail trike. I finally started my project a few weeks ago and have been taking lots of pictures. So here's my progress.





Pile of parts



The donor

[ShaneNP123]

Stripping the donor, at first i planned to use the swing arm from the dirt bike and modify it to accept the trike rear end but decided against it because it would take far too much work to make it work, and i would just end up with a cobbled up swingarm. So I fabricated the swinger from scratch.

[IMG][/IMG]

[atc007]

I have a good feeling about this one : )

[ShaneNP123]

Junk engine i threw in for mock-up purposes, mainly sprocket alignment.




Brace I had to add



Forks From the CR i will use, Planning on fabbing my own triples from some DOM



Fabbing the swinger. I cut the pivot ends off the CR swinger to use for the new one.




Plates welded on.



Gusset Templates



Gussets all welded




Axle and rear end mounted

[ctk]

Good looking welds. Keep us posted on your progress.

[dcreel]

Looking good.... Love to see a good weld...

[ShaneNP123]

Pivot end full welded, still needs some smoothing out



some pics of stripping the 185 frame. I should have put them in earlier.





Template for the swing arm mount



Plate Tacked in



then full welded and trimmed



I should have drilled the holes for the swinger bolt into the plates before mounting them so I knew they were the same. Oh well, learn from your mistakes.

Mocking up the swingarm

[zeeker1]

Looking great. I love a good fabricator. Here's some pix of some PK parts that they used for there 185S bolt on. I still have mine so if you need anymore, just ask..........zeeker

[zeeker1]

Here's a couple more of my spare...........Just for ideas.

[yaegerb]

Great work! You weld for a living? Your welds look like a roll of nickles.....love it!

[KASEY]

fyi.. it looks like your swinger pivot will be approx 2inches further back than a pk kit,,,, which is ok if you get the position of the bolt perfect,, if not i think the chain will tighten and slack off as the suspension works and sense you are back more then it will be amplified

[Blown 331]

I love it already. I have a suspended 185 project myself.

[ShaneNP123]

Great work! You weld for a living? Your welds look like a roll of nickles.....love it!

Haha thanks, I'm actually an apprentice truck mechanic, but I started playing with welding when i was 12. So I've got about 6 years of practice.

[ShaneNP123]

Thanks for the pics zeeker. It gave me a good idea for a chain tensioner. I'll have to copy it.

[ShaneNP123]

fyi.. it looks like your swinger pivot will be approx 2inches further back than a pk kit,,,, which is ok if you get the position of the bolt perfect,, if not i think the chain will tighten and slack off as the suspension works and sense you are back more then it will be amplified

I was thinking about that a lot, the chain tightening under compression or droop. But my swingarm bolt looks almost in the same spot as a PK weld on kit, I tried to copy it from a magazine. But i figure it will be a lot of trial and error involved. I just snapped some pics out of the magazine article and will post them when my camera battery charges, in the meantime here is the swinger hanging from the bike