New member of the fold - a rather different offering

[dizzyblonde]

Goood call Mr Tartan.........

Be nice to see this one....and all of the others under that Lancaster
Although if he comes, I might have to polish that downpipe

[PIW19]

Hey DB, if you're refering to the orange offering, believe me I have given them quite a rub, both ends, must be a technique thing and look forward to reviewing your methods

Fingers crossed she makes the trip and hope to see you all there.

[snapdragon]

-//-
I might have to polish that downpipe

What? on the Lancaster?

[VRaptorMark]

I use to have a Laverda 750 but only the SS. Loved it to bits best handling bike I have owned and super sexy looking. If only you could shoe horn a 1000 V into it!! Loved it that much I have a 42" framed picture of it hanging in my house..

[PIW19]

I know it's going a bit off topic but have to agree on the handling of the Lav 750. We had a number of Jurno's ride the bike after a good season on '03 and all commented on the neautrality of the handling and the Paoli units front and back complemented the the setup. Designed by GP fame guru Nico Bakker, it remains a great bike to throw around a track to this day despite it's 85 ish hp in factory rep trim.

Very underestimated road bike too.

[dizzyblonde]

-//-
I might have to polish that downpipe

What? on the Lancaster?

[PIW19]

Hi all, been a while but thought I would share the next installment in the race rep project given I have finally got around the engineering stuff after other projects / life got in the way.

The picture shows the old girl awaiting her now front end, in the form of an MV F4 1000 fork, yokes (triple tree) and brake (Nissin 6 pots, not radial) swap. There have been many options but wanted to try and keep the MV / Cagiva link on the bike and quite like the look of the over engineered 58mm diameter MV kit and brings a level of adjust-ability only a new cartridge kit would bring to the stock forks.

Could easily have gone down the Ducati Showa setup as fitted to the race bike but that seemed far too easy using the original headstock and wanted retain the stock front wheel and front mudguard.

So the task so far:

Steering stem on MV bottom yoke had to be replaced with the standard Raptor stem as its a far larger and
head bearing are simply not available and no plans to hack to frame to fit an MV headstock
Spacers being made up to fit the original front spindle to clamp into the MV lower fork clamps
Bespoke front discs been made up with standard centers to move from 300mm discs to 310mm
Once in place fit MV clipons
Looking like the brake lines will need replacing given new caliper position
56mm steering damper fork clamp hunted down (from Italy in the end)

With the front end off all parts have been either sand blasted & powder coated or replaced with Stainless / Titanium fittings (quite untidy under there given its not been out of the garage for 3 years)

Some of the key parts will be back to me within the next week so hope to update more when it looks whole again. Still love this bike over the other toys in the garage and fairly sure it will never be 'finished'.

http://www.raptorchapter.org.uk/downloa ... ew&id=1436

[shebee]

Welcome back, good to see the project back in progress

[PIW19]

Latest update is that most of the parts arrived as expected and the yokes and forks are now onto the bike as you can see and would have been a little more complete if it wasn't for some rubbish top hat nuts to put the fairing and indicator pods back on.

In my opinion these are the forks and brakes that should have been on the bike, given the same business and fairy sure that if the factory had continued it would have been an upgrade in future years. Just awaiting the larger discs and figuring out handlebar options and its off for her first MOT in 3 years, just a bit of trimming needed for the mudguard (glad the original fitted fairly easily, as that was important)

[Lexio62]

Hi mate,
Absolutely love this bike.
Although it's taking years, I'm still in the process of building my race bike.
The front fairing is getting moulded up at the moment.

In regard to mention of the Ducati front end - is this, including the triples an easy swap?

I'm headed down the gsxr route, but would much prefer to retain the brembo callipers.

Feel free to PM me any info.

[Crap Tartan]

Dont quite get that, the standard brembo calipers might look good but they are really wooden and have poor performance compared to many others.

One of the reasons I changed to R1 forks was so I could ditch the standard calipers and fit the yam blue spots which were a huge improvement

[andybaggies]

I reckon much of the brakes wooden feel is due to the discs/pads as now that I use EBC kit I find the brakes to be pretty damn good. With both a sharp instant bite and good solid progressive feel from there on.

Both discs & pads need replacement at around 10k mind....

[PIW19]

Really need to get on here more often, PM sent over the Ducati question and it really is down to personal feel and if you switch to the 4 pad per Brembo caliper off the later Ducati's, cheap off ebay, the difference is night and day and the pad options can be more track/ fast road orientated if you choose that option.

Thanks for the feedback from all by the way, put a few miles on her this year now and running like a dream, tucked up nice and warm for winter now so its track day in spring for me next I reckon.

[El Vikingo Tropical]

That MV front looks gorgeous.
I have Gixer on mine for and it’s marvellous so I can just imagínate how much better your will be

[Esefar]

This project is the kind that I like, well done sir!
Can I ask you, what windscreen is the one at the photo on the first page?
Mine is a bit big for my taste and I'm trying to find one that fits good.