Project Konica Minolta MC22 - not so glacial project

That is my prototype, a work in progress. @kiffsta gave me some old ones to work with. Tooling costs for those kind of rubber parts are horrendous so I cannot afford any errors.

 

Goodbye Scooter Brakes 2:
Have to get rid of the ridiculous scooter brake caliper on the rear now. First task was to cut and weld the OEM footrest bracket to accept the 12mm Brembo rear master cylinder. The mounting holes being closer together on the Brembo part. I am not too concerned about the finish and detail on these because I want to make my own rearsets later, and no they will not be adjustable.
I have already done two designs for the caliper bracket. One was to use the OEM swingarm location method and the other is to weld a lug onto the swingarm and use a torque rod. I am leaning towards the second version since the first one will be more difficult, more expensive and I doubt that MC22 owners would want to buy them anyway.

 

Hi @kiffsta can you pm or email me please. I cannot seem to get in touch with you. I need some Honda bits.
Cheers
Blair

 

After binning the 520 conversion I got a new rear sprocket (lucky for me it was black) so made some Ti washers instead of the 'chromed' ones.


and did some work on the rear caliper bracket. I have to plan ahead for the torque arm bracket that I will need to weld to the swingarm.

Yes it is a fake. I have a genuine normal jobby, see below, but it cannot be fitted without milling or turning away the bosses that support the disc bolts. The 'race' caliper has a far shallower profile, so is the easiest fit, but paying five or six hundred US dollars for a real one is not an option.

 

This is the garden variety Brembo that is used on the rear of many bikes. Not possible on the MC22 without a lot of work.

 

and marked out the seat for the shortening process. Once that is done I can get onto making the new sub-frame and start on the under-seat exhaust.

 

Don't really mind the the look of having the caliper on top either. Easier to run the line.

 

Footpeg Stuff:
The oem footpeg mounts are never going to give me enough clearance to get the ex pipe behind the RH support. Poked around and found a CBR600 that uses an under seat exhaust and has the pipe exactly where I want it, so I bought some Chinese versions. I am hoping they are not made of gingerbread so I can cut and weld them.

 

The Chinese 600 footrest assemblies arrived and they are a lot smaller than I imagined. To make these work I will have to go full Murdo on them.

 

So working on the sub-frame design. This is a plastic mock up that I 3D printed. I have the four front mounts and tank mount position accurately done and just need to get the angle of the top rails right. The seat will kick up a little higher at the back when I get that angle right. Then I need to make a mock up of the under seat exhaust to ensure that it clears everything. When I am happy with it I will make a jig and fabricate in aluminium. Too hard to get square tube with 3mm wall so I am going to use round. I am very happy with the look of the seat and I need to decide whether to go with 4 tailpipes (ala MV Agusta) or 2 (like 748 Ducati).

 

I think pretty cool but I am biased. Actually it looks a lot better in real life than the photo. The fairing, which will be half, will look like this. I am going to ditch the top fairing bracket also. I can't stand those stupid things. Will use carbon fibre to reinforce the top and hold the mirrors. Yes, it doesn't have the look of the modern pieces of dogshit but that is intentional.

 

Thanks Frank, just have to get it done now. Will be a bit poor until the New Year but I can get cracking on all the work that just needs my labour.

 

Cliponology:
Fiddling around with the handlebars and the end weights drove me insane. The Honda bars are a steel tube fitted and pinned over an alloy stanchion clamp. I removed the steel tube and replaced it with an alloy one. Not to save weight, just because that is what I have lying around. Then I made a little drilling jig to get the pin hole in the same place. I might also do a plug weld just to be sure. Filed off all the casting flash as well so it looks better when painted.

 

Drew up the finished bracket for the rear caliper. I was going to run a torque arm and all that but then thought that it would be nice to allow others to buy the same piece if they are as crazy as me.

 

Cliponology II:
Taking a page out of the good doctor's book, I used my lathe as a mill and did the slots for the plug welds, welded and gave a bit of a tidy up. Spot the pin hole, but I don't care it is a 'character' hole.

I would like to blast and paint with the Cerakote Titanium but it is such a headache of a job. Alternative would just be to send them off and have them powder coated 'Texture Black' like the R4 frame.

 

aah yes, glad somebody is on the ball. Time to try the paint I guess.