Making your own race parts

How about pistol grip clip-ons, too? Why twist the whole wrist with today's fly-by-wire throttle? Figure out some other trigger for the throttle.

 

Mind control, man! Bluetooth!

 

You could make your own rods.

 

Me and a buddy came up with some dogbones and link plates for our '04 Aprilia RSVR's. The link plates weren't that great from the factory, and the dogbones wouldn't allow enough shock length to get the geometry where it wanted to be.
We came up with a stronger link plate, and a dogbone that would let us get the shock over 325mm, which was where we wanted to be. We ran them on our bikes, and made enough so sell 35 or so sets. They worked. We sold next to none. Nobody else was making these parts at the time, which didn't really matter because nobody was riding the bikes either.
I guess I would find something nobody was making, or something you thought you could make much better. Maybe a 4' screwdriver.

 

Louder, LOUDER, GO TO ELEVEN!

 

No need to reinvent the wheel. Just drill holes all over the current frame to lighten it up.

 

Making your own stuff is a blast if that's the kind of thing you like to do. I've made brake levers, sprockets (that were lighter and as strong as sprockets you could buy), damper brackets, shift rods, pegs, and a bunch more stuff. Of course I could buy all of that stuff, but I like making stuff so it was worth it to me. If that's what you enjoy, don't let anyone tell you not to.

 

We could solve a lot of problems nobody has ever had through brainstorming in this thread!

 

I've thought about making my own arduino based traction control system, but the idea of testing it is averting me....

might be better on a car.

 

Sometimes a problem isn't recognized until a solution for something better comes along.

 

U could prob make everything FastFrank sells for cheaper than he sells it

 

Made my own thumb brake set up for the dirty bike. Some parts aluminum, some carbon fiber. Fits better than anything it could buy.

 

You can make spacer retainers for the price of some plumbing pipe.
Pop the dust seal, put the spacer through it, press-fit a donut you cut off the pipe onto the backside of the spacer, reinstall seal. Yeah, you have to cut the pipe's ID for the specific fit, but you could do it with a round file if you had to...

 

How about a small 3D printed frame to hold lithium battery and power commander in place with all wires organized? I did FSAE almost 20 years ago and afterwards, made a few parts for my street bike, but mostly carbon replacements for aluminum parts where I just used the OEM part as the male mold, made a fiberglass female mold, and then popped a couple of parts off. I wouldn't bother with stuff you can buy, but rather something different that has a little value, but not enough to drive aftermarket companies to address. How about an overflow bottle solution? Maybe some exhaust bearings?

 

I made a bunch of my own stuff when I was racing (crashing). I made my own triples, because I was tired of bending the stock honda ones in every. damn. crash (along with the forks). So I made them thicker, and stronger. also made my own rearsets, pegs, clip ons, bar ends, shark fin, lever guard, cut rear rotor, spools (and spool inserts as the f3 swinger doesn't have them) and various other brackets, and shit. Why? Because I can. I like making stuff. Did I save any money? Probably, Most of the material was scrapbinium from work, and I made the parts either on breaks, or lunch. I only wish I would have taken a bit more time with stuff and made it fancier. I tend to just hurry my own projects along, and they tend to look rather utilitarian and lack the wow factor of bought parts.

I've made a few parts for other people, but I tend to shy away from it unless it's just parts that nobody makes. Or a project that is interesting. If it's something that can be bought somewhere, and you're trying to get me to make it cheaper, I usually can't People think that through the magic of CNC you kinda just take a picture of something, load it to the machine, and out pop perfect parts 5 min later.

One of these days when I get back into racing I'd like to build up some kind of vintage bike (haven't made my mind up what to start with yet) with as many parts designed/built by me as possible. I have a sick obsession with making as much stuff on my own as I can. It's not always the best way to go....but I enjoy it. I almost enjoy building stuff as much as I like using it.

 

I usually end up making my own brackets out of aluminum for things like lap timers in place of the oem ignition pod, rectifier mounts (for say a zx10), bodywork brackets, aluminum trays for Motoholders subframes, fender eliminator brackets for when I know exactly what I want but nobody makes that etc.
Once it's powder coated or just nicely can sprayed in black some of the stuff has also looked decent and not "home made".
I've also played a little with carbon fiber and replaced oem subframe crossmember pieces with cf and such but nothing more.

On the slightly wider and less round pegs topic- there could be some positives for some riders, haven't tried it so I can't knock it.

 

No



Ask Shervin

 

Race a Vintage bike. Everything will be custom made.

Cheers,

Dave

 

Moto-R (Britt) made some of the coolest oval-ish footpegs. I'm sure the grumpy old guy could post a photo of them. I remember Britt obsessing about the shape and sharpness of the knurling on those pegs as well. His test rider liked the pegs stupid sharp, we would work on them with a file during the race weekend.

 

make 2T V4 cases to use some modern cylinders/cranks/pistons that are still being produced in huge abundance and make good power and can use some common 6-speed trans. there's a few people doing it around the world i guess. that'd be worth buying/machining.