Initially started 7 years ago we will progress quite nicely for a while until I catch up with the current state of the build.
I built a Tamiya Kit of this when it came out around 1982 as a toddler.... (well I was 18)
and always wanted one. The other thing I always wanted was to build a bike from scratch having built a heavily modified Z1b around 20 years ago...
Initially I was going to make a 'period' version and a 'modified' version with modern running gear but after the project stalled due to work commitments, starting a business and a young family in another country it became apparent that I didn't have the time for one let alone 2 builds of this nature.
Eventually my work commitments relinquished to 3 days and some progress was made, then when furloughed this March I was able to progress quite well at last.
So, 7 years ago I bought one of these for reference and scaling:
and one of these magazines for detail and for some great side view photo's that were subsequently blown up to A0 size - then using the wheelbase (which was mentioned in the magazine) as a scale factor (taking note of the parallax error from the pictures), I was able to both scale up from the model kit x 12 as a cross reference to the more accurate scaling of x 2.47 from the A0 pictures I had printed.
So with this to hand:
And lots of pictures:
I scaled and made a High Density Expanded Polystyrene former for the fuel tank.
Having the tank shape then helped to get the overall frame geometry and shape correct - I had the wheel base and rake, but for the 3D shape the tank had to come first to make things easier.
Then the initial trial bends were commenced in yummy T45 cold drawn seamless steel. I had worked out a process to enable me to bend it with my manual pipe bender - one test piece was scrapped and then I was away...
Here's one of the main frame tubes in the bender - with multiple bends in all directions on each rail, 7 on this piece alone.
And eventually the frame tubes were complete...
Then the headstock ends were bored with a HSS Hole Saw using a couple of angle finders for accuracy...
And all the tube ends were marked and shaped to fit snuggly...
The frame slowly took shape - using Jubilee Clips and Gaffa Tape to temporarily hold it all together.
The head stock was clamped to give much needed rigidity to the stick tape build phase...
The main smaller parts of the frame were made - for this part using a die set I had made at work, utilising a big hammer when I got it home to shape the steel...
Detail pic as I was well pleased with the result:
Here it is shown dry fitted to the frame...
Here's the opposite side - the frame being totally different on each side... this one having a box section which was probably the hardest part to hammer into shape of the whole build!
Some headstock detail:
To be continued..........
I built a Tamiya Kit of this when it came out around 1982 as a toddler.... (well I was 18)
and always wanted one. The other thing I always wanted was to build a bike from scratch having built a heavily modified Z1b around 20 years ago...Initially I was going to make a 'period' version and a 'modified' version with modern running gear but after the project stalled due to work commitments, starting a business and a young family in another country it became apparent that I didn't have the time for one let alone 2 builds of this nature.
Eventually my work commitments relinquished to 3 days and some progress was made, then when furloughed this March I was able to progress quite well at last.
So, 7 years ago I bought one of these for reference and scaling:
and one of these magazines for detail and for some great side view photo's that were subsequently blown up to A0 size - then using the wheelbase (which was mentioned in the magazine) as a scale factor (taking note of the parallax error from the pictures), I was able to both scale up from the model kit x 12 as a cross reference to the more accurate scaling of x 2.47 from the A0 pictures I had printed.
So with this to hand:
And lots of pictures:
I scaled and made a High Density Expanded Polystyrene former for the fuel tank.
Having the tank shape then helped to get the overall frame geometry and shape correct - I had the wheel base and rake, but for the 3D shape the tank had to come first to make things easier.
Then the initial trial bends were commenced in yummy T45 cold drawn seamless steel. I had worked out a process to enable me to bend it with my manual pipe bender - one test piece was scrapped and then I was away...
Here's one of the main frame tubes in the bender - with multiple bends in all directions on each rail, 7 on this piece alone.
And eventually the frame tubes were complete...
Then the headstock ends were bored with a HSS Hole Saw using a couple of angle finders for accuracy...
And all the tube ends were marked and shaped to fit snuggly...
The frame slowly took shape - using Jubilee Clips and Gaffa Tape to temporarily hold it all together.
The head stock was clamped to give much needed rigidity to the stick tape build phase...
The main smaller parts of the frame were made - for this part using a die set I had made at work, utilising a big hammer when I got it home to shape the steel...
Detail pic as I was well pleased with the result:
Here it is shown dry fitted to the frame...
Here's the opposite side - the frame being totally different on each side... this one having a box section which was probably the hardest part to hammer into shape of the whole build!
Some headstock detail:
To be continued..........
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, nice one,
but thanks anyway 
but can you just ease up a bit as I can't keep pace with you on my TZ350 
