Seeley (replica) Framed Project Road Racer

[Zunspec4]

Hi TP,

On the disc front it has just been determined on the CRMC forum that there is no mention of a "floating disc" prohibition in the rules. Pity I did not know that as it would have saved me £110 from a failed attempt to skim a std GT500 disc down to 5mm thickness, oh well, live and learn.

On the engine front, the specs as I currently know them are:

Lightened Crank (flywheel Dia 106mm in think)
Straight Cut primary gears
High 1st gear, the rest std (although I might shell out for a NOVA upgrade in the future)
750 con-rods and the other necessary mods that go with them
Barrels ported (and engine generally prepared) by a Mr Les Trotter. Designed to use 38mm carbs from the off with a set of hydro formed pipes which are supposed to be matched to the porting
Beefed up clutch
Centre Plug heads
Ign still to be obtained (PVL modified for easier starting maybe)

I am sure that my original Seeley engine was producing in the upper 60's if not lower 70's bhp wise. it was a match for most TZ350's at club level back in the day (keep in mind there were several just out of the box TZs around at the time in the North Glouc. club)

The proof of the pudding will be seen on a Dyno or at the track, time will tell.

All good fun

Cheers Geoff

[Pete O'Dell]

Flywheels are 108 dia

Ports will match when I have finished with it
nice set of my cast heads

Geoffs doing a nice job of the bike

[Zunspec4]

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the corrections and encouragement.

Another disaster today. My nicely fabricated oil tank has been royally screwed by the local welder. I can understand burning off the oil feed pipe (just) but the wally has also totally jammed the nice cap. To the point that I cannot get it undone. He obviously did not remove it while welding the base and then tried to hold the screw cap in a vice to undo it. Result, the the knurling has been chewed off as the cap rotated in a vice. Well at least no money changed hands, if he or his equipment were not up to the job he should not have taken it on. I can't see him compensating me for the materials either.

On a much more positive note it has been determined that the class of racing I am aiming for does not come under the "no floating disc" rule. Even better is that I have been talking to the EBC disc lads, initially to see if the had a production disc they could give me the part number for. However it seems the GT500 disc is a bit unusual (296mm Dia and centre hole 56mm) so they are going to see if they can't produce a GT500 size disc (which they make to std dimensions) but with a 5mm thickness and drilled full of little holes to boot, even better if it comes with "floating" construction.

It occurs to me that this would also benefit all those with GT500s who wanted a modernised disc (material & construction) taking advantage of HH pads and significantly improving their braking power. Anyone interested ?

Cheers Geoff

[CJF]

Sorry to hear about the oil tank. You know your build was going way too smooth up to this point . Building these bikes can really test your patients. I would be interested in a disk if they start making them for the GT500. I'm guessing there might be a lot of GT750 owners that might also.

[titan performance]

Shame about the oil tank....but no great surprise for me. We tried numerous highly "recommended" welders, when we started making stuff from ali and stainless. Some of those recommended welders were dreadful, no idea at all, too hot for too long and items horribly distorted......

Have you spoken to Les lately? I think his long racing career may be at an end after some serious heart issues a while back. Lovely bloke !

[Zunspec4]

Hi TP,

I do not know the venerable Mr Trotter personally, although if that tasty special he is leaning on is anything to go by I wish I did.

I have purchased another alloy cap and will fabricate a second tank, probably make a better job of it this time too and will make it a bit more "welder friendly" w.r.t. the oil feed pipe. This time I will go to an outfit I can trust (Reality Motorworks in Bristol) and get it done properly.

I will shortly be receiving a pair of GT500 discs of 5mm thickness and fully floating. If they work out for me I will be able to offer similar discs to other GT500 owners (are GT750 items the same ?). I will post some photos up when they arrive for the forums critique.

Cheers Geoff

[oldjapanesebikes]

...are GT750 items the same ?

EBC still lists replacement discs for the GT750 under part MD3019LS for the left, and MD3019RS for the right - they measure 296mm in diameter.

[Zunspec4]

Hello Ian,

You are correct , the EBC Part No. 3019 was mentioned during my discussions with them. As standard though they are 6.9mm thick, the variation I have arranged will be 5mm. I was wondering why Suzuki made them so robust and the only thing I have come up is that being hard riveted they needed to be that thick to avoid warping. This "Fully Floating" thing using the bobbin fixing goes a long way to minimising that problem, so I believe, and now discs can be a lot thinner (and lighter).

I could not buy these 5mm discs directly from EBC unless I could do £10,000/month of business so I have set up a trade account with a retailer and have purchased them via him. No real reason that someone else could not do the same, but I now have an avenue to easily procure the 5mm variation and could handle a small volume and pass them onto others.

I have a specific reason for wanting 5mm discs, GT500/750 owners can buy the standard product (which is also "Fully Floating") via any EBC stockist. BTW I was informed that the drilling pattern for all those little holes in the disc surface was non-specific to the rotation so in fact RH and LH discs are the same.

Funny where things take you when you are pursuing a goal, after the machining dissapointment I just wanted a "NEW" 5mm GT500 disc to match the GT500 Hub I intend to use on the Seeley/Maxton set-up.

Cheers Geoff

[Pete O'Dell]

Shame about the oil tank....but no great surprise for me. We tried numerous highly "recommended" welders, when we started making stuff from ali and stainless. Some of those recommended welders were dreadful, no idea at all, too hot for too long and items horribly distorted......

Have you spoken to Les lately? I think his long racing career may be at an end after some serious heart issues a while back. Lovely bloke !

Hi Paul, I talk to Les fairly often, he is doing good, I got bollocked for not going to stafford and buying him a beer, so meeting him at the telford show, he's just come back from the island where he did a 13hr (i believe) lap of the course due to stopping at every pub and a few more.

The engine Geoff has got is in my workshop and was originally for Spikes spondon which along with everything else was destroyed in the fire, the plan was for me to finish the engine for spike, but now its passed to Geoff so new owner will get the O'Dell black and white stick waved at it instead of spike.

If of interest too you I will shortly have a batch of "proper" outer main bearings in stock made as per original not sleeved to go with the centre mains and con rods.

[Suzukidave]

I dont know if its any use to you , but i picked up this handy disk hole lay out good for left or right

[Zunspec4]

My tame machinst also has a small project on the go.





I asked if he could knock me up a c/r 6 speed gear cluster and he told me to *&$% off.

[ja-moo]

I might be missing something here, But why not just thin your discs? I have been doing it for years on the kawi triples. Down to 5.5 for single disc, and 5.0 for duals

[Zunspec4]

Hello ja-moo,

Getting the original GT500 disc machined down to 5mm was the first thing I did. Unfortunately the machine shop who attempted this (using a lathe) took 3 1/2 hours, broke 3 lathe tools and returned a 5mm disc with a warp and charged me near $200 . They also said "never, ever bring another of those discs to us for machining" I guess they had their problems with it.

EBC will provide a new floating disc, modern materials and 5mm from the start, a much better result.

Cheers Geoff

[ja-moo]

Hello ja-moo,

Getting the original GT500 disc machined down to 5mm was the first thing I did. Unfortunately the machine shop who attempted this (using a lathe) took 3 1/2 hours, broke 3 lathe tools and returned a 5mm disc with a warp and charged me near $200 . They also said "never, ever bring another of those discs to us for machining" I guess they had their problems with it.

EBC will provide a new floating disc, modern materials and 5mm from the start, a much better result.

Cheers Geoff

The Kawi's have super tough steel also. And it was just a thought..............

[Pete O'Dell]

It was me who suggested getting disc turned down J-M as I get them done regularly with no warpage, but poor ol Geoff took it to people I think should have big shoes and a red nose and work in a ring.

Lol you can get nasty noises from turning stainless though and bloody lubricant everywhere.