Surt's Honda Civic Cafe Racer! (Russia)

[CBRRRT]

Si, email the guy back and get him on here, there are a few things I want to say to the man.

Mate, stick some more photos on here from both sides of the bike. I would love to see the other side and check out the transmition on that civic engine. Hats off to you matey boy, you really did the do on this one fella. I dont know anyone thats done a simmilar project.

What inspired you?

I once had a dream about peeling a potatoe with a laser.

I figured if I worked out the volume of the potatoe, then suspended it in a sphere under vacume, and fired a laser beam at it from all angles and calculated the distance/length of the beam so no matter at what angle I fired it at the potatoe, I could add say 2mm to the length of the beam it would remove just enough of the outer skin so only the inner was left.

I would have a perfecly peeled potatoe.

I never did do anything about that idea, but you, ya mad bastard..........................

[Surt]

Here's the right side of the bike. Its primary was made on CNC from magnesium, so it weighs nothing... The original flywheel was replaced with a custom sprocket and the bike flywheel (and the clutch basket) is on the other side of the 2nd sprocket shaft, that spins on two ball-bearings. Usually, as in Harley, a flywheel (and a basket) is on the same side, being a trans pulley (or a sprocket), but I've made it mine way to deminish loads on the shaft and to narrow the width (the primary is just 60 mm wide and what about Harley's?)

What inspired me? Well, Friedl Munch's Mammuts firstly (I didn't dream to have mine turboed when I started), then Munch Mammut 2000. I'm gonna skin it! They say it costs $80000, has 260 horsies and dry weight 350+kg... Well, mine gonna cost me $3000 more when f.i., turboed (and water-methanol injection too), plus decent parts from buell, ducati and honda bikes. Gotta replace the primary chains with 2" belt, they've stretched out too fast and are too heavy. Also I account to reap 145 bhp at 6000@ at 12psi and smwh 180bhp at 15psi at the same rpm (not sure if I need it). The problem is the engine is too old, so I have to make the intake manifold myself (it gonna cost me as some OBX or Skunk manifold...). I mean, an OEM B16 manifold costs $0.01 on e-bay (I bought a throttle body with sensors for that sum and added $10 to make a seller happy), also it's impossible to find 72mm forged pistons (I've seen just 73mm from ...honda jazz, if I remember that right).

[Surt]

Here's the primary drive. When covered with titanuim cover, it's filled with trans oil (as well as the ball-bearings box). The eccentric tensioner is home-made auch .

[CBRRRT]

Got to hand it to you mate, you are one clever bloke [:0]. Not only do you problem solve you make the part to solve the problem [8D], and that is impressive. What is the shock from mate, and did you build your own swing arm?

Not seen anything like those wheels either, what they off mate. Question after question, sorry mate but like I said, never seen anytrhing like it before.

[Harry]

thats a pretty mean bit of work surt,is that swingarm tuff enough ?
just looks a bit light, either way im sure its the only one on the planet! GOOD STUFF

[Surt]

Yeah mates, as it written in the 1st post by Gix11, every bloody thing is home-made.
The swingarm is made of 45x25x2mm square tubing and has aluminium pieces inserted into either end of it, its weight is 7kg, it's triangular and trapeze profiles, like your Sydney's hanger , so it's very rigid.
Wheels, I saw their design on some bonneville bike in a 'zine. Wheels rims are from some audi spares; discs and hubs are billet of arti-aged super-puper alu alloy. The front disc (390mm, bigger than buell's)is made from heat-treated high carbon steel (the same as for files, HRC58-60), and the rear one is cast iron, made from a car flywheel . the wheels are extra f*cking rigid and not too heavy, the front wheel weight's 13kg (with a tyre and the rotor, the same as ninja 900's, the rear wheel I can weigh later...). Actually I made them for another bike, as a rear wheel and a side car wheel, but when I needed wheels for THIS bike, I just grabbed 'em (had no e-bay, nor even i-net those days, the stone age just five year ago )
The shock is a 80mm shortened honda city's, and as its spring was too soft, I picked up a spring from honda accord with two levers susp. The upper cup is custom-made of the same super alloy .
Hey CBRRRT, have you finished your vfr swingarm swap? I have one as well, gonna check out if it's right or wrong

[Surt]

The front wheel... Don't laugh at a single piston caliper. I've modified one to fit the inverted rotor. Could made a multy pistons caliper, yet hadn't enough weed...

[CBRRRT]

Yes mate, the VFR arm went in a while back. All working fine and dany thanks mate. There is information on my thread as to the right and wrong one to use on a blade, but i think you could pull one off a scooter and not only make it fit, but make it ten times better. My main focus is to get it finished at the moment, well I say finished but as you know mate next year something some other clever fucker will catch my eye and I'll end up pulling it apart again.

You are a clever and inovative bloke mate and its good to read about what you have done and how you did it. Keep it coming mate.

Jon

[Harry]

surt wat size rubber are you putting on this animal ? just to get
some sort of idea on how its going to handle..or are you 9ft tall and 15 stone with a win in power lifting to pull it around ?

[Surt]

Thanks a lot Jon, just don't make me blush [:0]. In fact, I bought it to re-sell (I myself find 'em too heavy... apr. 20kg is more than enough for a frame and a swingarm together to my mind... looking beautiful, though). They are pretty expensive up here, but the problem is one should have hands growing from a proper place, not from an arse, so if a bloke has ‘em right ones, he’d be probably able to find a s.s. swingarm himself. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to swap it. Resuming, the swingarm’s tossed into my garage…
Also, something’s eating me. Have seen on e-bay a VFR800 swingarm with a CBR wheel… How that is can be possible, can’t get it?!

[Surt]

quote:Originally posted by Harry

surt wat size rubber are you putting on this animal ? just to get
some sort of idea on how its going to handle..or are you 9ft tall and 15 stone with a win in power lifting to pull it around ?

Harry it looks bigger, than in life. 120/80x16'', that's all. The cheapest chinese rubber I could get. The bloody wheelers-dealers sell a decent tire for US$200+ up here . Also, bike weight is apr.213 kg, less than CB1300's!
Sometimes, however, I AM 9 foot tall, pounding with stones and banishing with a sword of fire [}]

[Surt]

Yeah, the story of my life, mine's obviously not right type... Perhaps, it would be possible to fix the dog-bones outside the frame (or the engine) bracket?

[Harry]

well thats interesting mate due to the fact that i have a cb1300s in my toy collection...it is a tad heavy but i wanted that for long distance and to push though bad weather (inchs of water on roads) and the odd cat/small dog..ha.although good enough to round up boy racer's[}]

quote:Originally posted by Surt

quote:Originally posted by Harry

surt wat size rubber are you putting on this animal ? just to get
some sort of idea on how its going to handle..or are you 9ft tall and 15 stone with a win in power lifting to pull it around ?

Harry it looks bigger, than in life. 120/80x16'', that's all. The cheapest chinese rubber I could get. The bloody wheelers-dealers sell a decent tire for US$200+ up here . Also, bike weight is apr.213 kg, less than CB1300's!
Sometimes, however, I AM 9 foot tall, pounding with stones and banishing with a sword of fire [}]

[chopaweeza]

A cousin of mine with a bike shop in central Norway was after someone last year that had good fabrication skills. Shot him a link to this thread when I saw the work thats gone into the bike . He already has the job filled but commented that if he still had a vacancy he'd be calling you about imigrating . Timing I guess .

On a personal note . Great bush engineering and a true credit that you have made something decent out of a bunch of car parts . I take my hat off to you .

[Surt]

Thanks chopaweeza for the personal note . Gonna keep bush engineering further. I like putting big things into small holes. Like to make some jumping V10 two-wheeler some time. By the way, I'm goin' down under, no Central Norway, hate snow and skiing, making bush-fires that's what I like! Thanks for your support anyway mate.

[Tony OW31]

Probably going to get flamed here, but I hate it. Bikes to me are supposed to be good to ride.
There is no doubt that the guy has a good imagination and/or dealer, and the skills to put it all in to practice, but why all the effort for something that would be scary to ride, and I don't mean Hayabusa turbo type scary, I mean 'oh fuck I'm going to die type scary'.
24 degrees rake and 100m of trail, coupled with a 16" wheel and no steering damper[:0]
How many of you on here could honestly say they would like to ride it? I mean properly ride it for a few hundred k's, around corners n stuff, not a quick 5 minute run round the block.
I would much rather ride that bobbed R6 abomination that was bagged by everyone on here than that.
Maybe I just don't get it, but why not put that same amount of skill effort in to something that would be good to ride? because at the end of the day it is about the riding isn't it?

[bluemk1]

quote:Originally posted by Tony OW31
because at the end of the day it is about the riding isn't it?

get the fu....

oh wait i agree

but i guess its the same as sticking fat wheels and tyres on bikes. some people like it but i dont see the point of it other than it looks cool. but like you said, at the end of the day isnt it about how it rides?

edit: i wouldnt say i hate it as such as that is harsh or even go as far as sayin g i would ride the pukester but i get your drift.
hell some guys even like riding choppers [:0]
i guess it comes down to personal tastes

[Surt]

quote:Originally posted by Tony OW31

Probably going to get flamed here, but I hate it. Bikes to me are supposed to be good to ride.
There is no doubt that the guy has a good imagination and/or dealer, and the skills to put it all in to practice, but why all the effort for something that would be scary to ride, and I don't mean Hayabusa turbo type scary, I mean 'oh fuck I'm going to die type scary'.
24 degrees rake and 100m of trail, coupled with a 16" wheel and no steering damper[:0]
How many of you on here could honestly say they would like to ride it? I mean properly ride it for a few hundred k's, around corners n stuff, not a quick 5 minute run round the block.
I would much rather ride that bobbed R6 abomination that was bagged by everyone on here than that.
Maybe I just don't get it, but why not put that same amount of skill effort in to something that would be good to ride? because at the end of the day it is about the riding isn't it?

No shit, the bike needs a damper and 17'' wheels and gonna have 'em, do you mates think it's hard to do, don't ya? The point is I can do anything with this bike, any rake/trail, wheelbase, swingarm lenght, seat height, and so on and on. Just torturing oem bikes ain't no fun to me at all. And I wouldn't let you ride it until I have big quid advance compensation in my pocket either... And after all if one is outta ride hours and hundreds k's, one should get oneself a goldwing

[}]

[Tony OW31]

quote:Originally posted by Surt

quote:Originally posted by Tony OW31

Probably going to get flamed here, but I hate it. Bikes to me are supposed to be good to ride.
There is no doubt that the guy has a good imagination and/or dealer, and the skills to put it all in to practice, but why all the effort for something that would be scary to ride, and I don't mean Hayabusa turbo type scary, I mean 'oh fuck I'm going to die type scary'.
24 degrees rake and 100m of trail, coupled with a 16" wheel and no steering damper[:0]
How many of you on here could honestly say they would like to ride it? I mean properly ride it for a few hundred k's, around corners n stuff, not a quick 5 minute run round the block.
I would much rather ride that bobbed R6 abomination that was bagged by everyone on here than that.
Maybe I just don't get it, but why not put that same amount of skill effort in to something that would be good to ride? because at the end of the day it is about the riding isn't it?

No shit, the bike needs a damper and 17'' wheels and gonna have 'em, do you mates think it's hard to do, don't ya? The point is I can do anything with this bike, any rake/trail, wheelbase, swingarm lenght, seat height, and so on and on. Just torturing oem bikes ain't no fun to me at all. And I wouldn't let you ride it until I have big quid advance compensation in my pocket either... And after all if one is outta ride hours and hundreds k's, one should get oneself a goldwing

[}]

Not really knocking you, I just didn't understand why, but seeing as you don't like riding very much, I now know why.

[CBRRRT]

I don’t get choppers and trikes, but as far as the engineering skills that go into building them I admire the men and woman that have the talent to build them.

The world biker build off was shown on The Discovery Channel a while back and there was this guy from Oz that built this bike and then made wooden forms and beat aluminium plate to wrap the bike in. Every part had to be perfect because there was no filler and no paint involved. The guy pushed the boundary’s that little bit further, rather than take the easy option and go with yet another V twin that we’ve seen again and again.

I don’t think for one moment this bike is going to go into a full production run. I think it’s a platform to show what can be done with a little imagination, determination, innovation, enthusiasm, and let’s face it a splash of madness.

Imagine what the world would be like if there was only one brand of bike, one colour, one engine size, and was identical to every other bike on the planet. Imagine it was strictly forbidden to do any modifications. I wonder how many people would be passionate about biking then.

As much as I think the guy has the freedom to build what’s in his head and show it on here, you have the freedom to say what’s in your head and show it on here without being flamed. That’s what I love about this site, “Freedom of expression” and that may be in a build, and or, an opinion.

I’m glad we are all so different because it keeps the manufacturers research and development departments coming up with new stuff all the time that we can rip apart and add to our own machines.

Over the last few years there has been a slight shift in motorcycle manufacturing and the big guys are now mass producing “Streetfighters” Ducati, Triumph, Kawasaki. Where did they get that idea from I wonder, I would think mad fuckers like Surt. Only difference is they have millions of dollars to smooth the rough edges out and add costly injection moulded plastics.

Its people like Surt that keeps them thinking, and people like you that don’t quite get it that keep’s them asking why, how and what if.

Good on the pair of you, because like it or not you are more alike than you think, you both keep the thought process going forward.

I for one am up for forward thinking.