an American mutt The fact that Ducati still uses steel frames at all levels of their bikes is killer. The trellis frame looks great & best of all functions very well, even with 260 hp in the MotoGP bike. I also have a strong interest in air-cooled, big torque engines.....enter the aftermarket, American big twin.
The picture assumes 2 considerable engineering challenges are handled:
- short, compact drivetrain
- bottom half of the engine is machined to include an engine mount at the crux of the "v", similar to the engine mount of the "L" desmo engine.
I can just hear some of the Ducatisti scoffing at this project. Aah, hell, that makes it even better.
I ran out of time with the free Photoshop trial offer, so I haven't finished the following yet:
- front fender
- front cylinder header should wrap around to the left-side and underneath the frame gusset, keeping the right side of the engine free of "clutter"
- fuel tank is sketchy, I know. I sliced & diced the aluminum tank and tail section of Robert Stefano's bitchin' Ducati '969' custom to come up with that tank. See Acme Rocketbike for other great sport customs. http://www.acmerocketbike.com/
- exhaust silencers are not complete, but the location is about where I would like them, one on either side of the rear tire.
Unanswered questions:
- will the 45 degree twin work as a stressed member even with the new engine mount? I would hope so with the traditional mount at the heads and at the swingarm pivot.
- re-work swingarm to accommodate right-side drive
- too top-heavy with oil tank at the base of fuel tank?
2 comments:
totally do-able.
getting the bottom case machined for that would be $$$... but a bracket could be machined that allows any v-twin motor to be used. as far as stressed member, Hellcats are set up that way, and so is the wraith. Oil tank is not a problem. Trans is easy. the hard bit is the primary. No-one makes a short belt kit. The shortest belt-drive available is the one for the hellcats that we had to pay big $$ for to have produced. And no, no-one makes a belt primary for a sportster. Believe it.
I like it. kinda like the old days when the rickman's and dresda's were runnin around.. Take an excellent chassis, and put a different motor in it. Cool.
-dave
Dave,
thanks for the valuable feedback & for checking things out.
This blog is brand new & I will evetually move to a more functional site someday.
look for more big torque sportbikes.....
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