Project Virago

much better, slowly but surely gaining another style,

Have just realised I need to put some air in my truck tyre, another area that needs sorting, the wiring rats nest, a lot of manufacturers do this on thier bikes, try to cram as much as possible into the headlight, will be fitting a sportster headlight so all the wiring will be extended and the junction blocks will all be stripped cleaned and put under the tank.

Another project, an electric bike using a stana stairlift motor and gearbox, this was ideal as the motor fits a treat inline in the frame, took it for a test ride the other day and it ran well !!! too well, ran fine for a while the motor was so powerfull it would set off in top gear no problem, but !!! it was so torquey it bent the front outer drive sprocket, this is an easy problem to fix so hopefully I will be using it to get to work on in the near future, regards to all Doc Cox, E=MC2

Be cool to see how it looks with the new headlight and rear light fitted and a new smaller plate will be so much better
Love the push bike, thats real vision

how fast do you recon the electric bike goes seems like a good way to get to work

fat intruder wrote:

how fast do you recon the electric bike goes seems like a good way to get to work

What powers the motor?

The motor is powered by 36v lithium batteries, still have to fabricate a box for them, don,t know how fast it will go as the sprocket gave way first , but will keep you all updated with the progress, regards to all Doc Cox E=MC2

Good evening everyone, have been getting more parts for the Virago, found this article in an old Back Street Heroes, this uses the throttle parts from a mid "70,s" Honda 125 Sport and lets you run the cable through the bars making the control layout much tidier, just waiting for a set of bars from Ebay to come now, will be taking photo,s as the mod, takes place as this will involve some machining and work to be done on the throttle, so for the meantime will leave you with the diagram and parts photo,s, regards to all D
oc Cox, E=MC2

That top picture took me back lol Honda SS50 Throttle holder, One of my mates had an SS50 when we were younger, we all had fs1e's and used to leave him behind, then when he arrived ten minutes later, we'd all piss on his engine! boy did that bike stink!! His dad was a traffic sergeant in the local plod so he was never allowed to do anything naughty

Thats interesting Nigel, this little project of yours sounds like it is really well thought out from every single angle

Sounds like a good project Nigel,good luck with it,as CC says this little project of yours sounds like it is really well thought out from every single angle

Thanks guys, things are going a little slower at the moment due to having a kitchen refit, but still trying to do a little bit every day, have just purchased an unusual silencer off ebay, looked like a Honda 400 exhaust and it was the shape I wanted, but when it arrived I found the end cap was like an inverted dished washer with an acorn nut in the middle so in the name of investigation undid the nut and found another adjustable plate for sound and back pressure variation, will psot some photo,s in a while to see if anyone recognises the make as it has no name on it, regards to all Doc Cox, E=MC2

So does that mean it has an in built lollipop from new on the pipe?

Sorry Crash, no lollipop, but things get a bit more intriguing, they say a picture can paint a thousand words, so...... here goes, here is the exhaust as I received it, and if anyone can identify it I will gladly send them a lollipop

This is a rear view of the exhaust, this is when things started getting interesting......

This shows the rear diffuser cone removed and what I thought were adjustable baffles !!........

But, on removing the screws this is what I found inside, this could easily be made into an adjustable pipe by elongating the screw holes and using M6 bolts instead......

This long baffle goes right down the pipe and is clamped onto the exhaust pipe along with the outer exhaust tube.....

The inner tube looks as if it sends the exhaust gas on a longer route which allows it to cool and quieten down ( not yet sure how much yet ) this could make quite an interesting sound, wonder what a pair of these on an intruder would sound like ? , also there is no absorbtion packing in there, well guys it,s over to you to see if you recognise it, regards Doc Cox E=MC2..... PS. judging by the amount of oil in the pipe whatever it was fitted to had badly worn rings or it was a two stroke.

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Good morning, have been doing a bit more in depth work on the bike, this involved removing the toolbox to look into fitting the twin battery set up and found this horror story, this is the regulator for the alternator and the contacts in the connecting block had arced out, will be replacing this with a heavy duty set of contacts and a good slug if vaseline for waterproofing, this could possibly happen to other makes of bikes so if you can,t see your regulator it might not be a bad idea to check it !!! could save a lot of aggro in the future, also found a good way to remove ten pounds of ugly fat from the bike....... took the exhaust off,      looking better already, regards to all Doc Cox

Evening all, found this on one of the Virago forums and thought it would be of interest

Bloody hell thats unusaul, bet his bike flys 

Hi Crash, if the engines in his plane I would think the rest of it is pretty  much static, this wouldn,t be allowed in England as the air worthiness people are a lot stricter, still full marks to the guy for innovative thinking, this had me thinking for another project when I get older, not much older mind, driving the truck yesterday and an old couple came past in a very tidy Morgan, the one with the V twin JAP, engine on the front, sounded really good, I would think that a Virago engine would make a good power plant for one of these, it would have to be fitted longways for the transmission but would not present a problem as the shaft drive would make it easier for the  drive to the back wheel, have been drawing up some plans last week for a Buell type exhaust system for the bike, this would also overcome the unequal exhaust pipe configuration and be fairly easy to build, will put up the schematics when I am happy with them, also been doing a bit of work on the seat, this involved reprofiling the the seat foam with my wifes electric carver and worked a treat, here are the before and afters, this will now become a single seat.

Good work on the seat Doc electric carving knifes are the best for this sort of thing I am told. Will you use the original seat and pull it in tight or have to recover it completely

Nice job Doc  it looks like the profiler shape.

Quite amazing what some of you guys get up to. In my youth, I owned both a 535, and a Virago 750. Delightful machines, tho I only ever rode and polished. I must never forget though, that I once oiled a clutch cable, although that's not quite in your league. As confession is said to be good for the soul, let me add that I once inadvertently oiled the brake pads on my 750. Did nothing for its stopping power, and I had to rush (very carefully indeed) to my usual 'bike shop, where they kindly replaced the pads. In case anyone's wondering, it was one of those late autumn jobs, of dousing the bike in WD40. I had hoped to be skilled enough to avoid the pads, I wasn't. Nowadays my pads are well covered.

Not totally sure about the seat yet Crash, will be having a look at the seat later on today to decide on the course of action, yes it does have shades of the profiler seat in, looks like I will be touching up on my sewing skills Simbo, sounds like your brake lubrication was more of an accident than on purpose Colin, and at least they wouldn,t squeak, the shed is virtually finished now , shelves and solar powered electricity to do, will be putting some more pics today, regards to you all Doc Cox E=MC2

    Found this on the net, this was a custom Virago built by John Reed alias Uncle Bunt back in the 80,s an incredible piece of customising, will try to find some more pics.

Thats bloody amazing, the work they have put in to that is unreal. If your virago comes anywhere close to that when you have finished your cafe Racer customization then you will have a big wet patch next to it and that will be my dribble and drool, I will try not to dribble on your bike though  

Not my cup of tea  The attention to detail is outstanding though! Must have spent a bloody fortune!

Cleaning it would be easy because you would never take it out on the chance that it could get dirt on it so you would just need to get the wife to dust it

The attention to detail is amazing, but, he was commisioned by Yamaha to promote the new Virago and was given the engine and unlimited funds to build it, the engraving on the cases was done by Don Blocksidge who as far as I know is still going, he has restored the bike recently and is putting it back on show again.

I feel the heart palpitations of pure lust, when I look at that bike (and no, I'm not too old for lust).

I wonder if that's where the company that did the cream volusia with all the engraving and gold parts got there idea's from? (sorry can't remember their name?) It's the sort of bike you could spend hours looking at and still not see it all.

Sad for Simbo, he can't remember things. His mind's falling apart if you ask me, just a youngster too. I'm sixty-six years old, and I still remember sex (quite clearly). What is it with young people these days ?

Oiler wrote:

Sad for Simbo, he can't remember things. His mind's falling apart if you ask me, just a youngster too.

 Blacksmith motoring company!

 

Evening everyone, haven,t put much on recently as have been busy sorting out family business, now that,s over I can start putting a bit more work in on the bike, does anyone know of a simple programme where I can make a simple line drawing of the Virago and then add or remove mods to it,

Marcin our design wizard may do, I will pm him.

Thanks Dave,:cmate:

Hmm.

Inkscape is a great vector tool but adding/modifying could be a pain the the butt.

Give me a side photo of the bike and I'll show you what it can do.

Have been looking on Ebay for some bits and found this good looking bike in the international sellers section, will be starting work on mine again this weekend as the shed and garage are nearly sorted, have taken four truck bed fulls to the recycling centre so far,   javascript:;      javascript:;

Hey Doc wheres all the photos gone? This thread used to get a lot of views and its a shame because when the photos are missing it takes away part of the reason why so many people used to keep looking at it but have stopped.  Shame really

I don,t know Crash, will have to ask Daves advice, its a puzzle to me

Looks like you moved your photos Nigel.

I'm guessing that you created a folder called "Project Virago" on your photobucket and moved all photos there?