Project Virago

Hi Marcin, correct I did that a while ago and moved about four photos then found out my mistake from Dave, but the whole lot have now disappeared without me doing a thing,

Hmm

I just managed to find what appears to be corresponding links to a photo:

What you've added to forum (not displaying now)
https://2img.net/h/i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff518/nigelcox1/virago28-4-13001_zpsa64084e2.jpg

The actual address of the photo on your Photobucket
https://2img.net/h/i1239.photobucket.com/albums/ff518/nigelcox1/Project%20Virago/virago28-4-13001_zpsa64084e2.jpg

So as you can see...the folder "Project Virago" is not there on forum links.

Thanks Marcin, going along to Daves today to get it sorted.

Evening everyone, Dave gave me a hand this weekend to put some of the missing photos back and now know to put them in the folder first before putting them on the forum, Thanks Dave,
Father Christmas arrived today with a spoked Virago rear wheel, the rim is in good order but the spokes will be replaced with stainless ones, will build the wheel up myself and then ask Glen from Rolling Art Motorcycles to do the final truing up,




just have to find a front one now, Project Virago is now on the move again after a bit of down time , clearing the garage has been a big incentive, so off to Ebay now, regards to you all, Doc Cox E=MC2

Good one Doc on getting some spoked wheels, they will look a lot better than the mag wheels that viragos do 

Yes the Virago Mag wheels Ain't all that special but with what Nigel has planned with the spoked wheels and replacement forks he is going to use, they will look very smart.
I will leave Nigel to say what he has planned as he knows better than I do.

Out of curiosity Nigel, will those wheels take a tubeless tyre? with the spokes not actually going through rim, or are they a split rim?

Hi Simbo, on the wheel rim it does mention about the wheel being tubeless compatible but will let you know more when I have had a better look, as for me throwing stuff out and needing it again don,t worry as I know the lads well down at the recycling centre,

Hey dave I just remembered after seeing those pictures a query from another thread area, Doc was asking if a VS1400 drive would fit his bike. Do you think with some modifying it would, kerching

There would probably be a darn site more work required than would be feasible to make it work Crash but if Nigel wanted one of my drives, there would be no kerching even mentioned or involved.

Thank,s Dave, the laptop is working a treat now after your eviction of the trojans etc. have managed to get a front and rear spoked wheel off a 535 Virago as I know the rear will fit with a slight mod to the spacer and as I now have a hub for a spoked rim things are looking good, found a front and rear wheel for a Virago 700 last night, currently watching them, going out to the garage in a bit to do a bit !!! more tidying, regards to all Doc Cox

No worries doing the laptop Nigel, it was about 18 hours of love and hate but I was determined not to format and reprogram. It was so riddled with new stuff on me that I could smell the blood and would not give up until I had kill all the dragons. These fukin back door programs are becoming so sophisticated that  I needed to enter the reg-edit and find all the various places that they now hide. Getting rid of something once is what we used to do but nowadays they are very clever and infiltrate many places, which then allow them to regenerate from another angle, which I have not had to do for many years now.
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 I am going to love to see what this bike evolves into because you have a great attitude. Getting it the way you want it in your own time, with no time scale to rush to is ideal. Make sure you don't end up filling up that space you have now made in the garage with thousands of Virago parts.

Don,t worry Dave,   that,s what the caravan is for,  going to be interesting sorting that lot out,

Good evening, first an answer to Simbo,s question, yes these are tubeless wheels,   had a bit of luck last week and found this....            attatche              

attached to a Harley exhaust system, wasn,t sure how it worked so did a bit of research, at lower speeds the bike benefits from a smaller bore exhaust to give maximum power and torque as the speed increases the volume of gas increases and a larger bore pipe is needed, the valve restricts the flow of gas causing it to flow through a smaller bore tube that also doubles as the exhaust mounting bracket, the amount the valve needs to be opened is determined by sensors in the exhaust and inlet manifold, the information is sent to a servo motor that controls the valve with a short length of Bowden cable, this means we now have an exhaust valve/noise/ back pressure controller that could be operated by a control lever or a simple switching system,   

Now that is extremely interesting and without doubt, food for thought as that gives me an idea. 

Very good

I wonder if a throttle body of a scrap car could be used for a similar substitute?

It's great to see these things as it gets the old grey matter purring away.

Surely thats is just similar to both Bluesmans lollipop thread and Marcins lollipop thread, goes to show that using a hole that is already there or possibly making one on the side can be used for this mod and a quick turn handle used for the dead of night or first thing in the mornings when the beasty exhaust would wake every fucker up. Thanks for the photo Nigel, goes to show that our guys were on the right track  

Pleased this has been of interest, there are usually quite a few on Ebay, found this one on the Virago tech site another smart build.

That is one seriously good looking ride, the viragos really do take on the cafe racer look better than just about anthying else. I want one, its nearly xmas so fingers crossed

  Strange looking front wheel though  :what1:  Looks like a drum brake from the right, with a disc brake on the left,    Is it a rear wheel on the front?

O yeah it does look like that?

That exhaust valve is a similar thing to what Yamaha used on there 2 strokes, it was called YPVS, it was a valve on the exhaust outlet port that opened and closed depending on the revs.

Jim.

great looking bike and they always prove to make life interesting as they bottom out going round bends with bumps lol

Yeah I remember those! Yamaha Power Valve System or sommat like that  :what1:

A short while ago Marcin kindly did a black and white image of the Virago for me, finally had a bit of time and Daves help to download the prints, then modified one, with the help of snowpake and cardboard sheet,



The second shot has modified quite well, the forks will be replaced with a set of USD,s and the handlebars set back more, where the silencer meets the down pipe is the exhaust valve, the tank has been raised approximately 3" at the rear but the scale of it is wrong as the cardboard template I drew round should have been smaller,

Yes that is a rear wheel in the front, a very popular mod on the Viragos, needs spacers and and subtle mods but no real problem to do.

Is this the way you are planning on going with your virago Doc? Looking good   

Hi Crash, yes in a way, have done a few more exhaust designs as I want the pipes to be the same length for gas flow efficiency, the original system was a bit of a dogs dinner, a very short pipe running down to the collector box and the long front one going to it as well, will be taking the angle grinder to an old collector box to see what,s inside, will take photos as it will be interesting to see how restrictive it is, the front down pipe is only that size for looks, the tube inside is about 3/4 the diameter so will be using the smaller bore for the system and heat wrapping it to help running efficiency and keep the radiated heat away from the engine casings, here are some more exhaust styles I have been doodling with




This is a Buell style exhaust but unfortunately not enough room under the bike.


This would have been the interior with equal length gas runs that then dropped down to the exit tube below with absorbstian packaging each side.


 






The lower one of these two was my favourite but then decided it would be too complicated to make at the moment so ended up with the Vincent style system on the complete bike sketch, Bikes are wierd creatures, an exhaust can make or break a good looking bike and it is very much up to the owner to decide what looks good and hope other people think the same thing, or thinks " Who Cares and does it anyway" Different strokes for different Folks" or thank god for individual thinking.

Flippin eck you are really giving this virago project some real thought I can see this is not going to be done untill it is 100% the way you want it. I bet there ant now room inside your head, bit like your garage I reckon, as soon as one idea has been cleared out another goes in its place. Cant wait to see what happens over time

Very good read.

Interesting idea's on the exhaust Doc   Can't wait till it's the finished article.

Im glad the picture came in handy

Doing great with your plans & idea's Nigel.  very interesting.  

Hi Morgan, all the modified Virago,s on here are running decent front and rear suspension systems as the old air shocks as you say bottomed out easily, but I have never ridden a standard one on the road yet so will let you know how it goes, 

At long last can get into my garage without moving half the world   so, yesterday decided to do a bit more work on the Virago,    have removed the front mudguard, will be putting one back on but a bit more in keeping with the style, have also cleaned and put the exhaust on to see what it looks like, turns out it is designed to fit two or four strokes, this was stamped under the front clamp, there was also a part no. but couldn,t find anything relating to it on the internet, had a battle with the clamp nut and bolt, couldn,t find a correct size spanner in the end it turned out to be a whitworth thread so this makes me think this could be quite an old exhaust although it does look very similar to the one off a Honda 400,
  


here is the offending clamp



Dirty exhaust

Quite pleased with exhaust run

Have also been doing some work on the headlight, the large mounting bolt had to go as I have some stainless steel brackets to go on it,



Had to drill these tabs out,




"OUT"





This is a drawer handle that had been thrown out, HMMM!!!




TA -DAA,




Also found these kichen lights,




And this brass drawer handle, " Possibilities"



Steampunk style streetfighter headlight, or Indicator or tail light





The ball now seems to be rolling  

You got massive thumbs up from me for steampunk design Sir.   

And a massive thumbs up from me for creating a usable space to work in    Nice idea's Doc    Keep up the good work  

And another    This is potentially going to be a very interesting future for this bike & this thread. Keep up the good work and ingenuity Nigel.  

This is becoming so interesting, a whitworth thread would you believe it. Is that going to be your new headlight when its finished then Doc?

Good mods going on there Nigel,well done m8.

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys,  yes things are gathering momentum, it is great to be able to walk into the garage and only have to hit the light switch, have had a small fan heater on constantly to dry it all out, was out there the other night and even though it was chilly out with the door down it was really cosy and that was with the fan turned off, will be using the sportster headlight on the silver bike and the other one is going to to have a few more bits done to it, will add photos after, was talking to Dave the other day about super capacitors for starting vehicles, have found a battery made by Moty, this is a Lithium type battery but very powerfull, tough and light,





Amazing have just managed to put the video of this battery on the forum, hope you find it of interest, off to hunt some super capacitors on Ebay,  

Yes I can imagine how nice it must be to have a workable space again. What's with the battery, is it expensive or something to make?

This is a Moty battery and comes ready to fit and is a lithium based battery, on doing some more research it seems that lithium type batteries don,t like cold weather, no problem for summer but a bit iffy for winter.

How would the new GEL Battery's stand up to the cold weather? I use Lithium ion battery's in my power tools and they don't like coming out of the van in winter  

Hi Simbo, have had a look at gel battery versus lead acid battery performance in the cold  and looks like the gel battery recovers more efficiently, and this was at -70 degrees.   

Was in the garage today having a look at the bike with the idea of fitting a larger battery, had a 35 ah, one knocking about so had a trial fit , unfortunately it is a bit too wide




But, while in there noticed a suspicious looking piece of insulation tape,




and found this very sad partly melted connector, this is for the main power cable to the electrical system,




Also it wasn,t the best earth cable attatchment I have ever seen, the screw it was held on with was n,t even tight





these are all the problems that need to be rectified before the bike goes on the road, this also set me thinking about the wiring from the headlight that needed to be sorted out   

Was going to put them on tonight but photobucket has had a hiccup so watch this space, more to come folks, 

Very surprised the previous owner ran the earth there, nothing exactly wrong with the place as such. I would imagine that any area on the frame will work as well as any other (you would know better than me) but that just goes to show a lazy person/bodger has been previously let loose/owned your bike.
The inconvenience of consistently finding little problems is a sod but at least you can be sure that when you have finally put the bike back together in the way that you have planned, it will be a reliable beast that a descent fitter has worked on.

Is the melted wire due to bad connection or overload?