Milestones

[micklm]

Hi all,

So last year I sold my 916SP for parts after the engine was scrapped (worn crankshaft- long story - ever tried to find an SP crank and price a rebuild with Ti rods under guarantee with a shop!). Bad news.

Good news - the shop bought it back minus a small fee for the year and a half or so I had it. Once I paid off the loan, and stripped out all the parts I added/owned, then I had a little bit of cash and some nice parts.

So I found this site and a good, low cost 906. I thought I could buy it, modify it with all the good advice on this forum, sell the 916 parts I couldn't use, reuse a whole bunch of 600SS parts I had spare and roughly break even. First I went on holiday for 10days in the Alps with the 906 and destroyed the last of the 16inch tyres over 5000kms......

Then I started the modifications.

As most projects go, I did nothing much for a long time and am now in a rush before going on holidays again, and I'm not really technically breaking even on cost either

But I finally have some milestones to share.

The most important being I have a 17inch front wheel on!




With a 120/60 R17 tyre I think i have roughly the same trail as OEM with a 160/60 R17 Rear tyre based on my rough calcs and Ian Falloon's great 2v Ducati (belt drive) book.

I stuck with the OEM speedo drive as I roughly figure the 120/60 R17 is pretty close to the 130/60 R16 circumference - I suppose I'll see once I GPS check it:) This required an adaptor between the wheel and OEM speedo drive, new wheel bearings and a new spacer.







While I'm at it I need new brake calipers of course. 916 65mm type two piston calipers were spare from the 916SP.....adaptors from drawings on this site (thank you all!)


Of course, every day on last years holiday I had to top up the coolant as I had a leaking expansion reservoir like every one else Again, thanks to folks on this site I have a CBR neck, Mazda Miata 0.9bar cap and new tank from a Kawasaki 250. I'm still setting up the tank to make proper, rigid aluminium brackets (based on the shaky thin little steel ones I've used here to get the setup right.)






So far I've replaced the hoses between the radiator and the cross pipe (the one with with the thermal switch) with Viper Performance superflex coolant hose and that is working out great.

And while I was at it I thought I might try and fit the ohlins steering damper and Harris mounting clamp I had left over from the 916. This is really just as cheap insurance given I'm messing with the steering geometry with 17inch wheels and also the suspension setup. I certainly don't ride hard enough to need it I think, but I usually have the missus on the back so any insurance is welcome.

I am still setting this up to ensure I have a good mounting, clearance with the coolant tank, headlight etc and enough stroke (hence the wooden frame bracket prototype to get the measurements right before I start cutting aluminium). I might use a 41mm fork clamp machined to 41.7mm or another custom bracket attached to the fork pinch bolts on the lower yoke for the other attachment point - any ideas or thoughts very welcome!








So, now the rear wheel and the annoyance of chain alignment and centering the wheel! I've got new excentrics for a 17mm axle and a brake caliper adaptor sorted but nothing fitted just yet

Cheers,

Mick

[JWilliam]

The Paso only gets upset if the back end is high so when you take your partner for a ride it should be stable. When the rear is too high the front will be prone to tankslap. Much as though I would like new light wheels, until some mfr produces a straight bolt for bolt changeover I'm not interested. Tyre sizes for mine are 130/70 ZR 16 & 150/80 ZR 16 super modern radials with total lean confidence.

[ducapaso]

Great work and good painting

[Fraser]

Mick,

Excellent update, keep them coming and hang in there to completion.
Cheers,

Fraser.

[micklm]

Hi all,

So some further progress.












I have got the rear wheel on and I think I have managed to centre it, align it with the front wheel and get the chain aligned. I've just used multiple combinations of washers of known thickness for now to mock it up and get the exact measurements to machine permenant spacers. I'm using the 17mm axle from the SS and new excentric chain adjustors.

I say 'I think' because I I would like some feedback from this group to see if I have got it good enough.....

First, the front wheel is centred between the forks with a custom machined spacer, confirmed by measuring distances between custom caliper adaptors and the brake rotors/discs

Method was to centre the rear wheel roughly in the swingarm and then use the 'string' method of aligning to the front wheel (I can't afford wheel alignment lasers!). i.e.

1) tie long (thin) pieces of string to back of rear wheel, one piece on each side of the wheel
2) run strings to the front of bike, arrange strings so just touching the outermost edge of the sidewall of rear tyre at the front of the rear wheel (therefore strings are aligned to the rear wheel),
3) measure distances from string to outermost edge of front tyre wall, both at front and rear of front wheel
4) front measurement on one side of the front wheel must be the same as back measurement on the otherside of wheel
5) trial and error changes in wheel alignment and wheel offset from LHS of swingarm until the two measurements mentioned in (4) are within 0.5mm of each other.

Maybe I should draw a picture, but if you've done rear wheel alignment this way before you know what I mean.

The difficult part was unlike a simple chain alignment I had to try different wheel offsets as well as rotation of the excentic chain adjustors - in theory you shouldn't be able to align the wheel properly unless it is centred on the same axis as the front wheel...right? But there is alot of potential for error and poor repeatability in the strings method I think.....

Any thoughts?

The chain looks to be aligned OK now. It is straight (checked using cheap sprocket laser tool). The original offset with the OSCAM wheel, as measured from the inside of the swingarm to the sprocket face, was ~16.4 - 16.8mm. It is now ~17 - 17.5mm? Does this sound right and is 0.5 - 0.9mm significant as long as the chain is straight?

Anyone got a vernier caliper and steel ruler handy to measure their 906 sprocket offset with either an OEM or 17inch wheel

cheers,

Mick

[micklm]

It's Alive!

No photos yet, but the status is: FINISHED!

* Coolant mods - finished (CBR neck, Kawasaki expn tank)
* 17inch 600SS wheels on (3.5 and 4.5), front and back, centred and everything aligned with permenant wheel spacers in place.
* Paso axle at front, 600SS 17mm axle at rear with new rear brake carrier and new excentric adjustors
* Front sprocket 15T (906 type, i.e. slightly offset toward the engine) with additional 1mm offset spacer towards the engine.
* Rear sprocket 40T on 600SS wheel with no offset required.
* 108 link 520 pitch chain (i.e. +2 links extra from OEM 906 to fit new arrangement)
* 916 front brake calipers, four pot, 65mm bolt spacing, on custom adaptor brackets, with larger front master cylinder from a 900SS to match
* 999 rear brake caliper with Paso master cylinder
* I ditched the steering damper idea - ran out of time and the feedback suggested it's not so essential
* Starter circuit upgraded to heavy, heavy gauge wire from Motoelectric (see other forum thread). I made some wiring mods at the same time to make it fit better and replace some melting, corroded OEM wiring and boy does it start so much easier.
* I also stuck in a P750 ohlins shock rebuilt for the 906 - had to make a custom adaptor braket for the preload adjustor but otherwise it just bolted in.
* HID headlight kit mounted on a 907 front subframe where the rectifier would be - inludes a Hi/Lo relay and power direct from the battery and a Koito headlight.
* Aftermarket front fork brace for a pre 2003 Suzuki SV650 (it bolts right on as noted by others in the forum)

It rides OK so far - no problems, though maybe noticably slower front steering at slow speed (so says my mechanic said when he test rode it to check it for me).

I'll report back once I've done a few 1000kms.

I still need to check the speedo accuracy with a 120/60 17in front and OEM paso speedo, but it does work at least!

Again, a big thanks to everyone who contributes knowledge, drawings, data and parts info on this forum - it really is an awesome resource for these bikes!

I'm off to go riding......

Cheers,

Mick

[paso750]

I wonder if the fork brace really does something. On the SV probably as its plastic fender is mounted to the fork and there`s no "bridge" as there is on the Marzocchi fork that connects both fork legs.

G.

[Mc tool]

Hi all,

So last year I sold my 916SP for parts after the engine was scrapped (worn crankshaft- long story - ever tried to find an SP crank and price a rebuild with Ti rods under guarantee with a shop!). Bad news.

I have Ti rods , one in each femur, and a shit load of screws and plates in my arse..... Ye ha ! , I have scrap value!

[micklm]

On the SV probably as its plastic fender is mounted to the fork and there`s no "bridge" as there is on the Marzocchi fork that connects both fork legs

Actually the fork brace is an aftermarket part of the same make i used on my 1979 CB400. Its a quite chunky Tarozzi part made up of two clamps that go around the forks at the top of the lower sliders and a bridge that links the two clamps. The system is modular so all sorts of slider diameters and separation distances are possible. It just happens that the Tarozzi part for the SV is exactly the same as required for the Paso.

http://www.fastfromthepast.com/servlet/ ... Categories

Its also a great place to clamp the new brake hoses to

[randtcastell]

Is this the brace that fits the MI forks on the Paso 750/906?

http://www.fastfromthepast.com/servlet/ ... Categories

This seems like a good price. Thanks!

—Randy.

[micklm]

Hi,

It was part number 24-0050, Fork Brace Suzuki SV6501998-2000

http://www.fastfromthepast.com/servlet/ ... 650/Detail

cheers,

Mick

[randtcastell]

Thanks Mick!