I have never seen one of those Wayne good find.
I don't think they were ever sold in Aus,as a lot of good things were'nt.
Closest ive seen to that was a Honda QA50.They the orig big wheels? Looks Cool.

that's cool!!!!

that's pretty cool. now I have something else to search craigslist for.

that's why I call em Yamahaha they take the most simplest of task (checking the air filter) and make it near impossible, I would love to meet the guys that got paid to design stuff like this so I can ask them what they were thinking haha..


Nice find, looks good, runs good?

an older tt500 and the BW will go together quite well, i did one with a friend 10-15 years ago we called the Big Mistake, it goes good straight and is almost non stop-able in the snow

the steering head will go together with slight change in bearing or adding a bushing, we used more of the tt frame for the oil and Engine mount, you might have to rig something around the jackshaft deal but even using stock make sure the bearings are stout and good to go, definately the weak link on the beast

heres a post from long ago Toyman posted a 2 smoke version also

http://www.pilotodyssey.com/8525687400 ... enDocument

Hoser,

Yes it runs good, but like Hare said it does need more power. I definetly don't have too much into this one, but if I do a conversion I'm problably looking at another black hole

Hare

That conversion looks almost stock. I can't tell but the frame looks BW200 with the dual rear shocks and all. I was thinking of a XR400 motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) and just build a lower motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) frame mount where the Big Wheel frame ends. I'll try and resist the urge to modify this untill I get the Rage Pilot done.

I'm really having problems getting a roll bar bent up. I took the first roll cage right back in March when I realized it was too far off from the original stock honda, and he still has not bent it up. The last time I called him he pretty much told me not to call him "it'll be done when it's done" then hung up on me. Not sure what I'll end up doing, I'm ready to shove his origional one where it'll do the most good! I need one bent up on his machine so they look the same because they are so close and here in AK not much to choose from in the way of bending machines, mostly muffler shops ect.

On a happier note I'm almost done with the exhaust, I'll post pic when I get a minute, busy time for me right now with work and all.

Wayne

Barry Yamaha sold the BW here but only in limited numbers.
They still sell a similar bike called a TW200 which oddly enough are been modified by a company called DEUS
www.deus.com.au for steet use. Have seen a couple around and they look cool

Exhaust taking shape.

I got the header and muffler from Excell Motorsports in NY, I saw the muffler at my local Yamaha shop and thought it would work better than a long Bike muffler. They made me a deal on a "dyno" header and sent the Apex muffler as it was shorter, only 13" long. At first I was going to use 3 each mufflers side by side across the back from a Honda CR250F but was talked out of it as a 3 into 1 header works better. Any how I think it will look good, as most exhaust systems seems to be the focal point.

Wayne

That is really sick looking, I want to see that sucker run.

Hello Wayne nice looking Pilot
Thanks for the tech Tip on the back pressure gas.
(That’s some very good looking tig welds)
Are you using 100% argon or a 75/25 mix and how much psi. For the back pressure gas
Thanks Jeff
SpeedChaser

Jeff,

I went to the welding store and got a splitter, one for the tig torch and one just for a hose. With the splitter before the welding machine the splitter can regulate how much CFM's the backing gass has. I set my welder up for 15 CFM when welding and at 20 CFM's with backing gas. Crack open the backing gas and run a 5 CFM, just enough to keep positive pressure inside the tube. Tape up the cracks and your done, I have even filled a small void with great success.

I used to run HE25 with my smaller welder, but now I run straight Argon.

Wayne

Finally got my roll cage tube bent!! What a hassle, after about 3 months waiting for the race cars guy to bend up the second hoop I took it to 3 others, the first two kinked the tube and the last one left some 1/4" wrinkles, pretty bad but I have little options. The race car builder had what I thought was a JD2 bender, and so did the last guy, but the following bar was different. The car guy had a trinagle following shoe instead of just a rectangle shoe. The triangle had two holders like the normal JD2 but on the top it had a nut welded to it. As he bent the tube he would keep tightening a bolt that forced the shoe into the die. His did not wrinkle the .058 co-molly, but deformed it very slightly. What do you guys use for bending 4130? I kindof burned my bridge to the race car guy or I'd go over and get the model of the bender. At the time I just took it for granted it was a JD2 bender.

Now that I on to the roll cage, I'm having some head room issues. With the wider lower frame rails I was able to squeze the Pilot seat I purchased for the FL800 into this frame. I made the seat frame even with the frame rails, but with the added height of the suspension seat I can hit my head on the stock roll bars without a helmet. Therefore I need to raise the stock cage if I use a suspension seat. Also with the seat, it leaves the top frame bar about thigh level giving the feeling your sitting on the frame instead of in the frame. I really want to use a suspension seat for cumfort and safety reasons.

What have you guys done with the suspension seats in your Pilots? Is my seat just wrong? It seams TOO thick. If I take out the lower cusion it is a lot better, maybe making a thinner cusion is in order. The cusion is only about half the problem tho. And what about head room clearance, what is concidered ok...6"?

Thanks
Wayne

The seat talk was getting too far off topic and big enough to warrant its own thread so I split the topic and moved the seat talk part here so it does not clutter up AKPilot's build, please continue any seat chat their..

viewtopic.php?t=4467

Time to bring this project up from the ashes! It has almost been a year since any REAL progress has been made on the project. I needed a brake from the my frustrations of being almost like on an island as far as anything buggy related here in Alalska - I know how you feel Bazz... I have ALL the snowmobile stuff right here, but with no sand and desert no buggies.

Since I last posted I purchased a Yamaha Apex snowmobile from the salvage yard thinking of a good next buggy Engine, but the wheels in my mind started turning and I rebuilt it. It turned out pretty good, better than expected as these are heavy sleds compaired to 2-smoke sleds. But I wanted to comment on the power plant for a buggy. I think it has the same hit off the bottom as a 2 stroke 800 but when the 2-smoke starts to quit "pulling" and the clutches start to shift out on the top end the Apex motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) just keeps pulling. The local Yamaha dealer coined the phrase "they have long legs" and I believe them. I geared my Apex down and made it for the hills but a lightly modded RTX (bump racer) was GPSed at 128 mph, Too fast for me, I like to get to 90mph as fast as possible but anything after that is just....well fast.

Anyway back to the rage, I can only hope the rage motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) is somewhere close to the Apex motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )). I did try some measurements with making the Apex motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) fit the Pilot but it is just too wide and would require too much rework to make it fit. I do think one could be put in if while stretching it put in 5" wider instead of the 2" I'm currently at now. One of my riding buddys purchased a new Nytro from Yamaha and the motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) is the next generation of my Rage motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )). It has fuel injection and about 10 HP more. The motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) feels more like a tractor motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) than the Apex but still feels strong, so I'm getting encouraged by the performance of the sled. Naturally I would like the newer Nytro motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) but have not seen any for the taking yet. It looks like a straight bolt in and re-make the airbox and wiring harness (fuel injected) so I'll be patient and get the Rage running for now. I mostly want the fuel injection of the Nytro.

Well I finally purchased a bender JDM (I think). It seems to work great except it still wrinkles the .058 cromolly at the beginning. Not bad wrinkles and not sure why at the beginning of the bend, I was always thinking it was wrinkling in the middle when you would readjust the pins when you ran out of stroke and the tubing would move in the dies. This was the main reason for going with the gear driven bar instead of the manual bar. So far I have not played with it enough, I ended up only bending the top hailo part of the cage and now it is going to collect dust untill my next project.....hence my original frustration for just a few bends.

Pics

Thanks for the updates..

Any tutorials on how to blueprint the top cage for a Pilot, thinking of getting a bender for such projects..

Bout time! ........Slacker!
Very well thought out,then applied,I'm still being impressed.
Quote:
"I needed a brake from the my frustrations of being almost like on an island as far as anything buggy related here in Alalska - I know how you feel Bazz... I have ALL the snowmobile stuff right here, but with no sand and desert no buggies. "

I could'nt agree with you more Wayne,I have ALL the Sand,desert,dunes here,but NO snowmobile stuff........SO you are building THAT for me right Mate????

Tutorials? Not sure I'm qualified for that I just made sure it was square. On the first one I did, Fl800, when I got half way through welding it was twisting badly. I needed to strap the frame down and with using cable jacks pull it back into place and continue welding. I was making 1/4 pass welds moving all over but it still moved.

On this Pilot I just braced it up (fence pipe cross bracing) before I put some real heat to it. The two square aluminum tubing clamped are for visual reference points on the main frame. I did not go as far as plumb-bobing, but just a quick look as I made my passes to make sure everything was square. However when I did cut the bracing away it did move slightly, so there was some stress built up in it. As I was welding the cage I also welded the bottom as I felt this was the best time to weld everything up from the stretch and widening of the frame. All in all I pretty confident in the cage/frame, I'm sure it's miles better than the rusted stock cage. Still not sure why Honda did not use the rust inhibitor on their upper cage like they did on the main frame.

I'm now in the process of making the back down tubes and decited to cut off the stock attachment points from the frame and make the down tubes all out of .065 cro-molly, I will also re-do the front down tubes in co-molly. I'm also rotating the attachment points 90 degrees so both down tubes and the cross tubes for the long travel will pull off straight back. As it is now on the Fl800 it is a pain to take off the back of the cage as the cross member of the ATV-R LT kit keeps the down tubes tucked in making it difficult from comming out.

Here are a couple pics of the Apex, this year has been great for snow but that is for a different fourm!!

Yep Bazz, this is your second Pilot

I talked to Tyler about your one sided conversation the other day and he said he just wanted to hear you speak - you sounded funny to him - And then I told Tyler that he problably sounded funny to you too.. expecially when he only said YEA, YEA, YEA

Wayne

Gas tank taking shape.

Wayne

More on the tank. The cut out pattern turned out to be too sharp of bends "kinky" as I needed to massage the bends out of the aluminum for better fitment. Maybe if I had made the pattern out of cardboard and not old file folders it would have been closer to the finished product as the file folders have too soft and not accurately reflect the aluminum. When I welded the pieces together and then massaged out the bends it is way off from the styrofoam tank. Plus I have a lot of bends/cuts in it as I wanted the tank to contour to the frame.

Wayne

Great work Wayne,thanks for the updates.
Very interested in this.....who knows?.......Maybe One day!

Time to take one step backwards in order to take two forwards.

Since making the gas tank, invisioning my air box behind the seat, and with Yamaha putting every hose imaginable to the carbs, no jet access hole in the bowl ect. ect. - jetting this thing would be a absoute pain the Arsh. Also when would I ever want to tackle the same gas tank again to put in the electric fuel pump? So I have been looking hard for a fuel injected version of this motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) and as luck would have it one came up in a salvage auction. I actually two weeks before the auction I put an ad in Craiglist for a wrecked Nytro and got a bite for 4,000 bones - Thankyou but I'll jet for that kind of $. Well long story short I got all the parts I wanted and more, then sold the bare chassie to the guy who wanted to sell me his wreck for 4 g's All for $60.00 under what I paid for the whole sled. Can't complain about that one bit, also I think the old carb motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) is sold for what I have into it.

This Nytro can't have but a 100 miles on this sled. Of course all the plastic is smashed and the speedometer is toast but the track looks brand new with NO cut on it, you could eat off the motor (( Internal Combustion Engine ? )) and just about every part on it. Even the muffler is not discolored.

I know nothing is worth talking about without pics.

Wayne

Nice score hopefully it will fit well cant wait to see this come together.

that will be insane ..