09/03/2019
Hello friends,
Here are some photos of the bike I recently completed and rode in the 2019 Dirtbäg Challenge. The rules were simple.... build a custom bike within 2 months, spend $2000, and complete a 370+ mile ride over three days with two nights of camping.
About the bike: I started with a donated Yamaha RZ350 frame, a Yamaha Banshee engine purchased on Craigslist, and a bunch of random parts either donated or purchased for cheap on eBay. My concept was to build at each end of the bike and leave the center (mostly) intact. For the rear of the bike I built a swingarm loosely based on the shape of a TZR250 swinagrm, but with dual shocks added (the 4 Ohlins shocks used in the build are from Yamaha snowmobiles and can be found on eBay at VERY low cost). The front of the bike was much more ambitious and included construction of a dual-shock girder suspension.
Many people have already asked about how the bike handled (specifically the girder front-end). Although not perfect, the bike rode very well. In hindsight I could have done more refining of the girder front-end while in the CAD stage. It has less travel than I would like and tends to bottom out on large harsh bumps (small bumps are no problem), and it tends to be pro-dive under heavy braking. Otherwise the front-end performs very well. Easy to flick the bike side to side. Once leaned over the bike holds a line and doesn't do anything funny in the turns.
Overall the bike was great fun to ride!
Please enjoy the photos below....
