Basket Cases

[brent j]

This is the tube I bent to suit. You can see the jig I made to locate the swingarm pivot to the rear engine mounts

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This is the repair brazed up and awaiting cleaning. I won't show the other side as it was a lot easier than this one

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[brent j]

Here I've removed the bashplate, lower frame backbone and sundry other brackets. The 6mm hole is the pilot for the new swingarm pivot position.

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[Greg Harding]

Hi Everyone,

This is the tube I bent to suit. You can see the jig I made to locate the swingarm pivot to the rear engine mounts

That is a nice radius bent on Chrome Moly tube Brent, all but 1 of my RL 250s came with a broken or repaired frame in that area.
My nicest most original one came to me without even a Crack until I started riding it, I can remember it as if it was yesterday when it broke. It is a funny sensation as the rear of the bike goes flexible and wags it's tail when going from throttle on to off. Here is a photo of the bike with the Town Bike next to it:

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Here is a photo of the compliance plate, I find it interesting as the frame number predates all of the older ones I have:

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That is 12/07/1976 and is the youngest one in my shed, all of the others have the remains of a sticker instead of a plate.
Town Bike:

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Frame geometry is a very interesting subject and riding the bike and testing your work is very fulfilling when things are an improvement. Most people have their own ideas and that is why I welcome your input Brent, I am thinking you have done similar work before?

Never say never again, there is a possibility of a SQUEAMISH 2 as the frame on top is a blank canvas:

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[David Lahey]

WOW Greg you really did well with all those 222 frame numbers. Lucky lucky lucky
As for the ADR plate, I'm pretty sure they sold the ADR version alongside the non-ADR version so I'm not surprised that there is an earlier number one with an ADR plate. The non-ADR one did go on sale first though. I haven't yet seen an ADR frame without the extra gussets at the steering stem.
I might post one of the T&T RL250 tests after seeing this.
As for Squeamish II, indeed

[brent j]

Frame geometry is a very interesting subject and riding the bike and testing your work is very fulfilling when things are an improvement. Most people have their own ideas and that is why I welcome your input Brent, I am thinking you have done similar work before?

Coming from a fabricator Greg I thank you for the compliment.
I have always "played" with things, and frame geometry is something I have enjoyed learning about. I built an XR200 powered 1991 KTM enduro as a trail bike and spent many years playing with Yamaha TT500's. The TT's were de-raked, fitted with PE400 swingarms, YZ125C tanks. I experimented with triple clamps and fork legs with different offsets. I tried different length shocks etc (even made my own). I tried all sorts of different combinations. Some worked, some didn't but I learned a lot. Most people don't understand but I get the same of more satisfaction from working on/modifying my bikes and finding improvements as I do from riding them.

I managed to post some photos but I tried to post the ones of the frame mods and for some reason they aren't working

[imsabbirkabir]

I am always after RL 250 & TL 125S

[David Lahey]

I'm working on a friend's TY250 and was in the process of stripping the old paint off the swingarm and noticed that both axle plates had both been damaged where the axle spacers sit. Sure enough when I looked at the axle spacers they were damaged too. In this first photo you can see the damage to an axle plate and an axle spacer.

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You can see in this photo that the snail cam stops had been repaired at some point.

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To fix it I built up the worn parts of the axle plates with weld and then ground and filed the axle plates back to shape. I also machined the ends of the axle spacers to make them square again.

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I'm not sure how the damage started but it looks like the bike has been ridden a fair bit with the axle free to move forwards and back. Maybe the axle was overtightened to start with?

[brent j]

This is the jig I made to hold the frame while I cut it up. It locates the frame in 4 places, 2 front, 2 rear. The green piece of angle iron is bolted and can be removed and moved back while keeping the two halves in alignment.

[brent j]

Here the swingarm is fitted in it's new location, 15mm forward and 15mm down. You can see it's closer to the motor and why the lower frame tube was removed

[brent j]

This is the engine moved back to it's new location. You can see the adjustable front engine mounts and how the upper rear engine mount has been cut allow the motor to be moved.