Team Red Wine Racing,
Designed in the pub made in the shed started back in 2009 when I designed and made my very first bike the RWR1. My brief to my self was to fabricate and make as much as I could at home with nothing but the tools I had, all the turning and even some of the milling was done on my little lathe.
Testing was done at the first meeting of the year on race day practice / qualifying.
I raced the RWR1 successfully in the British Supermono series, finishing the championship 4th overall, also won the very last race of the championship after crashing the day before.
I finished racing at the end of 2011 and decided to build another bike, not for racing just for something to do, I chose the LS650 as it was very cheap with low mileage but also because the engine was an air-cooled single cylinder engine with nice lines.
Shortly after starting this project my life turned upside down.
In 2012 I decided it was time to divorce my alcoholic wife, I was also taken out by a lane changer on the M25 and I then decided to change jobs and relocate to Hampshire. So needles to say the RWR2 was put on hold indefinitely.
After moving and finally getting my shed built at my new place, I decided that the new job was not working for me and then my payout for the accident landed on my doorstep. So with a big cheesy grin I handed in my notice and at the end of 2013 I left my job, rented out my house through an agency and went traveling.
https://new.horizonsunlimited.com/tstories/redwineracing/to-america-and-beyond
Jump forward to Friday the 13th of March 2020 and I get made redundant, after a couple of weeks of feeling angry and sorry for myself, especially as I could not make use of the 2 months garden leave and go travelling anywhere I decided to resurrect the RWR2 project, or should I name it the C19?.
The engine was buried at the back of my garage along with all the boxes of bits, the chassis was hanging from the garage roof and although I had oiled it up it was starting to rust, some of the stuff is still at my mums in my dads old workshop as I never got round to completely emptying that when I moved here, going to have to wait for the lock down to end before I can go and see what I have or don’t have.
Also as I had recently rebuilt my race bike ready to race again this year, I had emptied my shed of anything unnecessary and crammed it in to the garage. It took me a while to sift through everything but it was good to tidy the garage and the shed, the van is full of crap to take to the tip but the tip is closed.
The race bike is now back in the living room until racing resumes, probably next year.
Once everything was in the shed. I rang around for some Argon gas for my Tig welder, luckily
motor parts direct were still open and had gas.
The brief for this build is the same as my race bike the only difference is that the chance of buying anything that I don’t have will take ages to arrive if at all, and no chance of rummaging around a breakers yard for things like pedals and foot rests etc.
I decided I was not completely happy with my chassis so far, the front engine mount was just not right so I cut it off and and started again, the swing arm was not complete and needed bracing. these were my first two tasks. Once these were finished I started on the rear sub frame I did not have enough of the BS4 T45 tubing left to make the subframe, a seamless carbon based tube, very strong and very light. It is also not very easy to bend unless you have a draw bender, which I don’t, so the chassis is made out of straight tubes. I did have some cold drawn mild steel. My cheap bender works ok on the smaller tubes used for the sub frame and swing arm braces and also on the mild steel.
For the rest of the bike everything used was going to have to be found somewhere in my collection of bike bits and parts or fabricated from whatever materials I could get my hands on. Things like lights would have to be ordered.
I had two sets of forks and originally used a set of Kawasaki forks I decided not to use these and had a pair of Triumph Street Triple forks, which are a much better fit although they are not adjustable. I also had some KTM bits left over from the race bike build. A set of spoked wheels, rear brake calliper and master cylinder and a pair of bars.
I found an old Buell 6 pot front brake calliper that I managed to adapt. The rear shock is my race bike spare. I found some adjustable rear foot rests I bought for a bike ages ago and took them off when I sold it, I thought these will do and fabricated the hangers and welded them on to the chassis, I had no rear brake pedals anywhere so fabricated one out of some 30mm x 5mm flat mild steel bar.
For chain adjustment I decided I did not want conventional moving rear wheel and I have made an adjuster that sits below and behind the front sprocket and as the rear wheel rises and the pitch between the wheels lengthens this keeps the chain almost in constant tension there is a spring to account for the rest. I set this up using an old knackered chain to get the max and a new chain to get the minimum lengths.
I spent ages fabricating an aluminium battery box and then decided I didn’t like it and made another that sits below the swinging arm behind the engine. Not so practical for going through water but looks are everything.
While waiting for the lights to arrive I have been busy finishing off all the little details like coil mounts, choke and exhaust brackets, all the fiddly little bits. I made a side stand bracket but could not bolt it up tight as I did not have any bolts the correct length and had to wait until some arrived before I could finish welding it up.
The seat base, number plate mount, lights and the side stand are now finished.
I have been trying to make what is called a buck (unsuccessfully) to help me fabricate the fuel tank out of bits of wood lying around, maybe this will have to wait until after the lock down. This will be the second fuel tank I have ever made and believe me it is not easy and will be one of the last things I make, it will probably require a bit of filler here and there. I have been practising my metal forming on some scrap bits of aluminium in preparation of making the rear hugger. But before I made the hugger I had to make a suitable hammer and a wooden anvil / former. The hammer was easy although it is a bit heavy, I formed a lump of metal with the angle grinder and welded it to a tube, but the wooden former well where was I going to find a tree stump? Well I cut down part of my apple tree, grind out a dish and as if by magic my apple tree doubles up as the perfect anvil.
I have had a go at making the exhaust using the cut and weld method as my pipe bender is not big enough. Not entirely happy with the exhaust. I might have to get this made by someone with a pipe bender when everything opens up again.
The wiring is almost complete and the engine is running I am still waiting on a few parts to be able to finish it off, then strip it all down and get the chassis powder coated and paint and polish everything else
Good luck