A WORK IN PROGRESS

I designed and built a hub centre bike in 94 so I thought it was time I built the next transition.
And time to take all I learnt from that project and do a new one
At the same time a customer approached me to do the very same thing.. he saw my bike from 94 and said "I want one of them" so she is growing by the week with lots of hours on the cad and with calculator in hand..

The engine isn't totally my first choice but the customer had access to one so we went with it (Aprilia RSV 1000 v-twin). In its favour it is a very slim, relatively compact engine.. it has some issues but we wont go in to them here
I have had to model the engine into the computer in 3 dimensions (all by hand I might add), a drawing was produced of that.. Then from that I have designed the frame as you can
see in the pic, still a work in progress.. As other parts change so do the ideas and dimensions of all joining parts.. but you have to start some where

The hub design is close to my original from 94 but with minor dimensions changes..
(insert pic of front hub assem)
and a different steering method to give better feel and less hassle with long term wear losses. The bike must still have a good steering lock (that's my rules).. No point having a bike that you have to shuffle about like your granny in her Zimmer frame in the woollies carpark, has to work in the real world..
as an engineer, that has also come from the world of working on things as well as designing them, every thing I design has to be easy to work on, Or have easy methods in which to do so... so it is a big part of my design process..

This hub has been designed to fit in to a 04 onwards R1 front wheel with the bearing hub machined out and the new one pressed in and welded.. This leaves the disc mounts there ( so no special discs having to be made unlike my first one) .
One of the customers requests was that it was tubular - have to say I liked the idea but first drawings were a beam frame..

Then as I got the feel for the project I developed a tubular theme that now follows right through the bike..