Hewies OTHER OTHER R1 Build - Project Phoenix

[Hewie]

So ... as I mentioned in my Hewies Daily R1 Rebuild .. I also have another project on the books at the moment.

Unlike the daily, this one is a complete rebuild from the ground up .. everything is being done.

The starting point

I had been looking around for a good base to start from for awhile, when one afternoon I got a phone call from Arwon saying he knew of a 2000 R1 that the owner just wanted to get rid of.

It had been dropped on the left hand side in the wet and slid down the road ... after the crash the owner had decided not to repair it and had just parked it on his mums patio for a couple of years.

The price was right for what I was planning so we decided to head out and have a look.

When we got there it turned out to be an old PSBer that I had known some years back as well .. even better.

The bike was exactly what I wanted .... the only question is .. would it still run ? so we pushed it up to the front of the 4x4, gave it a bit of a jumpstart ... and as sure as god rides an R1 ... it kicked back to life after 4 turns.

The deal was done .. new project bike.

So we put in the van and brought it back to the workshop.

This is exactly what we started with (I have all the old tail fairings around aswell)



The bike has some obvious damage to the fairings, bars, engine covers etc but the main cases, frame and major components are straight and unmarked

[Hewie]

Since then we have completely stripped the bike down and started prepping all the major components as well as buying in all the new and replacement parts.

Frame and Swingarm
As the frame was straight and unmarked .. I didnt have any real concerns with it. Unfortunately the swingarm had been damaged in the crash. There was a fair amount of material that had been ground off towards the axle mounts and the left main arm had some road rash so it wasnt going to be up to the job.

Fortunately it was an easy fix ... I sourced a good straight replacement from the US that was immaculate.

The frame and new swingarm were sent out to be cleaned and painted by the Paint Ninja in a custom colour I use for all my frames. Its a semi gloss multi metallic that just seems to work so well on frames

Engine and Gearbox
The engine was pulled out and sent out to be completely rebuilt with all new internals, I also had the gearbox rebuilt (all new internals as well) at the same time. Im expecting this back next weekend Once I get it back I'll start finishing the externals on it. I have a few modifications and parts to be complete over the next few weeks before we put the new engine back in.

[Hewie]

Engine has been media blasted and is ready for final assembly.

The difference pre and post is just awesome. I'm very happy with how it came out. The cases are like brand new and have a great satin, peened finish to them.

Pre media blasting



Post media blasting




Now this has been done all the minor cases and covers will be replaced with new items and the exterior of the engine will be completely refurbished including all the engine bolts and fasteners and all the hoses.

By next weekend it will be a completely brand new engine ... with a couple of extras inside and out

[Hewie]

Day 1.

After months of planning and prep work we started assembly of the bike.

Last night we got the engine back in the freshly painted frame and the frame all tensioned up properly. The frame is a semi gloss black teflon with a very very fine flake in it.




Fitted the new black billet Attack Triple Clamps up with all new bearings and got them fitted up to the frame and got the new forks in The biggest issue was resizing the hole in the dust seal to accommodate the larger base on the head stem.



Im also using a nice set of black billet Driven clip-ons (with matching grips and barends)



For this bike I purchased a set of 2006 R1 forks in black to replace the old 2000 era forks. This gave me the ability to use 108mm radial calipers and 320mm discs (the reason for these will be apparent later).

[Hewie]

Day 2 of Assembly - Saturday

Made heaps of progress today.

Arwon and I got all new bearings into the swingarm and freshly polished suspension linkages and got the entire rear end assembled.




We had to put the OEM shock back in at this stage as the new Penske isn't here.

Now ... I couldn't put the old axles back into the bike .. soooooo I got some nice Ti coated ones. It was difficult to find somewhere that could vapour Ti coat case hardened steel without deforming it. I finally found a place that would do the job for me so I sent the axles off to be done. This is how they looked the day they came back. I think they came out brilliantly and they will do the job until my machined fully Ti items get here.



To go with the new Ti coated axles I decided that I would use Gilles Ti axle nuts for both the axle and pivot. The axle adjusters are Ti but the blocks are billet at this stage.



I also got a nice race drilled Ti nut to match for the front axle

[Hewie]

We also got the wiring looms cleaned and back in the bike along with half the plumbing.



I decided on red Samco hoses for this bike. I also went through and sanded and repainted all the hard cooling tubes and other plumbing components before refitting them.



Tomorrow we should get the last of the major components on the bike and all the controls installed.

While we were doing all of this BlackFZR was busy working on new decals for the SBK R1 .. and I gotta say .. they look freaking awesome.

I did a mock up just to get the right dimensions for the new decals and to try out a couple of other ideas.

[browncow]

Christ... Half of this stuff I didn't even notice despite spending the better part of two days checking it out...

[Hewie]

Day 3 of Assembly - Sunday

This morning I spent most of the morning on the polisher refinishing the oil cooler before fitting the Samco hoses to the front of the engine block. You can also see that all of the AIS gear is now gone and I have plugged all the inlets with billet dowels.

I also ran the hose clamps through the polisher to give them a good clean and nice shine.

[Hewie]

It was then time to get the bike up on to a set of rims so I could work on the underside.

[Hewie]

Cheers BC ... and Im only up to axles

[Falcore]

Geesh no half arsed job for you?

Looks good an amazing the level of detail your going to. Big kudos to you

[Hewie]

Once the bike was up on wheels and after a quick lunch, I start work on the left side of the bike.

I removed all the casting lines/marks from the shift arm and polished all the hardware, including all the bolts and even the lock washer around the countershaft sprocket and the nut.

You can see the section of the Ti pivot that I had left natural (its been plasma coated so it won't corrode).



You can see the polished suspension linkage and dog bone a bit better here with all the polished bolts. The entire assembly has brand new bearings throughout.

[Kodez]

Excuse the french but fuck me Hewie, this is a work of art, stunning, nice work.

[Hewie]

Cheers guys .. my OCD really kicks in later on ....

[speed3]

Those 8 bolts are driving you nuts aren't they?

[Hewie]

They were ... until I ordered all Ti replacements

[speed3]

It's the 0.1% that I enjoy about your bikes. Little stuff you don't notice on the first look, like the swingarm on the SBK.

[Hewie]

Heres a couple of shots of the controls

Driven clip-ons, grips and barends with a Brembo RCS 19 and Brembo remote adjuster.



Clutch side, Drivens with a matching Brembo RCS 16. I polished the clutch cable adjuster, pivot and all the bolts. Theres also a trigger button for the Translogic quick shifter.

[Hewie]

Ok ... so heres where my OCD really starts to kick in on this bike .... as I said before the the bike had slid down the road and as such most of the engine covers needed to be replaced including the clutch cover.

So I stripped down the cover and prepped the new one (new bearings/seals) .. while I was doing this I decided that I couldn't put the shift rod and clutch cable arm back without a bit of a clean.

So I started out by giving it a good clean ... and then I decided that maybe it should be polished .. so I smoothed out all the welds and seams with the die grinder and then ran the entire assembly through the polisher.

Yes ... I even did the spring and circlip.






OCD at its greatest.

Heres the new clutch cover on the bike along with the replacement billet Woodcraft cover.



The other side with matching Woodcraft cover.



Once the new clutch cover was on I sat back and started going over the bike, I decided that I couldn't leave the sump "raw" so I dropped it off the bike and cleaned it out properly. I then filed and sanded it down and then ran it through the polisher a few times

I also decided that I couldn't reuse the old exhaust studs so I removed them all and ordered a brand new set.

[Hewie]

Whilst all of this was going I was trying to decide on the rims I wanted to use. I didn't want to just buy a set of aftermarket rims this time round I was interested in seeing what sort of finishes I could get for my OEM rims.

After a bit of searching around I contacted Dell from Perth Powder Coaters for a chat. Dell was awesome to deal with an gave me an outline on a few of the things he could do to the rims, so I went away to have a bit of a think about it.

After a few weeks I rang Dell back to discuss getting the rims smoothed and powder coated in ultra high gloss black .. after a chat Dell agreed (I still think he was a bit hesitant as the gloss marks and scratches so easily).

Arwon, BlackFZR and I knocked all the bearings out and BlackFZR dropped the rims off to Dell for me.

After a couple of weeks I called Dell to see how things were going ... he said "come down and have a look"

So after work I shot down to Belmont for a look and to meet Dell.

All I can say is the rims were awesome ... and still smokin hot.

rim1.jpg

For anyone that saw them at the show know they were so deep you could drown in them. They are just freaking awesome. Dell had file finished and sanded off all the casting an machining marks and had done an outstanding job in coating them.

If you need powder coating I can't recommend Dell and Perth Powder Coaters highly enough.