Bike engined mini progress - First test drive!
Turbo Mini Forums

Yeah i love the engine viewpoint with the shifter going at it in shot, ace! It's hugely satisfying to do it myself with the help of some great friends with plenty of design ideas to put on the table! (joey included). It is eventually going on the road yes, but it's mainly for hillclimbing, trackdays and weekend blasts over the fair manx hills!

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

Well over the weekend, Joe and I made some great progress on the mini and the front end is almost completely fitted now and looks ace!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/r1manx/5004931119/

We've gone for aerocatch latches on the A panels and then i'm looking at using D-ring Dzus pin masters for the front lip mounts. Then it will just leave the job of fitting the bonnet. It took several hours of trimming/sanding, but the fit is pretty good now and with some fine tuning, will be spot on. As soon as I can test the lights and indicators etc and make sure the front end is secure, it can then be stripped right down to bare shell for the spray job, won't be too long now I hope! :)

Cheers
Ben

"If i'm not in action...i'm in traction"

Hi Guys

Is anyone here interested in buying my Bike Engined mini project? I am gutted to be selling her but due to financial reasons, I cannot renew the lease on my workshop and she has to go! I've been working on her for a year now and we have a full space frame (painted in Lambo grey) and fully adjustable suspension setup (wishbones and coil overs), The engine is a ZZR1100 lump and the exhaust is custom made to fit. The engine sits in the rear and we have a chain drive to a sierra diff for rear wheel drive. I have a Mini shell which sits on the top but needs to be prepped and resprayed, a fibreglass front end which is modded to fit and it all pretty much needs bolting together. I have bucket seats and harnesses ready to go in, The brakes (new disks and pads) and clutch are in and bled, the gear shift and handbrake are in and working. All that needs to be sorted now is the wiring loom which I'm half way through doing and then it's sorting out the interior, the cooling system (I have a new rad ready and the pipes to be plumbed in). Doors will need to be sourced and a fair bit of finishing off. I have loved doing the build so far but just don't have the money to get her finished!

I have no idea what sort of money it's worth but wanted to gauge interest.

Hopefully someone will be able to give her a loving home and get her finished!!

Cheers
Dan

r1-manx,,, well done mate,,, good to see some more R1 powered minis out & about, & yeah i bet you`re havin an absolute ball, they`re heaps of fun hey?

but,,, now i`m not bagging you here, so please don`t think i am, because i think you`ve done a great job,,, but i think you need a tighter diff,,, when we set ours up to start we were having inside-wheel-spin , we actually shredded the first diff because of that... but now we`ve tightened up the new diff & now it`s just awesome grip & still very little torque steer

so maybe a plate type diff would be better suited,,, or maybe it`s your suspension doing it to you, but either way it looks like you`d get way more speed "through & out of" the corners with a tighter diff &/or better suspension set-up

just my thoughts from watching (& feeling out) your video

but still, awesome dude, well done

&,,, just while im here criticising,,, when you are more used to driving it,,, drop it down another gear, (another one more than you think) for the corners you`ll see what i mean but you`ll have to fix the diff/suspension to see the gains tho,,, again just my thoughts

& for the guy who asked about ratios,,, we`ve sorted out roughly 3:1 being pretty good,,, r1-manx`s looks to be a fair bit taller than that tho,,, we use 13" slicks on the "high-speed" tracks (works out to around 2.8:1) & stick with the smaller 10" (3:1) for the hillclimbs & short sprint tracks, i`d like to have the extra grip of the 13: everywhere, but the ratios don`t really allow them for the hillclimbs,,, edit--> i didn`t allow enough room when we first designed ours to make it zippy-er, it`s all a bit ,,,er,,, "extremely tight" in there,,, my chain/sproket sits barely a couple of mm`s off the steering rack.

I also wonder if you`re using the std bike exhaust system going under the engine-> because it looks like it is,,, if so then maybe a better option to make up a new set so you can lower the engine down futher,,, i found that with mine the pipes going under the engine were a pain in the arse, so we made up our own pipes & mounted the engine really low, pipes go out & around the side

anyways,,, well done, they`re certainly a blast hey? altho i`m cheating with mine being less than 300kgs total weight

well done bro,,, have fun,,, others who don`t have a light-weight bike engined rocket-ship will have absolutely no idea hey?

edit--> Oh & i think you`ll find that the "cush-drive" mech is in the bikes rear wheel drive hub,,, not the front sprocket. (???) mine was anyways

Edited by MadMatt on 28th Aug, 2011.

www.miniman.com.au

"""LazyGoodForNothingSmartArseKnowItAllBackYardMiniMechanic"""

Great project, respect

Edited by pim1275cc16v on 28th Aug, 2011.

There ain't no milling machine like the one at home !!!