The Craftmans Shop > PowerSports
My Sidewinder build
zeusrekning:
Ok Im not so looking foward to the documentation of my Sidewinder build , but it needs to be done. I am definatley no man of words , so dont expect to be on the edge of your seat reading my post, but I will try to post as many pictures as I can to make up for my lack of words. I am posting this on a few forums so if something is mentioned that does not seem to fit that may be why.The foums Ill be posting this in are:
www.madmodder.net
www.edge.au.com/forum1/index.php
www.sembra.org
www.gstwin.com/
I figured that if you have any further interest in certain parts of this buggy build you may enjoy looking into those links as much as I enjoy frequenting them.
A small bit of history on my buggy interest.
I got my first Go kart when I was around 12 years old. I fell in love instantly. It is hard to explain to someone who has never rode but the thrill of being part of the machine got me hooked. It is similar to quad in how much is doen by shifting your body wight when driving, but lower center of gravity for better control and safety. It probably needs to be stated that my first time riding a quad ended with me trying to take a 90 degree turn wound out in third gear. It was unsuccesful to say the least.
The issue was always that go karts were ususally 5 horsepower yard karts with no suspension and small wheel. I modifed what I had to suit my riding but always wanted more. I dreamed of building a fully indepent front and rear suspended kart since I was about 16yo. I drew and drew and learned a bit about independent rear suspensions but there seems to be no body out there with the same interest. And then in 1998 my dad bought our first PC and we got the internet. And after the first few weeks of discovering women wear alot less clothing on the internet I started doing research on buggy with suspension. I still had little luck finding what I wanted. There was a guy in the North Dakota area who had a Buggy called "The Beast" It was very nice and fit what I wanted but it still used an industrial Briggs engine. These are great for certain uses but not for a powerful buggy, the RPM is just too low IMO.
Then one day I came across The Edge Buggies website. I have to say I was a bit upset to start with. It was another case of someone allready doing what I thought was an original idea of my own. But I read and dreamed even more seeing what these guys down under were doing. And after maturing a bit and realizing that building something someone had allready proved the concept of , I decided I had to have an Edge Piranha. It has been a few years now since my last attempt to build a buggy, which ended b/c of finance and life getting in the way. But I decided to commit a lot of my free time and play money this year to building a sidewinder. After completing I hope to drop back and convert to the Piranha . But building the Sidewinder will give me something to ride and decide what mods will best suit my type of riding.
With the current infux of Chineese buggies the hobby has really grown. People are begining to see the fun and safety of having a buggy over a quad. Dont worry quad guys you will still have your place. But it just gives us another option out there of toys to ride. And with the growth of popularity has also came the organization of "Mini Buggy" Clubs and the fact that Mini Buggies are being welcomed to many of the offroad parks and OHV trails across the country.
I came across the SEMBRA site a few months back and it has been a lot of encouragement to keep the build on a steady pace. These guys travel the SouthEastern US riding at different places and I'm itching to go ride.
Well I guess it turned out I had a little more to say than I thought it would, I would like to thank all those who have been a help to this point either with finding part, anwering questions, moral support or encouragement. There is still a lot more to do but I am well underway and commited now. I hope to be done by the end of the fall but really want to be done by August to catch some riding with the SEMBRA guys.
If this is posted in the wrong place or is not welcomed to the forums please move or delete.
zeusrekning:
I did not take a pic of tacking the upper and lower frame together but it was the most straight foward part of the fabrications so far. I used a piece of thick plywood as a template. I then snapped a centerline and drew out the locations of tubes. So It was then just simply putting together the puzzle pieces.
The first few pics are of me lineing up the upper and lower frame.
I used jack stands to set the angle of the upper frame, while trying to align the center of the two frame members. You can also see in the last picture the two nose pieces tacked in. So after they were in place and two vertical pieces of tube tacked to hold the angle of the upper frame I took the buggy to my work to fully weld up the current progress.
Im a decent welder , especially with a mig but I did not like how some of the welds came out. Luckily I was able to grind down the worst of them. At work , most of our welded jobs are thick structural steel so I have gotten used to welding it I guess, This was good clean steel but slightly on the thinner side than what I am used to.
This was the first part of the project I aquired, It is a 1989 Suzuki GS500 . It is not a recommended engine to use buy Tony at "The Edge" (maker of "The SideWinder" plans). But A fellow Sidewinder builder is using this same engine and It was highly recommended by Eric (Brass_Machine @ MadModder) . And most importantly I got the bike for an unbeliveable price. After selling the handle bars, headlight and fenders, I recouped my money on the bike. I came across the GS500.com forum and Mr. Buddha there built a set of carbs for me for a very good price as well. He jetted for the aftermarket slip on exhaust that came with the bike, and the K&N filter I will be running. He also took out all the soft twenty year old Jap bolts and replaced them with new stainless steel allen bolts.
This is the bike after some disassembly.
The Carbs.
Here is a video of the bike running.
I made a mistake and hooked the fuel line to the overflow tube on the carbs. The bike ran with a little tinkering , but once I hooked the fuel line to the correct inlet on the carbs it fired perfectly.
I have to say I was so pleased with the sound of the bike. I was a bit worried of having a buggy that looked mean but sounded like a pissed bumble bee.
Now it is onto the rollbars.I did not take any pictures of bending the bars. I had a a local shop quote bending them for me but he wanted $350. Yeah right. So I decided to bend them myself.
Any of you who have messed with bending tube know it can be difficult not to have kinks in the bend. So what I did was weld a piece of tube to the welding table at work that was the same diameter as was needed to get the right inside bend radius I needed. The mandrel tube was just slightly longer than the diameter of the roll bar tube. I then welded a plate on tupe of the tube to keep the roll bar tube from kinking out. It took a bit of reheating and rebending because of an error I should have caught but other than that the roll bars came out ok. The fixture worked great but I had to reheat and rebend some so I got so kinking. Ill get over it.
Today I cut and welded the bonnet bars into place. They came out well. They look to be symetrical which is the most important part. Not quiet as much progress as Iwould have liked to make today but I got lazy.
On the todo list now is,
Receive parts from waterjet guy and weld into place
parts include suspension mounts, misc mounts, and pedal boxes
Order steel and plastic for suspension arms, bushings, and axle.
Fabricate suspension arms. Machine axle.
Order shocks and other misc parts from The Edge.
Brass_Machine:
1st. Welcome back Tim! We have missed you.
I am assuming you have written this out and it is the same post in all the forums? Cause you know it is very welcome here!
BTW... :jaw: That frame looks fantastic!!!! Awesome fabrication skills!
Keep it coming. You better finish soon, my pal in NC was just up and has invited me, the missus and the little guy down for a visit... I want to see this in person... running!
Eric
sbwhart:
Good Job Tim
:clap: :clap: :clap:
Nice buy with the engine :thumbup:
Stew
zeusrekning:
--- Quote from: Brass_Machine on May 08, 2009, 11:02:46 PM ---1st. Welcome back Tim! We have missed you.
I am assuming you have written this out and it is the same post in all the forums? Cause you know it is very welcome here!
BTW... :jaw: That frame looks fantastic!!!! Awesome fabrication skills!
Keep it coming. You better finish soon, my pal in NC was just up and has invited me, the missus and the little guy down for a visit... I want to see this in person... running!
Eric
--- End quote ---
Thanks Eric, Yes my time has been stretched neat to the max lately, Nothing big , just small responsibilities always poping up. If you come down to the Carolinas you had better swing by finished or not, Im sure between Steve and I we will find something for you to druel over for a bit. Just give me a heads up if possible, cause I never know what weekend I have free. Id hate to miss your trip cause Im sleeping in a field somewhere with scouts. LOL
Tim
:nrocks:
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