Man with a plan (after feedback)

[Rudy]

After a bit of googling and looking on eBay and gumtree, I think I have a plan...

Custom chopper frame

Polo bluemotion 1.2tdi engine

Ultima 6speed gearbox

Is it within the realm of possibilities?

Anybody doing the same thing...

Nothing is bought/made yet, so open to suggestions to make my life easier

Thanks for reading

[Eddy Wane]

Rudy.
Almost anything is possible. As long as your happy is all that matters.

[Rudy]

Thanks, not after a pocket rocket, just. Nice steady 80mph and able to do hills.

[Diesel Dave]

Better have that masters degree in automotive electronics at the ready...

[Rudy]

Better have that masters degree in automotive electronics at the ready...

I am expecting more gray hairs or less hair at the end of it... I'm not expecting it to go straight forward (would be nice, but no build ever goes to plan)...

After reading a few build stories on here I think I have half an idea of what is involved...

The electrics is not what worries me the most (qualified electrician, so can read a plan) thanks to the lovely www

It is mainly getting things aligned that seems to be the biggest job...

[gilburton]

If you are sticking to a Polo engine as it's 3 cyls. it won't be all that large a package if you also use the car gearbox.
If you mated one of the car driveshafts to a motorcycle shaft/rear end alignment wouldn't be too critical.
Just a thought lol

https://www.flickr.com/photos/havik/14120750830

[Rudy]

That's a lovely bike Gilburton... Is it your creation? What is it?

Thanks for the tip

[gilburton]

No it's not mine.
Note the drive is on the right so depending on the rotation a left or right final drive can be chosen.
There is another one where the gearbox is in front and a longer shaft runs to the rear.
Do a search on the dieselbike.net page for VW.

[Rudy]

The rotation is quite important, I don't really fancy going everywhere backwards...

Or I'll end up with a front wheel drive, rear wheel steer bike...

[gilburton]

You'll have to investigate some shaft drive bikes to check rotation.
The gold wing is on the right.
Of course you could always adapt a bike gearbox to fit the car engine but these generally end up quite long requiring a frame stretch but if you are going for a
custom frame you just need to adapt the components to fit.
A lot depends on your skills or availability of friendly engineering companies/friends local to you.
Cost is another factor of course.
Most people go the easy route and fit an industrial engine as they generally have a flat mounting so it's easy to knock up a platform for the engine to sit on and it can be moved around until you are happy with alignment before actually "hard" mounting it. (harley style mounting)
The industrial engines don't usually have any complicated electronics either unlike modern car engines.
Some years ago I was involved with the Peugeot/citroen TUD5 engines and they were so easy to work with. Just add fuel and a positive to the solenoid and they would start/run.
Bit heavy for a bike engine but it has been done (Moto Guzzi)
You might take a short time to gather bits and knock up a bike quite quickly or sometimes it can take years as other things get in the way or enthusiasm runs out and it's put to the back of the shed.
Good luck anyway and I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice on here.

[gearhead1951]

put the trans in front with a spool in the diff , block off the axle hole facing forward and extend the rear facing half shaft back to an industrial right angle drive ! You have choice to either turn the rear wheel directly off of the drive or a chain from the drive to the wheel !

[the grinch]

If you get a right angle drive with a hollow shaft you can just turn it over to change the rotation direction. I have a 1.8turbo diesel ford engine and gearbox and am proberbaly going to use this method. It will proberbaly be easier to make a frame than to try and get it all to fit. As for alignment wide handle bars will sort that out. my curent bike is completly homemade 13 years ago in the garden shed no jig for the frame. yeah i do get a bit of speed wobble about 80mph but you get use to it its hardtail so thats the least of the worries.

[Rudy]

There is frame builder near me that is up for the challenge, busy looking at sizes and weights and power to make sure the frame fits and can handle the power comfortably. xj900 diversion has the shaft left, goldwing on the right (
Thanks Gilburton ), so will probably be one of these 2 rear wheels... Already received plenty of good info so thank you all that replied... Build will start sometime in October, so should have a good idea of what I'm doing by them, don't want to rush the start and make sure everything should fit before I begin... My notepad is getting more and more info on... Hoping to be close to finished by Easter next year... And then getting it legal, which will be the biggest hassle I think...

[gilburton]

Getting it legal will be no problem if you have a v5 and receipts for the engine.
Probably get a heavy frame such as a Harley chop and modify it rather than build a frame from scratch.
At least that way you won't need an MSVA inspection and have to wait until you have a complete bike.
If it has already been on the road all you do then is declare an engine and fuel change.
If you have a receipt on headed paper for the engine send that in with your v5.
If you're lucky they may accept that and send you back a new amended v5.
They may ask for proof of the installation and ask for an engineers report. Fear not this is just a visual inspection by somebody in the trade eg your MOT man to say the changes are as you have stated.
All they want is a confirmation on headed paper.
My local MOT man did it for me but I was a bit worried that he just wrote it in pen on the garage notepaper but they accepted it.
The bike doesn't have to be complete and is not an engineering inspection.

Of course your frame builder will probably be used to the MSVA but a v5 certainly makes things easier.

[the grinch]

Hi if you modify the frame you will need to get MSVA I am in the middle of doing a bike for my son. Your insurance will not be vaild without it I think things changed in april there used to be a points system.

[Rudy]

Getting it legal will be no problem if you have a v5 and receipts for the engine.
Probably get a heavy frame such as a Harley chop and modify it rather than build a frame from scratch.
At least that way you won't need an MSVA inspection and have to wait until you have a complete bike.
If it has already been on the road all you do then is declare an engine and fuel change.
If you have a receipt on headed paper for the engine send that in with your v5.
If you're lucky they may accept that and send you back a new amended v5.
They may ask for proof of the installation and ask for an engineers report. Fear not this is just a visual inspection by somebody in the trade eg your MOT man to say the changes are as you have stated.
All they want is a confirmation on headed paper.
My local MOT man did it for me but I was a bit worried that he just wrote it in pen on the garage notepaper but they accepted it.
The bike doesn't have to be complete and is not an engineering inspection.

Of course your frame builder will probably be used to the MSVA but a v5 certainly makes things easier.

Brilliant, thanks for this... I already asked my local mot tester and he said he would happily write the letter... I thought I needed a msva when I changed the engine.

You just made my year... Thanks a lot...

[gilburton]

The MSVA has the wording "radically altered" when it comes to the frame so if you can get the engine to fit and still keep the main loop it should be fine.
Just fabricating mountings and slotting in a different engine shouldn't count as being radically altered.
Insurance will be fun but builders are still getting quotes from the smaller specialist brokers so it can be done.