Welcome to Matus1976's Akira Bike Project - Building a fully functional high performance recumbent motorcycle inspired by Kaneda's ride in "Akira"

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• Update 2

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  The completed lower front engine mounting brackets. These were made from .5 x 1 inch mild steel. The drilled hole is 3/8" diameter, and was quite a pain to drill with my tools.

  Holding the larger of the two mounting brackets, which will be on the right, up to the frame to see how it fits.

  Getting the right hand bracket ready for spot welding. Ceramic magnets are great for this task.

  Getting the left hand bracket ready with another magnet. These dimensions were checked and rechecked.

  Both brackets are now spot welded into place.

  Another view, with the frame flipped over.

  The engine here is being held up against the mounting brackets, notice them just behind the horizontal bar. The mounting point is visible on the engine just to the lower left of the clutch case which has the 'HONDA' label on it. It is a small protrusion that juts out. For my prototype, I'll be starting with a Honda CX500 engine. These are great, transverse V-Twin engines that take up minimal longitudinal space. At 500 CC's, they put out about 45 HP. They also make a CX500 Turbo, and a CX650 Turbo that fills the same platform, so once testing is completed with the smallest engine, I can progressively increase the engine size for further testing by just swapping out the engine.

  Another view of the engine waiting to be mounted.

  Moving the engine into place and bolting it to the spot welded bracket.

  The opposite side. Note there is no vibration isolation in these mounts, I'll probably update these later to incorporate vibration isolation - which allows the engine to vibrate without directly transmitting all the vibration to the frame and thus bike & rider.

  Both sides are now bolted on. At this point I lifted the frame to make sure it lifted the engine with it. The brackets were only spot welded so far however, so I did not stress the connection very much.

  The remaining parts to be added. Roughly from left to right, the radiator, mufflers, airbox, down-pipes, and box o' stuff. The gas tank is below the table.

  Here the carburettor and the airbox are both added.

  A 2x4 is suspended above the engine and the rest of the components are added. This step is just to verify the functionality of the engine. Once the engine is set, everything will be removed and construction will continue.

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