Harley Davidson Road Racer - 1990? -- more pix This was another Mert Lawwill project, in this case for the Harley-Davidson race team. I was given a free hand to build a HD 1000 based road racer for the AMA Battle of the Twins professional race series. The bike was raced by Jay Springsteen in 19-- at Daytona Motor Speedway in Florida. I named it the Land Shark, but HD didnt like it. The chassis was built around an XR750 dirt-track engine which was used for the initial testing. When it was finished, I rode the bike around the block once, then crated it up for shipping to Daytona for the test. Jay and Chris Church were there to try the bike out as well as the current factory bike; Lucifers Hammer. I took the first couple of laps on the Land Shark to make sure it wasnt going to pitch anyone down the road. After the test, Chris decided to race the old bike and Jay decided he liked mine better. When we got back to the shop, we were given an old 1000cc motor to mount and finish fitting for the race. New pipes, shifter, oil tank and carburetors were made or mounted. Then off to Daytona again where the fiasco began. For most of speed week we were having oiling problems that turned out to be caused by the worn out engine. Jay would go out for a test session and come in at the end of the second lap with oil all over the bike. Incredibly, even with oil on his back tire, his lap times were within a second of the times that eventually won the race. On the day before the qualifying race, the the motor toasted a connecting rod and we spent all night rebuilding the motor. That was when we realized how worn out it was. The piston had smacked the head when the rod bearing went, crushing the lands onto the rings, and I had to spend two hours carefully removing the old rings because they didnt even have new rings for us to use! Meanwhile, Mert was busy rebuilding the crankshaft. Things were looking good for the next day when Jay went out for the warmup lap of the qualifying race. Much to our dismay, he coasted into the pits with a broken transmission. Race over before it began! This ended my involvement with the bike and I dont think they ever raced it again, possibly because of internal politics?? Some features: Magnesium triple clamps. Oversized upside-down forks (modified motocross forks and as far as I know, the first use of upside down forks on a road racer). Oversized direct-path frame tubes. Outrigger aluminum swingarm with spherical roller bearing pivots. Short ( 55) wheelbase. Weight appx. 280 lbs (this was 40 lb. lighter than Lucifers Hammer, the official Harley entry ridden by Chris Church). Anti-dive front brakes. Under slung oil tank. Mert Lawwill Street-Tracker Rear Suspension - 2004 to Present Now this was a project! It started (as most of Merts projects do) as an idea and a basic design. First we took the basic geometry of the motorcycle frame that Mert wanted to build. Then we determined some fixed reference points that we could use as a base for the electronic model that we needed to build. One of the primary concerns with this design was to keep the rear drive belt tension as constant as possible. These rubber toothed belts are not happy with either tight or loose conditions and we wanted to avoid using a belt tensioner. I built a rudimentary model in Solidworks and started experimenting with large and small geometry changes in the four-bar linkages. When the belt issues were acceptable, I started designing the actual shapes of the upper and lower swingarms, taking into account looks and clearance issues. One of the huge advantages of solid modeling is that you can visualize the actual motion of the assembly by grabbing a part with the mouse and moving it through its range. Collisions and problems can be seen and removed virtually before any physical metal is formed or cut. During the modeling process, producibility must be taken into account so that when the design is done, the parts can actually be made economically. That way the transition from electronic to metal versions are relatively trouble-free. The parts we manufactured for this project included the swingarm pivot clamshells(as used on the road racer frame), most of the swingarm parts, the shock linkage and the rear axle links. The next batch of frames will have the large swingarm parts cast, incorporating several machined parts into a single casting. This will save a huge amount of machining and wasted material, as well as greatly simplifying construction. The changes to convert from machining to casting were also done in Solidworks. We were able to supply solid models of the parts we wanted to have cast to the foundry. See the bike at mertlawwill Lawwill Magnesium H.D. Cam Case Cover - 1990 This was an evolution of the stock cover that saved half the weight over the stock aluminum XR750 casting. We were able to use the factory blueprint for the critical dimensions. This version incorporates a trochoidal scavenge oil pump (the lump sticking out with three screws). These were made for dirt-track use. One-hand Shifting, etc. - 1985 -- more pix to come This is one of several fabricated solutions for customers missing a hand, to allow them to ride their motorcycles. Some of these ideas went into the Lawwill Hand (see below). This simple mechanism allowed the shift lever to also disengage the cluth. The pod had a device that pulled the cable on the upshift and pushed the housing on the downshift. Oil and Gas tanks - 1978 to 2000 - - - more pix Here is one of a bunch of motorcycle oil and gas tanks from the fabrication days. Confederate Motorcycles H.D. Primary Case - 1995 This is one of the larger hunks of aluminum we have worked on: 4 x 11 x 19 ; over 80 lbs. before machining. Factory Pro Engine Side Covers, etc.- 1989 to Present -- more pix to come We have been designing, reverse engineering, and machining motorcyle engine side covers for Marc Salvisbergs Factory Pro Tuning since 1990 or so. Later, we came up with the idea of incorporating the plastic frame slider (which we were looking at mounting on the frame) onto the covers as a refinement of Factorys stainless steel sliders on one of their early covers. These are regarded by many to be the strongest (most crash-resistent) and most aesthetic covers on the market. factorypro We have developed several lines of motorcycle products with Marc over the years, currently expanding their line of Velocity Stacks and Shift Cams as new models of bikes come on the market. BMW Saddlebag Rack - 1979 My friend Bryan Hilton designed this product for his BMW shop to sell. It was one of the three products that I had lined up to manufacture when I started DKG. Lawwill Exhaust System - 1985 -- more pix One of many racing exhaust systems I have fabricated. This one is the prodution version of a prototye that I made for Mert Lawwill. It may be the first under the seat exhaust system. Volkwagen Adjustable Ratio Rocker Arm This is a situation where holding the blanks is the hardest part of the job. Material needed to be left to grip on for the following operations. This makes the order of machining very important. This shows four of the six operations. Other Stuff Lawwill Prosthetic Wrist - 2002 to Present A good friend of Merts, Chris Draayer, was an avid motorcycle rider and racer who had lost his hand in a professional dirt-track racing accident. Mert wanted to make him something to use instead of his claw to let him ride more safely. The claw didnt hold very securely, but neither did it release when you wanted it to. Not a good combination. I had done some development for another customer some time before, who had a similar limitation. Mert and I improved on the original design and he made a prototype which Chris used for several years. When Chris asked for another one, we decided there might be a need for such a device, so I refined the design and turned it into a produceable product that would work for both bicycles and motorcycles as well as anything with handlebars. Mert has sold more than 60 units to individuals and prosthetics fitters around the country. More photos and some testimonials are viewable at mertlawwill . These sort of enabling devices are always gratifying to do. Being able to help overcome some physical limitations and help people do what they want to do is a personal joy. DKG Bass - 1993 -- more pix This is my baby. I had been playing at playing bass guitar for a while when I foolishly decided to make one of my own. The basic idea was to make a light weight 5-string for fun. 100 hrs later, Im not so sure. The body is four pieces of Alerce (a South American redwood) and the maple neck with ebony fingerboard is a modified kit neck from Carvin. The body is semi-hollow, having been fully CNCd inside and out on my FADAL. After gluing and sanding, a tung oil finish was applied. The anodized aluminum bridge is my own design, and will end up a product someday. So are the knobs. The pickups are EMG. The battery box pivots out by unscrewing a bicycle shifter bail. For lap playing, I have a thin aluminum knee hook strut that is quickly attached to the body. Weight : 8 1/2 lbs. with strap and batteries. Particle Wave Technologies Monolith Shahin walked into my shop one day with a funkily fabricated telecope tripod that he had just had made by another shop. He asked me if I could do something better. I said I would if he gave me free rein to make the best product on the market and he agreed. I designed the construction method to be modular and use no welding. This allowed a minimum number of parts to make a wide variety of sizes. pwtec Seth Kosmans Jogger - 1977 I was working for Kosman Specialties, and the owner, Sandy Kosman, who was running 10Ks for fun, wanted a way to take his son Seth with him on his runs. I designed and built this three wheeled stroller with handlebars and a castering front wheel for them. The frame is aluminum tubing. The back folds down and the wheels are quick release (no tools required) so the whole thing can fit in a car trunk. Sandy and Seth used this device in many events over the next year or so. Then, a while later, the Baby Jogger hit the scene. . . Coincidence??? Shiitake Log Prep - 1987 Rube Goldberg beware! This was a semi-automatic tool for drilling holes into oak logs which then were filled with Shiitake mushroom spores. The resulting mushrooms are then cooked and eaten. Yum ! 1-First you step on the pedal to open the end cones. --2-place a new log between the cones and release the pedal to grab it. --3-Push the lever forward to start the 6-10 pneumatically actuated electric drills which feed in and then retract themselves. --4-Pull the lever back to rotate the log 90 degrees. --5- Repeat 3 and 4 three more times. --6-Step on the pedal to release the drilled log into the chute which ejects it out the back. --Repeat 2 thru 6 a million times. Koski Ski-Bob - 1999 - - - more ski-bob pix to come This was an emergency rescue job. Don and Erik Koski had designed this snow vehicle and needed it made. The problem was they wanted it done for the Anaheim?? Bicycle dealer show which was only a week away. Thats a lot of programming, machining, fabricating and welding! Around 80 hrs., and my head machinist Craig Hildebrand and I worked the last 24 hrs straight to finish it on time. Erik designed the front end and most of the frame. I refined a few details to make it buildable. From high school on, Don and I and some other friends had been building and riding one-off full suspension ski-bobs up at Lake Tahoe for fun. This ski-bob was a quantum leap over what we were riding back then.(daydreamsunlimited/koski/) Nuprodx Folding Bath Chair - 1998 - - - more enabling pix to come Bruce Hammer is a friend of mine from my road racing days, who was paralyzed in a racing accident. He then started a company designing and selling enabling devises. I refined one of his designs and built him a prototype and then a small production run.(nuprodx)
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 19:10:20 +0000
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