Topic: Home Brewed Rake Job

[TurboD]

I thought everyone might get a kick out of this.

A couple days ago, as part of my Low Buck Honda "Street Bike" project that I am currently working on. We (a good friend) and myself decided that we would rake the 77 750F frame.

The whole process took roughly a hour. With just a few basic tools and a welder, we now have a frame that has been raked 6 degrees. We used a angle grinder with a cutoff wheel to cut the slot and section out material to make a "V" cut, allowing us to pull the neck back and reweld.
 

 

[dragracer]

You made that look too simple. Lol.

We did it the hard way. Live and learn.

[EnginebyAdam]

I can see this in my near future Thanks for the pics.

[rickmoore24]

Thanks for the photos, I'll be performing this on my hardtail project.

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[TurboD]

That's great, let me know if you have any questions.

[simon#42]

did you make any kind of jig to hold it straight while you welded it ?

[TurboD]

Short answer. No

I do a lot of measuring and checking during every step of the process (I maybe take more time than needed).

The key is to NOT cut the head completely off. When you make the first cut, only cut down to right to the bottom on both sides. The bottom "Gusseting" is flat, and you do not want to cut it, just cut slowly when you get close and end the cuts the same on both sides. Doing this still leaves the head attached pretty good and will allow it to be pulled back nice and even.

Once I am happy with the fit and positioning, I will slowing "tack" it into place with a number of small "tack welds" to hold it solidly before any solid welds are made. Again I check all through this process to be sure it is where I want it and nothing has moved.

[scottly]

A local kid asked me to help him rake an aftermarket HD frame once. I tried to talk him out of it, explaining that without a proper jig, any minor error at the steering head would be greatly amplified at the axle end of his 10" over forks. A couple of days later, he shows up with the frame, cut in a similar fashion, and asks me to weld it. While he held the neck pulled into position, I gave it a few solid tacks, and told him to mount the forks and check the alignment before I welded it up solidly. He eyeballed it and said it was fine, so I shrugged and welded it up. Two days later, he was back, after finding that the front wheel was about 3" out of line with the rear wheel.

[TurboD]

The intent of most all of my threads are encourage fellow bikers to get out and make what they want happen, be it a rake job, porting a cylinder head or complete bike rebuilds in less then a month. Most if not all work performed on these old bikes are pretty basic.

Simon If you do not have a inexpensive digital level, pick one up and measure before during and when finishing and you will be fine. Use the swingarm mount as a reference to work from.

On a side note. A couple nights ago, I had the Auto that I just raked singing a sweet tune at nearly 11K in high gear and It was as smooth as a new Cadillac. 

[mystic_1]

Nice, this is the way it was frequently done back in the 70's. 

I chose a somewhat different approach, cutting the two main downtubes and raising the neck, because I wanted to open up the engine bay area a bit.

One way to keep things straight is to insert a long straight rod through the steering bearings, align the frame over a chalk line on the ground, and making sure the pointer stays on the line as you "adjust" the neck.

mystic_1

[simon#42]

hi turbo , i make quite a few frames and even with a jig it is still pretty tricky to get everything straight . things tend to move exactly where you dont want to when they get hot !
i make up adapters for the steering head then insert a 6 foot precision ground bar through the middle , this then allows me to take accurate measurements from the jig to the bar using a couple of cheap lasers .
as i said things do tend to move about .
not having a go at you for your mod i, but if you check carefully it may not be quite as true as you think .

[dragracer]

Ahhhh, I've been trying to find this thread. Good to go now.

[TurboD]

Ahhhh, I've been trying to find this thread. Good to go now.

Lol. I've done a few since posting this. Haha.

[dragracer]

Approximately what's the upper dimension of the slice you're removing on the second cut?? How many degrees of take does it give you?? I don't need much at all.

[rickmoore24]

Did you heat the bottom as you bent it back? Then tacked it into place?

[754]

Frank , just mesure the length of the neck where you are cutting.
 Draw it out on paper, use a protractor to draw the degrees you want, then measure that on the drawing.
 You may want to run a 1 inch wide strip of steel , 1/16 thick, over the weld, then weld the sides.

[Medyo Bastos]

I've done them on the bottom upwards because the backbone is short for my applications to begin with.


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[TurboD]

Frank typically 3/8 inch at the top will put you in the 4-5 degree range. Cut down each side until you reach the flat gusset plate on bottom, leave the flat part on bottom untouched. At this point the neck will pull back easy with a little force. I will normally slide a long piece of tubing through the neck and use a smaller rachet/tie down strap to pull and hold it back at the desired angle while tacking.

If you have a small gap don't worry as you can always fill it when welding. I like to keep the rake to 4-5 max (shoot for 4), there is no need to go more and you will end up with a heavy steering feel.

Rick there is no need to head the bottom, it will move easy. Use a bar and strap is described above to hold at the proper angle.

There is no need to weld any additional metal in place, I typically stich weld making for a nice wide solid weld. The weld area ends up stronger than the total surrounding area. Once people slice into one of these and see just how they are constructed, you quickly see that a new solid (and heavy) weld will be the strongest part.

[dragracer]

I'm not after much rake as I want to avoid that heavy steering feel from over doing the angle. The neck on my Crazy 8's Kaw was pulled back to much so the bike Iisn't comfortable to push around. Its all good on the track- very stable.  It did start off life as a wheelie bar bike but I converted it over to no  bar with a mono shock. 

I assume you used a portable band saw to make your cuts? I'm an amateur at welding so i'll likely just tack it with my flux mig to get proper placement and get my welder buddy to do the final work with his equipment. I'll clamp it to a table, level the frame for reference and use an angle finder to be certain the alignment of the head is within proper range as the welding proceeds. I cut the top tube on the red bike and we heated the lower tubes and pulled back the head with a come- along  when the rake job was done on that bike. The top tube was then heated and pulled up to meet the stub and then welded back together. The lower tubes had already been cut off  by the PO when I bought the roller but I welded in some brackets so I could install some removable tubing for in frame engine maintenance and easy removal.

[TurboD]

Frank all I use is a craftsman sawsall. To me those handheld band saws are just bulky and hard to use.

[Medyo Bastos]

Real cool, I use an 18v dewalt. Nothing fancy just sweet and simple...


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[TurboD]

Yes and again a little gap is nothing to fill when welding.

[stikman]

Great info.  Thanks for sharing!

[Greg H]

Great read  .
Nice to see a bit of simple but effective fabrication work .
However those who council caution are right to do so .
Accumilated errors in this context can prove "costly "
From my experience of doing this sort of thing it all depends on who's doing the job .
Have a nice day  ;)Greg "H"