My first CRF450/500 AFC Frame

[mxdogger]

I started this 450 lastnight, its about the same as the crf250 frame. my mounts from the 250 frame seem like they will work at least the heigth on them is the same my need to make them thicker towards the motor.
Two biggest issues so far are the headstay and silencer mounting.
headstay; do i do a half halow and split it at the head so its 2 peices or go for the crf250 style mount an use offset headstays?

silencer; it lines up well were i have it now but the sidepanel
# plate will need inside trimming to fit around the upper silencer mount. i could shorten the silencer inlet where it attaches to the stinger, that would lower the silencer enough to clear the side panel. The goal here is to make everything bolt on without mods or very little so replacement is not a big issue. I welcome any and all ideas hoons, heres pics

[AlisoBob]

... i could shorten the silencer inlet where it attaches to the stinger, that would lower the silencer enough to clear the side panel.

Thats what I did....




And made a new lower mount.

[mxdogger]

yeah bob yours has a nice clean look. on my crf250 frame i made a small bracket about 2" long to attach the rear silencer mount to the original mount as you did, it also came out nice.
after more mock up today and alot of thinking im going to leave it right were it is, its looking like thats the best position for it without modding the silencer. i would like my builds to be user freindly so if you smash it you can just bolt on another. i will make a longer brkt. to reach the orig. rear mount like boise did. this also leaves an open area to weld a tab for the other mount without having to use a rivnut.

On the headstay i set a gas tank in the frame to figure out what kind of room is under there, looks like i can weld up a block to the frontside of the shock tower bridge and use some crf 250 headstays. im going to flip the stays so the bends face the other way, this will leave room to pull the carb slide when needed.

[mxdogger]

hey bob how to i post my avatar to my name ? i dont like the blank look, reminds me of some of the people i work with. lmao

[AlisoBob]

pm it to me

[mxdogger]

Today i sorted out the motor mounts, exhaust, headstays and chain alignment.
the front motor mounts from my crf250/500 work with some washers towards the motor side, these will be remade with the correct thickness.
the lowers wont work at all but i did save some lowers the machinist messed up and they have the correct offset, the mounting hole is high so i filled it then re-drilled the hole. these will be temps so i can finish mocking everything up.
I pulled the fatty pipe off and tried a gnarly that has no rear mount, with the motor up at eve level now i can see that i did not have the header seated evenly on the exhaust manifold. with that correct i was able to get a nice silencer alignment without cutting into it. I will make a new brkt. to go from the original rear subframe silencer mount to the rear silencer mount and make one up for the stinger.
i bolted some crf250 headstays in, all i need is a aluminum block welded to the frame bridge and that will be done and lastly the chain alignment uses the same collars as the crf250/500 build, i use L-52mm and R-59mm.

[dubious01]

looks great, nice new cradles.
Are you using 1" x1" new tubes?
I have a 450 frame that needs new cradles and motor mounts, if your interested in selling me some.

its not economic for me to ship a frame from Canada both ways, but I have a good welder, and I am confident with my fab / cutting skills skills

I noticed your making 250F headstay brackets, I need one if your selling them. Probably easier and cheaper for me to buy them than make em.

[AlisoBob]

I'm not diggin' how the silencer jutts out. Thats why I did that little loop under the subframe strut, to keep the silencer parallel with the centerline of the bike ( like Honda would have done)

[mxdogger]

dubious it will be a couple weeks before i get more mounts and im not sure when i can get headstays again, dam machinist.
if you want me to mod a set of stock headstays up i can do that but dont know if they would fit your build.
Bob the silencer really doesnt look that bad, the bike is 3 ft. in the air so it looks worse than it is. look at the gap between the sidepanel and silencer there used to be a huge 4t muffler in there.

I found out today that a 2004 crf250 lower triple clamp will not work on a crf450 frame the 450 lower steering head flares out wider than the 250 and hits the steering stops, so its off to ebay for some triples. i did get the faceplate for the airbox done and a template for the headstay mounting block, i will post pics tomorrow after work and yeah its back to the grind after being off since the 23rd.

[blackz34]

I found out today that a 2004 crf250 lower triple clamp will not work on a crf450 frame the 450 lower steering head flares out wider than the 250 and hits the steering stops, so its off to ebay for some triples. i did get the faceplate for the airbox done and a template for the headstay mounting block, i will post pics tomorrow after work and yeah its back to the grind after being off since the 23rd.

It's more a year thing than a 250 vs 450 thing about the triple clamp.

[mxdogger]

yeah blackz i checked the microfisch, 2005 crf250 and 2005 crf450 share the same clamps.

[mxdogger]

Today i got my new headstay mount for the 450 frame and a crf250/500 headstay without the mounting hole at the head. take a LOOK

[dubious01]

Nice!

[AlisoBob]

Pretty cool, if the tank agrees with it.

[mxdogger]

Thanks bob, the tank does agree, at the bottom rear of the tank i have almost 1/4" clearance above the headstay and mounting block. The 450 frame has more room under the gas tank than the crf250 frame.

[AlisoBob]

...the tank does agree, at the bottom rear of the tank i have almost 1/4" clearance

I think you are going to sell alot of those blocks then.

[Roostius_Maximus]

Very nice!

[dubious01]

yup, I bought one for my CRF250 conversion

[mxdogger]

doubious is getting the billet headstay, thanks for kind words hoons.

I may sell a few, its like the rest of my parts, trying to get more is always a waiting game.