Half a motor, better than an empty cap

It is often grumbled that 'nobody is doing anything anymore'. As with a lot of grumbling, this is not too bad. But some really 'do' a lot more than others. Harm Schrage is such a person. We came into contact with him through the fanfare. This is what he did. In his own words:

Start with half a car

In the late 4s, I sawed a Renault XNUMX in half on the wall for a flat car. I got the local press with that. There was a need for a similar project last year, but with a motorcycle. I have no work left on my two Silver Wings and an exploded version of the same engine is already running in the workshop. With the Renault we drove most of it afterwards to the demolition, but with a motorcycle it makes sense to make two copies.
At the end of December, I put the flex in the spare frame of the GL650, which I kept in the attic for several years. By the way, it had to be done with the handsaw.

Own stock first

Then the worst tank and cockpit was taken from my stock. They were both just like that in half.
Halving a headlight is not easy and fitting a half fuel cap on half a tank was not 1-2-3 for the baker ...
I could buy a donor swingarm from the treasurer for next to nothing. It is a bit skewed in the frame, so that was looking and calculating when going through. For the assembly you have to make a whole new fulcrum.

Pretty cunning such a Prolink

And then you immerse yourself in the Prolink. When you get through that with the flex, you have say and write
70 pieces of metal are on the floor. I do now understand how such a suspension system can be disassembled. And both halves have been put back together, with glue, invisible support strips and a surrogate hydraulic fluid.

Splitting the two rims was the hardest part of the job. There is no saw with the required span. So the hubs had to be removed. Sawed through separately and then reattached to the spokes. You should definitely do your tires outside.

When making a wheel suspension I found out that you have to fix the lower fork leg of the front wheel, otherwise the front wheel will go its own direction.

A broken block was good enough

I was able to buy a block that had "something with it". A knocking sound and therefore written off. Nice work: taking a block apart completely. Clean all parts and assess usability. Cutting the center section in half was also hard work with a handsaw. That has not been seen in an hour ...
Cutting all lids was a snap. It is of course important to always keep up with the cut through the center block. There are seven of them; after all, you don't have to halve the cylinder heads and valve covers. A thermostat cut in half is a jewel for the eye. There are also visually interesting aspects of the radiator and air filter.

It was going too far for me to cut a balance pot in half. Those are quite scarce, especially for the 650.
For the connection of the bend and the damper I welded two tubes together at an angle and placed nuts there for the placement of the heat shields. You hardly see the difference.

About what it cost?

The most expensive element on this project - believe it or not - was the striping of the tank and side shields. I only had those parts in the color R-114C-U (aka Candy Wineberry, ed.) And so I had to paint. You need four and then you are € 261,95 further… With € 60 for a Prolink and € 70 for the swingarm and block, I was at a price of just over four hundred euros. I had the rest.

So that is not too bad

Only no left Jamo exhaust. I could take it for € 20 from someone who likes the original more. I did have to rent special tools from the Honda dealer to be able to disassemble the cardan clock. That was also another 50 euros. All in all about 500 euros and more than 40 hours of work. If you still have to spray the parts in the original color and paint, then there will be about 144 euros.

I have used parts from various engines here. I sprayed the half fender, the tank, side shields and rear panels matte gray with a clear coat on top. It didn't have to be 100% for me.

All in all nice and special, right? Because the half motorcycles are in our carport, I don't have the mirrors, indicators and suitcases on it. But it is possible… And maybe Harm has the other half left….