Owning an expensive and stylish bike is the dream of the vast majority of motorcyclists. What is noteworthy is that the desire to arouse the envious gaze of other road users is typical not only of green youths, but also of fully mature road wolves.

On the way to the absolute uniqueness of their two-wheeled friend, motorcycle owners resort to a variety of tricks, ranging from unusual and radical color schemes to radical restyling of the bike. For some this is quite enough, but for some maximalists it is not. As a result, homemade motorcycles appear on the roads, which have no analogues in principle.

Homemade motorcycles in Russia

Self-made bikes are popular all over the world, but they are especially common in countries where the market offers a relatively meager range of motorcycles. Russia can be called one of such countries - for many years the choice of the domestic bike fan was limited to 5-6 options.

This factor, superimposed on historical ingenuity and ingenuity, led to the emergence of a huge number of homemade motorcycles created by oneself. Almost all Soviet-Russian bikes, both light small-cubic and heavy multi-cubic ones, still fall under the radical upgrade of motor-kulibin bikes.

From lightweight ones, due to their high availability, amateur engineers prefer to create homemade products from Minsk motorcycles. The bike is a kind of construction kit for a novice inventor. Of the more serious ones, homemade products based on a motorcycle are popular and are especially famous for their high-revving engines with high resistance to wear, for which, in fact, they have earned the respect of motorcycle mechanics.

But the most shocking and original are homemade products based on Ural motorcycles. From bulky Soviet laborers, Russian amateur motorcycle makers create presentable, imposing choppers that can easily compete with expensive American Harley Davidsons.

How to make a motorcycle with your own hands

The process of creating a bike yourself, like most engineering structures, begins with the development of a project. At the stage of sketching the drawings of a homemade motorcycle, it is necessary to clearly determine whether the two-wheeled friend will be exclusively a garage showpiece or an original, but everyday means of transportation.

Most often, motorcycle engineers are inclined to the second, therefore, it is preferable to develop a future bike based on an existing two-wheeler with a legal registration certificate. This decision is explained no need to obtain additional permits and licenses for the vehicle being created.

The next step in creating a motorcycle with your own hands is to create a list of necessary spare parts according to the design part. In addition to the main parts and components of the bike, you need to take care of special tools and consumables. An important point: it is strongly recommended to purchase products from the same brand, as this will greatly facilitate the upcoming assembly and fitting process.

Testing a homemade motorcycle

Checking the functionality and quality of assembly must be carried out at the stage of readiness of each individual component of the bike, and it is important to strictly observe safety precautions. For convenience and compliance with the installation sequence, experts advise recording all work on a homemade motorcycle in a photo. At the stage of 99 percent readiness, it is recommended to test a homemade motorcycle at the stand of a specialized service station.

Hai! How to make a motorcycle is what interests the most fanatical motorcyclists and bikers. Why? The point is not the high cost of new factory motorcycles or even the fashion for homemade vehicles. Such a desire is caused rather by the desire to express oneself, as well as to find a bike that is as customized as possible.

Will help you with this. Below you will find a list of tips for assembling a two-wheeler with your own hands.

How to make a motorcycle with your own hands?

Most riders prefer riding bikes with an upright stance. Therefore, we recommend developing a classic type iron horse or a chopper. It is also advisable to take into account that it is better to move the footrests forward for the purpose of comfortable eating.

When creating a first-class bike from the Urals, Izh, Minsk, Voskhod and other serial iron horses, do not forget about the aesthetics of a huge steering wheel extended over a long distance. The most attractive type of fuel tank will be the “droplet”. An extended type of front fork will also add maximum beauty to your motorcycle with your own hands.

Before making a motorcycle, it won’t hurt to study video lessons either. You need to understand what parts of the future bike you can make yourself (primarily the frame, instrument panels, cases, plastic fairings, wheel spokes, saddle, etc.), and what you can hardly even design in drawings (engine , wheel rims and electronic components).

How to make a homemade motorcycle?

First you need to decide on the frame, but we will talk about this below. Now let's move on to engine selection. There are many engine options. Internal combustion engines are created by factories in two types: four-stroke and two-stroke. As an alternative, you can install an electric motor. In the latter case, you need to provide a lot of space for batteries in the frame of the two-wheeler. Of the internal combustion engines, 4-stroke engines are more valued in practice and are also used.
You don't have to buy a new engine. By visiting transport dumps/flea markets and searching a little on the Internet on bulletin boards, you can pick up quite good options for engines and spare parts for them. It's best to polish and tune everything you find.

These days it’s not difficult to find ready-made drawings and diagrams of unique motorcycles made with your own hands from paper, from a lighter, from Lego, from the Urals, etc. Experienced customizers from TV screens will also tell you how to make a moto. To this day, the “Western” media have produced many interesting television programs on this subject. You can also order custom assembly in a professional workshop by experienced mechanics who work in almost any city in our great homeland.

Where to start assembling a motorcycle with your own hands?

Having ready-made motorcycle project diagrams at hand, as well as materials for their practical implementation, you can safely move on to the direct processing of pipes and metal sheets in the process of creating a frame. Each part of the chassis can be chromed or painted to give it a more aesthetic appearance. This is also done to prevent corrosion of the chassis.

You can also create wheel rims with your own hands. Still, why “reinvent the wheel” if many compatriots know from practice how to make a motorcycle from the Urals or Dnieper MT, using the frame, engine and electronics of the latter. By adding other unique nodes to them, you will clearly get an iron horse that is unlike any other.

Having installed an extended fork (preferably adapted for a front disc brake), homemade traverses (created using a steel sheet with a thickness of several tens of millimeters), the bike’s handlebars are mounted using brackets. The brackets are also used to mount the rear shock absorbers. They are considered a secure base for holding the seat back. Here you can fix various panniers and the trunk of the bike.

How to assemble a complete homemade motorcycle

It is better to choose/create a two-level saddle for a two-wheeled custom. Before creating it, you need to find a thick sheet of steel (about 2 mm). The latter will bend along the contour from the future tank to the rear panel. To make the edges of the saddle more rigid, you need to bead its sides 1 cm down. The soft part of the seat can be made of ordinary thick foam rubber. Leather is best suited for all this as upholstery. When installing the seat, it is necessary to install rubber gaskets on the frame directly under it.

Also make sure that in the future your homemade bike can be placed on a leg as easily as possible when parked. For these purposes, it is better to choose a side knife, which is mounted on the left side member of the frame and has the ability to easily recline in the presence of a spring.

The steering wheel should be attached not only to rear-view mirrors, levers, cables, but also to various electrical appliances, which can be purchased together with the body in many places. The devices that look most beautiful are those placed in chrome-plated boxes/cylinders.

You need to know how to make a motorcycle with your own hands as correctly as possible even before installing the throttle handle on the steering wheel. The latter should be made with small turned rubber rings.

Don’t forget about installing turn indicators on your homemade bike. Their absence on a motorcycle can lead to various dangers on the road. You can supplement the classic set of lighting devices (headlight, brake, turn signals) by installing small flashlights near the front headlight. Additional safety will be provided by installing safety arches on a homemade iron horse.

Important to remember: When making a motorcycle with your own hands, make sure that in the future you will be able to register it with the road control authorities. Any major changes in the design of the bike must be registered with the traffic police/traffic police.

Many people very often think about how great it would be to at least try to create their own motorcycle with their own hands, without resorting to the services of salons, craftsmen, etc. However, often such a desire remains unfulfilled due to the motorcycle enthusiast’s uncertainty about the success of his planned project. That’s why it’s worth figuring out how to make a motorcycle without anyone’s help.

Preparing to assemble the motorcycle

First, you need, of course, to decide what configuration the future “steel horse” will have, and also to resolve the issue of all the parts and tools necessary for the work. If you have some experience, some elements can be made independently, for example, on milling and lathe machines or by welding.

If during the assembly process the base is an old motorcycle, then you should not start work with the installation of small parts, universal joints, brake rods, etc. The best solution would be to start puttingty and painting the tanks and fenders. To avoid problems with the motor or parts of the gearbox bridge, they need to be placed in kerosene for a while. A homemade motorcycle will look much more expressive and impressive if its engine crankcases, covers, gearboxes and ignitions are well polished.

The engine of the old device needs to be completely rebuilt, and only then begin installing accessories, which, as a rule, include two main materials: leather and chrome.

Bicycle as a basis for a motorcycle

It's no secret that often the basis for a motorcycle is just a bicycle, which is equipped with all the necessary equipment. When thinking about how to make a motorcycle out of a bicycle, it is important to understand exactly what materials should be used, as well as to know their technical characteristics.

Quite often you can find this option when the motor is from a chainsaw. In this case, it is also worth studying its power, weight and size in detail.

Possible list of materials for creating a motorcycle from a bicycle

So, turning a bicycle into a homemade motorcycle, the most common option for a set of parts is the following:

• engine;
• pulleys;
• drive belt and tension roller;
• fasteners.

One way or another, making a motorcycle from a bicycle is far from a cheap pleasure, so sometimes it’s better to think about whether it would be advisable to do this or whether it’s better to buy a new moped or at least a ready-made bicycle motor.

DIY motocross motorcycle

Despite the highest technical indicators of such a motocross model, it is quite possible to assemble it yourself. Of course, nothing prevents you from simply buying a ready-made model, but not always factory samples are able to satisfy all the desires of a particular motorbike enthusiast, besides, such a purchase will certainly not be cheap, and a homemade motorcycle will save a significant amount of financial resources. However, here it is necessary to strictly comply with all installation requirements, otherwise the end result may be very disappointing.

The procedure for self-assembly of a motocross motorcycle

It would be best to start assembly with wheels, which can be freely purchased at any motorcycle parts store. There are two most common options for attaching these elements: purchase a rim and replace the spokes, or simply install cast sports wheels on the device.

The fork should be classic and have a full range of adjustments. The optimal size for it would be 43 mm.

In order to increase the reliability of the brake system, it is necessary to increase their power. Alternatively, sometimes the diameter of the brake disc is simply increased.

Particular attention should be paid to the suspension, which is mounted on a homemade motocross motorcycle. The most suitable for it will be stock shock absorbers, which can be ordered directly from the manufacturer, but it is important to indicate the possible weight of the device so that the suspension elements are equipped with the appropriate springs.

If we talk about the engine, it is definitely worth mentioning that its thrust can be increased by reducing intake losses. To ensure this, the standard paper filter in the old engine is replaced with a foam one, after which the updated motor is installed in the system of the future motocross motorcycle. In addition, the carburetor is also subject to changes, which should ensure good engine operation at maximum speed.

How to make an all-terrain vehicle from a motorcycle?

Recently, all-terrain vehicle designs that are made from ordinary motorcycles have become widely popular. In addition to the entertainment functions that such a device carries, it is also a very reliable means of transportation.

Thus, motorcycles can be divided into several categories, the main of which are, naturally, ATVs. These transport models amazingly combine the mobility of a motorcycle and the stability inherent in cars. Due to the fact that each of the ATV wheels has its own suspension, the device is able to overcome almost any, even the steepest, road irregularities.

The third type of all-terrain vehicle from a motorcycle is a vehicle equipped with tracks, with the help of which you can easily move through swampy areas.

However, we should not forget that any motorcycle, even a homemade one, is a vehicle characterized by increased cross-country ability. Therefore, in order to achieve the maximum value of this parameter, it will be enough to simply increase the cross-country ability of a standard vehicle, and the need for global modernization will disappear by itself.

Fantasy made of plastic and metal... or how to make a motorcycle with your own hands? In Moscow, bikers presented their cars. Every detail counts when the footrest is made to look like a skeleton and the frame resembles a bass guitar.

Smiles on the faces of stern men in leather jackets and bandanas appear only when it comes to motorcycles. All models are made by hand, inside and out. Presenting their work, the bikers get excited like kids at a kindergarten party.

Omar Volpyansky: “It turned out to be light and weightless. If you sit down on the motorcycle and look from the side, you cannot see the saddle under the driver. It seems like he’s just hanging in the air.”

“The devil knows what!” this is the first reaction of visitors when they glance at the next model. This is no longer a motorcycle and not yet a car Fantasy of Alexander Ermikhin made of plastic and metal. It took almost a year to create it. There is nothing on the instrument panel except the speedometer.

Alexander Ermikhin: “It’s enough for him to just know how fast he’s going. In general, nothing else is interesting here, because everything here is done so correctly and competently that there is no need to show either oil pressure or temperature.”

Modern Vintik and Shpuntikov, who lovingly polish their motorcycles to a shine, are called customizers.

Alexander Keller: “Customizers are people who make fun of motorcycles, giving them an unusual form and content.”

Over ten years in Russia, customizing has turned from a garage hobby into an industry. But it should not be confused with tuning. Tuning is an improvement of the finished product, while customizers build from scratch, and every little detail is important here.

If the body of the motorcycle is decorated with skulls, then the footrest is in the form of a skeleton. But it also comes in the form of a chicken leg. It seems that the Discovery Channel star, American customizing legend Eddie Trot, liked this model.

Eddie Trot, chairman of the jury: “A couple of years ago I thought that Russian customizers were a little behind the rest of the world. Now I see that this is not so.”

It’s almost useless to torture castamizers, how they manage to come up with all this on a whim, from dreams, “they sat down and drew it.” One of the options sounded like this: “We once listened to the song “You shouldn’t bend to a changing world.”

Just as poets dedicate their poems to someone, so customizers address their works to specific people. So, one model, for example, is dedicated to the musicians from the group “Time Machine”. The bass guitar, the supporting part of the frame, is real: it plays if you connect it. But only musicians have the right to sit behind the wheel of this handsome man.

Kastmizers do not hide their motives - this is the desire to stand out. And, of course, no representative of the fair sex can resist a man on such a motorcycle.

Designing motorcycles is no less exciting than creating any other vehicles. In addition, a motorcycle, which is essentially a naked concept of a self-propelled mechanism, requires greater design sophistication, inventive talent and the instincts of a good mechanic. I present to the readers my ideas for designing homemade motorcycles. I can say that I have some experience in this kind of work: at the “Motosam-90” show-competition, my home-made motorcycle, the eighth in a row, was presented, a photo of which the magazine’s readers could see in the report from the show in No. 2 for 1991 . The photographs presented on these pages show three more motorcycles of my design. I want to tell readers about one of them - the last and most successful.

Over the course of thirteen years, I designed and built twelve two-wheeled vehicles. They were all significantly different from each other. Moreover, two motorcycles were designed using a partial monocoque design, and three were completely frameless, with a monocoque monocoque body. It is precisely this design solution that I prefer today: it seems to me the most reliable and advantageous in terms of strength, weight and ergonomics.

I hope that my design experience can be useful for those who are planning to make a motorcycle.

So what is a regular frame motorcycle? To simplify the answer, we can say that this is a frame, a fuel tank, tool boxes, an air filter housing with an intake noise muffler, an exhaust muffler, a rear fender with a tail light bracket and numbers, a saddle base, a trunk, as well as a kilogram of all kinds of bolts, nuts, bushings , pins, washers and rubber bands, with the help of which all of the above are connected into a single structure.

If you sum up the masses of these components and assemblies, you get a very impressive value. In addition, when all this is put together, it forms a far from aesthetically pleasing “skeleton”, which has many secret places where absolutely irremovable dirt will inevitably accumulate - you can only get rid of it by completely disassembling the motorcycle.

A year or two passes - and the tool boxes begin to rattle, cracks creep along the rear fender, the number plate along with the bracket falls off... And if the motorcyclist, God forbid, gets into at least a minor accident or even simply falls? In these cases, the frame bends and dents appear on the tank and tool boxes. Huge lower mufflers cause even more trouble, clinging even to smooth asphalt when cornering and significantly reducing passability on bad roads.

The two-wheeled vehicle, designed according to the “monocoque” design scheme, is free of all these shortcomings. Such a motorcycle is a monoblock welded box-shaped structure that performs the functions of all the parts and assemblies listed above. Interestingly, the spatial box structure is significantly more rigid and durable than the classic frame structure (including duplex frames). The use of a monocoque design in a motorcycle design not only reduces the weight of a two-wheeled vehicle, but also brings the center of gravity of the motorcycle closer to the ground. This happens due to the fact that in this design the tool box and battery compartment are located in the lower part of the body, and a lightweight air filter with an intake noise muffler is located in the upper part, where the fuel tank cap is located on classic motorcycles. The air intake is made above the steering column - in this area the cleanest, dust-free air is. An exhaust noise muffler may also be located inside the monocoque, but reliable thermal insulation from the fuel and seat cushion must be ensured.

1 - rearview mirror, 2 - secret fuel tank plug, 3 - shock absorber compensation chamber, 4 - shock absorber with a stroke of 120 mm, 5 - swing lever, 6 - push lever, 7 - brake rod, 8 - rear part of the body with exhaust muffler (left) and oil tank (right), 9 - rear turn signal, 10 - parking light and brake light (dual), 11 - exhaust pipe (left), 12 - brake disc with a diameter of 300 mm, 13 - chain catcher, 14 - rear wheel sprocket (z=37), 15 - rear wheel suspension pendulum, 16 - drive sprocket (z=15), 17 - foot brake pedal, 18 - drive box lever gears, 19 - winch drum, 20 - muffler - resonator, 21 - winch cable guide bracket, 22 - front brake disc with a diameter of 300 mm.

Rice. 2. Monocoque body layout. The cell size of the scale grid is 100×100 mm.

Pictures 1 and 2 show my enduro motorcycle and its monocoque body with rear suspension and engine protective frame. The weight of the monocoque is only 23 kilograms, and the useful volume of such a body is about 56 liters, of which 41 liters are for fuel tanks (more than that of the Zhiguli!), and the remaining volume of the body is fully used. At the same time, the motorcycle does not look bulky. On the contrary, it has relatively small dimensions - in particular, the base of the machine is only 1350 mm (smaller than that of any Izhevsk motorcycle).

It must be said that making a monocoque body is no more difficult than welding a good frame and equipping it with all the attached parts. You just need to strictly adhere to the pre-developed technology so that all the parts fit together well and are convenient to weld.

When drawing the design of the body, take care to ensure a comfortable position for the driver - this is especially important for enduro-type motorcycles - as well as the safety of the motorcyclist’s movements, ease of movement in a sitting position, in a rack and in the drawbar.

After choosing the optimal, in the designer’s opinion, layout solution, you should draw the entire motorcycle in full size - depict a side view, top view, front and rear, and also draw the most characteristic sections. The more detailed the drawing documentation, the easier further work on the manufacture of a two-wheeled vehicle will be.

It is most rational to place the engine directly on the axis of the pendulum. In this case, the reaction from the tension of the drive chain is connected directly to the pendulum. And it is far from small - sometimes it reaches the breaking strength of the chain, that is, almost two tons! It is necessary to mount the powerful and not very well balanced Izh-Planet engine (as well as all cross-country motors) using silent blocks or rubber cushions. You just need to take into account that the chain not only pulls the engine back, but also turns it in a horizontal plane due to the asymmetrical arrangement of the chain.

When creating a monocoque body, it is very convenient to use the volumetric prototyping method. In this case, the body layout is assembled from cardboard blanks, which are connected using strips of paper and glue. In the process of making a model, as a rule, changes occur in the design of the body, since not everything can be provided for in flat drawing projections. Simultaneously with prototyping the body, it is advisable to work out a technological map of its assembly - this will ensure the convenience of welding work. It is necessary to take into account the possible warping of metal workpieces when welding the body with uneven heating. Keep in mind that the parts that hold the swingarm and steering column are welded last. If necessary, they should be adjusted to the body so that on the finished motorcycle the planes of the wheels coincide with the plane of symmetry of the monocoque body.

The finished volumetric model is cut at the gluing points, and the cardboard patterns of the monocoque elements are numbered: it is from these patterns that blanks will be cut from a steel sheet of the appropriate thickness - from 1.2 to 1.5 mm. The easiest way to do this is with a chisel on a massive anvil.

Welding should be carried out in strict accordance with the technological map. To make the seams look neat and strong, the edges of the parts being welded should be slightly bent, as shown in Figure 3.

To ensure sufficient strength of the monocoque body, it is advisable to introduce additional reinforcements, flanges, and stiffeners into its design. For example, the steering column on my motorcycle and the transverse stiffening beam, to which the bracket for the only shock absorber of the rear suspension is welded, are additionally connected by a rectangular steel pipe of 25x40 mm. In addition, it is convenient to place electrical wiring and motorcycle control cables inside this pipe.

The design of the intake silencer significantly affects the engine power and its torque characteristics. The larger its volume, the easier the engine “breathes,” and the less air pulsation in the filter, which means less noise. Experts recommend setting the muffler volume to at least 20 engine displacements. The path from the air filter to the carburetor must be smooth, eliminating turbulence in the air flow, which significantly reduces engine power.

After welding, the monocoque body is checked for leaks - first with water and then with clean gasoline. If there are no leaks, the welding seams are coated from the inside with liquid epoxy glue - it will fill small pores, bind pieces of slag and drops of metal - this is especially important for the intake noise muffler.

The rear suspension is pendulum type, with cantilever wheel mounting. Wheel travel is about 260 mm. The pendulum hinge is on ball bearings and sealed with oil seals. Chain tension is done using an eccentric. The disc brake is mechanically driven.

The front suspension is based on the fork from the CZ-516 cross-country motorcycle. The wheel is for 21-inch tires, the disc brake pad drive is hydraulic.

The soft saddle pad is glued directly to the monocoque body, and the faux leather cover is attached to it with flush screws.

I would like to warn readers who do not have sufficient experience in designing motor vehicles that creating homemade two-wheeled vehicles is a very difficult matter. In this material I tried to talk about my work and those ideas that I consider promising for amateur motorcycle building. However, I would categorically not advise novice motorcycle builders to start creating a powerful machine based on this material. It might be better to start with simpler motorcycles. After all, I was moving towards a monocoque, having created more than a dozen intermediate structures...

Alexey GARAGASHIAN, St. Petersburg