Egli/Vincent

[worntorn]

Fritz Egli is a Swiss frame builder. In the late 1960s he took the most powerful motorcycle engine available at that time, the 1000cc Vincent V twin from the 1946-1955 and put it into a frame of his own design. He made about 70 of these Egli-Vincents before moving on to build custom frames for all of the major Japanese brands as well as race car frames.

Today the Egli-Vincents are a collector bike and a number of bike builders have built replicas.
I'm doing likewise, although my frame strays a bit from the original Egli.
I'm using SS 316 tubing, all .065 wall except the steering head and swing arm pivot tube.

Starting point was to machine up a steering tube to fit the bearings and stem for the front end I'm using (2003 GSXR 750) and cut appropriate shapes into the top spine (4" o.d. tube about 18" long) which is also the oil tank.
All welds and some cuts are done with an Everlast 205 multifunction.

[Wrenchtamer]

Why dont you post a picture of the original design and a rendering of your updated design if you have one? I for one would like to see it.

[Rivets]

Where would you get a Vincent engine today ???

Black Shadow or Black Lightning ?

Cheers,
Rivets

[worntorn]

Here is a link to a Godet Egli-Vincent. http://www.motopp.com/upload/104s10w.jpg

Patrick Godet builds these to order in France. He has the blessing of Fritz Egli. Actually, I think Patick's version of the Egli is a bit prettier than the original, maybe a bit more sleek.
Patrick uses all new parts for the engine.

I'll be doing the same except I will use a number of key parts supplied by Australian Vincent Hotrodder Terry Prince. Terry offers a 92mm top end kit (stock is 84mm) with his own high output heads and will build stroker cranks to order. He has built me a 102mm stroke crank(stock is 90MM) so the engine will displace 1360CC. The engine will be tuned above the level of the Black Lightning, plus have the extra 360CC.

For build purposes I'm using the 1000cc engine out of my 1947 Rapide.

I have a drawing of an original Egli, but will do my own full scale drawing of the frame I'm building.
I'm still working on the back end of it and will probably do some experimentation with the geometry there to get suspension progression.

Glen

I'm going to follow the Egli design where I can, but build the back end more like an original Vincent except use a mono shock from a GSXR and fit a big back wheel and tire.

this means I will need to shift the engine from standard position some in order to get the chain line right.

[Rodsmachineshop]

such a cool bike

[worntorn]

I finished fitting the small dia. thin wall tubing and then removed the frame from the engine for final welding. There is a temporary brace fitted where the engine sits. This should keep dimensions correct.

The small tubing is 7/8" OD .060 wall. I found it challenging to weld the saddle joints neatly. Good thing the fits were OK or it would have gone badly, I'm sure!

Glen

[aaxiss]

wow, incredible work and talent. are vincent motorcycles your main motorcycle passion or just motorcycles in general?. I was paralyzed in a motorcycle accident by a hit and run driver I love motorcycles and I still ride a quad. Tried a dirt bike but trying to find something to pull up next to and lean against is pretty hit or miss last time I tried it I made the stop perfect next to a tree but..... I fell away from the tree and with my leg stuck under the bike I got burned pretty bad. Anyway I digress Keep the pictures coming looks like a sweet bike you got going there.

[worntorn]

thanks Don. Vincents are my main interest but I'm also interested in other old bikes and dirt bikes as well.

Very sorry to hear about your accident.

[worntorn]

I think I have the rear frame memeber geometry figured out OK. Here is the material needed, just 14 lbs total minus whatever I remove from the solid chunk of round stock (pivot tube) It will get machined for roller bearings and a hollow axle. I think I will make the hollow axle out of aluminum. So the finished weight of the RFM without shock should be around 11 pounds.

This bike should weigh right around 360 lbs dry finished according to my calculations so far.

That is very light for a 1000 and really skimpy for a 1360.By comparison a new GSXR 1000 weighs about 390 dry, a Honda rc51 is 440 lbs and an original Vincent weighs about 460.
If I can find Magnesium cases then the weight will drop another 22 pounds to about 338 finished. With a 1360cc motor in there it should really get up and leave town!

Glen

[worntorn]

progress report:

pic 1 is the rear top engine mount tang. There will be one of these welded to each side of the top spine or oil tank. A bolt goes through these and the head bracket to make the rear top engine to frame connection. The hole in the tang gets slotted because the Vincent engine expands when it gets hot. For this reason the through bolt gets fully tightened then backed off 1/4 turn (lock nutted). I thickened it up in the area of the bolt hole because that is the way an original Vincent looks in this area, even though most Egli builds didn't bother with that detail.

pic 2 shows the start of fitting the 7/8" od x .065 wall tubing that forms the rear part of the frame.

pic 3 shows a bit of wooden jigging that will hold the seat rails in place.

pic 4 shows the fit of the coped out tubing. I did the cope cuts on the milling machine by measuring the angle with a carpenters bevel square, setting that angle on the mill, then making the cut using a 7/8" dia. hole saw and lots of coolant.

Glen

[worntorn]

Here is the spine all welded up (tig) The purge worked well, back side of weld is silver.

[worntorn]

The spine or upper frame member fits onto the GSXR front end like it was made for it!

I guess it was made for it.

[worntorn]

I had to make some special head brackets from billet aluminum. The Vincent was the first bike to use the engine as a stressed member of the frame. The engine just hangs from the top spine by the head brackets, there is no lower frame or cradle. Egli followed the original Vincent quite closely with his design but lightened things up some.

The originals were in cast iron, so these aluminum brackets will shave about 4 pounds off and shift the engine 1.25" to the right so that the chain should line up when using a much wider than stock rear wheel.

[presure2]

impressive work man!

[worntorn]

thanks presure2.


Here it is with the top spine lined up over the head brackets, mounting tangs to follow (to connect spine to head brackets)

[worntorn]

I got a bit further with the bike this week and also had an interesting repair job come in.

The first picture shows the item I'm repairing. It's part of a large bakery machine and is made of cast iron, so I'll stick weld it with nirod. It'll need preheat and post heat to be a successful repair.

The second photo shows a couple of SS "thread spools" I made on the lathe. Thesec will get welded into half circle notches that will get cut into the lower rear frame tubes. The spools will take the rear lower engine mount bolt (next set of photos will probably show that area)

The third picture shows the front engine mount tang made and tacked in place.


Glen

[presure2]

lookin good so far dude!

[worntorn]

So I started back in on this project about mid winter. First off I made up a pattern or a "buck" for the rear cowl and seat pan.

I wanted the tank/seat and cowl lines to flow together like one smooth piece rather than tank/stop seat/stop/ cowl as it sometimes is if using store bought parts, or on lots of production bikes.

[worntorn]

After some hammering and some planishing on the ewheel I had two of the three pieces needed for the cowl roughed out-

[worntorn]

all three pieces made and welded together. Material is just .050 thick 5052 aluminum, was a real challenge for me to weld. But I have a great machine (PP256) for that so it turned out fine.