Luxon MX KTM 150SX Build - Clamps and Forks

spimx
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2/28/2021 11:19am
When will LUXON release motocross specific light weight tubes? There is much better technology available for tubes and a pound or more per wheel of rotating mass is a definite performance advantage, no one can argue that.
mattyhamz2
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2/28/2021 11:51am
Luxon MX wrote:
Wow, it's been over two years since this started! And the bike is still sitting in pieces in the office... 2020 has been a crazy year...
Wow, it's been over two years since this started! And the bike is still sitting in pieces in the office... 2020 has been a crazy year, and that's really screwed up progress on this project bike. 2021 will change that and I'm hoping to wrap this up in the coming months.

We released our Gen2 triple clamps a few months back, so I've stuck a set on this bike. The blue really pops against the KyoKote black fork tubes. These have the Renthal Fatbar36 bar mounts mentioned earlier in the thread:





These clamps are an evolution of our Gen1 optimized clamps, with minor revisions to material layout and a split lower clamp design. The Luxon Gen2 are much better than the stock (solid lower, black) triple clamps, of course. And in comparison the the KTM (and Husky and GasGas) PowerParts/Factory split clamps, the Luxon clamps are lighter, stronger, and have increased stiffness in torsion for more steering precision, yet less stiffness longitudinally for more comfort.



And of course we can laser etch into the clamps for that factory look:



More updates coming soon!
The blue is so amazing! They would look so good on my YZ. Can’t wait to see the bike finishers. Nice work Billy!
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cdoggy81
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2/28/2021 3:39pm
Luxon stuff is nothing but top notch.
I’ll 2nd that. You 100% get what you pay for with their stuff.
3

The Shop

Luxon MX
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3/1/2021 7:19am
spimx wrote:
When will LUXON release motocross specific light weight tubes? There is much better technology available for tubes and a pound or more per wheel of rotating...
When will LUXON release motocross specific light weight tubes? There is much better technology available for tubes and a pound or more per wheel of rotating mass is a definite performance advantage, no one can argue that.
I'm not sure why ultralight moto specific tubes aren't available, but we won't be making it happen, unfortunately. The manufacturing of tubes is well outside our area of expertise, and I don't want to contract that out and hope it all works out in the end as its a MASSIVE expense to get it going.
Luxon MX
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3/1/2021 7:29am
mattyhamz2 wrote:
The blue is so amazing! They would look so good on my YZ. Can’t wait to see the bike finishers. Nice work Billy!
Thanks! We're using a slightly darker blue on the Yamaha stuff as it better matches the bike:

16
Tak_ryan
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4/13/2021 11:56am
Luxon MX wrote:
Thanks! There are a few reasons we're making lugs: 1) I've integrated a bigger interface for the brake side wheel spacer to sit against. We can...
Thanks! There are a few reasons we're making lugs:

1) I've integrated a bigger interface for the brake side wheel spacer to sit against. We can change the wheel spacer size for more or less stiffness at that interface for a different steering feel. I suspect we'll want to go as stiff as possible, but we'll see after some testing.

2) There are a lot of people running KYB inserts or some other change from stock. I'll be machining some of these lugs as "blanks" - all features externally, but with a dummy internal hole. We can either sell them like that for custom applications, or machine to order. I'll keep some fully machined ones on the shelf for typical applications like AER and KYB, though.

3) Replacement cast lugs are pretty expensive if you strip a bolt or something. We can offer billet ones that are competitive in price.

4) Bling. People are spending $1000's on fancy coatings, upgraded internals, etc. and then putting on the stock cast lugs. If we can offer a hard-anodized, billet equivalent, that looks factory, it's an easy upgrade to match the factory look of the rest of the fork they've spent a ton of money on.
Did you guys ever make these billet lugs available?
Luxon MX
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4/13/2021 4:29pm
Tak_ryan wrote:
Did you guys ever make these billet lugs available?
No, not yet. It's still planned, but there's a lot on our plate at the moment!
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swatdoc
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5/10/2021 7:40pm
Hey Bill I'll be picking up a '22 150sx when they're available in a month or two (hopefully). Had a couple of questions:
I have a Neken SFS upper triple clamp from a Husky 350 that I'd like to try on this bike - so I was wondering if I could just buy your lower gen 2 triple clamp?

And along the same lines, I 'd like to run a honda steering damper like you do - so could I possible purchase one of your weld-on mounts? And if I brought the bike in, could you folks weld it on for me? (I'm not to far away in Temecula)

Thanks
Luxon MX
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5/11/2021 1:05pm
swatdoc wrote:
Hey Bill I'll be picking up a '22 150sx when they're available in a month or two (hopefully). Had a couple of questions: I have a...
Hey Bill I'll be picking up a '22 150sx when they're available in a month or two (hopefully). Had a couple of questions:
I have a Neken SFS upper triple clamp from a Husky 350 that I'd like to try on this bike - so I was wondering if I could just buy your lower gen 2 triple clamp?

And along the same lines, I 'd like to run a honda steering damper like you do - so could I possible purchase one of your weld-on mounts? And if I brought the bike in, could you folks weld it on for me? (I'm not to far away in Temecula)

Thanks
Sure, we can set you up with all of that! Shoot me an email to discuss the details: billy@luxonmx.com
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swatdoc
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5/11/2021 8:17pm
sent you an email - thanks!
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Luxon MX
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9/2/2021 5:16pm
We're SLOWLY making progress on this. Back on page 6 I had sent the cases off to anodize and they came back ugly grey instead of black (castings sometimes do that, sometimes don't, so we took a chance). So I sent the engine cases, cylinder, head, and throttle housing off to Vince at Mullennix Quality Coating (@mullennix_qc) for some blackout Cerakote.

He also did the powervalve actuator cover in Sniper Grey to match the hard anodized covers we're putting on the engine (that cover couldn't be anodized as it's magnesium).





I'm hoping to get the gears and other parts out for WPC treatment soon so I can get this engine put back together!
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swatdoc
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9/2/2021 6:09pm
That WPC treat is awesome, but very pricey - had my transmission to my '77 CR125 done and it was $750
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Luxon MX
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4/30/2023 9:02am

Bringing this back to life... We've been slammed for many months and it's been hard to find the time to keep going on this build, but I really want to get this done soon! I finally got around to wrapping up some key pieces, so it should go fairly quickly at this point.

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Luxon MX
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4/30/2023 9:17am

I whipped up some rear shock spring preload adjusters a while back as I dislike the plastic adjuster that comes stock. These just replace the plastic part, but function in the same way. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the milling operation, so all you get are the lathe portions:

 

133-preload-ring-1 0.jpg?VersionId=2Ot

 134-preload-ring-2 0.jpg?VersionId=FDY5N6gvYewYjpG d7JLIp

 

These were then electropolished and clear anodized. No sense using a color anodize as these will get beat up over time from the adjustments, so the clear anodize will help hide any scratches.

135-preload-ring-3 0

 

3
Luxon MX
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4/30/2023 9:21am

Here's the rear shock fully assembled, just waiting on a spring now. We were offering coating services a while back and I did the various coatings on this shock - DLC shaft, Kyokote shock body and reservoir, and various blue and black anodized parts. We no longer offer coating services as I wanted to focus more on hard parts, but Brian at N2D suspension offers them now if anyone is interested. 

This shock uses the MX Tech tank reservoir with a "hybrid" piston. The piston has a membrane integrated into it that's supposed to give the best of both the bladder style and the piston style. 

And of course, N2D valved this using their specs to match our linkage knuckle.

136-rear-shock

 

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Bearuno
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4/30/2023 11:10pm

"Hybrid Piston" : The SKF one  or MX Tech's own version of it ?

LOOnatic
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5/1/2023 5:52am
Luxon MX wrote:
Here's the rear shock fully assembled, just waiting on a spring now. We were offering coating services a while back and I did the various coatings...

Here's the rear shock fully assembled, just waiting on a spring now. We were offering coating services a while back and I did the various coatings on this shock - DLC shaft, Kyokote shock body and reservoir, and various blue and black anodized parts. We no longer offer coating services as I wanted to focus more on hard parts, but Brian at N2D suspension offers them now if anyone is interested. 

This shock uses the MX Tech tank reservoir with a "hybrid" piston. The piston has a membrane integrated into it that's supposed to give the best of both the bladder style and the piston style. 

And of course, N2D valved this using their specs to match our linkage knuckle.

136-rear-shock

 

That's some purty eye candy Billy.

 

2
wadam1313
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5/1/2023 2:21pm

Looks amazing Billy, just like all the Luxon products!! 👍

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Luxon MX
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5/6/2023 11:39am
Bearuno wrote:

"Hybrid Piston" : The SKF one  or MX Tech's own version of it ?

It's an SKF one that fits their Tank Reservoir

3
Luxon MX
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5/17/2023 3:48pm

I've had most of this bike "finished" for quite a while now, it's just been in pieces and some critical things have been missing top put assemblies together. But most everything is here now and I'm making good progress. Next up is the front end:

I had the fork tubes Kyokote coated in black, similar to the shock pieces from a couple posts ago. And the lowers were DLC coated with a digital camo pattern. This was a one-off job and likely the only ones in existence. The coating company did it as a sample for us and after doing it they decided not to even offer it as it was way too much work for them. The pattern is made by masking off areas of the tube then lightly blasting the tube to create the pattern. The masking is removed and then the tubes are coated. The blasting looks rough, but it's actually quite smooth. It's really just enough to diffuse the light and create the textured look rather than affect the roughness (smoothness?) of the tubes. 

140-camo-dlc.jpg?VersionId=ep0dKRLW A.xx3CrVkbXGbAoLQu48DA

 

Lugs are anodized black and MX-Tech put everything together with their Raven cartridges set up for me. The Raven is a closed cartridge spring conversion; a touch heavier than the AER forks, but still really lightweight. The MX-Tech Blackjack forks are actually on the bike in the background, so it will be interesting to compare the two.

And, of course, this is held on the bike with our triple clamps. This is the Gen2 bottom clamp and a "Gen2.5" top clamp that uses the similar material layout to what out Gen3 clamps will be, but still uses the Gen2 style bar mounts. And the bar mounts are holding the Renthal FB36 bars mentioned many posts ago. 

137-mx-tech-raven-1

 138-mx-tech-raven-2

 139-mx-tech-raven-3

 

10
cdoggy81
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St. Petersburg, FL US
6/8/2023 12:22pm

Since that 350 is done now (& looks great BTW) I wanted to give this one a lil bump for ya.
My "goal" now is to finish my 3 year old build thread before you finish this one LoL Laughing

In all seriousness though Billy keep up the cool work you are doing over there!

3
Aventador
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AU
6/28/2023 6:49am

Wow great thread thanks! 

Have you got any weight info on plastics kits? I saw you comment on another thread about the front fender. Is the stock plastic made by Polisport? I thought I'd seen a logo on stock KTM plastics back in 2009 but I thought it was UFO or Acerbis. 

I've heard the Cycra stadium plates cover more area while saving weight over OEM. 

I'll be going with the Michelin tyres and schwalbe tubes, that's awesome bang for the $

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