Pinned So what have you done to your bike today?

Resigned to the fact that I will not have a custom cut cam sprocket for round 1 so I started assembling the primary endurance engine. Backup engine is still dead in the water waiting on parts. Probably should have focused on getting parts for that on the way before I had less than 2 weeks to round 1 Not sure what it is about the KLX110 layout that makes me struggle so much to get the rings in place. Oh right, it's pointless to use a ring compressor because of the tapered bore and there's not enough room to install the wrist pin with the piston already in the cylinder. I'm determined theres a sick hack to getting it done without moving the rings out of orientation, but I've yet to figure it out.

 

I've considered your conundrum for another purpose - think about an aluminium drink can, the material is incredibly soft, cut cylinder out of can, split down and put a tight sharp lip onto it so that it keeps itself out of the chamfer on the bottom of the bore
Wrap it in a releasable cable tie - you've got a budget ring compressor that will go far enough up into the taper

 

What a shame, here it is 6pm and I don't have any empty aluminum cans. Bottoms up! It's for the race bike, I swear!

 

So it's not women but working on bikes that drives men to drink, whooda thunk it - it's for a good cause - bottoms up!

 

Yeah... I am not 75KG though. I am a lot more than that. But it feels really good like this so I don't know, maybe the previous half dozen owners put some heavier springs in it? It feels about right for me now.

The R6 shock I ordered last time didn't work, had a completely different setup, so I am on the hunt for a better rear shock for it.

I might also go to a 10w or 15w oil in the forks, as well as see if there are any springs that can handle my weight available to buy for the forks. I am also losing weight too, so hopefully that helps.

 

Sold my bike. Now to buy another... Ok, collect it and make the final payment. VTR 250, because my wrist old.

 

You might have hit on the right setup for your weight, so don't touch it if it feels right for you. You might not even notice the change the lower viscosity fork oil makes.

 

Beer can and ziptie worked pretty well. Just enough clearance to wedge one side of the can in with the rings. Might roll a lip onto the can next time to try and keep it from wedging between the cylinder and piston.

Wrapped up the top end, went to put side covers back and realized the clutch arm return spring is busted. Stole the clutch cover of the other engine while I try to source a replacement part. Had to pick up all of the small projects on the lift so I can push the YSR off, and the race bike on. Did the truffle shuffle and managed to get the motors swapped without killing my back. Man I miss having a pancake jack! Floor jack is just too large to throw on the lift. Cleaned the carb ("drained" it last race, but there was still a little varnish in one side.) Pulled about 300cc of gas out of the tank to see how much water/varnish there was. VP Racing MR4 that's at least 18 months old still has a hell of a punch to the nose. Man I wish they could produce scented candles of the same smell. Initial turnover (with spark plug in) by hand feels like it's got the compression it's supposed to have (versus feeling like kicking over like a ysr50 as it did at the end of the last race.

Switched the wiring harness out to the kitaco bits. Discovered the CDI was cracked from the way I was mounting it. Suddenly the "install using tie-wraps" makes sense. If you bolt it to the location where things perfectly line up, the frame weld puts pressure on the case of the CDI and cracks it out. Fortunately it's just the case and didn't effect the potting material/electronics. I'm tempted to kick it over tonight, but going to wait until the morning. When I sleep on things it helps me remember what I forgot to do. As much as I want to heart it BRAAAAAAAAAAAP, I'm going to be patient and make sure I haven't forgotten anything.

 

Managed to get the race bike started...after I realized the CDI was still sitting on the healing bench. Turned up the idle to keep her oiled up while warming, but before I could plug the shop lights in it dies. WTF? Helps if you turn the gas on.... Decided to button up the rest of the bike before the engine was actually hot. Case mounted pegs have to be about the worst idea ever. Cheap bracket to keep the peg bolts from ripping out the bottom of the engine are great, but fitment is a little meh. Price to pay to preserve the engine I guess. Went to do an initial break in around the 'hood and she doesn't want to go past 1/4 throttle or so. Starts sounding like it's running on nitromethane and cutting out. Hoping it's a combination of lack of air filter and antique gas that is the problem. Otherwise my 2nd hope is the CDI, since I have a spare and it's easy to swap. Otherwise shortening the squish retarded the timing, but I swear I didn't see more than 1/2 a degree difference. Maybe my eyes were crossed when I installed the cam sprocket? Maybe the timing wheel slipped when I was setting TDC before cam install.

 

Installed air filter, swapped CDI, double checked (valve) timing. If the (valve) timing is off it's by a fraction. If the ignition timing is off I wouldn't know. I'm using the same inner rotor kit that came on the bike so the position of the pickup has not changed. 2 thoughts I have are switch to the OEM ignition system and fresh gas. I'd expect detonation from old crappy race gas when beating the **** out of it, but I can't get past about 1/4 throttle before it starts breaking up. Currently have the drain pan emptying so I can wipe it clean and reuse the oil when the ignition out. I swear this thing should run okay (not great) on pump gas/old race gas but I'll see if the ignition fixes it before spending the money. Don't want to buy 5gal of race gas if it's going to sit around open for a month before the next race.

 

It can't be jetting. There's no way it's jetting. Has to be something besides jetting.

Usual troubleshooting procedure: what changed last? Piston/cylinder. Can't be that. What else changed? Squish, can't be that. What else changed? Valve timing, could be that but it's a fraction of a tooth if anything. Ignition? Ran with that same unit last year, 0 issues. Swapped CDI because easy, still runs like crap. Maybe it got bumped, pull inner rotor and install OEM. Still run's like crap!

Hamster finally jumps on the wheel. Chased fueling issues the last year it ran every race. Took 1/2 the year to figure out that having the auxilary tank mounted all the way down in the forks was causing a vacuum lock. Changed main, needle position, and float height chasing down the fueling problem. I apparently reverted 2 of the 3. "It sure seems like it's running lean" should have been the clue I kept chasing. Didn't find an intake leak so went looking elsewhere. IT'S THE FLIPPING JETTING YOU IDIOT! Dropped the clip a notch and the bike tries to start while clamped into the lift and in gear. Just enough oil on the painted metal that the little bastard tried to do a burnout from the start. Hoping I can find time to hit a parking lot before Friday to get some break-in time down. 3 more days to get it dialed in. Still want to source a fresh set of tires, but may hold off. 3hr45 minute iron man attempt will probably keep my pace slow (at least as soon as I get tired)

 

It sounded like a fuelling issue, though poor spark can do similar: not enough voltage to jump through dense air so it shorts along the inner electrode. A new spark plug is usually a cheap part to replace. Hopefully you've got it sorted now. Good luck

 

New acquisition arrived today from USA via Queensland. 1976 moto guzzi Le Mans mk 1. There goes the next 6 months, Ye ha!

 

Cool, my brother had that bike, except the blue one.

 

I flew to Melbourne in 1986 to buy one and rode it home leaving a trail of engine, gearbox and differential oil for 900 kms along the deadly Hume. Home made instrument brackets broke after 490ks and home made gear leaver snapped in half after 890 kms at the crossroads hotel at casula. Luckily I lived at casual at the time. I have since put over 200,000 kms on that bike, including a few seasons racing, with amazingly little maintenance . Crank plain bearings, pistons rings and barrels, a few sets of clutch plates, but, just about every part is still available in both factory and pattern parts. I love old guzzis!

 

You (lucky)*pric*

35 years later,,,

and the one that got away

 

Do you still have the black and purple one. It looks like an 850T

 

I bet you were good at BP Spotto, as a kid , yeah, '74 850T I've only had it a couple of years

 

Yes but my specialty was moto guzzi between 1968 and 1985. I built my race bike from an 850t then , when virtually every part on the race bike had been replaced, used the parts to build it into a v7 sport replica

 

Back to 250 stuff..... spent yesterday painting SPADA bits. Used a Mazda base colour called “soul red”, then a super hard 2 pak clear top coat. Have to re do a couple of bits this morning but generally quite happy with results.