I'm not going to write much, the pictures say it all...
And finally somebody is happy. I know he will probably nick off on it when I'm out one day and crash it but thats kids for you.
Saturday 31 December 2011
2011 New Years Eve post
New Years eve and i'm posting about my bike - no comments are required, I know how sad it is.
I'm not going to write much, the pictures say it all...
On the office table - Cranks in position and the clutch half finished. 1 week before Christmas.
The frame needed some more grinding to allow for the gearbox / screws but it went in easily.
Taken today. It looks like a motorbike. I will put some details in my next post.
And finally somebody is happy. I know he will probably nick off on it when I'm out one day and crash it but thats kids for you.
I'm not going to write much, the pictures say it all...
And finally somebody is happy. I know he will probably nick off on it when I'm out one day and crash it but thats kids for you.
Friday 30 December 2011
Yo Ho Ho! Its Christmas already and still not running
I've not posted for a while because not a lot has happened but this last two weeks has seen a fair bit of progress. Lets start at the engine...
The top end came back from Stan Stevens who, contrary to what I'd been led to believe, could not have been more helpful and happy to discuss my project. Top Bloke. He told me that his biography was coming out which I cant imagine my wife being too bothered about but for those of us that the mere mention of his name back in the 80's meant the bike was at least 20mph quicker than the others I'm sure it will be an interesting read.
Back then LC's nipping up every week was simply part of the joy of tuned two stroke ownership and in a weird way meant it must be super fast if it broke down a lot. Thankfully I've grown up and moved on a bit realising those LC's had 18 year olds owning them so were bound to break down.
Regarding the tune it came with new pistons / bored and is stage 3. To be honest the ports didn't look as big as I'd expected but I'm not familiar with RG500 standard porting so maybe I would see the difference if I could compare standard barrels. I have looked at a lot of RGV barrels this year and they have huge ports so i'm probably just not used to the old school RG sizing. Obviously Stan's work was well finished - tops of the port windows were better than my tooth fillings but the knifing on the transfers was not as blended as I would have done myself. I thought about doing some extra work on them but decided to leave it as I may spend some time working this area along with the crank cases when it comes apart in a year or so for rings.
So I built the bottom end and was about to fit the cylinders when I decided that I needed to get the cranks done. I didn't really want to because of the extra £££ and felt sure the cranks I had were still perfectly fine but I knew this was being stupid so came to my senses and sent them off. The base engine was on original bores that were in near perfect second hand condition so I would estimate it had done 12k max. the cranks should still be good? Its not important now because I gave them to Armstrong Engineering (Westgate Road, Newcastle) who gave them back with fresh mains, seals and big ends.
Nice blokes at ARD - I went up and watched a video* taken in the 90's of some general GSXR hooligan behaviour taken outside the shop, when biking was in its heyday. Happy times...
*video - big black rectangular thing with 10 miles of magnetic tape in it that was used before SKY+ / flash memory to record stuff on tv and you had to rewind the tape at the end. I'd forgotten how crap they were.
While I was waiting for the engine bits to arrive I turned my attention back to the chassis, specifically the back wheel. I spent another evening with it on the bench getting measured and aligned so I could be sure of the spacing required around the wheel and also how much I needed to move the sprocket carrier inboard to get the chain to line up.
11mm needed to come out of the wheel / carrier in order to get things in line.
Finding a Lathe big enough to take a wheel was not going to be easy so I asked around some people I know in various engineering shops but wanted to do it myself really so I thought about things and came up with this..
Stop laughing..
This is my Emco Compact 5 lathe and milling head, on its side on top of a tool box. The wheel is fastened to a vice with an old wheel spindle.
Using this contraption I machined 9mm away from the hub. I used a fly cutter and rotated the wheel (feeding) the cutter taking 0.3 - 0.6 mm cuts each pass. I was able to do this work without touching the bearing housings and the carrier aligns with its own bearing so I felt comfortable that any slight concentricity run out should be fine but I was pleased (and amazed) to find the surfaces had not run out more than 0.15mm. Proper Job!
I had to brace the Emco much more than shown in the above photo. I had a mix of ratchet straps, wooden sticks and steel bars holding it as rigid as possible against the roof. It worked.
A quick blast on Cols lathe got the carrier adjusted and some spacers produced. The wheel fits perfectly but the rear brake carrier wont carry any callipers that I have to hand in TDG. I intend to use the simple lightweight Brembo unit used on the Aprilia RS250 so the little Emco will be put the right way up and produce something alloy and shiney for this. (the Suzuki 4 pot rear calliper is easily twice the weight of the Brembo)
So the chassis is rolling and the engine is all on site and that brings me up to the start of the Christmas break. Things have moved pretty rapidly this week but I need to get some piccys before I post the details - It is terrific! Engine fitted, top end half complete, fairing being fitted.
On the down side (or up side for me and the RGV) I have moved it out of thedampgarage. Not only is it soaking wet with rain finding holes in the roof but the cold is keeping a constant layer of moisture on all my lovely polished aluminium.
It's living next to a heater in theoldofficeatthebackofthehouse but I'm not starting another blog.
Will try to get the progress published before the end of 2011. Crickey! that gives me 23hrs and 53minutes!
The top end came back from Stan Stevens who, contrary to what I'd been led to believe, could not have been more helpful and happy to discuss my project. Top Bloke. He told me that his biography was coming out which I cant imagine my wife being too bothered about but for those of us that the mere mention of his name back in the 80's meant the bike was at least 20mph quicker than the others I'm sure it will be an interesting read.
Back then LC's nipping up every week was simply part of the joy of tuned two stroke ownership and in a weird way meant it must be super fast if it broke down a lot. Thankfully I've grown up and moved on a bit realising those LC's had 18 year olds owning them so were bound to break down.
Regarding the tune it came with new pistons / bored and is stage 3. To be honest the ports didn't look as big as I'd expected but I'm not familiar with RG500 standard porting so maybe I would see the difference if I could compare standard barrels. I have looked at a lot of RGV barrels this year and they have huge ports so i'm probably just not used to the old school RG sizing. Obviously Stan's work was well finished - tops of the port windows were better than my tooth fillings but the knifing on the transfers was not as blended as I would have done myself. I thought about doing some extra work on them but decided to leave it as I may spend some time working this area along with the crank cases when it comes apart in a year or so for rings.
So I built the bottom end and was about to fit the cylinders when I decided that I needed to get the cranks done. I didn't really want to because of the extra £££ and felt sure the cranks I had were still perfectly fine but I knew this was being stupid so came to my senses and sent them off. The base engine was on original bores that were in near perfect second hand condition so I would estimate it had done 12k max. the cranks should still be good? Its not important now because I gave them to Armstrong Engineering (Westgate Road, Newcastle) who gave them back with fresh mains, seals and big ends.
Nice blokes at ARD - I went up and watched a video* taken in the 90's of some general GSXR hooligan behaviour taken outside the shop, when biking was in its heyday. Happy times...
*video - big black rectangular thing with 10 miles of magnetic tape in it that was used before SKY+ / flash memory to record stuff on tv and you had to rewind the tape at the end. I'd forgotten how crap they were.
While I was waiting for the engine bits to arrive I turned my attention back to the chassis, specifically the back wheel. I spent another evening with it on the bench getting measured and aligned so I could be sure of the spacing required around the wheel and also how much I needed to move the sprocket carrier inboard to get the chain to line up.
11mm needed to come out of the wheel / carrier in order to get things in line.
Finding a Lathe big enough to take a wheel was not going to be easy so I asked around some people I know in various engineering shops but wanted to do it myself really so I thought about things and came up with this..
Stop laughing..
This is my Emco Compact 5 lathe and milling head, on its side on top of a tool box. The wheel is fastened to a vice with an old wheel spindle.
Using this contraption I machined 9mm away from the hub. I used a fly cutter and rotated the wheel (feeding) the cutter taking 0.3 - 0.6 mm cuts each pass. I was able to do this work without touching the bearing housings and the carrier aligns with its own bearing so I felt comfortable that any slight concentricity run out should be fine but I was pleased (and amazed) to find the surfaces had not run out more than 0.15mm. Proper Job!
I had to brace the Emco much more than shown in the above photo. I had a mix of ratchet straps, wooden sticks and steel bars holding it as rigid as possible against the roof. It worked.
So the chassis is rolling and the engine is all on site and that brings me up to the start of the Christmas break. Things have moved pretty rapidly this week but I need to get some piccys before I post the details - It is terrific! Engine fitted, top end half complete, fairing being fitted.
On the down side (or up side for me and the RGV) I have moved it out of thedampgarage. Not only is it soaking wet with rain finding holes in the roof but the cold is keeping a constant layer of moisture on all my lovely polished aluminium.
It's living next to a heater in theoldofficeatthebackofthehouse but I'm not starting another blog.
Will try to get the progress published before the end of 2011. Crickey! that gives me 23hrs and 53minutes!
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