The Lazy Blogger!

I intended to keep this up to date and post fairly regularly. Well 9 months is a little longer than I had in mind but here goes..

Its not finished.

I will summarise 2012 and promise to publish some tech
Since the start of the year I got it together in the spare room and rolled it out of the house on the 5th of May. Not painted and far from finished I put a litre of premix in the top and swung the lick start. At 2:15 pm, on only the 4th kick, it crackled into life. To say I felt like a kid at Christmas do doesn't come close and I celebrated with extended arms like when Lineker equalised against West Germany in 1990. (I didn't poo my pants though)

It ran for a few minutes, the engine reached 60˚C and stopped because it had drank its first litre of optimax mixed with Castrol A747. I suppose I should have gone with a Motul oil in keeping with Suzuki's of the era but the H*nda oil is 'reassuringly expensive', © Stella Artois, and it made my patio smell like Donnington Park used to through the 90's.
As for the sound; Its like 4 125cc motoX bikes. Brilliant.
So it smelled great, sounded amazing and proved itself to be soundly put together by living after only 4 prods on the starting handle. I then put another litre of fuel in, to get another fix, and it dribbled out all over the floor from the front right carb. This carb has since that day proved itself to reliably dribble fuel all over the floor unless kept constantly full of fuel under the pressure of the tank. If I turn the fuel off, as you would when its parked, then switch it back on it simply gushes out. Ive tried setting it up a couple of times and cant see anything wrong so I will get a service kit fitted and try again. I have noticed a bit of 'witnessing' on the float tab from the needle valve and suspect this my be what is causing the problem. I think this is to be expected on 30 year old engine bits. On the plus side the fuel/oil mix killed the moss that grows between my block pavers, I should have pushed it around a bit and killed all of it on the patio.          

During the build I had a H*nda RS250 GP fairing and slowly been modifying it to fit round the filters and pipes. Along the way I took moulds of the design (see further down the post) but continued to hack away at it and play with the cut aways. I have since decided that it looked horrible and started again as you will see at the end.
Here is the bike on the day it came to life wearing the experimental (and gay) fairing.

I will go through some of the details about the build over the next few weeks. I've got loads to show and not going to put it all in one post but here is a list of stuff that was fitted in May.

• Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa  - BSB compound as I dont have tyre warmers (yet)
• Rear brake calliper from a Husqvarner 610tc on a modified carrier (will be replaced this winter)
• Front brake - Brembo 19x20 master cylinder, HEL lines, Yam R6 gold spot callipers with EBC EPFA,HH pads. These are now replaced with Brembo callipers but to be honest I've never felt a brake as good as it was with the R6 blocks. Amazing power and feel, just perfect.
• New '90 weight Ohlins spring - the original was too firm.
• Tyga carbon front fender and hugger.
• Tyga rearsets
• Harris clip ons.
• Harris shorty folding levers (yummy)
• KOSO RX1N clocks (I'm not impressed to be honest) Biketec lap timer and a gear indicator from China
• Remote span adjuster for the Brembo master cylinder (not needed but I think it looks cool)
• Home made wire harness with provision for a horn and brake light circuit.
• Zeeltronic programmable ignition and powervalve control 
• Stage 6 throttle (bit of 50cc porn)
• etc..

Ignition problems

I've not had much success with the Zeeltronic unit. To be honest I think its my own fault in that I bought it second hand and it is the older 3 box system without powerjet solenoid outputs (I think the older one is an 8 BIT processor and the new one is 16 BIT) Anyway it doesn't work so I've sent it to the Tuningworks for investigation. It might be due to my own design of harness but the standard CDI works perfectly so I feel sure the problem is in the Zeel CDI. The Powervalve control is fitted and works but Ive had to take the pick up from a coil of wire wrapped around a HT lead. Ive had to do the same to get a signal to the Rev counter.

If my Zeel unit is goosed then I'll get a new one with the extra inputs and outputs. These may come in handy over the next few years as I plan to develop the engine and carburettors (TMX's obviously)

Carburation problems

As written about above. Fuel howls out of one carb. other than that it is fine.

Other problems

lots of little things but none worth writing about tonight.

The first ride...

Sometime in June I finally engaged 1st gear and let the engine propel me up the street. Lots of smoke and neighbours out etc. 

I think it's normal for the first few metres to be a mix of good and bad? well it was ok but harsh. The suspension felt like there wasn't any and the engine bogged down at low revs so a bit of clutch slip was needed to get it moving. The bars were positioned too open, no seat foam, back brake was making a scratching noise and then all the fuel pee'd on the floor again. On the plus side it pulled like a b***ard and sounded like a hairy arse two stroke should.

The second ride...

The test track was the same (my street) so limited to 1st and 2nd gear only. New Ohlins spring fitted on the back and front backed off as far as possible so the suspension did at least move and respond the lumps under the wheels. Back brake noise was a slight alignment issue and fixed with a few thou removed by my little mill lathe thing.

This time I let it warm more and I risked a 'nip round the block'. Wow! Now it was starting to clear its throat and the bogging down had gone. coming back up the street the front end was not wanting to stay on the floor in any gear and at almost any revs. In first the front would lift as soon as you set off; it has so much torque and no weight to keep it down apart from me. It really surprised me how massive the power is all the way through. I took my GSXR out to compare and I would say the RGV pulls far stronger through the rev range but I suppose the poor old gixer is shoving near 200kgs plus the rider.

Back in bits again.

After these little excursions I took had some snagging jobs to sort and started to dislike the fairing. I felt it looked like a bad guy from a bad movie. I had my moulds from an earlier version to fall back on but decided to start again...

The family

The earlier fairing in gel coat

A trip to South Manchester with work lead me to call round to see the chap at Jap4 Performance. I left with a Tyga Aprilia RS250 GP fairing and a big smile. I took it home and fitted it in a couple of hours which is not surprising when you consider the Aprilia is pretty much the same as an RGV except for a price tag and some sexy curves. What was surprising is the width of the RS bodywork and how it comfortably wrapped around the 500 motor fitted with RG500.com pan filters. Even the width in the bellypan allowed the two cambers to run without touching it and exit easily. Tyga stuff is pretty good quality and the finishing is very good for a fibreglass fairing. It is not as pretty on the front as the H*nda's more aggressive sharp and pointy nose but overall it looks contemporary and 'made for the bike'. Everything fits perfectly and the steering is not hindered anywhere. 

In the words of Keith Lemon - 'OOOSH!'

It needs some paint and I've since done some work to the seat unit so the angle at the front matches the frame and fairing - it looks much better. I have also poked some crash bobbins through the bellypan, taken from the bottom engine mount, as I want to try and protect that clutch if it goes down,

I thought it looked big with a fairing fitted, especially after seeing it for so long as just a frame and engine. I put it next to my RGV250K (now sold :-/ ) and it looked tiny which is what I always wanted.

Another thing compared to the 250 - It is a lot lighter. Now I know the engine is a lump compared to the 250 but everything else is lighter including wheels, forks, exhausts etc. In total it is noticeably a lot lighter just pushing it around and the bike can be easily picked up at the front or back. I will weigh it one day soon.

Here it is along with the 250 to show how the size compares. if you have had a 250K you will know they are a small bike and the 500 looks smaller. Cool.

not the best pic but you get the idea

Cadwell Park - The first time it went passed 3rd gear.

Next post...It works but it broke and of course the fuel pee'd out again.