2016 nifty fifty
Racing prep time flew by, loads to do and most of it got done! z40 cam was this years big upgrade, lift is the same as the z28, doesn’t take a very practised eye to see the huge amount of extra duration.
got it in and for safety’s sake measured the squish and clearance, 1mm for the inlet valve and 2mm for the piston, a yawning chasm but safe.
New cam really fecked up the jetting , very rich in the middle and it took ages to clear out and get on the main, lifting the needle clip and fiddling with the air screw got us pretty close.
Frankly, a pz22 is not a very sophisticated carb, I had ordered a 95 main jet in a panic just in case. (yeah can’t find the box of jets i got last year, kept somewhere really safe)
Exhaust! the nice one got donated to another bike while it was off mine, couldn’t use a nice low slung exhaust like that on the paddy dakar. so this piece of crap was installed. and then broken, engine ran like crap with it and it sounded rubbish, so in an attempt to fix that punching a hole through the baffles lead to the whole thing collapsing. good.
Borrowed this one to setup the jetting and get some miles on the new cam, actually probably the best one on paper, leaked all over the place.
So i made this one out of the previous chinese 50 pipe, shortened the large collar that slips into the head so we could bolt it on with more then a few thread on the head studs, then welded the collar on properly, no more leaks! cut the rear silencer off but left the face to act as a flange to bolt the rattyist rs125 silencer on. sounds perfect, and only a small bit on the short side of my calcs!
See that chinese kickstart? that made all the difference, the stock 90 kicker sticks out a mile to avoid the pipe and once you’ve shortened the peg to avoid highsides your ankle is at a right bollox of an angle. Serious distracting pain in an hour long stint. Never thought about it all race day, job done.
race day fitness prep!
jet arrives, didn’t even contemplate changing it, way too late!
Race morning in a nice warm B&B, weather very dull.
got all the paper work sorted, weather still not actually raining.
Missed the warm up due to an anti doping talk some of us had to take.. also i’m not sure which way the V for victory sign is.
team 48, they got last years pipe and our paint job. because red and black paint is what we had.
Do I look fat in this?
Race! just off screen, last place guy looping it, many lolz
wet track, slowly does it, keep going.
Doing well, in top 10 over all, laptimes around the 1:36, anyone who past me was either super talented, or plain just fell off in front of me, there was a lot of falling off going on.
I lasted 21 laps before the engine died as far away from the pitlane entrance as you could get, the back entrance was closed due to some talentless ejits have a drift day there. So i ran up the field, sprinted across the track, bounced through some ruts, sprinted across the track again, dragged my sorry ass trough a very long gravel trap, then leisurely walked up the hill into the pits, no bothers. after i stopped coughing my lungs out and hour and a half later i thought “crossfit-tards pay for this” and vocally told everyone.
We did fix the bike a whole hour later, the igniter box had fallen down between the engine and the frame and pulled a shitty scotch lock type connector job loose! it’s not much fun trying to fix a bike while asphyxiated and wearing tight leathers, but some people pay for that too.
Alex went out next, and did a sterling job of not falling off. no wait he did, but that did improve the right hand ground clearance, Braham went and and out and the track was drying nicely now, so no more excitement then. Stephen managed to get into his skinny leathers this year and went out to pull off 1:30’s all the rest of the session with a best of 1:28.889, we were still no where on the timing sheets, thought we might have an extra 20 min left at the end of the session since there was two red flags during out time in the pits, so in he came and out i went. For three whole laps. Still, my last lap of the race i got a 1:30.043 which is a whole 0.641 better then my best whoop whoop!
Post race faces! 39th over all but we won a pot noodle, the real winners fecked off in a hump, I snatched the prize. it’s on the mantle place now.
looking at the speeds we could have come 3rd in class right behind the two english teams,so no breakdowns next year! also maybe some sticker tyres.
Team cider came second in class! the winner was obviously an 86cc, so ted’s had enough and next year it’ll up a class to stock 90 i believe.
oh dear…
try to do stuff
managed to go on the new years day run, feeling wrecked from the meds, so i took the cbr, i was still wet next week it rained so hard. next year i’ll be on the c90, no excuses.
Bored in the house with all he ice and rain, fixed up a door lock, fascinating.
some ejit threw all this out, sky+HD box gave up a nice 3.5″ 500GB harddrive, sata cable, ata to sata power adapter, a neet little heatsink. the cheap drill worked perfect the battery fits my einhell charger. haven’t found a 12 brick to power the netlink router yet, i have a desktop PSU that would do it but i’d have to chop up a working brick to get the right connector, i’ll get it done later.
Today i actually made myself get out, figured it was time to service the car.
Only 2-3 years late. could park a bus in the spark plug gap. and yep the filter was fecked, i know this car is shit but you’ve gotta give it some credit for not dying on unfiltered oil.
yes we got another lathe. no we still haven’t got the other one working…
Important new addition to the family
A brand spanking new 5m x 3m steel shed, ok it’s not here yet, but it’s on the way. then the winter slowdown can go feck it’s self after i get a nice warm insulated dry shed.
Christmas pressies for us 🙂 which is mine?
Another pressie, this time a very cheap AM2 motherboard, why is it cheap? because it’s a mBTX and a toshiba, mBTX not very popular anymore (it’s still pretty good tho) and toshiba of a certain vintage won’t play nice with certain types of RAM, last stick in the bottom of the scrap pile was good!
Thumbs up for this one.
Thumbs down for all these
Fix mBTX to a ATX case? epoxy, meccano and some out of the box thinking (geddit? 😀 ) I’ve fitted 2x500gb sky+ harddrives, they’ll be a LVM data backup as the arcade setup wont’ take much space, (i’m not some wack rom hoarder) the LVM setup will get a 750GB added later. gotta fix up a spot to mount it. Also bought a 4200+ cpu from CEX, it’s runs right now at 2.2ghz i think.
so the older thingy has been dedicated to upto 16bit consoles only, nintendo is well supported, but i’m have loads of fun with the sega megadrive emulators.
Also built a couch, tided a corner and stuck the tv in there. yes i built it, with a chainsaw.
found a souncard and pad in the attic, no idea if it works, but i found something even better up there as well..
Yeap, an N64, sweet as fuck,
the sticks are worn out, but fixable.
just booted right up, even had the save files….
Things done in the garage, nothing actually, this is mostly teds stuff.
very worn out k3 xl250 cam tensioners blades. probably not going to put that bike back together.
however it has helped bringing this much nicer k0 xl250 back to life.
Very lumpy cam super secret cam for the racing 90, got that months ago, still not fitted.
so long time away from the blog, not much has really happened mostly due to a really wet winter and the medication really slowing me down, going to get the arcade built for the shed, so we can finally have out house/baby/shed warming party 🙂
more swapping bits!
Teds finally got a superlight xl250!, looks a bit rough in this pic, but it’s aleady got a bit of tart up and it looking very tasty, the k1/2 xl250 is much lighter and more sought after then my k3, and is much less broken.
it’s still broken mind, piston and barrel scored to buggery, teds going to use a cb250rs piston in the k1/2 barrel, it a got a few differences, couple of mill bigger, crown is higher but squish is lower, ted will be looking for some thing low compression, easy to start. but thats all later, need a barrel and piston now! so, take one unloved xl250k3:
Add twenty minutes of bolt undoing:
And we left that there, ted changed tyres on his XL and i got lunch. after lunch i had a stupid idea..
It rolls!, chains fine, air still in the never used sava race tyre.
TDR is not doing anything, so out it came and nope, bottom bearing is huge, allballsracing.com listed it as 48mm, probably the earlier tdr with the tube frame, this TDR is 55mm o.d. bottom bearing. pity as it was a clean front end, even it was two long.
RD200 front end is also a possibility, wouldn’t mind a drum brake, as long as it’s better then a stock rxs. don’t have one right now but it might turn up in the future.
Bolted my cbr back together, new found respect for my tiny 276mm after the shot bros brake. new axle collar for the bearings make me happy, i could now tighten up the axles and still rotate the wheel, great! wheel is still banjaxed tho, couldn’t find my spare.
Arcade is going ahead soon, a day spent playing retro arcade games at Sarges house has convinced me it will be excellent
f2 front end swap
Well I’ve had enough of the amazing collapsing bearings, just went ahead and ordered the new bit from Lee M/C, only €22 as cheap as the internet. Not in stock unfortunately, so what to do for the rest of the day?
Yep trawl through the crap around the place in search of a replacement anyway, i’ll have to change the front rim since the bearings are falling out of it as well (the O/D is worn too). so, rg215? bit far gone, needs springs, cb-1? bit melted in the fire. gsxf600? really really rusty. bros 400? only one shot fork leg, tyre and brakes are all there. not very good but there.
So, off with the bros frontend, off with the cbr’s frontend, chuck some wood under the bros so it’s not lying on the ground all winter and on with the swap! and it’s done, just like that, the whole lot including putting the tools away and cleaning the brake pistons. 2 hrs.
Steers like a sick hippo, forks are little too high and the tyre too big (110/80) springs are just a touch too soft and the wheel bearing are rumbling, but it’ll do until i have the cbr’s bits rebuilt. At least the wheel won’t fall off this way.
large and late update
first up the runner:
the seats great isn’t it? yes the rest of it is falling appart but who needs it? ebay front brake calliper is in terrible state
took it on the two stroke only run to the kilumney bike show:
It was the tzr125 that broke down, I totally got away with it!
cub 90 racer has successfully survived the paddy dakar, wish we could change our race number to 21 and go to mondello like this.
gotta strip the engine down for the compression increase, can’t leave the mud on it for that.
run run the runner
New expensive jolly moto pipe! (correct one this time!)
Piston looks good, nothing untoward on the back wall of the cylinder either.
Old pipe leaving much rust behind. i’ll patch it up for a backup pipe.
Ye hardly notice the mold, cob-webs and rust, when you have a JM pipe that’s worth more then the bike.
Storage spot, hopefully pipe will last longer if i keeps it shiny.
Whipped off the belt cover and polished off the rust on the rear variator, check the oil and water pump, there good but the toothed cog that powers both is quite wobbly on the shaft, better get a new one.
After spending ages trying to get the air to stay in the front tyre, I made it to the petrol station and back, brakes are worthless,suspension just totally not there. ticking over at 80k/mh. nothing blew up, excellent.
So i’d better fix them brakes,sorta might need em. Much lube and fettling later it was time for some brute force. I fixed them so hard the caliper is now utterly shot, off to ebay! and that godsdamn slider is still stuck in there to boot.
Pretty bikes day out
Very tidy RGV in the car park, wasn’t on the run unfortunately.
This Norton spent the day in the lead, Ted was all over the back of it, gb400 being spanked within an inch of it’s life to keep up. Fingers crossed every time we stopped at a junctions as the starter cart was in the back of an el camino, and first gear was very very tall.
yes the guy wore the 58 pisspot helmet too!
Strangest thing happened that day, my CBR was the newest thing there, and generated some interest, mostly jokes about how scabby it is (and it is, no defence there) and talking crap about bikes it turns out i had mine longer then most of the greybeards have had there toys, hmm am i getting soft about the CBR after 9 years of ownership?
stop leaking ya bastard
Spent a little time playing hunt the petrol leak, pulled apart the vacuum tap and found a little bit of corrosion built up on the tapered seat, cleaned that up, poured a litre in and left it sit for a while.
Looked fine when i came back, no leaks! but when i picked it up to toss back on the bike the lip of the fuel pump had a little lake built up in the there. pump to tank seal is not right, probably shouldn’t have disturbed it in the first place and i wouldn’t have this problem.
Cleaned the face’s (lots of pitting and corrosion) sighed at the ruined paint and applied a thing smear of gasket goo.
Came back after helping with a R6 engine, no leaks, cautious optimism, shake the tank a bit, suck on the vacuum pipe, tiny weep from correct fuel outlet (after i stopped sucking) Success! ( in my book anyway)
Threw it together and went an spent 4 hours at the local kart track racing ourselves, there’s a little more to be gotten out of the engine, more compression and the cam needs dialling in, but it held out against the other two bike and their 125’s. I definitely won the not crashing contest. Colin however ran away with all the other prizes. worst brakes, best engine, most damage to the track by hitting it with his head…
After all the fun, no leaks under the yzf! score!
decided not to try to replace the cbr yet, i’ve no dry place to put the YZF as is and i think i’ll try to keep this one clean. well clean for me anyway.
start ya bastard
Yzf runs! manually fed the carbs with a funnel and attached a battery directly to the starter motor, will attempt to put it together next day i have off.
bike insurance is up, so i’m tempted to retire the cbr and make the yzf my main road bike. many break downs will occur.
Always wanted to take a shot of a stock corsa next to mine. amazing how you see the same colour car as your own all the time, despite thinking to your mind no one in their right mind would buy a car this colour. Finally tracked this bugger down, and i had my camera on me this time.
Tall isn’t it? if i could only find a three door in this shade dropped to the floor..
