Phat Trakka

[CJF]

Thanks Chris. Yes. I cut the filler cap out and fitted the feller cap and surrounding metal from an 07 GSXR. It took some metal bashing to get the two to work together. I also had to weld in a drain/overflow pipe for the recessed filler cap, so there is a drain tube that appears in the middle of the tunnel to drain away rain or spills.

The aftermarket filler cap has an interesting ball valve to allow air in, but I have yet to find out how well that works. It is possible that I'll have to make some design changes in there.

The seat started out as a flat track seat for a Goldwing I believe. It came from Gordon Lamb off his gray M model and was modified slightly to stretch the hump and then I built in a tool box/lunch box/glove box/whatever. The seat pad is foam from that seat, shaved down to half thickness sitting on a carbon/glass/carbon sandwich base.

I would have preferred to make it more narrow, but it matches the tank so well, I decided to leave it.

The metal work you've done to make the tank is killer. Looks like it came right off the showroom floor.

[Ugly]

Wow! Beautiful. Some of you guys are like Michelangelo or something but with way cooler finished products than a naked David statue or some painting.

[tz375]

Thanks guys. Let's not get completely carried away here.

Ian,
I wish. No. It's just an L block with the side indents removed by removing surplus metal. And then I took a little metal off the transfer passageways. I did have a couple of TR pictures as inspiration - particularly that Harris framed TR.

Mark,
Rolph Harris????? No wooden boards flapping about to make music here mate. I know what you mean, but that's because it isn't finished. Side covers are now close and with luck I'll get the Pingel tap and external fuel filters on this weekend then I get to start de-bugging it and see what's working and what isn't.

leaks are first issue to deal with and then electrics. There are so many changes from stock and I need to confirm that it charges and regulates battery voltage within acceptable limits. After that I can tackle the leaky exhaust and then I get to set timing and jetting etc. And then I'll clean it up and show it off.

Chris,
Keep those magnets away from my tank It's mainly steel in there, but there is some filler to even things out.

[oldjapanesebikes]

I wish. No. It's just an L block with the side indents removed by removing surplus metal. And then I took a little metal off the transfer passageways. I did have a couple of TR pictures as inspiration - particularly that Harris framed TR.

I know you had said it was a modified standard block earlier in the thread, but there was also some back and forth so I wasn't sure. Really nice job in that Richard - I like the look

[tz375]

did you extend the kicker as last time you said it was a bugger to kick over.?
cheers mark

Au contraire mon ami, the kicker is slightly shorter than stock. I did a little surgery on it when I built it to fit a modern 450 MX bike kick lever onto the pivot. It's aluminum, so it weighs a lot less than stock but is slightly shorter. The issue with kicking that big bugger over is the somewhat higher than stock compression and of course the electric starter was binned.

It's not really that hard to kick over but it's considerably harder than a stock bike.

[water cooled]

I have similar issues especially after trailering the bike or after it sits too long. I have to have the boys help me push the bike to the top of the driveway and let is go down, then pop the clutch and clear the cylinders. Only after that, will it kick start reliably.

I really like your smaller aluminum kicker though and have studied it closely. Nice job on the design.

[tz375]

Thanks Kevin,

Have you looked into getting an electric (hand held) starter to shed another couple of pounds in the motor department? Expensive weight reduction I know, but those gears and shafts all add up.

[tz375]

I finally made time today to take it outside and fire it up to see what needs to be fine tuned. The petcock drama was solved really simply and it was Coyote that gave me the clue. It seems that many GS and GSXRs use a similar design of petcock and all have the same 44mm spacing. I looked at a bunch of new ones on ebay and just chose one that looked like the vacuum connection and feed tube were pointing in roughly the right direction and $45 later it was here. It turned out to be marginally wider and 2 minutes with a round file on the bottom of the tank fixed that.

The GS petcock looks slightly different but so does everything else on the bike so that wasn't an issue. And so far it seems to work fine and the leak has gone.

So out it was dragged into the sunshine and it fired up easily, but boy is it smokey. The left pipe and collector (3 into 1 remember) were leaking so much oil I thought that my British ancestry was rubbing off on the bike. I ran a couple of heat cycles and it didn't seem to be much better so I dragged it in and off came teh pump cover, pump, air filters etc to test the octopus and check valves and they seem fine. I can't determine what pressure if any they crack open but they do close to reverse pumping.

I even pulled the SRIS black off bolt to drain the crankcase and a tea spoon or so came out which is all it should be. Maybe it's the pump over pumping or maybe it's just all the oil slopped around during assembly. I'll try to run it again tomorrow and if nothing falls off, I'll try to get it registered and insured this week or next and take it for a run to clear its throat and get it nice and hot.

Then I need to locate a Dyno. The guys we used to use have gone out of business and the dyno next door to them moved. I should probably get some miles on it first and then take it to the dyno to test pipes and carbs.

[Willie]

Hey Richard! Long time, no correspond. I've been away from the board for a long time as well. Beeeeyutiful bike ya got there, good buddy! This is the 1st time I've read the thread and checked out the pictures. Impressive to say the least. I'm curious as to what route you decided to take with the charging system. In particular, the regulator and rectifier. I want to "update" mine (GT750) and have been considering trying a combined reg/rectifier from a GS1100 but have doubts as to whether or not it'll work. I look forweard to learning about yours.
I'm still in the process of mounting SV650 calipers to grab F3 rotors that I've mounted on a shouldered Akront. Sad to report that my biggest progress to date has been finding a matching Akront for the rear. At least the rims look good.
Willie in TN

[tz375]

Willie, How have you been? Good to hear that you are still around. Thanks for the kind words.

Regulator and rectifier were so simple. I ordered an RR77 from Electrexworld in the UK. I have not checked the voltage out of it but it plugs straight into the stock connectors. I replaced the original stock connector because it was old and had some corrosion. Connectors are available form Oregon Motorcycle Parts who have a Reg/Rec combo of their own that some of the lads have fitted. http://www.oregonmotorcycleparts.com/Reg_rec_units.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; it's at the bottom of the page.

[water cooled]

R, were you able to take the bike out for a spin?

[tz375]

Not yet. Small issue of registration and insurance to take care of first and few small teething troubles to iron out.

I wasted hours yesterday cleaning up the stock pipes. The plan was to run it on the dyno with stock pipes, then Strader 3into1 and finally a set of Jemco's that someone was kind enough to lend me for the test. After hours of clean up I slipped in one new baffle and was going to wrap the others and then decided to install the pipes first. That's when it finally dawned on me that stock pipes and longer shocks don't co-exist peacefully.

This morning I fired it up after cleaning the oily plug and it sounds crisp and smoke levels are down - just from cleaning the pipes - nothing else changed.

I tested the voltage and at tickover it's around 12.5 or so and at 4k it's 14.7v which I thought was a little high but it's not adjustable. Maybe a larger battery would be able to absorb that better - time will tell. I ran it without the seat and the R/R does get quite hot and it's only an inch or so below my seat, so that may have to be moved soon. or maybe I'll keep the bike for spring and fall and claim it has a seat warmer.

I did ride it half a block and it feels pretty good. Brakes are a different world to stockers and it's much lighter. So far so good.

[water cooled]

....stock pipes are over-rated....

throw those shiny stockers up on ebay...(after dyno testing them of course) i'm assuming the pipes fit (static) and can be dyno tested but just cant be ridden due to the shocks?

[tz375]

And overweight. Stock pipes are ridiculously heavy.

I did have the thought of opening them up, gutting them and making them into chambers - stealthy stock looking outer shell and exciting chambers inside, but that's a lot of work for little or no return.

Thew only way I could fit them would be to fit shorter shocks, so that's one less set of dyno runs I need to do

[oldjapanesebikes]

.....so that's one less set of dyno runs I need to do

Pity - it would be really nice to just have some actual data as a bench mark.