Motorcycles, Post if you got em

One more pic:

Nice job Smitty! Now get out there and practice those wheelies!
When I was in aircraft mechanics school my room mate and I each had 1976 RD 400s we bought brand new. We spent hours running the twisties above Sacramento. It was a blast, seeing your project makes me want to find one and fix it up... oh wait I have enough projects already!
Have fun and be careful out there.

Thanks Matthaus!

I L O V E this bike! The power, sound -- everything ...... except the handling, but I'll throw money at that problem later. Some tapered rollers for the steering stem, bronze bushings for the swingarm, a steering damper & some fork valving & a set of shocks -- It'll be mint!

I went for a little cruise & came back with Yamalube all over my polish job. Turns out the tank I swapped out had a hair-line crack across & behind the mounting tabs at the top. Didn't leak until it sloshed around from riding. Yamabond is my friend -- problem solved!

My charging system is on it's way out too. I swapped out the brushes from the donor bike (one brush was half missing on the good bike), but still no dice. Adjusted voltage regulator, still no good. Gotta do some more testing. I've been looking to upgrade the ignition & charging system to a MZ-B / Zeeltronic -- looks like a great system! A bit pricey though. There's also the RDD/Chinoy which is dynamic with a handlebar mounted timing map switch, but $600 .... & I think it's made in India, so I'm a little sketchy on that one.

SMITTY wrote:Thanks Matthaus!

I L O V E this bike! The power, sound -- everything ...... except the handling, but I'll throw money at that problem later. Some tapered rollers for the steering stem, bronze bushings for the swingarm, a steering damper & some fork valving & a set of shocks -- It'll be mint!

Sounds like you're having a blast!

I swapped out the Jardine muffler yesterday for the stock exhaust on the Buell. It came with the Jardine installed, but he also had the stock muff along with all the hardware. It (stock muff) was rusty, like they all get after a few years, so just a strip and repaint with Stove Brite took care of it. I definitely got my missing bottom end torque back (the stock exhaust has an active servo valve) but also lost all the sound. It sounded baaad-a$$ with the Jardine. Now it sounds like the Kohler V-twin on my Cub Cadet. I knew it would be quiet, but damn! At least earplugs aren't mandatory just to go around the block anymore. Funny thing is that from dyno plots I've seen, the Jardine with the quiet insert (I made my own but Jardine sells one) makes at best only equal power if not less top end than the stock muff. Buell did his homework and the stock setup is not only quiet, but makes good power. Usually any aftermarket setup only gets better in the top end unless you go the high flow air filter route and then you need a reprogram on the ECM.

Chris

Yeah, I haven't been this jazzed up about a bike in a long time! Glad I spotted the deal & nobody bid on it.

Sometimes the torque loss isn't worth the sound. Torque is great on the street. You might have been able to get it back with a custom map for the EFI. My buddy had one done on his insane GSXR1000 that we built. They tune 10 throttle positions in each gear, plus every 200 rpm in each position in each gear ...... it's pretty involved -- takes about 45 minutes. At the end of the run, my buddies brand new rear tire looked like it did 100 race laps without taking 1 turn! Shredded in the center with purple on each side, & about 4 inches of brand new rubber to the edge. 180+ rear-wheel horsepower will do that...

Torque is one of the reasons I've been hesitant on tossing my stock RD pipes in the loft -- I love the broad powerband. But I also love how responsive 2-strokes are to pipe changes.... & the sound is FANTASIC! Got some decisions to make.....

I just put an FMF pipe on an old YZ80 I have kicking around. It went from having broad, but unimpressive power, to EXPLOSIVE, LIGHT-SWITCH WHEELIE IN ALL 6 powerband!! It has ABSOLUTELY ZERO low- end power, but bring the revvs up & OMFingG!!! I could sit in front of the front axle & it would still put me on my back in the first 3!

SMITTY wrote:Torque is one of the reasons I've been hesitant on tossing my stock RD pipes in the loft -- I love the broad powerband. But I also love how responsive 2-strokes are to pipe changes.... & the sound is FANTASIC! Got some decisions to make.....

I remember reading about the RZ350 when it came out. The hot ticket for the street was installing a set of the Canadian stock pipes because they didn't have the catalytic converters and made quite a bit more power, but kept the broad powerband. They did a comparison with some other "race" pipes and all the expansion chamber pipes made scary top end, but all the torque and powerband went away. A few of the pipes even had the power peak PAST redline!! Plus they were all wicked loud.

I had the same result around 1988 on my '80 XS850G that previously was my father's bike. I installed a Mac 3 into 1 exhaust on it and while it wasn't particularly raucous in the noise department, it killed all the bottom and midrange torque. The top end rush was fun, but not very usable. When I compared it to the stock pipes, I could see why - the header pipe diameter was MUCH larger on the Mac pipe because they were single wall pipes where the stockers were double wall (to prevent the chrome from bluing). I left the Mac on for a while, got tired of it, and put the stock pipes back on - and found happiness (and tractor torque) all over again.

Chris

For those of you riding Dual Sports check out the Shinko 705 tires. Chaparral has them for around $100 a set and they're getting rave reviews all over the net. Just put a set on my 1200GS and for $96 they're hard to beat.

Those look VERY high-speed-sweeper friendly! If I had those on my old DRZ400S, NOBODY would have touched me in the twisties.

Traced my charging issue to a bad voltage regulator. No amount of adjustment or point cleaning could salvage her. I also chickened out on the Zeeltronic system -- the money tree hasn't been producing as of late...

But I got a great deal on a modern regulator/rectifier combo from a place in Oregon -- the guy builds them in his shop. Gave me a smokin' deal I couldn't pass up!

Now the bad part........WAITING........

Motorbikes & Keystokers, what do they have in common?

Does anyone recognize this bridge?

Thats the bridge that goes over the river, right?

nice ride

Poconoeagle wrote:Thats the bridge that goes over the river, right?

nice ride

Yes, it crosses the river. This bridge and coal mining have something in common.

05 Yamaha Royal Star Midnight Venture
Last ride to Mt Greylock MA

So I take it they finally finished working on the road up there! Was shut down for a while for the construction (like every other road in MA! ) . And your enjoying your new-found comfort on the Royal Star!

I used to go up there 6 times a year when I was a teenager (back when they let you park for FREE!! Remember that??? ) Never got bored. The ride out ther was half the fun. We used to tear down Rte.2, hitting all the twisties with the Millers River right next to us .... then seeing how fast we could hit the hairpin turn at before one of us braked ....... good times. My old KZ got a hell of a workout on those rides!

That has to be the best road in MA -- all 7 miles of it. Gotta play your cards right if you want to see anything up there though -- 95% of the time, it's socked in with fog. I refuse to give one dime extra to this state now, so sadly I may never go there again.