Sunday 22 January 2012

Zeeltronic for the RG

I am getting fedup with working on the RD350, just because each time I try to move forward, I need to buy some small part or other, and then I have to wait for it to arrive by the post, and it all seems to be taking too long. This weekends objective was to fit my programmable ignition and power valve to the 500 - hopefully this would be more straightforward, and indeed that's how it turned out.

The ignition unit comes with loads of options e.g. quickshifter, rev. counter, program switch - all these I am not going to use at least initially. When you look at the number of wires coming out of the ignition box, you need first to sort through and tape these back so it looks easier to understand. I had payed Borut the extra Euros to get the connectors already crimped on, so really most of the wiring was just plug and play, however there are a couple of things to do.





You need to connect the green/yellow wires from the ignition box to the powervalve box, these both came with female connectors, but in my case the two boxes are placed next to each other, so would be close enough to plug straight in, this meant removing one of the females and adding a male bullet connector which was supplied in the kit. For some reason, you need to run seperate wires to the coils (on the RG wiring, the same feed is used (blue/white wire). So I decided to use the standard blue/white wire for one coil, and run a new wire for other coil. Unfortunately I didn't have any "good" coloured wire, so I ran in a brown wire all the way from the coil servicing cylinders 2 & 4, the return wire from both coils (white) is common, so was used as was. From the Zeel box, the pink and orange wires provide the low tension feed for the coils, and white is the return. I needed to find 12V from somewhere to power both boxes, the PPV box gets it from the standard connector, whereas the ignition box needs an additional supply, for the moment, I have plugged it into an orange wire on the original loom, which I believe used to supply the rear brake switch, anyway testing the resistance it would seem it should get 12V when powered.



The RG runs a big capacitor (battery eliminator) instead of a battery, for the moment I am not sure if the kickstart will give enough oomph to power the ignition box in order to start the bike, so I will have to try it out, although in order to do that, I need to put some fuel in and to be honest I have just drained the carbs etc... for the winter, so testing will probably wait for the spring. If it doesn't work I will need to use the LiIon battery purchased to replace the one I lost on the 350 in my accident at Croix-en-Ternois.

I have positioned the two boxes towards the rear of the bike, and I have cut a small trap in the undertray so that I can attach the Zeeltronic handheld programmer without having to remove the fairing or seat unit. I will need to make a small cover so that all the crap from the track doesn't get into the connectors!

Monday 16 January 2012

Pro Classic Calender

Pro Classic 2012:
- 21/22 April - Croix en Ternois
- 2/3 June - Nogaro
- 30 June 1er July - Croix en Ternois (week-end ProClassic)
- 21/22 July - Le Mans
- 4/5 August - Magny-Cours
- 1/2 September - Ledenon

Endurance :
- 5/6 May - Carole
- 30 June and 1st July - Croix en Ternois

Apparently the date at Carole (Paris) is doubtful, as they are in the process of renewing certain parts of the circuit to take into account new owners (the FFM have bought the circuit).

Sunday 8 January 2012

Custom cables for VM34

Well, I've joined the club of the custom cable makers - I can now solder nipple on the end of a cable and it holds! The problem is that I still haven't managed to get my new cables to open the throttles correctly, I can have a fully open throttle with a third open at "idle" or I can have the throttle closed on the idle screw but only seven eighths fully open!

The technique to making a nipple stick, is getting the cable totally grease free, and then feeding on the nipple, and then squashing the end of the cable with pliers, you then push up the nipple until it sits about 0.5 mms from the end, and then after dunking the whole thing in the flux, you heat, and add solder (plumbers stuff not electrical), after a couple of attempts, I got it just about right, but I have given up for the day as I am getting frustrated about getting the actual length right. I have a feeling that my original cable setup is not capable of pulling enough cable to lift the bigger slides, and that I will have to buy another throttle setup.

Anyway it's another skill learnt at least!


I bought the "nipples" on line in a place called: trialbits.co.uk

Thursday 5 January 2012

VMA Preliminary Calender

- 21/22 avril CROIX EN TERNOIS
- 2/3 juin NOGARO
- 1 juillet PAU
- 21/22 juillet LE MANS
- 4/5 août MAGNY-COURS
- 1/2 septembre LEDENON
- 15/16 septembre Haute Saintonge
- 20/21 octobre LE VIGEANT

Not ethis is the VMA calender (not ProClassic), so relevant only for the 350. We'll see after the ProClassic Calender announcement next week, how many of these I can do.