Ducati 888

RG500 Ales feedback

I haven't blogged anything in a long time, so much has happened.

Just to keep a record, I changed the fork seals on the RG and on the 350 as both bikes were starting to weep. The RG has 1989 GSXR 750 forks (K I think). I put 410 ccs of 10W Ipone fork oil in both legs.

I have been investigating new forks for the 350 and have purchased a second hand pair of FZR600 1994 Forks with wheel and brakes. As far as I can see they are pretty much plug and play except the stem is too long, so may have to make up a spacer to get them to tighten up!

Here is brief news of the rest of the bikes in the garage :

The Ducati 888 is still waiting to get sold I reduced the price to 6000 Euros, quite a bit of interest but no serious buyers. People aren't too keen knowing that there is little service record.

The Daytona is going well after having the vacuum pipes on the IVAC changed - the ends split and leak air - a common problem. I have fitted a new Bridgestone S23 tyre to the rear and am waiting impatiently to wear out the front to put a new S23 on it!

The FZR had new carbs float chamber gaskets and one size bigger main jets and seems all the better for it, much less buzzy at high revs, could probably go up another size but not for the moment, she is on my list of getting fairings painted and road worthy this winter!

The Triumph T120/T140 has almost been finished I am waiting for a final drive chain to arrive and then it will go back to Olivier for the winter - oops!

Libby's street is fine - no work or anything - still runs great although the cam chain adjuster is noisy - again a common issue!

I have only qdded approx. 200kms to the 900ss this year, it went very well although a little difficult to start for the first time. Will need to change the oil and filter in the spring.

The FZR Track bike had a new Diablo supercorsa tyre (a 150) on the rear zhich zore out in just 3 track days! So I have fitted a much cheaper Bridgestone RS10 which will get a try out next year. I have had a great couple of track days - both at La Vaison circuit near Torcy Challon sur Soane, a nice grippy circuit, quite small but very twisty.

The final track day of the year was at a damp Ales circuit, where both the 350 and 500 worked well, I am told the 500 was smoking more from the No. 4 so I need to investigate that, and I will also be investigating ignition curves again as after discussing with some of the guys, my ignition curve needs tuning! 

On a two stroked the ignition needs retarding as the revs get higher, not advancing as you would expect on a 4 stroke. The basic two stroked curve, goes almost straight up to full advance (in my case 30 degrees) then starts to fall as of about 6K in a virtual straight line to about 4 degrees advance at 12K rpm! The reasoning behind retarding the ignition is all to do with mixture swirl apparently, I listened to a number of guys on youtube ( look up 2 stroke stuffing if interested) and it all gets a bit fluffy when talking ignition advance, but you have to retard to get overrev (apparently important).

So I will be trying some stuff there, I managed to alter the standard Suzuki pickup to give approx 30 degrees static advance. And I am in the process of modifying the leaky Dent pickup so that I can use that again as necessary. Photos as I finish. In order to modify the standard pickup you basically shave off some of the plastic material on the top of the pickup and elongate the screw holes to let it sit higher (about 4mms). There is a great article on Randys website on how to do it.