Almost ready

Just a quick update without pictures. The seat is now painted and fitted, the foam for the seat was difficult to cut cleanly, but it's done now, although not yet stuck on. The ignition is on and working although only tested with the battery, and not without, I need to test this before Ledenon (5/6th April). The exhausts have been leaking a little so they've been taken off and resealed. I am obviously running very rich as there is unburnt petrol in the pipes, I am not too worried about this as I am running in, but I will probably need to drop my needle jet one notch (after having lifted it - because of the tune). The main jets have not been tested as yet because I am staying below 6000 rpm. I have received my new race tyres, and I will need to fit them this weekend, just to make sure they don't rub anywhwere - they are wide!

Seat is on...well nearly

Went for a very frisky morning ride (on the Daytona) to get my freshly made seat from Poly26. Patrick Pierre came with me and we froze on the way there (too early), but the guy who owns Poly26 was really friendly, and made us coffee and brioche to warm us up when we got there - a really interesting guy, whose son runs in Promosport 1000 (on an R1 I think). He was going to enter Proclassic this year but was put off by the large amounts of traveling around France - he has an RC30 in his showroom!

Anyway made it home with the seat in the ruck sack, and after a weeks skiing and various other disturbances, I managed to get it on the bike. I had to saw parts of the frame off to get it too fit, so this is REALLY good bye to a road bike and hello exclusive racing bike. The ignition is getting setup, although I am changing one connector at a time to ensure that I can always go back to the original setup, that way I have a spare!

The beast runs!!

Hi All,
Well we've reached a milestone - the bike now starts again. Believe it or not, the rotor (flywheel) I had fitted after the rebuild was the wrong one - although physically the same it was a different part number and not compatible with the stator fitted to my bike! (Beware all 31K owners - the VCD88 flywheel will NOT function on your bike).

I have ordered my seat from Poly26 (get it tomorrow), and I have received my programmable ingition kit which will need some work to connect up, as all the wires need connectors crimping and soldering on! Still it may add a few HP!!

Speak soon,

Dave

ECE 22-05

Well, not much has progressed on the bike, but I have been trying to ensure my new purchase is in fact valid to use for racing. The French motorcycle federation have some (obviously) fairly strict rules about safety, although no-where do they seem to be completely explained.... If you look at their web site and dig around you do come up with phrases like "suitable crash helmet, full face, less than 5 years old, etc.. however no-where does it mention the ECE standard, for this they delegate responsibility to the FIM, and if you dig around in the Grand Prix rules, you come up with the fact that Crash helmets must be ECE 22-05. So what does that mean?

Well, in my new helmet you can find the following information on the throat strap:-
A big E3 followed by 052346/P and then 008558, from what I can gather, (and I now have the ECE standard downloaded onto my PC), the E3 - the 3 means the helmet was approved in Italy (there is a different number for each of the member countries), the 05 (first 2 numbers) relate to the amendment of the current standard i.e. this is amendment number 5 (this is the 05 bit of 22-05), the following 4 figures represent the approval number, now I am not sure if this is dependant on the manufacturer plus the specific approval number or if this relates somehow to something else - still a mystery! the /P means that the helmet was tested with chin protection (i.e. full face). The following series of numbers are the manufacturers fabrication series, which should allow them to track any problems etc...

So I think I can now prove that my helmet IS eligible to be used in French competition, although I am still not sure of the date of manufacture of my helmet (Suomy don't reply to email...)

Bike update and goodies...

Hi All, and a happy new year!
I spent some of the Xmas holidays working on the bike. It is now completely back together again and ready to be run-in at the start of the new season. Only problem is that it won't start! I have been troubleshooting the problem, and I think the problem has now become solid i.e. There is now NO spark at all. I am pretty sure this is linked to the CDI, so have ordered a programmable one for a late Christmas present. I also stripped the carbs again just to make sure they went back together again right... and I did find some crap in the pilot jets and also in the float needle chamber, maybe coming from the tank which I need to check. For now it is waiting for the ignition!

The calendar for 2008 has been published at proclassic.free.fr

I have buying some goodies as you can see above - a Toseland rep, hopefully I will go much faster!

I am having real issues choosing tyres this year, as I would like to get something a bit wider than last year (to cope with all the additional power the engine should be making - ho ho), anyway it's decision time soon....

Flywheel is off

Just a quickie to say, that the flywheel is off and replaced with a locally bought second hand one. With all of the force I put in in removing the old one it had tightened the rivets and was no longer use, so I will keep it as a spare.

The "new" fibre reeds are in, and the engine is now closed - I just need to put back the carbs and fill her up with oil and I should be able to start running in.... if it all works!!

Mechanical Update

Well I have stripped off the head, barrels, engine covers, and as I think I mentioned the last time, the rotor (flywheel) was loose, I since have been through the local Yamaha shops drawer full of pullers, but only the two legged puller would do the job - or so I thought, unfortunately it didn't work, the rotor is on so solidly that I was actually damaging the edges of the rotor with the puller as I tightened it up! Still I have sourced another rotor (it needed changing anyway), and I have now bought a pattern tool from RDLCCRAZY in the UK, Norbo is great, always reactive, and cheap!

I quickly tried the tool last evening, however I think I will need to get the scaffold pole out, as even the well fitting tool is challenged. I hope no-one has glued this on or even worse welded on.....

Other updates, I have changed the main jets in the carbs (gone up to 260's), changed also the needles and the float needles and seats, this I hope, will get rid of my problem with the carb overflowing with fuel.

I have also taken a load of photos of my Stan Stephens barrels and head in order to copy his work on the old ones myself - this along with the rebuild will be my winter work. The work seems nice (I'm no expert!), and clean although some of the edges seem very sharp, I might get some emery cloth to the internal ports just to take the edge off them. The head has had 1 mm taken of it (more compression), the inlet ports enlarged by around 40%, and the exhaust raised I think, he has also modified some new power valves to meet the new profile of the exhaust ports. The transfer ports have been "sharpened" and a lot of material has been taken off.

I am also trying to get my head around making a new seat unit, using the one I have used this year as a "plug" (the basis of a mold). I am planning to do this in glass fibre, plus I may look at trying to protect my engine cases with some carbon fibre tape - I have never worked with carbon fibre before so this should be interesting.

I have been looking on E-bay for new (old) front disk calipers to replace the mono piston ones I have, but I may just bleed them, with Racing Brake fluid (Motul RBF) which may improve the performance considerably (or so I have been told!). The rear brake was rubbing and making an annoying noise, so that has been cleaned and bled (with standard fluid).

Speak to you soon, as soon as I get the rotor off!!