Seals and bushes

Received the Pyramid kit, and the YSS Fork valve a cheaper version of the racetech goldvalves.

I had never changed bushes before, and it was  a right pain getting the outer bush seated in the lower part of the fork, lot's of bashing about, still they finally went in and then the oil seals and new dust covers were a doddle. In order to fit the PD valves, (dunno what that stands for, but they couldn't really call them "gold valves" could they!), you basically negate the damping effect of the damping rod by drilling some big holes, to allow the oil to circulate freely, then the damping is controlled by a spring loaded shim which sits in the path of the oil. The spring pressure is controlled by a screw, and it's this screw which you can adjust to get varying levels of damping stiffness.

Here is a picture of the damping rods with the holes drilled in them (before and after).

The forks went back on and I fitted the clipons between the top and bottom triple clamps, to make it more racey. I bolted up the gearbox sprocket, and removed the rear wheel for cleaning.

I need to put it back on as the garage is getting cleaned out and a lino floor put down, hopefully banishing the white flecks of paint on everything, I'll take a photo of the new garage floor!

FZR forks overhaul

Well, I have been working on the front end of the "Track" FZR. I managed to get the brake pistons moving fairly well, and I think with some rubber grease in there, they will be OK.

The forks are a bit marked, and a full strip down was necessary, but I couldn't get the damper bolt out of the bottom of each fork leg, they were really stuck. Looking on the web, many people had used a 24mm (across flats) nut which fits in the top of the damper unit, so it was off to the shops to buy some threaded rod and 4 nuts.

The two additional nuts are just to block the others on the thread. It worked a treat and the fork legs are now apart.

The old gunge in the bottom of the legs was discusting - stank the place out! One of the bushes was worn, so I have purchased a kit off Ebay, which contains the 2x2 bushes and seals and dust covers.

I am also contemplating buying a do it yourself length of braided brake hose, with the appropriate fittings to do the front of the FZR, plus the rear on the RG, RD, and FZR, works out a lot cheaper, and doesn't seem difficult to achieve. Venhill do a kit of stuff.

Bike Updates

Just some stuff to ensure I have it written down :-
Serviced the Daytona at the weekend : Oil, filter, Air filter, plugs just past 80K kms now.
Changed the oil and filter on the Street at 15785Kms.

New rear tyres for the Dayto and the Street - Sportsmart II, fitted at Dafy Moto
New front tyre on the FZR 600 fitted at MotoLabo - Pirelli Angel

Stripped the forks and front brakes on the Track FZR, got all the pistons moving again, but need to make a tool to allow me to split the fork uppers from the lowers, on the web the guys use a 24mm nut on the end of a long threaded rod, the 24mm nut fits into the end of the damping rod allowing you to turn the allen screw at the other end.

Went out on the Ducati at the weekend - started second kick (good), although still popping and farting more than it did. It just about holds tickover now, I let Pierre-Luc have a go (at his request), and was able to follow it, and it is blowing a bit of blue smoke, so need to keep an eye on the oil level. Pumped the front tyre up on it, and improved the handling no-end :-) When we stopped Pierre Luc pulled on the tank, grabbing the petrol line and dislodging it from the rear carb, so we spent half an hour trying to push it back on, it just needs to be a few cms. longer.....Lovely colours in the Vercors, and bikes running well.

Still need to look at the RG500 after the weekend at Ales, I think it has seized slightly on Nr. 1 but I need to look.

The winter program is looking something like :

RG500 : Engine, build a carbon airbox

RD350 : Look at slight oil leak (gear change shaft or clutch cover), fix rev. counter
Ducati : Petrol lines (don't worry Chris I'll keep the old ones..), oil and filter change
FZR600 Track : Finish forks, simplify wiring, Race fairing

FZR600 Street : Paint & fit new fairing

Alès Video - just a couple of laps on the RD350

Don't worry if the revs. never go over 4K - I was having some problems with the needle jamming!

Ales - RG 500 30 years anniversary Track Day outing

I had booked us in to the RG500 club de France annual track day weekend, at the Pole Technique d'Ales, they always pick such a late date in the year, last years was cancelled due to bad weather, but as it was the 30th birthday gig, I couldn't really miss it.

They join forces with the RD500 club, and basically any two strokes can take to the track.

They book the Sunday and Monday for the "weekend" which I think reduces costs, and does allow anyone, anywhere in France and elsewhere to get to the circuit in the South of France. We had been eyeing the weather forecast for the last couple of weeks, and the Sunday and Monday seemed OK, but torrential rain was forecasted for Saturday, so we decided on staying at a hotel for Saturday night and setting up at the circuit on Sunday morning.

As forecast there were some really bad storms, with people dying near Nice and other parts of the South, so we were pretty lucky, that in Ales the storms were just bad!

Sunday morning at the track, and we jumped on the last space in the paddock near a fence (for the barnum), next to a couple of guys down from the UK, with their highly modified track RD500's (Darren & Luke).

We got setup and signed on for the "confirmed" group (most experienced). The weather was pretty cold so I was bit worried about the jetting of the RG, so I took out the RD 350 for the first and second sessions on an initially damp track, but quickly drying off. Just before the lunch time break I took the 500 out, and it went through 15 mins, on a dry track. No worries, although nothing much under 8.5K there was strong power through to 11K. The temperature must have around 17-18 degrees centigrade, still a little low compared to my last track day at Ledenon. At lunch I checked the plugs on the 350 and 500, the 350 looked a little light on one plug, but the 500 seemed pretty rich on the 3 out of 4 cylinders, so I wasn't concerned when I took it out for the first afternoon session at 15:00. Unfortunately I did a couple of laps, and at the end of the relatively short straight, it coughed and I felt a seize coming on, so in with the clutch and coast back to the pits!

The rest of the weekend went well on the 350, completing 11 sessions in all.
They had a classic rock band on the Sunday night with a guitarist who really knew his Hendrix, Clapton etc..., with a BBQ etc.. so all in all a great weekend, a part from the obvious technical issues. My thanks as usual to the pit crew (Libby) for an excellent weekend. The photos below are an RG500 with an RGV250 top fairing, with an RS250 seat unit, which I really like and may try to emulate in a future build.