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www.motorcyclenews.com/sport/tt-road-races/2016/may/suter-500-iom-tt-unveiled/

FZR data

Just to add that the YSS PD Valves are now installed I adjusted them to 5 threads showing at the bottom, and used 10W silkolene fork oil, with a 130 mm air gap measured with the valves in place - I could find any info. on whether this should be measured with or without the valves, and in hindsight I probably should have measured the air gap without the valves. Was about 420ccs.

Anyway we'll see how it feels. Oh and I didn't cut the preload spacers at all, considering adding a bit of preload will be OK.

I also changed both headlight bulbs - after Libby broke them both at the weekend. So much messing about with the lights, that the battery couldn't cope with starting it this morning....

Update

I helped Eric look at the valve clearances on his 600 Ducati Desmo, it was an eye opener to what is involved in getting the clearances right - whoever came up with the idea of zero clearance - an interesting concept impossible to measure and even harder to adjust. First challenge was to get TDC on each cylinder on the right stroke for both valves to be closed. He had various marks on the belt pulleys and on the alternator, which more or less did the job, but at the end of the day, we measured when the valves were obviously closed and we could see the piston through the spark plug holes at TDC. Measuring the opening valve clearances gave that they were pretty much all to small, and then you are supposed to lean on the closing arm, and this should give you the combined clearance (opening and closing) which all seemed again far to small. The conclusion we came to was that it had been badly done previously, and he wasn't confident enough to start removing the shims so we left it there - we will see how much Ducati want for doing the valves properly and changing the belts. I must do Chris' Ducati soon, although I think you need to drain the oil, and as I have just completed the oil change, I will probably wait until, there is nothing else to do in the garage.

Took the Ducati out on Saturday, for it's first run after oil change, it was weaping oil from the oil filter cover, so need to look at that, but apart from that was going well. Started OK, and nearly ticks over.

The RG is now completey back together and fluids are all topped up, need to book some track time to test. I moved the carb needles down (leaner), as I really must concentrate on getting it running a little better below 8K.

I ordered another YSS fork valve for the street going FZR, as had complaints about the handling from Libby, and I agree the track bike handles really well, whereas the road bike has a hinge in the middle somewhere, the plan is to do the forks and then mess with the rear shock which has loads of adjustment, but if I can't get that to work properly, then buy a Shock Works replacement.

The forks are off the bike and cleaned and prepared waiting for the valves to arrive from the UK.

Thinking about doing another "stage de pilotage" but at Ledenon in July, so at least I can find my way around Ledenon..... we'll see.

FZR600 new needles

Finished putting the RG back together, exhausts on, rebuilt a nylon washer for my gear lever to make it a bit less wobbley! Only had 700cc of gearbox oil, and I still need to add water.

I purchased a ProFactory jet kit for the FZR as I am told that it's impossible to adjust the carbs with pod filters, the kit comes with 2 sizes of main jets and bigger (35) pilot jets and most importantly needles with a different profile. Put them on 2nd clip position from the bottom and added the pilot jets. The mains seem very big so will wait until I've tried it like that.

Gearbox back in

Received new bits from Suzuki on Wednesday, so the days task was to get the gearbox back in. It goes in pretty easily, however on the first attempt the primary shaft would not turn, at all, once it was in, so I had to take it back out! The problem turned out to be the kickstart mechanism that had slipped out during messing about, and was blocking the primary shaft completely, not sure I fully understand the kickstart and how it interacts with the rest of the gearbox, but it seemed to work better, so in it went for another try. This time success, it's all torqued up and I can get all 6 gears, so I suppose that's a success, Put some gasket silicon on the clutch cover, and there is always some leaks around there and now I just need to refit the exhausts and other ancillaries and we'll be good to go! Just for reference the tab screws went in with loctite medium strength and I used a new clutch nut lock washer.

Holidays

Sitting next to the pool hiding from the sun, so a quick update was in order! The bearing had in fact only moved about a millimeter, and after having removed the input and output shafts I had enough space to lie the plate flat and give the bearing a good wack in (with a drift of course). That was sufficient to have it sit back where it should be, and I can't find any sign of wear on the bearing so it's staying in.

The small cog on the input shaft (part of the shaft) was showing some pitting and the dogs at the other end of the shaft also had some wear, so I sent photos to Nova, and they confirmed everything is normal, so it's all going back in. We'll just have to see. The only real "problem" identified was the loose shifting barrel screw so I'll loctite that up and hopefully we'll get back to a sweet shifting box.