[toglhot]

Speedo/tacho/voltmeter bracket made up today. I'll be adding a few LEDs later on for oil, indicators and so on.

 

[hogcowboy]

Speedo/tacho/voltmeter bracket made up today. I'll be adding a few LEDs later on for oil, indicators and so on.

Is that buffed stainless steel? Looks good whatever it is.

 

[toglhot]

Polished aluminium.

 

[toglhot]

Started the TX up again to check the tacho and voltmeter. I had intentions of checking the timing on each cylinder, unfortunately, the POS timing light refused to play. Not to worry, max voltage from the PMA was 14.5 and the bike idles nicely at around 1250 RPM. I placed the camera behind the bike to record the exhaust. Camera doesn't do it justice though, it's very loud and emits a nice burble.

 

[toglhot]

A spoking tragedy: I bought some stainless front wheel spokes from a well known supplier in Sydney and laced the wheel together only to find there was around 3mm of thread visible between nipple and hub on every spoke. I complained to the supplier but all I got for my trouble was a few abusive texts and emails. Fortunately he didn't have any spokes for the rear wheel in stock, so I bought some from Heidens. The supplier offered a picture of a wheel he had spoked by a 'professional' spoker. Same thing, visible thread on every spoke. Both the seller and the 'professional' spoker were adamant that this is normal and perfectly acceptable. I've been spoking bicycle and motorbike wheels for 50 years, this is the first time I've come across this. Simply unprofessional and unacceptable in my opinion. The picture shows the visible thread, and when the stainless spoke is placed alongside a stock spoke, you can see there is just too much thread.

 

[toglhot]

Stainless spokes for the rear wheel arrived from Heidens yesterday afternoon, so I repolished the rim and hub and laced them together. What a difference: no thread visible. The way it should be. Naturally I sent the supplier of the front spokes a picture of the finished job, but got no reply. He's even removed my account, apparently he thinks I should be happy with sub standard parts.

 

[SemiFast]

Wow! Impressive.

Looking thru all the pics and reading of the extreme measures you've taken to do and make EVERYTHING virtually perfect... I'm at a loss for words.
All I can think of to say is, Wow! Impressive.
Do you plan to use the front spokes as they are? Considering the skill you have I wouldn't be surprised if you just tooled up and made your own!

S F

 

[toglhot]

No way, I make one offs, 36 is too many for me. I take my time, sometimes I may make two or three of one item before I'm happy with the result. In reality, it's the camera that does all the good work.

 

[toglhot]

I remade the side covers, wasn't happy with the fit or finish of the others. This time, I left a bit more meat around the rear grommet to stop it bending. As usual, the fabrication process left a few marks I can't polish out, but they're not too noticeable. Here's some pics of the side covers at different stages of fabrication. The material is 1.6 mm aluminium. Don't know what grade it is, but it's damn hard and seems to hold it's shine for a long time. I also turned up some Delrin T nuts to stop the grommets being squashed

 

[toglhot]

Some progress shots. Looks much better with spoked wheels. I've taken the carbs off as one diaphragm has been holed, so, I'm tossing up between VM round slides or fixing the BS38 carbs. Not real keen on vacuum carbs, so leaning toward the VM round slides. Damned expensive though at $600. It's come a long way from such a humble beginning.

 

[Doktor]

Some progress shots. Looks much better with spoked wheels. I've taken the carbs off as one diaphragm has been holed, so, I'm tossing up between VM round slides or fixing the BS38 carbs. Not real keen on vacuum carbs, so leaning toward the VM round slides. Damned expensive though at $600. It's come a long way from such a humble beginning.

What about Mikuni flat slides? Might be a bit tricky to set up - but they certainly do improve performance.

 

[toglhot]

Oh no, have you seen the price of flat slides? Round slides are expensive enough. I've got to draw a line somewhere. Performance doesn't interest me anyway as I'll never be able to ride it, so no point.

 

[Doktor]

Oh no, have you seen the price of flat slides? Round slides are expensive enough. I've got to draw a line somewhere. Performance doesn't interest me anyway as I'll never be able to ride it, so no point.

I'm actually running Chinese Mikuni knock-offs on my two 250 singles. They work well and only cost around $30+ AU...and if you are never going to ride it then they might be a good option.

flat slidecarb: Search Result | eBay

Find great deals on eBay for flat slidecarb. Shop with confidence.

www.ebay.com.au

 

[SemiFast]

I'm actually running Chinese Mikuni knock-offs on my two 250 singles. They work well and only cost around $30+ AU...and if you are never going to ride it then they might be a good option.

But do you think you could get two that are identical? It would be a real pain if somebody had to do totally different tuning for each cylinder.
I knew a guy that drag raced an in-line four back in the day. He bought a set of high tech Quicksilver flat slides. All looked the same but no two were alike as for tuning.

S F

 

[toglhot]

I looked at the Chinese knock offs some time ago which looked awfully good for the money, I was all set to order a couple, then I stumbled across a post with a report on them. The Op said the jets had a different thread than genuine Mikunis, What has been you're experience??
I've also heard about knock off PWKs not being up to scratch either.

 

[Doktor]

What has been you're experience??
I've also heard about knock off PWKs not being up to scratch either.

Sorry - I meant Keihin PWK carbs. The two that I bought were branded 'Maikuni' - so that stuck in my mind. They came wrapped in foam in a nice little metal box, with two spare main/pilot jets, needle and some fuel line.

They were also black, so kind of suited the black engines. I had no trouble ordering packs of main/needle jets for very little money.

I'm not sure what you mean by up to scratch - but I think a 32mm genuine PWK is a couple of hundred dollars - I paid $30 - $40 for each carb and, for a low performance single cylinder Chinese motorcycle - they certainly improved performance. They are a great improvement over the OEM CV carbs.

I have had one on one bike for 4 years now - still fires up and idles at the touch of the starter. How do they compare performance-wise to the real deal? Honestly, I don't know, and don't care. . I'm not going to fork out hundreds of dollars for a real Keihin just to compare when the Chinese ones suit my needs.

You could spend $80 on a set and try them - if you don't like them, well, you haven't blown a fortune.

 

[Doktor]

But do you think you could get two that are identical? It would be a real pain if somebody had to do totally different tuning for each cylinder.

If bought from the same seller it could be assumed that the carbs might be identical - from the same factory. Although, even if they aren't, two cylinders isn't a major tune anyway.

 

[toglhot]

I have some VM round slides coming next week. I've read the cable interferes with the petcock, standard fare is to tilt the carbs inwards at the top to fix the problem, but, that's a bit too rough for my liking, so to circumvent the problem I made up these two 20mm spacers. Hopefully, these should move the carbs back enough so the cables clear the petcocks.

 

[toglhot]

End of posts here, no interest on classic bikes.

 

[hogcowboy]

End of posts here, no interest on classic bikes.

Wrong. Everyone is just watching. They jump in if or when they think you are going wrong. But we can't change your mind if it's set.