BV is up on the Bay!

It was rebuilt in 2010, has a custom front end with internal brake lines, raked frame, widened swingarm and rear fender, new chrome bits, and an Acewell digital speedo with a slew of options.  This bike was designed and assembled with great care.  The front end is raked internally to drop the trail to 3".  It is adjustable to remove the internal rake, but the trail jumps to somewhere around 18 inches.  The engine is a late model 77/78 engine with new gaskets and a rebuilt ARD Engineering Magneto.  The round top carbs are super clean and the bike starts right up every time.  Chrome is in great shape, easily a 9 out of 10.  Only a few spots and nothing a little wax wont take care of.  The paint is in great shape as well.  Seat upholstery is perfect, tires have many many miles left on them, brake pads are in good shape, etc etc.  The exhaust is an old set of 1-4-2-3 crossovers with header wrap.  The sound of the pipes is incredible.  A lot of bass and an overall great sound all the way through to 10,000 rpm.  This bike is in great shape and is 100 % ready to ride.

This bike is a blast to ride and I'm really going to miss it.  There are so many things about it that go against what a typical long bike is.  3 inches of trail makes it carve nicely in the corners.  It's responsive and agile.  The 75* of free rotation in the front end give you a turning radius better than some new cruisers.  The magneto gives it both visual and audible character.  The twin discs up front allow you to use the front brake with confidence and no twist.

There are many things I'll miss:  Laying back and sliding around the corners.  Ripping the throttle wide open and watching the girder links rise up.  Pulling up next to cars that are shorter.  All of the questions like "how the hell do you ride that?".  It's a breeze.  Ride what you build and ride the piss out of it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/261124384724?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fmotors.shop.ebay.com%3A80%2Fi.html%3F_nkw%3D261124384724%26_sacat%3D%26_dmpt%3DMotorcycles_Parts_Accessories%26_odkw%3D1972%2BCB750%2Bchopper%26_osacat%3D0%26bkBtn%3D%26_trksid%3Dp4506.m270.l1313%26_fvi%3D1&_rdc=1

I'll definitely miss the Ol' Bat Vagina.  Yep, that's the name. Enjoy.

Frankenstorm= Day Off

Day off = Brewing!

Time for some more applejack.

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Lunch Break Ride

Took the old girl out for a spin. My friend John tagged along on the back.
As you can see, he really enjoyed the bike.... "It's the vibrations I swear!"

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Rebranded Natural Light!

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Good Friday.

With a week full of success comes a massive cleanup effort. 3 shops 5 hours. Do it to it!

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SOLD!! 99 cbr is gone

One less pony in the barn.

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Bat Vagina gets a new engine and prep for sale

All cleaned up, new gaskets bla bla bla.

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Up for sale!

1999 CBR 600 F4

I have to downsize so I'm getting rid of my CBR. It's in great mechanical shape with some scuffs on the fairings. New tires, new chain new battery,freshly recharged K/N air filter,stage II jet kit,and a slip on can. The carbs were just cleaned and tuned up. It is a very reliable,fun,and fast bike. The key core for the gas cap froze so I added a sweet faucet handle to open it. A new gas cap can be bought for 30 bucks,but what I've done works and, well,I like it. I just put on a new seat as the old one was ripped. I also added a charging port for whatever you need to charge (phone,GPS,air pump,etc.) I have a few extra oil filters and might have some other stuff to go with it depending on what I can find. 

Only 1600 smackers!!

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Smoothbores on the Flute

so much nicer than the twin carb setup. two carbs might work on some bikes but with the angle I had to put them, my outer cylinders ran lean and my inners super rich. no way around that except for 4 carbs.

4 carbs is always better. so much pep and throttle response even untuned. Yay for 75 dollar smoothbores!!

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Back in business

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Engine Autopsy: RC 30/30 Kit

 Replacement Late Model Cases?

 RC240 Cam.  Mild Regrind.

 Studs were looser toward the #4 side.

 Bores look great!

 Alloy wrist pin buttons.

I picked up an engine from a fine gentleman by the name of Chopperfiend a few days ago.  It had lost compression on # 3 and needed some love.  The engine came with a stack of paperwork from RC engineering.  This included cam specs, piston specs, and install procedures. 

The engine certainly has some interesting features.  The cases are late model replacements, it has heavy duty valve springs, an RC240 cam, and a forged 836 kit.  I havent gotten into the bottom end to see if any mods were done to the transmission.  Back in the day, RC had a kit they call the 30/30.  It consisted of an RC240 cam, a cast 836 kit, and a header.  It was supposed to give 30% more power, and 30% more mpg's.  Apparently it did pretty well.  The RC240 cam has mild lift and very long duration, something these engines really like.  It produces great bottom end torque and made an engine that was great for touring.

As I took the engine apart, I made a few notes of what I found wrong.

Cam tower bolts loose
Front #3/4 cam tower bolt stripped
Gasket maker on oil injectors
Multiple Oil pucks leaking
Cylinder studs nuts not torqued (loose)
Mid head bolts replaced w/ studs (11 mm nut)

The cylinder walls looked great.  Hone marks were still obvious and there were no scratches or bad marks of any kind.  The rings all look good as well.  I'll be taking a look into the bottom end just so I know what's inside.  The top end is all late model K stuff, but since the cases are replacements, I want to know what gears are in the transmission and if they've been modified at all.

I plan on doing some mild porting, deshrouding the valves and putting the engine back together as it was.  I'll run a larger set of carbs and hopefully find a nice stock bike to put it in.  Something for my Dad to putt around on.

Fiat (0.001%)

Attic Cycle

1968 Kawasaki W2 in a GME gooseneck plunger frame, Gary Littlejohn Space Coffin tank, 16 over girder, invaders, H/A disc brake systems.... Ohhh yesssss.  9'4".

This is what you get.

If I have to drill out your gas cap key core. A faucet knob adds about 30 hp to a carbed cbr!

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New Torque Package For the Flute

Valve cover with cam tower hold downs and a 15 tooth sprocket. I was originally running 18/48 (2.66:1) so a 15/48 (3.2:1) will put me way up in the rpms for typical road speeds. A good torquer off the line.

5th gear @ 65mph = ~5k rpm. 

Downshift to 4th and it jumps right into the stout portion of the power band.

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Engine Swap Is Complete!!!!!!!

Its alive!!!!! Again!

Rock Flute now has a 90 hp heart that can rev to the moon.... after some tuning.

I tightened up the head bolts a bit, set the tappet clearance, adjusted the cam chain, swapped all the covers, and also found out that my cam tower bolts are pulling out! jeeeze!

Thankfully John has a valve cover that has cam tower hold downs installed. this was an old trick for monstrous cams of the early 70s that added bungs to the valve cover and used bolts to press down onto the cam towers. Few cams if any really need this because lift doesn't help these engines much. As long as the ramp on the cam isn't incredibly dramatic, the forces on the towers aren't really increased that much from an stock. The heavy duty valve springs do however add force.  I think the threads on my cam tower bolt holes were stripped a bit already... Its not too bad, but I can't get the torque applied to a few.

A wee bit more work and Ill take it for a spin.

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Dune buggy progress

... A lot

rear subframe with adjustable kafer bar

rear access hatch and electrical supports

1992 camaro steering column shortened installed and a variable length intermediate shaft was made up of various junkyard items

the dash molding has begun and includes an angled gauge pod

the hood is finished and clearanced for the fuel tank.

headlights are mounted through the hood so they tilt out of the way

wheel adapters are finished

audi rear middle two point seat belts will be used all around. I've had a tough time junk diving for these things since they're only in 96-01 Audis and there's only one per car. they are very compact and simple to mount. auto locking when retracted.

I have also purchased some summit racing sport seats (which all need mods to not damage themselves and work properly) and rostra heaters instead of fighting with the nasty fiberglass buckets that came with the car. a nice sale on the seats made the decision a lot easier. the seats however seem to be get what you pay for. The lever that tilts the seat forward for rear seat access doesn't work because the cable is too loose and the scree that holds the cable onto the hook tears the seat when used. I found this out and had to call and get another set delivered. they were the same way but not damaged yet. I immediately flipped the screw to the other side and shortened the cable for the lever. They're nice seats for the price but you have to be willing to do some work I guess.

I wish I would have been aware of the very forward position of the shifter prior to painting up the chassis. its a long reach and at this pointing just going to angle the stick back a bit. I hate doing it that way but later on I might cut the tunnel and move the shifter back 4-6 inches.

I have learned along the way that pretty much nothing can be based on the fiberglass body because its not at all symmetric and most likely  warped from sitting over the years. its going to take some love to get it all settled right with the frame.

I have started pulling wire and getting everything ready for finishing. the engine is installed and the rear suspension all buttoned up.

Since im using a single carb setup with long runners, I have to do something about carb freezing. VW had heat risers from the exhaust, but I wanted to try setting different. Ill toss up a separate post about this.

When installing the engine I found out that it had never met this transmission before, because the flywheel is for a 12 volt and the transmission is out of a 6 volt. The 12 volt bellhousing had a little more clearance for a larger flywheel so I had to grind away at a few spots to make everything fit. Very easy mod.

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Engine Swapping

Firstly, it feels great to get back to bikes. Its been a while working on the car and I miss the simplicity of the two wheeled genre.

Im working on adding 30 hp to Rock Flute by transplanting the engine from Bat Vagina (the long bike).  Ever since I put the flute together I've wanted my hotrod engine in it and I plan on getting it finished for the 2012 WHCM.  At last years meet I had just gotten the bike on the road and the clutch was nearly gone.  I wasn't able to push the bike at all through the twisties down there. at the end of the meet I could barely take off from a full stop. 

This year with 50% more power and a strong clutch, this bike will be a blast. 

I was going to repaint the engine aluminum but I think it might look nice with the black and polished fins.

Overall a pretty straight forward swap with a pile of tuning.

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