technical Update

Well, I have changed lots of parts on the RG. The stator is new, the plug leads, plug caps, the SAEC Motor and controller are new (second hand), and finally I have removed the battery.

And... well the bike seems to be working OK, and the exhaust valve is opening, so will have to wait and see at Nogaro next weekend to give a final result!

I have put back the carb trunks, to ensure I am too rich next weekend, as Nogaro has a long WOT (wide open throttle) straight and I don't want to seize!

As can be see in the photos, the Suzuki coils, are not meant to have the cables changed, so I have had to hold the new cables in with some silicon sealant, this will also help keep the water out.

I have also modified my twist grip to make it more fast action. I simpley cut up a piece of old plumbing plastic tube and stuck it to the twistgrip - this has increased the diameter of the twist and should give a faster action.

In between times, I changed the ignition pickup on the 350, and it has made an incredible difference. The bike flies now....!!! I also adjusted the air screws which ended up at 2 turns out for both, which gives me a nice pickup off idle, and I have re found the power I have had earlier this year. I must work on the clutch to stop it slipping....

I did the air screw adjustment on the Suzuki as well, and left them at 1 turn out each carb.

Hopefully all is now ready for Nogaro next weekend.

RG 500 update

OK, so the plugs leads did not fix the problem. After an easy start running it up the hill for a kilometer and getting it nice and warm, and the bike gives the sames symptoms, initially it just dies, I can start easily using the choke and then it will pop and fart mainly showing on Nr. 3 but more generally not running right.

So I am now assuming I have a heat related problem. Indeed starting her up again after leaving her for an couple of hours and having done nothing, (i.e. cold) and she does start nicely - so I think I am convinced this is related to something electrical and heat related. Honestly this is starting to sound like the stator (I have some experience with the 350 on these problems...). As I managed to get a cheap one off ebay a couple of months ago, I have one in stock, so on it went!

This time, the problem changed sides clearly making the right hand cylinders pop and fart - I think this is a different problem - I think the stator I bought is not working properly.... Oh well back to the drawing board!

During troubleshooting I also wanted to test my exhaust valves, and this does not appear to be working either. When troubleshooting this, the motor appears to work, but does not turn the valves at all. If you connect 12 V from the battery to the Pink wire, and the negative to the Grey wire, the motor turn clockwise and reversing the polarity makes the motor turn anticlockwise.

The next electrical test involves testing some hall sensors (part of the electrical motor). Connecting the tester to the green and white and turning the pulley by hand, you should find one spot where the circuit is closed (i.e. low resistance). You then do the same test on another pair to get the same result.

This all checked out fine, although the motor still does not turn when commanded by the control box - so it looks like the control box is shafted. I have ordered second hand a motor and control box, so we should be able to fix this.

And I also ordered a new stator from Electrexworld.co.uk, who provide stators and other electrical stuff for bikes. With a bit of luck I am on the right track, and the bike will finally work in 2 weeks time!

Technical Update

Well, I've been quite busy in the garage with a 4 day weekend and grotty weather.

On the 350, I broke the silencer (I think this probably started because of my crash at C-en-T two years ago), and the fairing bracket had broken, so these have been taken off and sent for welding - the exhaust is stainless steel which requires TIG welding so I am using a place I found in the Pagesjaunes (yellow pages). I am trying to find out why the bike doesn't run well at low rpm - just off idle - so as the only thing I changed was electrical (I added an electronic CDI charger which takes power directly off the battery), I am looking at the electrics again.

I have removed the windings on the stator for CDI charging as I no longer use them, this will reduce the electromotive force (EMF) in the stator and should allow the crank to spin up quicker, plus I removed the wiring associated - just to clean up the wiring a bit. Whilst I was at the stator I changed the pickup, to an original Yamaha model, this way I am sure the the stator, and electrics are all good - I just need my silencer back before I can do any testing.

I also, restuck my seat padding, and made a new instrument plexiglass cover as the old one got damaged by the leaking hydraulic fluid. The front brakes were removed and hung up to ensure the highest point was in the calipers, and then bled, this will ensure I lose the spongeness at the lever.

On the RG, the action plan is as follows and in order :-

Change plugs for Iridium
Change plug leads
Change coils
Ignition stator

then ....
Check fuel flow
dirty tank
sticky chokes

and finally if none of that fixes my issue, then it must be the crank oil seal.

I am waiting for my plugs to arrive (www.Sparkplugs.co.uk) so in the meantime I changed all four plug leads with silicon resistive lead, this is not only flexible, but should I change my plug caps again, I will no longer need any resistance. Unfortunately the old leads are held in the coil by some stupid plastic clips which are designed to break, which they did on both coils! So the new leads are held in by tie wraps, to which I will add some mastic sealer when I finish troubleshooting.

I started the RG, and she ran very smoothly in the garage, so maybe I have already found the problem! I will need to run her until hot, to really test to see if the issue disappears. The Gamma listers (email enthusiasts) thing I am getting to the lean end of my main jets so I will need to be careful at Nogaro as there is a really long straight.

I still have a couple of odd jobs to do on the RG, re-torque the cylinder head, check my steering head bearing.

Just to use up my time, my brother has bought his 900SS Ducati down for storage at race HQ, so I changed the oil, filter, and brake fluid, and bled the front and back - his front brakes are pulsing so I hope that will get rid of that!

Speak to you soon, after the RG and RD test later this week.

Dave

Videos from Croix-en-Ternois

Here are the videos of both classic/Unlimited races that I contended in. I was 5th in the first race and 4th in the unlimited category, and 6th in the second race but again 4th in my category!

Enjoy!

Croix-en-Ternois

Our first visit to C-en-T this year, but not the last. We traveled up half way to Troyes accompanied by Chris, who was hitching a lift back to England, on the back of my Dad's bike, from C-en-T. My Dad and Uncle Phil came down (as last year) to watch the racing.

I had been intending to participate in both series of racing this weekend - the Unlimited series with the 350 and the Post Unlimited's with the 500, however first practice on the Friday afternoon with the 500, still showed up the popping farting issue on no. 3, after changing the spark plug the issue seemed to disappear, but kept returning after 10 or so minutes. After much scratching of heads, and troubleshooting(we removed the rear cylinder head, we checked out the rotary disk (twice)) what I now reckon, or hope, is that the bike is running really too rich, and this is causing the plugs fail - why this should only happen in Nr.3 is a mystery, but this issue stopped my racing the 500 this weekend, so luckily the 350 was in good form - or was it!

Chris and I checked over the 350, as the last time it was raced was at the endurance in Carole. I had given it a cursory look over at home, but I didn't spot that the fairing bracket was cracked quite badly. We cut up a couple of pieces of steel plate, and attached it to the fairing bracket to give it some strength - a bit like a splint, this in fact held the whole weekend even though the bracket did give up completely relying on the splint to hold the thing together.

With the 350 I was doing 1:05's (best time 1:05:214) pretty consistently which was enough to give me my first ever front row start (in 4th), which I didn't manage to hold during the race, finishing in a none the less pleasing 5th place. I managed to wheelie off the line which immediately lost me a number of places, so I was pleased to be able to finish in 5th.

The second race on the Sunday I started from the 2nd row in 5th place, and got a slightly better start although my rear tyre was definitely showing signs of wear as the back end stepped out a couple of times and once I nearly lost it at the hairpin (bend 1). I spent most of the race on my own chasing down a Z750, which I managed to catch on the second to last lap. I was however only able to pass him at the hairpin before the long straight, so on the last lap I took the inside line and got through, only to be caught up on the straight before the chequered flag - I took 6th position.

A long drive home, and this time we actually remembered to pick up Libby's car from the car park where we had left it on Thursday evening.

Thanks to Chris and Libby for helping me in multiple technical interventions on the Suzuki, and for Dad and Phil taking the trouble to come down and watch. And believe it or not, but despite a cold weather forecast we didn't see rain all weekend, whilst at home it was raining all the time - photos and video to follow.