Update

Libby has been helping me make a plug for molding some glass fibre for the carb covers, I took a couple of photos but they are on the other camera. The clay had got frosted in the winter, so it was really crumbley which didn't really help, but she managed a pretty good basic shape which will have to be smoothed as it dries. From the plug I will make a glass fibre mold, from which I can make the final pieces either in cardon or glass, depending on what I have to hand.

I used an old car battery, to power up the ignition unit, and configure the timing, I have no expertise in this at all, so I tried to gather all information from tuned Rg's on the web, and have gone for an intermediate ignition curve, neither too advanced or too radicale but I am sure I will feel a difference one way or another.

I went for the mauve/reddy one in the middle, with 12 points, I also adjusted the static timing to 30 degrees, as I have the dent advancer installed.

Fairing modifications

So, the carbs are on and functional (we will test later!). The next big task is to modify the fairing so that the carbs can breathe. Carbs 1 & 2 are about 2 cms away from the fairing sides, so probably OK, but the top ones i.e. 3 & 4 are touching the fairing, so will have to be liberated!

I used my best judgement to centre the holes and then drilled with a circular (plaster board) drill to make the big holes the same size as the bell mouths. Because the carb 3 is angled up, it is in a slightly different place than the carb Nr. 4. so not symetrical....

So now I have all carbs that can breathe, the question now is how do I protect the bell mouths from low pressure zones created as the bike moves along, I would like to get some still/protected air around the bell mouth area if possible.

All suggestions of putting a yogurt pot over the end will be deleted immediately!

Next job - see if she starts and program the ignition to enable easy starting and good running.

Just for the record the carbs are setup with 280/290s front/back. They originally came with 240's in them.

Carb cables on

Really frustrating trying to get the throttle cables the right length. Despite having nearly finished I had to shorten all the cables by about a centimetre grrr... just takes so much time. I used the "old" throttle cable to connect the 4 choke cables to the handlebar mounted lever.

The choke cable is now done and it works, but unfortunately I still need to tune tnhe throttle cable!

Weekend at Ledenon

I had to adandon the idea of getting the RG ready for the track weekend at Ledenon, with the modifications to the fairing necessary to make way for the carbs to breathe, so Libby and I went down to Ledenon with just the RD350 in the van. The primary goal of the weekend was to give Libby a go at the circuit, so she wouldn't be too shocked with the speed of things at Magny Cours later in September.

I took the bike out first to check things were running OK, and after a break of over 8 months it was really great to get back on the track! The bike was running OK. Libby took the bike around the car park to get used to the position and then headed out for her very first track experience! Strange bike, unknown circuit - but she didn't bottle it - respect to her!

Unfortunately the bike let her down as the gear lever decided to part ways with the bike, so after just 2 laps her initial experience was over, and of course the mechanic needed a good bollucking - where is he....can't find the bugger....

After replacing the gear lever (the pinch bolt had fallen out), Libby headed out for the second attempt! This time she managed to do a full 20 mins, and managed to bring the bike and herself home saftely. She didn't break any records but had a good time although was somewhat impressed by the rapidity of her track companions, and the speed of everything. It was in fact nearly an ideal weekend as most of the time we were sharing the track with only about 10 or so other bikes - great for beginners!

I don't think Libby is going to apply for her license this coming year, but all respect to her for having tried it - you don't know until you try and of course invaluable experience of the bike she will be riding at Magny Cours and also track time!

I had a total of 5 sessions - 3 Saturday  and 2 Sunday morning, I was running times that were very acceptable - nearly up to PB. The good news is the modifications to the fork, made the front end much stiffer, although still reacted well to bumps, the bad news I suffered some chattering going through the "Triple Gauche" which was very off putting, and I think the action plan would be to back off the gold valves a smidgen! Didn't really notice any difference in engine acceleration due to the lightened flywheel, but it was running well, so maybe it did make a difference.

By the end of the fifth session, the power valve was making a strange noise and it seems to be badly aligned, so I will have to adjust it for September (our next outing).

I have finished (almost) making the carb cables for the new carbs. In fact I was going to buy a load of nipples and make them up with bicycle gear cables, but Trialsbits.co.uk were selling a throttle DIY kit with enough stuff to build at least 8 cables, so I went for that as it was only 30 quid.

So I am almost ready to start the bike again, and then attack the fairing, with the dremel! I am thinking as I can't use the lower fairing brackets (due to the carbs) I will use the old fairing sides (which didn't use the brackets), and just cut a big chunk of fairing out where the bellmouths now sit, and then build a bulge with some of my left over carbon fibre. We'll see, the plan hasn't yet completely hatched in my mind!

Wedge finished

Had fun this morning setting up the 4 jaw chuck on the lathe in order to bore the hole in my wedge for Nr. 3 carb. Worked out OK although I need to buy a dial gauge in order to do things properly, managed to drill the initial hole and then, used the boring tool to make it bigger. It was a real pain to get it to the correct height in order to have a cutting edge without the body of the tool hitting the periphery of the hole.

Anyway that is fitted and the carb misses the rotor by about 2 mms so I think that is job done!

The disappointment of the day is that there is no way that the standard fairing will fit, on carbs 1 and 2 the carbs won't even fit with the fairing brackets in place. I need to think about how i can modify the fairing to fit!

Anyway onto the cable lengths for the new carbs!

Weekend's work

Yeeeeeee... I got my valves on Saturday morning! They look great in carbon and nice and light compared with the steel ones. Jerome forgot to send the gaskets though, but fortunately the standard gaskets gave the appropriate clearance between the covers and the valve - 0.2mm I was told it needs to be a "good" 0.2mm and it was every valve measuring around 0.25mm, so happy with that.

I did have to trim the gaskets as they were made for standard covers and valves.

While I was torquing down the front cylinder head one of the M6 bolts stripped the thread in the cylinder, so I had to remove the head, Nr.1 cylinder and fit a helicoil on the cylinder, this was only my second time using my kit, but I was certainly glad I had purchased it otherwise I would have been stuck! I was only mildly sweating as I took the portable drill to my cylinder - one false move and game over!

It worked fine, although I couldn't remove the cylinder stud so had to use a spanner to turn the tap, the helicoil went in well, although when I came to break the tab off it just bent over and I took five minutes to remove it from the head. So cylinder and head back on and torqued up!

I had to make a bracket for the fairing lowers, which was missing from the main fairing brackets, and the biggest job of the weekend was making a "wedge" to angle the Nr.3 carb up on the milling machine.

After much thought I used the Mark Dent wedge (which didn't fit my covers due to a different screw to screw hole measurement) to give me the good angle. I placed my bit of ally on top of the MD wedge, and then I had to try and hold the whole thing in place. I managed to get it solidly installed on the bed of the mill, then I proceeded to remove material from the ally, having to avoid my fixing points. This worked OK, and once I was down to 1mm of material on the top side, I removed the piece and then had to trim off the excess material, with my dremel using the cutter. I am reasonabley pleased with the result, although I need to spend some time smartening it up! Next I need to fit my 4 jaw chuck and bore the hole int he middle! The MD wedge is on the right.

The next big job will be making the cables for the carbs, I tested the standard cables on the bigger carbs and they are missing between one and two centimetres - Grrrrrr! I hope I can find the nipples I used on the RD350 when I was messing with the VM34's!

Still waiting for rotary disks...

Just a quickie. Jerome at Classic Racing didn't have the correct rivetting tool to setup the carbon disks after having cut them to the new profile, so he had to buy the correct tool, so another 5 days wasted. I am still waiting to hear from him, hopefully in time for Ledenon on the 10/11th August.

I still need to :-

1. Align the new fairing and drill the fixing holes and fit some fasteners
2. Continue to finish the engine (I am up to the barrels) and new some (ordered) O'rings to fit the heads and finish the engine.
3. Setup the new carbs dependant on getting the rotary disks (going for 280/290 front/back initially)
4. Fit the new carbs with hopefully standard cables and springs
5. Fit the new choke to handlebar...
6. Make a wedge to lift the Nr. 3 carb away from the rotor
7. Setup the zeeltronic ignition to retard the startup timing.

Looking dodgy with all that to do, but will try and get it finished!