Well I've paid my monies so I'm committed (or should be). The plan is to resurrect my old 100 project that started 13 years ago.
A breif & depressing history;
At the time it was seriously ambitious & advanced for a bucket. The first RS transplant that I'm aware of (to be corrected I'm sure). People were starting to use RS forks & SW, so why not just run the whole thing? Procured a bike from T&E (remember that, I hear it's still going) & raced it at Taupo to see what it was like.
Answer; a bit slow & my-word-it-was-cramped. Once I braked I would slip forward & no longer be able to use the gearshift & this was after putting a block under the seat. It started making a noise in the last race & I loaded it up there was oil in the fairing. Hmm. Once on the bench I noticed the crank bolt had backed out & bored a hole in the cases. Used bikes huh?
So I sold the engine to a karter (with full disclosure, it was an easy fix).
I then proceeded to offer the engine to the frame. Ahh. Now I saw why people weren't lining up to do it. The CR125 derived RS engine was super narrow at the back, there was no way the MB was going to fit with the sprocket anywhere near the swingarm & the engine knocked into things in several places & the carb entry to the top suspension mount meant the carb would be IN the mount.
Deep breath & break out my grinder. Several sessions later I had cut serious amounts off both the frame & the crankcases. But it was close. Then I made some serious mistakes. First was taking advice from a friend who thought he was an engineer & could ally weld.
Anyway a long & sordid period passed where he tried in earnest to destroy it with an ally welder. Every session was followed by me spending ages trying to straighten things & sort it out. The design I had in my mind was quite good despite being some time ago when I was a sight more clueless. Water cooled with an NSR250 pump driven in the correct direction at the right speed (so often screwed up). + many other modernisations to design.
The execution was flawed & I ended up with my brand new barrel that I had chanced on for $80 needing a rebore before it even got a piston (he held it in the lathe using the bore -why? it slipped & mungered) & then being ruined, the lovely exhaust port was welded into so many times to repair a leak from the water jacket to the port it pulled the ally away from the liner. Bound to seize from local overheating.
I felt sick & pushed the bike under the house where it largely stayed for best part of a decade, getting pulled out every year or so before realising another cock up & being pushed under the house again. I did actually start it & rode up the driveway. I do have something to thank this bike for. When my now wife came to stay with me many moons ago she shared a bedroom with it, so she knew what she was getting into when we got together some while later.
One thing was we had used the front engine mount, which was proving a problem on MB engined transplants cracking the cases. I'd also cut off the rear upper mount so there was no turning back. Later I saw DC's implementation (+DPs). I'd always considered drilling through the frame spars as sacrilege, but it was simpler. They still had the sprocket farther away from the sw than I thought right, but it seemed to work.
Anyways I decided the only way to get keen again was to build something different. I sleeved a RGV150 engine & raced it like that, but I had made a mistake in the engine pushing me into a corner & it kept blowing it's clogs, after a duff crank build (I've suffered at the hands of people who should have known better), the only option was to find another crank.
So having sold the 125 engine I'm now enthused to finish the 100. So fast forward to 2009; A friend had some ideas & I've implemented some of them. I put the bike on the workbench & offered the engine up & cut the 125 mounts off. -A plan was hatched. I then broke my collar bone a few days latter & well, that has prevented me working much on it. Till now.
OK so now I have the engine mounts in. Today I finished the headstay & the clutch bracket so that works now. I lapped the ignition taper to the crank & swapped the taper into another flywheel with some new rivets, but called it a day, my arm isn't quite ok enough for fitting them.
OK so only a few hundred tasks to go & I'll be up & humming. ok there are a few other distractions (new kid & my 500 to finish), but I do have 4 months & aside from another operation to take the plate out I should be into it.
. . . mind you, when I can ride again I might be swayed to get out on the roadbike. Or the dirtbikes. + the 50 may need some attn as there will be some stiff opposition this year, one of them I'm building for a friend.
ok who's placing bets?
Here's a pic from ~7 years ago.
Don't you look at my accountant.
He's the only one I've got.
Yeah Jason had his suzi in an RS125 in Auckers, but that was an old steel-framed twin shocker so quite a different beast. Some turkeys stole it cw trailer, it turned up in pieces at a wrecker. His later 100 had RS forks/sw & that was one of the bikes that got me thinking.
Don't you look at my accountant.
He's the only one I've got.
Yeah spoke to him when he was back in Welly a couple of months or so back, he was a fast rider when he was up for it. Had some great races against him, one battling the entire 50 GP for 2nd place, think the prick just snicked me for it, have to check the old pics.
Don't you look at my accountant.
He's the only one I've got.
I know the pain Dave. It'll be good to see it sorted. You never know, there may be two of them at Taupo.
I'm hopefully getting gas bottles next week to restart construction. Pipe to be stuck together, turbo manifolds, engine mount brackets. I'm really looking forward to it.
DP has since cut the rear of the fuel down and shortened it to give himself more space
Originally Posted by F5 Dave
One thing was we had used the front engine mount, which was proving a problem on MB engined transplants cracking the cases.
The DP bike was originally done like that he changed it when he bought it
Originally Posted by ajturbo
betting that ALL the sulf islanders are wishing you will break something again!
Going by his track record it's just about a dead cert
"If you can make black marks on a straight from the time you turn out of a corner until the braking point of the next turn, then you have enough power."
Originally Posted by scracha
Even BP would shy away from cleaning up a sidecar oil spill.
Originally Posted by Warren Zevon
Send Lawyers, guns and money, the shit has hit the fan
Well last night I watched telly & tonight I'm goin' the pub. Can I bet some money against me?
But I did lie awake last night thinking about adapting the exhaust manifold. To save time I'm going to run the RS pipe, but I have a pipe design (actually two) to build at a later date. I have a plan to seal the water jacket leaks & thus start the engine & test the water pump.
Don't you look at my accountant.
He's the only one I've got.
). The plan is to resurrect my old 100 project that started 13 years ago.
) & raced it at Taupo to see what it was like.
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Originally Posted by ajturbo
Absolutely!!
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