I'm so excited right now about my bike and what I have done tonight but I need to catch you all up first... So I picked up the bike Wed week ago. Sold The Tape Worm for $350 and drove to Nigel's and gave it straight to him for the new bike. Seems (and actually is) a pretty sweet deal. The bike is a RG250 rolling frame, with standard 18" rear and 16" front rims. It has had the rear of the sub frame cut off (and along with it one of the middle support braces). The fuel tank has no bottom on it as it was a bit rusty, and the carb sits 50mm above the frame meaning the tank wouldn't sit anyway. So there is a one litre plastic tank which sits at the very top end of the frame(under the 'tank'). This gives about 14-15 mins of riding. Enough for a Kaitoke race but nothing else. It has a 17 month old Loncin 150cc engine in it. Being a Alli frame he had probs with the mounts cracking, but they have been reinforced and look quiet sound now, but we'll see. Maybe rubber mounts later? So the list of things it needed when I picked it up was... NylonA seatFix the rear brakes (the reason he stopped riding it an bought his FXRAn exhaustRepair the cracked centre brace There are some pretty fundamental pieces in that list, namely an exhaust and the brakes. The brakes had shit themselves 6 months ago at the slipway. Somehow the inlet to the M/C of the rear brakes had snapped off. Weak zinc I think and something must have flicked up off the track and hit it. Nigel bought a 2nd hand M/C for it but it was the wrong year, and so didn't fit the mounts. At that point he gave up, as he didn't want to fix bikes so much, just ride them. So since then I have mucked around on it but haven't really achieved anything. I was getting to far ahead of myself trying to see if the new rims would fit and worrying about the tank. It wasn't until yesterday that I made a list of the things needed to be done to be track worthy for Sunday. I cut some new centre braces from some ali angle that I've got. I made two new braces and wedged them in which bought the broken mount into line, so now it can be re welded. I have nyloned up the rear of the sub frame, both foot pegs and one of the forks. But more importantly I've FIXED THE REAR BRAKES!!!!! I was really having trouble with them. I had originally removed the broken inlet valve from the M/S set up (it has two screws that hold in onto the M/C) and replaced it with one from a KR150 but had to make a small ali flap to hold it on. I joined up the existing hose from the reservoir and put a hose clip around it. I tried to bleed it up but was getting absolutely no pressure at all. I asked on KB about it, and someone said something about having to bleed the M/C first then bleed the brakes. I had a couple of goes at a couple of things but to no avail.By now I was getting pissed off and down hearted about the whole thing. I had a chat to Rich about it, and while we didn't figure anything out solution wise, it gave me new motivation to pull it all apart and start again. I took the old reservoir off and put on the one from the KR, seeming the hose fits the inlet valve perfectly. I tightened up the ali flap holding the inlet valve on. I took the caliper off the mount and let it hang. I then filled the reservoir and took the bleed nipple right off and put my finger over the hole (someone on KB suggested this, or I think that's what they were meaning). I bleed them as normal and low and behold, it worked. I think it was a combination of a few things but doesn't matter now cause THEY BLOODY WORK!!! And I did it myself!!! Sorry about the huge write up for fixing brakes, but I'm proud as punch, and my wife doesn't care, so you are my outlet!! Until next time....
Whats the haps with the KR ?
Going to be a 2 smoker project I recon. Now that I have this bike I can wait till a good engine surfaces and just build it bit by bit
Good Boy
pooooooooooofter , na good work. Whats wrong with the KR engine ? sleve it
Bottom end may be ( only maybe, Bert has it, He could comment more) ok for a salvage but don't have the top end. Brought it mainly for the forks and frame.
KR bottom end, but in sh!t condition. lloks like its been sitting underwater for a while, a long while. looked into sleeving it (a RGV barrel) before the TZR project.. but it was going to be too hard even for me to sort out. Where are the photos Dave...
oyea rito, well as bert said photos photos photos please . . .
Photos are coming. Just ordered my muffler!!! Should be here on Fri for a Sat morning install. Awesome. This might just happen after all. Sunday seems so close though. Baby steps, baby steps!
Nylon all done. Welder friend pulled out on me again and now I'm going to bolt the struts on. Exhaust should turn up today!! Almost there, just need $$ for entry fee....hmmmm
Nylon all done. Working on attaching the fibre glass seat that I made for the Tape Worm to the new ride. Is going to be ok, and def fits into the RAG set of morals! Hopefully the pipe turns up this morning. Might finish early today seeming the weather is crap here today...and play in the shed instead. I need a name/nick name for the bike. Nanook was for the KR project bike, but seeming I'm going to tutoo with this frame for a bit, I need a name. Hmmmm...I'll see how it rides and what it's personality is like. Hopefully it doesn't end up getting called 'Son Of A Bitch'.
Why such serious naming; why not Doris or Margaret; I mean it is a four stroke so old woman names are acceptable. unlike is two stoke racers, where we are allowed to call our girls: Scarlet, Hellie Remember: Four strokes are your wife and two strokes are your mistress ....
So, Went and got the muffler put on this morning. Karl at Pit Stop in Petone was awesome. He helped me set up then gave me free rain on his work shop, then welded it all up for me. Awesome guy too. He's coming to watch tomorrow too. I recon he'll end up building a bucket!! So bike is all together and went and had an hour at the track and got some laps in on the new bike. Was a big help. Things went really well all considering. Only thing that went wrong was the nuts fell off that hold the seat to the bike. No biggie tho. Riding a 4t is very very diff to a 2 smoker. Awesome power with this bike tho. Could be the start of something beautiful!!
"Could be the start of something beautiful!" Well I believe so. really impressive riding on Sunday muddy. looking at the vids you are going well. had one though though; it seemed you were in top gear quite early on the straight (and super fast start). i wander it you go up a cog on the front (this will use more of your low down pull and give you a bit more top end). and have a look at Nigel's lines on the vids and see how he is using the outer parts of the track before the corners and taking extra corner speed in (and squaring the corner up). but given first time out, bloody awesome. I can see that we will be having some good battles last two words: Keith Code....
Yeah the vid's show all my floors but I'll be so much better next time for it. 4 3rds and a 2nd!!!...can't complain about that!!! Pretty happy. Need to move my seat back about 1 1/2 inches. And ride wider(read faster) lines. Need to use all of the track. Also would like to free up my throttle a bit more to. I need to be able to roll the throttle earlier exiting the corners.
