F5’s first ever brand new bike!

[F5 Dave]

It's sad innit? I changed the pilot jets 2 weeks ago but have not had a time to test ride the bike without waking up kids etc & aside from dirt bike rides etc etc.

Finally did ride it with the pilot jets changed (down from 45 to 40, didn't have two 42s).

. . . And it's really quite good!

Took it out to warm it up properly, it ran well & is pretty good on low throttle positions. So maybe I went too far so I tried the richer 5.5 slides rather than the 7s. Made it worse. Hmm ok so 7s back in & tried winding the idle mixture out a turn (had wound in richer as 2 size jet change. Went out on warm bike. Instantly better. Could negotiate turns & whatnot. Still not perfect but I've certainly ridden worse jetted bikes.

I'll take it to the dyno one night & try correct mainjet for the CEL needles I'm running & might fool around with the ignition curve now its running well.

Finally! All it took was an engine that wasn't coughing water as well.

Need to get the speedo going again, not sure why that's stopped but the rev counter is working properly now with a bit more filtering. Then put it together for a proper ride with a fuel tank fitted instead of an oil tank, a bit weird riding without something to grip onto under brakes.

[F5 Dave]

Well a day at the dyno brought some confusion. OK so it now runs better than ever through the range. The peak power is suppressed, but so is the revs it is made at. Peak is 1200rpm lower at a more sensible 9200 for a big road engine like this. I think that may be the pipe coating, but I can't swear on it.

I changed mains & it got better & better & then suddenly worse, so back to where I was I it got better, but not as good. Did an all gears & it suppresses at high speeds. Maybe the ignition not holding up? Started to be a real bitch to start, where as it had been great once new battery was in place.

Charging seems to work ok sez the multimeter I tried when I got back home. But it started straight up at home. Confusing.

While on the dyno I tried moving needle up & down. It liked the leaner pos. I also tried some different curves & it ran better on one.

Well time to put it together after fixing the speedo & do some road miles.

[F5 Dave]

So here's the embarrassing part; Putting the bike together last night for longer road rides I rechecked the carbs to synchronise the opening, they were pretty good. I idly cranked the throttle full open only to see there was slide still in the bore. Pulled the cable & the last bit comes up. I'm sure I'd checked that before. Turns out that the splitter (that I bought from some ATV crowd off evilbay) that came as a kit with the carbs, only has a stroke of 29mm! So 6mm short of full throw. How I laughed at myself. Assumption is the mother of all fups.

well that may gain back a bit of power lost through lower revs, not that I care at this stage.

[TygerTung]

Well keep up with the updates! It's great, rest assured, lots of people are following this thread (well I am) but possibly not posting. You should get a huge power increase with the cables. Seems like quite a big project, good on ya for sticking with it, I probably would have lost interest by now and started working on something else!

[F5 Dave]

, yeah are you saying you never got those chambers on the RZ?

Well I took it for a slightly longer ride yesterday. I'd been working on the house yesterday & time got away on me. What I did learn was it was borderline lean on the pilots & as I set off ~ 4:30 the temp had dropped to quite chilli & the bike ran badly off just open throttle. But then fine at higher revs or more throttle.

Not ideal for increasing traffic conditions as I stuttered through Alicetown on minor throttle.

But it rips! in the few occasions I could give it some medium stick, up comes the front wheel. Later up the hill road to my house, same deal leaving a corner but with another approaching, a slap as the wheel regains contact (SHT!). Have to be careful & might need to wind the steering damper on for test rides.

Must order another 42 pilot jet as I mentioned a couple of posts back, I didn't have 2 42s so went to 40. Think that should sort it out. I cut the ride short as I didn't want to run it too lean for long. + the traffic was getting silly.

[White trash]

I think I jizzed.

[sil3nt]

You need a camera so we can enjoy your rides as well!

[F5 Dave]

that sounds like "admissible as evidence in a court of law'

[F5 Dave]

Doesn't sound like much of a title 5 years on, that R6 would be a shitter by now if I'd bought it, but the latest installment of why I did this (perhaps foolishly) instead:


Well here we go. It been a year since I’ve been at this project. Rego on hold, cooling was an issue (ran hotter on motorway than I'd seen around the streets, but also up Takas), but so was time & money. Dirtbikes to maintain, Buckets to re-engineer, 2 ankle bitters & reduced play money as a result of one income.

So lets tackle the cooling. I’ve bought a thermo bypass, like a thermostat but it directs water one way or the other & should give a better flow. I’ve also redirected the flow to hopefully eliminate the potential for air pockets & added a back bleed hose to help auto bleed the system (it was tedious before) & as it has high temp silicone pipe I should be able to see any air bubbles from head leaks or incorrect bleeding.

I can’t afford a custom oversize rad & the space is limited so I’m going to try get the best I can out of my existing rad. I’ve put a baffle between the RHS tank top & bottom & added an inlet pipe so the water will have to pass along the top & down the other side tank & back the bottom rows forcing the water to populate all the finned area rather than favour a path it prefers.

I’m also going to run water wetter & a non glycol coolant in low ratios for better heat transfer. Icing up isn’t going to be a problem where I ride this bike, just corrosion protection requirement.

Craig (Motometal) has done a good job of the rad mod & welding a Y pipe (made from a bent bar from the race bike that a friend ‘preformed’ to the right shape as she threw it up the road). I’ve Devconed the bits he couldn’t reach & will pressure test it soon.

While the head is off I was considering changing the insert shape, but they are parrallet to the squish so there is unlikely to be much improvement so they may stay as is. The downside to removing the old remote thermostat housing is the temp thermistor is displaced & needs a new home.

I will drill a hold in the head & my tap kit has the gas fitting thermos require. My only other concern is that the thermo will be close to the sparkplugs & the R1 dash has been a bit susceptible to EMI previously (resistor plugs helped), Moving an input closer can’t help but I will wrap a ferrite around the lead to try negate any issue just in case.

Then it will be test time & start all over with different needles & mains. The mains choice will be different no doubt as the splitter cable only opened the carbs ¾, so with the new long throw splitter this should be interesting.

Hopefully the test rides on the road will show cooler running & we’ll be set for summer. If I can afford some rego.

[F5 Dave]

Well I've taken my 496 out for a ride for the first time in little over a year. Its what we call stinkn hot here, but would probably classify as mild to a Sydneysider presently. Good day to test the cooling which was an issue on my bike. So to recap slightly I've put in a bypass thermo & rerouted the rad so it flows the top half & down the side tank & back the bottom of the rad.

I've also swapped glycol coolant for Penrite 10/tenths & added a good dose of water wetter. On the dyno it heated up quickly, but it always does on the dyno.

On the road it quickly got to 40, then 50. Up a hill in suburbia it got to 61, then cooled back down it. I hit the motorway at 58 where it got to 61 & stayed for a while. At the lights it heated up. & up, & up. at 80 the lights changed & the temp dropped down quickly to 70 & then stayed below.

Over a hill it got to 71 then dropped.

So I'm happy. it could run a bit cooler but this is totally useable esp considering the ambient temp.

What wasn't so cool is the power dip at 6000 is noticeable, so I must play with the PV controller. Also the speedo had stopped working which was a drag.

Good progress though.

[F5 Dave]

Really? Is that my last post 4 yrs ago? Sheesh!

Well a new battery and time to inspect the pv action. Oh. It appears 1/2 the grub screws have backed off leaving 1 pv driven, the other left to its own devices. That won't be helping.
Also found that the speedo sensor had moved out of the way.
Have a dip switch programmable pv controller to try on the dyno.
But I'm now fitting and egt to monitor the exh temp and warn of any impending problem of leaness on the road.
Then dyno test time.

[F5 Dave]

EGT gauge mounted on a bracket and wired in to loom. That's the small LED gauge to the right of the dash.

The exposed tip sensor is exposed to the exhaust gases through a hole drilled 4-6" down the header. Supposedly this is accurate to 1degree and super fast. It wasn't overly cheap, but I'd bought it for a racebike many years ago so nice to be using it.

The downside to the installation is, kit intended for a car, the braided sensor lead is 5' long and they warn against shortening it as calibrated. I'll have to loop it neatly behind the headlight, but no drama, its ready to rock.

[F5 Dave]

Bringdingdingding

Sounds great like, well kinda not like an RZ.


Gauge is bouncing around oddly. Maybe has to be running on song to behave. Maybe dyno tonight. See how kids behave. . , or how much I drink with dinner. Been washing the house this glorious day.

[jasonu]

Bringdingdingding

Sounds great like, well kinda not like an RZ.


Gauge is bouncing around oddly. Maybe has to be running on song to behave. Maybe dyno tonight. See how kids behave. . , or how much I drink with dinner. Been washing the house this glorious day.

How about a video of it running.....in case it blows up like.

[F5 Dave]

Yeah thanks mate.

Actually could never be bothered getting a tube account.