Going Racing

[Rikugun]

Ouch, sorry to hear that.  :(  Was the battery on a trickle charger all that time?

[The Prophet of Doom]

Yes, I hold little hope for it.
Fortunately I have a brand new AGM battery in my spares stash - I bought one when it was on special last year.

[Rikugun]

The reason it went dry may have been because it was on the charger the entire time. I have tried several small chargers on vented lead acid motorcycle batteries including a NOCO Genius, Battery Tender and a no name brand. They all will dry a battery up in remarkably short time. They all supposedly "float" once full charge is achieved.  I now only charge them overnight 2 or 3 times during the 3-4 month storage season.

[Rick G]

When I worked at  Dunton Motor sports , Arctic cat dealer we had problems with the electronic chargers , not being able to  maintain battery's  on the show room floor . we ended up tossing them and going back to the old style chargers.

[67GTO]

Rikugun
 
   I had a battery dry out on me with my Battery Tender Jr, so now I have it on a timer to only run for one
hour a day.

Dan

[Rikugun]

A timer! That's a great idea, nice tip there.  :D

[kwells]

On a small tight road track I noticed the center stand touching on the turns heavily but so did the Mac pipes and the pegs. Front end dive is significant on the XZ so heavy braking upsets the suspension pretty easily. Take care of the peg placement and center stand as well as up the spring rate to the suspension and that's at least a good starting point.

[Rick G]

You  need to crawl off of the low side farther , this will allow you to keep the bike a bit more vertical  and limit the amount of things dragging. I run the  '83 shock on the 4 th notch and  the damping on firm. The front end has  a spacer on top of the  fork spring (or use Progressives) to limit nose diving. I don't like to get too close to the edge on those old fashioned 4 inch  tyres!

[kwells]

can hang off all you want...on a tight track the xz will leave sparks all over the track. Far more low points than on the Triumph Sprint.

[Rikugun]

A dedicated race bike would have the stands removed so that wouldn't be a concern. Not so much of an issue anyway....  Back on page five it was decided the bike probably wasn't going to be raced.  :)  At least Roro's, haven't heard from Iain lately.

Whether it's creating an AT type or road course racer there will always be better platforms from which to start. Sometimes it's more of what's available, what you like, or what will be a fun challenge. Often it's the struggle that's fun.  :)

[kwells]

I'm all for it...I raced mine 6 times last year with the centerstand in place...it's a great platform to start on really. Turns in quick, good low end power, not too heavy, and cheap to fix.

[Rikugun]

I raced mine 6 times last year with the centerstand in place

I'm guessing this was not a dedicated paved course race bike?

[Rick G]

OK your talking about a track ! Now i get it. I think i would have to remove the center stand . When i raced it was mandatory . It was in the rule book.

[The Prophet of Doom]

The battery seems to have suffered no ill effects from having boiled almost completely dry.  Now that I have electricity, I thought I'd work on my rear light.  Ages ago I removed the grab handles and filled the holes with CRC marine filler.  Still the flashers were annoying me - even though I'd replaced them with tiny tiny ones.  Integrated LEDs - thats what I need.

I happen to have a aftermarket R1 LED light in the spares stash. When the flashers go, the brake/rear light on that half turns off. - Pretty cool. So I smashed it with a big hammer and ripped its guts out.  The insides are just a fraction narrower than the XZ lens.

The XZ rear light is glued together so I baked the rear light in my shop oven 80 degrees (Celsius) for about 10 minutes to soften the adhesive, and then pulled the red plastic off.  I wanted to be able to return to stock later, so rather than drill mount holes I narrowed a couple of bits of Alu rod, then inserted pins (cut off pieces of blunt drill bit) so its exactly the same as a bulb.  That plugs into the bulb holders with a mount screw sticking out.  That holds a plate, and then the LED array bolts to that - spaced with a few washers.

All together and looking rather stock, but not.

[kiwibum]

Nice implementation on the LEDs. Will be interested to know how it goes through the WOF since it's a red lens. I picked up some of my parts the other day (yes slowly getting bikes out of storage) and was looking at the rear light wondering how to fit turn indicators. Was thinking about fitting something on the side but this look like a easier solution, well done.

[The Prophet of Doom]

Wof rules http://vehicleinspection.nzta.govt.nz/virms/in-service-wof/motorcycles/lighting/direction-indicator-lamps state amber OR red to the rear - this is amberish/redish in colour.  Visibility angles I've not tested yet though - they are definitely less than with bulbs

I have no end of trouble with the nazis at the WoF station.  Sometimes they just invent rules, like SS brake lines have to be DoT marked (which is not true).  I always go armed with a list of mods and a full copy of their rules. It's illegal for them to fail for something outside the rules, and formal complaints can lead to them losing their licence - they tend to backtrack fairly quickly when faced with evidence.

Let me know if you need any parts - I have quite a stash.

[Rikugun]

It's illegal for them to fail for something outside the rules, and formal complaints can lead to them losing their licence - they tend to backtrack fairly quickly when faced with evidence.

An informed motorist - their worst nightmare!  :o  :D

[The Prophet of Doom]

Today I cast my attention to the switch gear. The ones on the bike were painted by me a few years back, but despite limited use, they had not lasted well.

I was going to get quite a few bits powdercoated, but then I saw on Youtube the Eastwood powder gun http://www.eastwood.com/paints/hotcoat-powder-coating.html and thought I'd give it a go

It's unbelievably easy.  There's no spray drift, and the part is ready to go as soon as it's cool.  If you haven't seen these, they are well worth a look, relatively cheap.   I chose the semi-gloss black.  It's very close to stock.

The only difficulty is large parts, as my bench-top toaster oven only fits parts up to the size of a chicken

[kiwibum]

Nice, good to see the results from these. I bought a powder coater when I was in the States at Christmas that doesn't need an air compressor. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YEAYCW Haven't had time to try it yet, just picked up a used toaster over last week so I have something to cook things in when ready to paint.

Regarding maximum size, have you tried using your oven on it's side? I'm going to try mine like that so should be able to hang longer items in it. It should work that way and maybe better with the heating elements orientated on the side rather than top and bottom.  I've considered getting a used wall oven off Trademe, seen a couple go for $1 but don't think the little single phase supply in my garage would cope with it. I think the home cooking ovens are over 3.5KW so need to be hard wired in or 15AMP plugs.  Next garage will have more POWER!!!!

[Rikugun]

That looks really good. Is the finish is as durable (or nearly?) as a commecially done job? What did you mean by "there's no spray drift"?