Going Racing

[pinholenz]

Hiya Steve.
Nice to hear that you are moving to in Tauranga where the climate is a bit more agreeable. I have moved out of Auckland, down to Whanganui (Notice the "h" - very PC) - Half the rainfall of Auckland and fabulous housing at a fraction of Auckland prices - in fact some of the most affordable in NZ. Great riding so far, but like you I am about to put the XZ away till the chores are done and my workshop is sorted.
Great to have you back on the forum again. I hope that the tornado was nowhere near you....
Cheers, John.

[dingleberry]

Heres a link to a pdf of EBC catalog you may find interesting/handy reference

http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEgQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bikerbrackets.com%2FBikerBrackets%2FEBC%25202004%2520Brake%2520Cat.pdf&ei=Q9RVVaivCYi1mAWS1oHIBQ&usg=AFQjCNFAKt0xnjHgjqmZXA2JncfQfEHHxw&sig2=j4y7HAUg_h2qODAEJTOzWg&bvm=bv.93564037,d.dGY

[kiwibum]

Hiya Steve.
Nice to hear that you are moving to in Tauranga where the climate is a bit more agreeable. I have moved out of Auckland, down to Whanganui (Notice the "h" - very PC) - Half the rainfall of Auckland and fabulous housing at a fraction of Auckland prices - in fact some of the most affordable in NZ. Great riding so far, but like you I am about to put the XZ away till the chores are done and my workshop is sorted.
Great to have you back on the forum again. I hope that the tornado was nowhere near you....
Cheers, John.

Hi John. I originate from Wanganui (that's how we spelt it when I was there ;D), the Para Para to Raetihi is one of my favourite rides.  Wanganui IS the most affordable housing in NZ, I found this out over Xmas while researching land prices looking at places we might move too. Really surprised me as I expected it to be the bottom end of the South Is. Glad we have chosen Tauranga over Wanganui, have bought an old factory there so will have lots of workshop space this time round, tired of working out of a single garage. Good move getting out of Auckland, hope you managed to cash in on the house prices before it all slides down again.

Rohan, apologies for crashing your thread.

[fret not]

Cast iron discs are available here in California custom made for about $100 per each last I heard.  If you would like to inquire more in depth I can dig out the contact info.  The shop that makes them is a brake specialty shop that does a lot of regular vehicle stuff as well as competition vehicles of many sorts.

[The Prophet of Doom]

I've decided on EBC rotors.  Good drill bits are so expensive that I think this will end up cheaper, and less chance of a mis-fit than with customs.  EBC rotors are stainless of sorts, so shouldn't rust away sitting in my shed, but apparently 20% higher friction than OEM, so meets my goal of every change increasing performance
We shall see - pics in a couple of weeks.

[The Prophet of Doom]

You have to love Amazon & DHL.  Bought Monday night, arrived Thursday lunchtime (in New Zealand). 


I decided against the wave profile MD2011C.  The standard pattern I got EBC MD2011 has dropped the spiral in favour of a symmetric pattern.    Lighter than stock but there's not much in it.  There are definitely lighter rotors available.


Stopping power remains to be seen - they claim 20% better and I'm pairing with Brembo Carbon Ceramic pads, new seals all round, Goodridge S/S lines

[The Prophet of Doom]

I took my wheels (just the wheels - not the whole bike) to Budget MC to get the tyres swapped over.  The mechanic took one look at them and said
"Yamaha XZ550 - haven't seen one of those for years"

[Rikugun]

That seems pretty amazing that wheels from a relatively obscure vintage model were so recognizable. Cool!  :)

[fret not]

As far as I know the only other bike that uses this wheel design is the 650 Seca Turbo.  Another rare bike, but memorable if you ever considered one.  The 650 has a 19" front wheel.

[jefferson]

Don't forget the 400 Seca.

[pinholenz]

And I came across an XJ900 at my local wreckers the other day. The wheels were instantly recognizable as from the same design stable - shaft drive too. Quite a beast.

[The Prophet of Doom]

Wheels back from the MC shoppe.  Bridgestone Battleax BT45  110/90/18F and 120/90/18R

[fiat-doctor]

Looks great.  Even the cat approves!

[Rikugun]

They do look good and considerably better than mine at the moment. Nice job  :)

[The Prophet of Doom]

Last day of my holiday *sigh*.  The handbrake is at work, so I got to potter in the shed. 
Finished my new radiator overflow bottle

[dingleberry]

You do all that on your machines? And alloy weld too? How did you thread the lid, lathe? Nice job. I'm going to use an old beer can for my race bike.

[The Prophet of Doom]

You do all that on your machines? And alloy weld too? How did you thread the lid, lathe? Nice job. I'm going to use an old beer can for my race bike.

All done on the lathe except the dimpled top which I did on the mill.  Threading on the lathe is pretty straight forward - I can show you if you like. I had to build a thread cutting tool for the inside pipe out of some steel bar stock and the back end of an old 10mm drill bit. For the cap I could use the cutting tool that came with my carbide tool set.


For the lugs and inlet/outlet hoses I brazed them on - too difficult for my level of alloy welding.


I like the beer can idea but you are still going to need to weld/braze it, and doing can thicknesses will be on the tricky side.

[Jirik]

Wheels back from the MC shoppe.  Bridgestone Battleax BT45  110/90/18F and 120/90/18R

POD why you choose size of front tire 110?

[The Prophet of Doom]

POD why you choose size of front tire 110?

I've not seen anyone else on RoV using this wide in the front before.

When I first got this bike with 90/90F and 120/90R rubber I found it a bit tippy. Moving from 90/90F to 100/90F was a big help in this regard.
Now that I'm modding it a bit - putting on a slightly shorter R1 Shock, and pushing the forks through about 30mm I've shortened the wheelbase.  I expect this to speed up the bike's ability to fall into a turn.  This is not something I really want, so I figured the 110 might slow things down a little
If I'm wrong I'll just change the front back to 100, but the 110 came to me for almost nothing - might as well give it a shot.  Not very mathematical I'm afraid.


On an aesthetic note, the larger front tyre looks much more aggressive now - especially on the black rims and drilled rotors.  I'll keep that look if I can.

[Jirik]

Thank you for answer.
Yes, black rims with this tyres look awesome.  I'm going to change my tyres for first time and I have not any experiences with different sizes. Now she has 90/90 and 110/90 tyres and I like to order 90/90 and 120/90.