Go West, Young Man

[Brian Moffet]

The forks are leaving an EXTREMELY SMALL amount of oil on the chrome pipes which i find odd since they have not been used since they were rebuilt.

having a light film of oil on the forks is normal from what I can remember.  Anything more than a slight film then you need to worry about it.  I noticed it on my front forks after I rebuilt them as well.

Brian

[vadasz1]

i have a RED petcock

You should have a professional look at it and see if it can be cured.  Is it sore?

*0  8)  ::)

[Raj1988]

Go get one of Edward Tufte's books and look at it.  aphics...)

Read some articles about his work. Seems like he has an interesting take on the subject. Thanks for the reference

Also, I would like to thank you for posting such detailed pictures of your rebuild Brian, they have been a great reference for me at many points in my own semi rebuild.

[Raj1988]

Welllllllllll i picked up my carbs from Cdn_lou the carb guru, last night. He saved me a fair bit of out of pocket expenses for some odds and ends so thank You, that helped a fair bit. I also got a chance to get a second opinion on the state of both my tanks.

Everything should be hunky dory wouldn't you think? ---- In a word, NO... My gas tank has what we think is Kreem, with rust underneath. The 4 corners have been repaired already so there are no leaks. Acetone is just too expensive in the quantity i will need and it would also ruin the paint job which is the one thing i like about this tank.

Luckily, the  red tank seems to be in good shape except for a dent, i should be able to use it until I can find some way to clean my tank without dropping a bomb on solvents.

In the meantime i hope i can find a NOS or near new tank.  I'll be firing her up tomorrow and can hopefully make 11am ride to Breezy Corners with the ONRov,

[vadasz1]

Raj, how much are you pricing acetone for?  I buy Xylene at work at about $70 for a 20 liter pail.  So I don't think that will be too much of a bomb.  More like a BLACK CAT firecracker.

[Raj1988]

Ive got quotes between 20- 25 per gallon of the stuff. I figure if i can find a good tank, it would cost about the same. The red tank is holding well. It has been lined with something that is bubbling but whats underneath is clean shiny metal, NO RUST so maybe the red one will get the POR and just maybe a new coat of paint!! What are you pricing painting tanks at?

[Raj1988]

shes RUNNING again, albeit hunting for idle under half choke. Going all the way to about 4.5 and then dropping to 2.5 all by herself. The red tank actually looks pretty good from afar. I'll post up some pictures soon

[YellowJacket!]

Just catching up.  As far as the MAC's go, its really a matter of preference.  They can be loud but extra packing will help that and they quiet down quite a bit at cruising speed.  They do sound nice if you like louder bikes.  The stock exhaust is relatively quiet.  In fact, my cam chains made more noise than the stock exhaust on my Vision before I got a set of MAC's.
From a performance standpoint, I think - and some may disagree - that with the MAC's the Vision seems to rev up a bit faster.  My guess is that a lot of thought and engineering went into the design of the collector and stock pipes.  That thought seems to have carried on over into the 83 which has different sized front pipes than the 82.
I think that since the MAC's are more freer flowing than the stock, that causes the V to rev quicker.
Now, I could be wrong though since my bike (carbs) was somewhat - well pretty much - out of tune when I had the stock pipes.  Lucky fixed that for me.  8)

David

[kev10104]

With out a doubt I have more power with the mac's.40 klms lesss mileage though.

[vadasz1]

Raj, send me some pics of the tank along with what you want to have done exactly.  Do you want dents repaired, the lowers fiberglassed over, the seam filled in with bogyfiller, etc.  Also what colour do you want it to be and do you want clearcoat as well.

[Raj1988]

I've been a bit busy with school and end of term projects and haven't been doing much work on the bike. Trying my best to get 100+ km rides as often as possible to work out the kinks. After a few observations i have concluded that I'm getting 200-205 km per tank of gas until i hit reserve. Is this typical?

With regard to mounting a throttlemeister, after messing around with the lathe at school for a couple of hours and wrecking a spare handlebar i had, I decided to just get the mounting bolts welded to a set of handle bars i can get from Tiger. The problem was the mounting bolts need a barely under 7/8in handlebar with a thread inside. Unfortunately this meant that the OD of the threads on the bolts is a fraction of a mm smaller than the ID of the bar. I hoped to Weld a piece of steel pipe inside the handle bar and then thread it so the mounting bolts could be screwed in. Since the diff was so small, i had to shave off 1.5 mm from the inside of the handle bar so a thick enough pipe that could be threaded would fit in it. Bloody pain in the ass if your are working on a Lathe for the first time. My only concern is, could a weld support 13oz bar end weights??? The vibes on my bike at 110-120Kmph are pretty strong and i could really use the dampening.

At low speeds 30-40kmph, When i let go of the handlebars The front end develops a wobble. This was a problem at speed before i changed the head bearing and the tires. I re tightened the steering head nuts but i have not been able to solve this problem. Any ideas?

[inanecathode]

I've been a bit busy with school and end of term projects and haven't been doing much work on the bike. Trying my best to get 100+ km rides as often as possible to work out the kinks. After a few observations i have concluded that I'm getting 200-205 km per tank of gas until i hit reserve. Is this typical?

With regard to mounting a throttlemeister, after messing around with the lathe at school for a couple of hours and wrecking a spare handlebar i had, I decided to just get the mounting bolts welded to a set of handle bars i can get from Tiger. The problem was the mounting bolts need a barely under 7/8in handlebar with a thread inside. Unfortunately this meant that the OD of the threads on the bolts is a fraction of a mm smaller than the ID of the bar. I hoped to Weld a piece of steel pipe inside the handle bar and then thread it so the mounting bolts could be screwed in. Since the diff was so small, i had to shave off 1.5 mm from the inside of the handle bar so a thick enough pipe that could be threaded would fit in it. Bloody pain in the ass if your are working on a Lathe for the first time. My only concern is, could a weld support 13oz bar end weights??? The vibes on my bike at 110-120Kmph are pretty strong and i could really use the dampening.

At low speeds 30-40kmph, When i let go of the handlebars The front end develops a wobble. This was a problem at speed before i changed the head bearing and the tires. I re tightened the steering head nuts but i have not been able to solve this problem. Any ideas?

Yeah, thats right for gas mileage. Bar weights might help, but better grips will help more. The wobble is a loose steering head, tighten it more than you did and you'll be alright.

[kev10104]

I was doing 265-270 kilometers before I had to hit reserve but now get 225.Not sure if it is because of the mac's or what.

[Raj1988]

I was doing 265-270 kilometers before I had to hit reserve but now get 225.Not sure if it is because of the mac's or what.

I'll bet anything that its also down to the way you ride with the Mac's. They sound nicer so you must be opening the throttle more often  ;D

[YellowJacket!]

At low speeds 30-40kmph, When i let go of the handlebars The front end develops a wobble. This was a problem at speed before i changed the head bearing and the tires. I re tightened the steering head nuts but i have not been able to solve this problem. Any ideas?

I'm still having the same problem and it is either a warped rotor or loose steering head bearings (Installed tapered bearings with Lucky a few years ago)

At cruising speed everything is fine but at 15 to 25mph front end wobble is horrible.  I did a shoulder check to change lanes the other day and put my left hand on my leg and about lost control due to the wobble.  Was doing about 20mph.

David

[kev10104]

No doubt about it.

[Brian Moffet]

I'm getting 200-205 km per tank of gas until i hit reserve. Is this typical?

Right now I average 204 km per tank in San Francisco city driving.  So it's pretty much stop and go in a heavy urban environment.  When I have been on the freeway, I have seen as high as 320 km per tank. 

But this depends on how it's ridden (I don't tend to launch on starts) and how fast you ride (the 320 was at 110 kph very consistently.)

Brian

P.S. all of the above were miles per tank multiplied by 1.6....

[kev10104]

I think 200 or more is pretty good.

[inanecathode]

The other day on the interstate, going up a very very long hill, in heavy winds, with a passenger, i burned the entire tank (save for the reserve) in 94 miles  :o
Then the same day, with wind, went 125 without reserve  :o

[Lucky]

I typicly get about 175 mpg on Tourer (the heavy bike) and 195ish on Cafe.  this is normally on local roads (about 1/3 thru town, 2/3 windy country roads). I'm not what you would call a conservitive rider either...

Couldn't be that balance tube Inane, could it?   ;D ;D