revising the aft section

Right so I didn't like the proximity of the license plate holder/light assy to the rear wheel and at one point I think the wheel touched the plate which is just not good. I'm gonna use the existing seatpan as a plug for a mold to create a new one.

Here's how the plug looks right now, a bit higher and stretching back a bit more. I actually find the more horizontal line to work a bit better; we'll see how the final part comes out. next up is to prep this piece for constructing a splash mold, so fine grit sand paper, wax, wax, wax, pva, boogie nights!

I don't have the best before/after pics so the after pic is a bit distorted via paralax, but hopefully this illustrates it well enough

before:

after:

rolling into the hills!

Well that little trot across town two weeks back is technically the first real ride but today I actually reached into the hills for my first OFFICIAL ride up to the Wall, an East Bay motorcyclist's stopping point with a panoramic view reaching over the UC Berkeley campus, Oakland, the bay, the Golden Gate, and some clear days you can even make out the Farallon Islands where great white sharks still roam...oh and San Francisco. Claremont Ave->Tunnel Road->Grizzly Peak->The Wall.

A few other gents up there waxing on about the state of MotoGP and it was fun hearing people talking about bikes. It was flattering to have a few questions and compliments about my 'tracker. That's a Ducati Hypermotard right behind mine:



What did I learn? Well, my forks are in dire need of a rebuild. They have a harsh clunk sensation, probably from being hammered to death by the 1989 CR-500 where the Showas originated. Looks like there might be a little oil dribble forming right on the threshold of the carb intake insulator...not sure where it would be coming from. Bike makes a ripe oil smell when I'm parked at a light; I think that's outgassing from the crank case breather which no longer recirculates through the air intake. I also should remember to tighten some bolts around the tail light so that my lights aren't wagging around shamefully.

I improvised a speedo with one of Sarah's old cycling computers (programmable circumference). Max speed hit was around 50mph indicated. Felt pretty good. This bike is gonna be all kinds of fun once it's dialed!

...I'm going to build a new seatpan/rear fender with more clearance, and better attachment of the plate/lights. bang it out quick now that I know what to do!

uncluttering some wiring ii

I last left if off at here


And took it to here:



Then tried to make some sense of the front by shoring up some of the slack, adding some sunimoto 0.110" pin connectors from "Eastern Beaver" moto wiring supply. Redoing pin connectors and crimping wire is a very absorbing process...hours pass without me knowing :)







Everything was going great (or as great as these things go since I spend half my time on my knees looking for some goddamned thing I just dropped on the floor with my fumbling digits). But then disaster struck somewhere along the way I fried my dear Tachometer. BITCH! At first I thought it was just the fuse because I tested it and indeed it looks like it gave way. But then I replaced it with another 500mA tube and goddammit, nothing. And no connectivity between the (+) and (-) pins in the connector leaves me to think it's something inside. I've read around about these SPAs and apparently there's an internal fuse that blows in them as well, but it looks like it needs a trip back to it's factory for that remedy.

That was the only big splurge I did on this project and it's toast. expletive, expletive, expletive...

Anyway after refactoring the wiring harness, everything else seems to work, so as long as I'm not too concerned with knowing absolute engine or air speed, things are fine.

Poof!

uncluttering some of the wiring.

Well now that it's reasonably functional, I'll make a little effort to clean up the wiring enough to make a longer range foray into the hills "testing" the new sled. Up front, I have some real challenges getting the tacho wiring nested well with the rest of the gear, while also trimming a lot of the existing wires down since they are now wadded up a little too much. Before attacking that, I'll try to sort out the simpler area which is the aft lighting connections, and taking out some lengths of wire in the main lines off the battery, etc.

I'll use some pin connectors for the lighting so that the rear fender can be yanked off easily, and will also be using some cute connectors made by a company called "PosiLock" for splicing onto the (-) line originating from the battery:



Here's the snarl right now:

from flyscreen to speedo skirt

worried that a flyscreen might evoke papal notions, I also realized that I'd be deviating from the flat-tracker roots a little much by shrouding the headlight/console/handlbar in roundy plastic bodywork. We all know deep down that fairings are not only hard to make, they are also decidedly not very macho.



I am now trying something just to protect the underside of the clever tachometer. Probably something that just outlines the perimeter of the console, black and just enough spare room to house a few odds and ends concerning wires.




I'm also leaning towards recycling an Illy coffee can. I've always liked their containers; the logo, the shiny aluminum. The coffee is pretty good, too, straight from Trieste, Italy in the crotch of the Adriatic on the cusp of Italy and Croatia. The metal's wall thickness is quite a bit heftier than your average 12oz aluminum beverage can so it ought to be able to work as a skin here if it had a little support riveted to the underside

how about a flyscreen?

I should have a little shield between the headlight and the tachometer's body for a little bug protection at speed. Plus I need something that some of this ugly wire can hide behind. How about this shape?

The console is asymetrical by design; I'm not affraid to proliferate this to the bodywork. Kind of like it's giving you a sideways glance or a little knowing smirk?




P.S. fiberglass is not my only fabrication medium, but if it gets any more complex than this speedo sensor hanger, I would rather do it in something involving chemicals

wiring tach part three

OK, well I powered up the tacho using the black ignition switch lead as advised by pop earlier. Worked fine. Then came splicing the sensor wire into the coil. I tried using the green/ground line first but no signal. Perhaps there was a signal but not the kind the tach needed? There are was a voltage setting that I had to use when calibrating the tach and in the manual it says to set it to the "hi" setting when going off the coil, so my guess is that they are expecting the pulse to come from wire to the CDI...and that was what it required! Thanks guys for sending some comments to help this thing along!

I love how the needle changes color: