A little something I have been working on

[rgvlee]

if anyone has a video camera/good camera phone and doesn't mind travelling to beechboro, you are more than welcome to drop by and record the sound of these pipes Still got a few more heat cycles to do and I do it at night when I get home from work.

[kwakas]

fuck, that looks ace.... so much want right here

[rgvlee]

OK Heidi and I are back from our trip so it's time to get back into this.

Heat cycling has shown up a leak on one of the slip joints. I used some RTV on the flanges but not on the slip joints - they looked fine but alas one was not. So i'll be removing the pipes this week, cleaning the flanges and reapplying RTV to the slip joints as well as the flanges.

The flo commander got lost by USPS, so another has been sent. The tracking details on this one are being updated, it left the US yesterday, so all things being equal it'll be here this week. This also means I'll be doing the air box mod and I will also look at enlarging the intakes on the lid to 34mm each.

Ordered a digital temp gauge from the US. These for some reason are really hard to source.



This is to replace the stock gauge. Apparently very sensitive and come with their own temp sensor.

I was going to hold off installing the temp guage and flo commander until I had run it in, but since I've got the take the pipes off I'll do it all in one hit over the next few weeks as parts arrive.

Cheers

L

[g0zer]

god thats a professional looking job that bike is going to be awesome

[branchi]

U keeping the fairings original lee or respraying something custom? ie. to match that hot blue piping??

ps. nice bike collection...

[rgvlee]

nah i'll leave it as is for now. The current fairings have a bit of 'character' but are in pretty good nick. Given that I have a spare set of fairings i'll probably just leave these stock.

I have considered painting up the spare set in satin black with yellow number boards... or something like the old rg500 theme... light blue with suzuki speed stripe on it (remember vermulens bike last year?). Dunno, would need to mock it up to see if looked any good. Where is maxo when you need him.

[Desmogod]

Barry Sheene Tyga kit.
You know it makes sense.

[rgvlee]

nah no tyga.

[Desmogod]

(notyga?)
Still go Barry Sheene then .

[rgvlee]

Flo commander arrived this week. I rate the install as a 2 beer job looking at the destructions. Requires removing carbs and facing the main air jet passage so the adapters sit flush with the carb. Pretty easy to see how this little baby works. The theory looks good and if it works it should be a good tool for tuning. Add another beer for the airbox mod simply because it'll take a bit of time to get it perfect how I want it.

If time permits I will do the flo commander this weekend but first thing is to get the pipes sealed properly. I may wait until run in so I can see if I need a main jet change as well.

Ordered a 260 and 290 mains today just incase I need to go up or down a main jet. Got them from show and go in SA and should be here early next week. I tried Dominator but they seemed uninterested in returning my call so I went elsewhere. Bypassed suzuki dealers as last time they checked they couldn't get me a 290 and the other jets I ordered were back order and took a few weeks to come in. Not to mention the markup for buying SGP!

I'm attempting to order chain and sprockets from Savage, they are also giving me the shits. I have had enough of the local suzuki dealers, I've tried them all and they all have let me down at some stage or another. If savage can't be bothered getting back to me today I will in the future source all my suzuki spares from the UK and US at a cheaper rate Just when I thought I'd found a good dealer close to home they go and stuff me around with something so simple.

Sorry don't normally rant like this but I'm really annoyed with some of the local bike shops and crap service! Anyway I'll post more progress probably on monday.

[Jamathi]

It is a pity that you cannot get a variable mainjet driven by a stepper motor incorporated into the carbies, this together with the temp meter makes for a wonderfull tuning tool on the run.
I made one when HQ racing and gained excelent HP gains out of it.
Promply got banned by the HQ nazi's sadly.
Negates the constant RAD calculations, just a look ath the temp and increase or decrease the fuel flow.

[rgvlee]

Alrighty, got back into this one last night after a few busy weeks. Nothing ever seems to go to plan.

I pulled the pipes off again last night and resealed them. The left pipe was leaking out the slip joint. I have applied liberal (read: lots) of sealant to try and stop this. We shall see.

I have the new sprockets, just waiting on the chain which should be here any day now. I ended up getting some renthals, the finish is excellent. Much better than talon.

Tonight I am putting the side stand back on and applying some heat wrap near a couple of brackets to stop them rubbing on the pipes.

I am holding off putting the flo commander on for now... 1 because I would like to run it in before messing with the jetting and 2 because I want to spend some time on the kr-1s.

The temp gauge requires me to drop the coolant, remove the dash cluster, drill some holes... so not a straight forward job. So that will wait a few weeks as well. The kr-1s has a stuffed temp gauge so I think the digital one I have here will go into that bike first and I'll order another. They are easy to get now that I have a good supplier.

Got some pics which I will post up later. The info I have on sealing the JL pipes will be useful for others who buy them so I will detail what I did and why they leaked in another post.

Cheers

L

[rgvlee]

Side stand and fairing brackets back on.

Bit of heat wrap applied to LHS pipe to stop the side stand and fairing bracket rub on the pipes (very tight fit).

Oil pump cover and chain guard fitted and cleaned where necessary.

Front sprocket fitted.

Rear tyre off, old sprocket off. Cleaned up the swingarm then ran out of cleaner. Got some bits soaking in WD40, so these will only need a wipe down before reapplying.

Started her up again last night, the work I've done sealing the slip joints seems to have worked. Time will tell.

Not far now. Just needs a few more bits cleaned, rear tyre back on, chain on and we'll be out riding. Sunday if the weather fines up!

[speed3]

Sweet

[rgvlee]

Here's the JL exhaust flange set up I was referring to.

The setup uses 2 of the OEM suzuki exhaust gaskets and the OEM flange.

To give a quick run down, the 2 crush washers are retained, the smaller one on the cylinder and the larger one between the flanges. These provide a really good seal.

On the stock pipes, a third copper gasket would go just under the lip of the OEM flange. This effectively stops oil welling up between the flanges and potentially leaking out of the large crush washer and from between the flanges.

You can't fit this third washer in with the JLs, so I basically have added a high temp sealant that runs from the lip where the copper gasket would normally go down to the lower crush washer.

This is all I did initially and I figured that oil wouldn't travel back up the slip joint. How wrong I was. I guess back pressure forces residual oil back up the slip joint as I had a leak on one of the pipes. It was definitely out of the slip joint as everything else was bone dry. I have now applied sealant to the outside of the slip joint now as well.



Light blue indicates where I have applied sealant. I did not place the sealant inside the slip joint as you need to be able to remove the sealant to be able to reapply it again later on.


I guess the moral of the story is... if you are going to use slip joints make sure you have a good seal! don't assume that oil won't travel vertically back up the pipe as it can and will!

[rgvlee]

OK, where was I

Pulled the JL flanges off, they were dry bar the slip joint.


Pipes back on, slip joint sealed. I won't say it's a done deal but no leaks so far. Also added a bit of heat wrap as the pipes touch the head.


Also added some heat wrap where the fairing mount and sidestand touch the pipes. Hopefully this will stop the pipes getting damaged.


Bum off for the new chain and sprockets. Whilst this was all apart I gave everything a good clean.


Front sprocket and oil pump cover on. Replaced the oil pump cover screws with some nice stainless allen heads.


RK XW chain and renthal sprockets. Sprockets are excellent quality and have a great finish. Rivet link chain gave me the perfect opportunity to try out my chain rivet tool, easy as pie!


Getting ready for the test run around the block to make sure everything was ok.



After doing a few k's everything checked out so I grabbed my jacket and went to run this baby in.

This thing sings. As it builds to 7k rpm you can hear that it means business, it starts to build an angry note. Then it comes on pipe at 8500 and it's holy shit what the fuck just happened.

Seat of my pants says that we're making peak power at around 11500.

Little bit of fine tuning to do, but I can finally say she's back on the road.

rgvlee = happy

[Stratos]

Your an inspiration dude ...

[speed3]

can't wait to see and hear it

[rgvlee]

I've got new tyres going on next week, pilot race (pilot power rears out of stock and not available for 6 weeks!)

I'll be bringing her along to the 2 stroke party but more than likely with the fairings back on.

[Jamathi]

are you adding some oil to the fuel?