wee battery

The lightweight racing battery from Racing Batteries (see link on right) arrived.  As you can see, much smaller than stock.  Also lighter -- using a digital scale from the school, it came in a 1080g -- just over a kilo.  The stock battery was too heavy for the scale to read -- its max was 2kg.  So it is quite a bit lighter than the stock ex650r battery.

A bit more work

Some parts recently arrived for both the mono and the ex650 which has allowed me some time to tinker in the garage.  I thought that while I was working on the clutch of the ex, installing the slipper mechanism, I should also upgrade the springs with heavy duty items from Barnett.  Although they won't be seen outside the bike, the green springs and red caps lend a festive mood to the machine...

The lever guards arrived from Woodcraft -- see sponsor list to the right for the link to their site.  As you can see from an earlier post, the purpose of these is to prevent unintended locking of the front brake due to incidental contact between bikes.

More evidence of why these guards are a good idea...

I plan on installing the clutch side guard on the brake side of the mono... once it warms up a bit and I have some decent grips to install on that bike.  The plastic pieces of junk I have on there now will do nothing to prevent the blisters I got all of last year.

Speaking of the mono, the muffler I first purchased, an all-carbon m4 exhaust from an R1, proved to be in pretty poor condition -- not as light as you would think, and the area that clamps onto the tailpipe would not properly seal, causing a bit of an air leak... perhaps this was what was causing some of the backfire issue?  Regarless, for $55 I got a slip on for a zx10 -- the tailpipe was put to use on the ex650 (see the scorpion exhaust experiment in earlier posts), and the exhaust can -- new -- was utilized on the mono.  From what I understand, the aluminum construction is a better and more durable option to the thumping singles -- carbon cans suffer due to the thumping firing order (apparently).

As you can see, the rear master cylinder has been removed -- it came leaking, a rebuild kit for it is also leaking... so I need to solve that problem soon.  I splurged on a mityvac brake bleeder on sale on ebay, so hopefully that will help both with this project and the many other times a season I bleed brakes!

A new Ducati

A Tamiya kit, based on Roby Rolfo's MotoGp Ducati.

Lotsa decals on this one.

The Tamiya clear has a pearl effect -- the glisten spots can be seen in the paint.

Local shop now sells Tamiya paints -- nice to work with, expecially the spray paints.  An M1 is in the works -- either Melandri or Checa, in preseason testing colors for something different.

Another new Sponsor!

Racing Batteries has stepped forward to support Lucky Stroke Racing in 2012.  They sell a line of lightweight batteries for powersports products. 

 From their website:

Your bike, kart or car is beautifully engineered with the latest technology, carefully crafted in aluminum, titanium and lightweight plastics, and is as light as the manufacturer can make it.

You’ve removed all unnecessary components, and replaced as much of the rest as you can with the lightest materials you can afford – titanium fasteners, carbon bits, titanium exhausts and so on.
You’d love carbon wheels, but the budget won’t quite stretch! But under your seat (or behind it, or under the hood) lurks a big chunk of lead/acid nastiness – technology invented in 1859!
Why are high tech light weight sports vehicles supplied with this heavy, stone age garbage? Simple – high tech batteries are too expensive for cheapskate OEM buyers! Your laptop, phone and I-pod all use lightweight, high performance batteries, so why shouldn’t your pride and joy? Using the latest in lightweight power technology (Lithium Ferrous Nano Phosphate if we're being technical), Racing Batteries have created a range of components for your track bike, kart or race car that will give you a massive weight saving.
Racing Batteries are made in the UK - designed using the latest CAD systems, CNC machined, assembled and 100% tested in a professional quality controlled environment.
All Racing Batteries are direct replacements for your existing Lead Acid battery - simply remove your old battery and replace it with a Racing Battery - no other modifications are required - and you look after it just like you would a Lead Acid unit.
If you're not after a direct replacement or you're doing some serious racing, contact us and we'll let you know what the lightest option is for your application.
And as well as being lighter, Racing Batteries are more powerful than lead acid batteries, so that your motor starts faster and more reliably.

The battery for the ex650r is the RB240400 model.  At 2.4lbs, it is nearly 5 lbs lighter than the stock battery.  And like most of these new batteries, they last even longer than lead acid versions.  Even better, they are successful in the UK, sponsoring one of my heros, Mike Rutter.

The website for Racing Batteries is listed under the "sponsors" tab to the right.  Check them out!

Sponsorship News!

Woodcraft Technologies has once again agreed to support Lucky Stroke Racing for 2012.  One of the new products I will be using are the "Lever Guards".  Designed to prevent unintentional front brake application when contact is made with another bike in close quarters, they would also protect hands in the event of a crash.  Here's a nasty example of what can happen:

650 exhaust finished

This has come together quite nicely.  After recieving the scorpion exhaust from Pop over the break (originally for a gixxer 1000), I set about lining things up.  I actually tacked the muffler in place at home, and then got the master, Brent at Cycleboyz to tig-weld it to the "free" collector pipe I had lying around.  The end result is what you see here.

Nice tight clearance with the swingarm...

The muffer also came with a nice chrome-plated clamp (which I used to connect the tailpipe to the header), and a stainless strap and rubber bracket bushing.

I welded two m10 shouldered nuts into the cut-off end of the seat frame mounts -- this provided a strong and secure way to mount the muffler bracket.

I'll remove the bracket and paint it with Hammerite paint, as per my usual procedure.  Tubing is 3/4 x .065 4130 -- plenty sturdy enough!

If you ask me, it kinda looks like a moto2 exhaust, with the loooong muffler bracket...

a few updates

Some time off over the Christmas break has allowed me to tick off a few boxes on the "to do" list.  First the supermono -- I didn't like the location of the HRC overflow bottle.  Noticing that a lot of racebikes have them mounted on the front fairing stay, I decided to do likewise.  It was a nice treat to work with proper metal tools. 

Kate works part time at a top-secret location.  It was quiet over the break, so I snuck in and used a nice shear and break to create the bottle holder.  I also used their drill press to make the litening holes in this aluminum sheet.  Foam strips are stuck to the bottle to help secure it in place -- a zip tie will be the final step to secure the bottle properly.  The extra bonus was working inside!

I also mocked up a crankcase vent system.  It uses a combination of 3/8" (case) and 5/8" (cylinder head) spigots.  Before I bought more expensive hose for the application, I tested it with some cheap hose from Canadian Tire.  There is a brass T fitting hiding in the picture on the left.

This hose has spent its life sitting on a spool in a store, and combine that with the below zero temps, turned it into plastic.  This vent filter will lay FLAT under the tail section, not sticking up like this.  At least I have the correct lengths and it should all work.  Proper hose for this application is inbound.

Also had a chance to visit MINUTE MUFFLER in Brandon.  Good karma from these dudes.  I bought a better FMF muffler from ebay to fit on the mono -- it came with a short section of stainless connector pipe in 2", with a section cut for clamping.  However the muzzy header coming out from the collector is also 2".  I took the header and the stainless collector piece to the guys there to see if they couldn't use their pipe expander to create a slip-fit onto the muzzy header.  Hey presto, and its done.  I even had a spare muffle clamp that will work -- you can see it just ahead of the oil drain bolt.  Will need to do some more tweaking and fitting to get the scorpion muffler to work, but this also allows me to take the whole shebang off again and re-fit the muzzy muffler (seen dented on the floor from my crash) if it all proves to be useless.  Best part is, they did it for free!  Might stop by with some Tim's in the next few days to express my thanks...