ex stuff

A few things have arrived specifically for the 650, as well as a gadget/toy which can work on both.  First up, a Cox radiator guard.  Radiators have been damage more and more of late, especially at gimli.  Considering the cost to replace, and the impossibility of a trackside repair, good insurance.  Held on with zip ties, mine needs some tweaking to work properly.

I also tracked down a superduke touring screen -- a pretty popular mod with the superduke race series in Europe.  Looks a bit funky, but it should be able to keep the breeze off of my face, somewhat.

Finally, I bought a Drift 170 sports video camera.  About the length of your hand, it comes with a pile of attachments, USB cables, a few mounting options, a 2Gb card, and some batteries.  Plan to mount it to the bike(s) to take some video of my adventures on the track.  Should be cool.  Only 2 months to the Mid-America trip, and WSBK rd 1 starts tommorow on the tube.  That being said, -47 degrees celcius with the windchill yesterday morning.  Yikes!

skins are in

A big UPS box showed up recently.  The ever-patient Kate signed for it and hauled it inside.  Luckily it is nice and light, because it only contained the upper and lower RS125 fairings in the newer body style.  Methinks this might require a new fairing stay, and definately a new screen.  ebay.uk or AF1 are where these can be found -- the former a potential source, the latter a guaranteed one.  AF1 will charge more as their parts are new.

These seem to be decent quality -- note the kevlar reinforcement around the mounting areas.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The upper came with bolt-on winglets -- in order to deflect air away from your hands.  However, these have small gaps where they are bolted on, and so I think they might be aerodynamically "dirty".  They are easily removed for comparison sake.  What do you think?  The RHS (facing camera) has the winglet removed; the opposite still has it bolted on -- I can't see air flowing through that gap or over the smiles smoothly at all!
 
 
 
 
 
Of course, the most difficult part of the process will be putting it all away until next fall.  I've committed to leaving the supermono be this year in order to focus on the new carburetor, the front forks, the slick tires, and the LWGP class itself.  The bodywork and new seat confirguration, as well as the reingineered rear shock will have to wait!

All quiet

Not much going on at this end.  For the 650, a new rear hugger has gone on the versys swingarm, in order to keep the crud and crap from fouling up the penske shock.  Bought on eBay, came from Greece of all places.  Black for now, will likely paint it the lurid key lime green when I get a chance/when the weather improves.  Ranged between -41C and -1 in this past week alone.  No wonder our roads are so poor -- that can't be good for the concrete.  Back down to -20 this week. 

As for the mono, I've  modified the throttle cable -- basically shortened it, to work with the mono-size frame -- don't need the length that I used to have in it to fit on an mx-sized bike.  Actually not that hard to do, as long as you have the correct tools, a bit of knowledge, and the right parts.  Cable as a part of a kit I got from Venhill a few years ago, and motion pro sells cable ends you solder to the correct length.

Wow, that's exciting -- although if you've lived with mis-sized cables, I guess it is!

Regular solder and flux -- nipple is brass, and cable is... a different compound.  I tried this on a non-venhill cable in the past, and the solder wouldn't tin up, no matter how much flux I used.  Obviously the cable is a particular compound.

In other exciting news, I got a better fitting suit now that the teknic 48 was too large for me -- I was able to get a BKS in a size 46 for a good deal off of eBay.  A better quality suit by all accounts, and coming from a British company, you'd think they would know a bit about motorcycle suits.

I'm also sourcing parts for the mkII build of the supermono (see earlier posts) -- to that end, I got a 900ss shock for $20, and a used subframe and rs125 seat unit for a good deal off of the usgpru forum.  While the seat isn't the later model wasp-like design (what I currently have on the mono), it was in such nice shape and for such a great price I purchased it along with the subframe.

That's in excellent shape, less than 1/2 price of new. 

Subframe for rs125.

It's been repaired, but for $50, even if it works as the basis for a jig for another one, it'll come in handy.  Come to think of it, the owner is selling the frame and swingarm for really cheap prices as well....... NO!

And just to torment me with an idea of what you can do when you have access to a factory, excellent engines, a class to race it in, and the skills to execute, here are some pics of the factory KTM 690 supermonos a few employees threw together awhile ago...



Hmm.... mig welds?