Idiot v. Motorbikes, Rounds 3, 4, and 5

[kmisterk]

Ahhhhhhhhhh I need a video of the sound ASAP!

[melville]

I've snuck out on Edgar a couple times both before and after spending three weeks out of town. Once for a pillion test. She likes him! After that, I did a bit more to baseline the idle and synch adjustments but I still haven't used the ShortMeisters for the last word in synchronization. Ernst is down for a bit after going to Montana while his gauges get refurbished (the odometer became inconsistent) and the final drive gets new seals so he loaned his mufflers to the cause. The Harley (non) mufflers were not quite my preferred stealthy sound. Although they sound pretty fuckin' nice with earplugs!

Anyway, Edgar with Keihans:



A couple issues:

--The master cylinder cap has a heavy float and so the Brake Failure light is on all the time. A little disconcerting!

--There's something up with the float needle on the left carb. It pukes fuel on my left toe at a stop.

The first thing will need a new part, or I'll just take the wires off the cap and be totally ignorant.

I started to address the second thing. I popped the bowl off and made what turned out to be a major adjustment to float height. To the point that the bowl was dry when I checked. I made a smaller adjustment back and went out for a ride but got gas all over my left toes.

As I was going to need to pull the carb to get it right I rode until the motor was nice and warm and when I got home I pulled both carbs and did a compression check. 125 psi on both sides! Not ideal, but as the PR seals are holding I'll probably not dick with the top end yet.

[melville]

Next steps will include:
* a couple hundred miles riding
* changing the trans, shaft and FD oil
* a compression test and seeing if I need to do anything with the top end
* rebuilding the fork with new seals and gaiters
* regreasing the head bearings
* making friends with the upholstery guy in the neighborhood to get a new pad and cover on my Flanders backrest
* getting some quieter mufflers, probably Keihans
* remounting the Luftmeister and riding off with my pillion on various hot spring adventures

Progress report!

I'm at about 120 miles, with 30ish yesterday and 50ish today, in the mountains. I'm working out how one sits on a /7 with high bars. On Ernst with the low bars, I sit right up against the tank. The weight on the front wheel feels good and familiar, like what I'm used to on a racing bicycle. The /7 seat has the stash box up front, so sitting forward puts the boys under pressure. Sitting back puts me in a broad part of the saddle which feels mostly good. It remains to be seen what my pillion thinks of having a bit less room. Pillion time is spooning at speed anyway. I will have to move the pillion pegs if I sit back, as it makes my heels drop right into the pillion pegs. I might see about using a left /5 peg on the right side so long as the brake remains usable.

The early bent-wire linked Kinematic shifter feels soft and I'll probably upgrade to a ball jointed link like I did on Ernst.

The fork feels very solid with the SJ BMW upper triple and fork brace. It also feels like it has some heavy duty springs or that the air caps have some pressure in them. The spring rate will probably make more sense once the fairing goes back on.

Fluid change:



Nice clean oil out of the trans. Not the milky emulsion that Ernst had. All three gear oil zones have fresh oil.

The compression test went well, as in the recent post. I think I'll leave the top end together for a while.

The fork and head bearings will wait a little while. Ernst is down for a bit getting some deferred work done by other people, stuff outside my abilities. And I'll have a better place to do that work this fall:



I did make friends with the upholstery guy. Here's the result, from this:



To this:



The metal patina is a perfect match. I'll hold off on distressing the new vinyl.

Ernst has loaned his Keihans and the sound is much better. I'll probably get another set.

The Lufty will go back on soon. I suspect the fork and seating position will make more sense with it on.

Also, I've come into a set of Hagon shocks (thanks Ken!) for Ernst. The Progressives on Ernst (thanks, different Ken!) will migrate to Edgar. Again, the patina should be a good match.

[melville]

As I'm not doing the front end for a bit, I remounted the Luftmeister:



I've taken a couple rides and I'm pretty impressed. All my riding to this point has been on a naked bike. It's throwing a bit of wind right at my helmet. Tucking below the screen is eerily quiet. Standing up, not really louder than the regular seating position. It's also reflecting some motor and road noise back at me while also making a few noises of its own. But a huge difference at speed, as my arms aren't getting stretched by the wind.

I found out what this thing was:



It's a headlight modulator! As it's clearly a vintage mod, I'm going to keep it, but rewire it without the fuckin' blue things and mount the switch solidly to the fairing.

Today's ride was up to the ski area to see if the smoke was any less up there, and if it was any cooler at 6600'. Neither, particularly.



Yes, the bike is parked on the sidestand. The slope there was tricky for the centerstand. And yes, it smoked quite a bit when I fired it up after sitting 15ish minutes. I think it will get some new rings in the next year or so.

When I got home I did an oil change and there were no surprises. Next up is a valve adjustment and some more sync tuning. It runs a little rough on a light load below 3K rpm.

[SteveD]

...
Today's ride was up to the ski area to see if the smoke was any less up there, and if it was any cooler at 6600'. Neither, particularly.



Yes, the bike is parked on the sidestand. The slope there was tricky for the centerstand. And yes, it smoked quite a bit when I fired it up after sitting 15ish minutes. I think it will get some new rings in the next year or so.
...

Bike's looking good.

A real friend...

[melville]

Bike's looking good.

A real friend...
[/color]

Oh hell, I can barely operate the damn thing! Gotta find the tang behind the peg and somehow get it to ground under the cylinder, then reposition my foot so I can make sure it's all the way forward.

The PCed frame on Ernst put enough friction on that pivot that it will hang in space for a sec before I push it home.

I use the sidestand for getting off and on when the Ernst is loaded. Edgar, with the fairing, is essentially loaded all the time. Duane mentioned a trick with repositioning the spring anchor and I'm going to check if that is possible or if it's just a /5 thing.

[melville]

100ish miles in the mountains today, and a carb sync when I got back. It had been idling on the right carb, but off idle was left dominant. It should be smoother now below 3K rpm.

Most of the riding was out of cell range. Living on the edge!

I also solved the problem of the Brake Failure light giving a false positive. I turned the cap around so the prongs pointed forward.

[kmisterk]

I also solved the problem of the Brake Failure light giving a false positive. I turned the cap around so the prongs pointed forward.

My r100t does this. I'm gonna give this a try.

[melville]

Bits and pieces in the past week. I've been on a few rides, around town and out of town. Somewhere in there I did a valve clearance check. One intake valve had closed up a tiny bit. About 700 miles total so far. No oil leaks and I haven't had a repeat of the smoky sidestand start.

The carb sync helped. There's a resonance in the fairing that makes things sound worse accelerating below 3K rpm, but the motor is pulling smoothly. I did one last tweak to the float level in the left carb yesterday to get it to match the right carb. There's a tiny roughness under medium load that feels a bit like incipient starvation. If it persists, I may go back to the stock size needle jet. PO had leaned out the NJ and the mains.

I scored this bag of LEDs for something like $13 to get an order to the Free Shipping level when I was getting something else:



Lighting results are inconclusive--it seems like it's putting out the same light as the incandescent bulb it replaced. I will be rewiring these and adding them back in, with LED bulbs, eventually:



I also have a set of wicked bright LED auxiliary lights to mount up front like I did on Ernst. They'll go on when my turn signal flasher relay comes in. I'll replace that flasher and install the aux lights at the same time, as I'll have to remove the fairing to get to the headlight bucket. I'm feeling just a bit more invisible on a black bike. More lighting is good, so long as the alternator can handle it.

Yesterday I had the locking mechanism (note--I don't have the key) on the gas cap fail to engage when I was trying to get it open. A little worrisome, as I was 30 miles from home and on reserve. If the tank really holds 6 gallons, and all of it is usable, I would have barely made it home. I was able to abuse the cap enough to get it to engage and was able to fuel up and continue on the ride. **WHEW**

Things have perhaps changed in 40 years. I haven't heard of anyone siphoning gas to steal it in, like, forever. I'll be modding the cap so this won't happen again. Any serious fuel thief could just get it right out of the tap, anyway, no siphon required.

[gspd]

You're not fooling anybody, those lights are $10 Walmart trailer lights.
That's what I use as a tail light on my custom(ized) 100% LED rear end.

mods include....
Walmart trailer light, installed from inside in custom re-molded 'hole'.
BMW emblem is 82mm (car hood size) and translucent. (Stock is 70mm).
Emblem is blue mit white as running light, red when braking, looks stock (metal) in daylight when off.
Turn signals are solid mount (and tucked in) instead of saggy flexible OE stalks.
Turn signals are bright red when braking, brighter amber when signalling turn or 4-ways.
Licence plate light is 'legal' but purposely makes plate hard to read at night.
other custom touches....
Fender was shortened and squared off.
Saddlebag cross-mount goes inside the fender instead of outside.
Licence plate has no visible support or fasteners.
Super-Trapp (loud) muffler.

To really appreciate the cleanliness of this setup, compare it directly to a stock bike. (last pic)
notice small(er) tail light is loosely rubber mounted to fender with external wiring.
Saggy flashers.
(Incandescent bulbs needed rubber mounting to survive off-road use)
Hideous reflectors prevent escape total stealth mode at night.
(I can have my headlight on and ALL other lights off if I so choose)