Click to enlarge (yes, it's snow...)
Monday, April 29, 2019
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Long live DST!
I love daylight saving time, it's like a modern-day ritual festival that signals the end of winter and the return of the riding season. Those who think it's a bad thing are either people who don't ride (what the hell is wrong with you??) or Scandinavians, and, well... there's your problem right there. (I'm joking! put away your Viking battle axes, sheesh!)
Down here, where it makes sense to uphold DST, we celebrate it by getting our toys out and ready for new adventures. This year, I used the excuse of a chill hang at uncle Fester's garage to test the Fastback's newly refurbished Isolastic and gearbox sprocket.
I can confirm the new Isolastic kit works a treat, and the sweet spot with no perceptible vibration seems to be from 2.800 to 3.500 rpm. There is a very, very slight increase in vibration higher up, but you can tell the rubber bushes are still effective and doing their job. I'll probably do one or two outings as is, before I decide if I want to try a different setting.
Back at uncle Fester's, the German showed up in his black E type:
and we observed him fitting a new Siebenrock big bore kit to one of his BWM specials:
Meanwhile, my cousin has finally, at long last decided to get himself a motorcycle, and scored this almost complete Honda 500 Four:
There's obviously a lot to do, but this is not as frightening as it may appear; this is just an ugly duckling guys, it'll turn out really neat, you'll see...
Get out there and GO RIDE!
Down here, where it makes sense to uphold DST, we celebrate it by getting our toys out and ready for new adventures. This year, I used the excuse of a chill hang at uncle Fester's garage to test the Fastback's newly refurbished Isolastic and gearbox sprocket.
It's a long enough round trip that takes me from the Monolith up and over a holy mountain, then down towards the coast and back, so ideal for a shake down and proper test to see how everything works.
Back at uncle Fester's, the German showed up in his black E type:
Get out there and GO RIDE!
Monday, April 1, 2019
スプロケット!
Replacing the Isolastic is something I knew would be a fair bit of work, and since removing the entire primary chaincase and all the wonders it contains would expose the gearbox sprocket, I thought this would be the right time to switch to a smaller size.
When this bike was rebuilt over a decade ago, I had intended it to be able to cruise at low RPMs and high speed. Those are of course relative terms, but in practice I wanted to be able to cruise at around 130Km/h with the engine well below 5.000rpm.
The combination of the primary drive belt conversion, and a 21 tooth gearbox sprocket have definitely delivered and the bike was a capable long-distance tourer that could go all day. I mention the belt primary because the ratio is higher compared to that of the standard triplex chain set-up, so coupled with a 21 tooth sprocket, it made for fairly tall gearing overall.
This is all well and good, but it meant that the camshaft was somewhat underutilized. I have a 4S camshaft, which delivers a very satisfying bucket of mid-range torque that is plenty to keep you entertained; the problem is, that tall gearing meant you would often run out of road before hitting that spot in the rev range (around 4.800) where the camshaft really does its thing. Lowering the gearing by one tooth should allow me to be "on the cam" more frequently on the type of roads we like to ride (see example here), but still leave me able - when needed - to tackle stretches of autostrada without feeling like the engine's out of breath.
So, since the Fastback has effectively lost a tooth, I left the old sprocket under the Norton's pillow, and the tooth fairy left a fresh quart of motor oil in exchange. Nice:
When this bike was rebuilt over a decade ago, I had intended it to be able to cruise at low RPMs and high speed. Those are of course relative terms, but in practice I wanted to be able to cruise at around 130Km/h with the engine well below 5.000rpm.
The combination of the primary drive belt conversion, and a 21 tooth gearbox sprocket have definitely delivered and the bike was a capable long-distance tourer that could go all day. I mention the belt primary because the ratio is higher compared to that of the standard triplex chain set-up, so coupled with a 21 tooth sprocket, it made for fairly tall gearing overall.
This is all well and good, but it meant that the camshaft was somewhat underutilized. I have a 4S camshaft, which delivers a very satisfying bucket of mid-range torque that is plenty to keep you entertained; the problem is, that tall gearing meant you would often run out of road before hitting that spot in the rev range (around 4.800) where the camshaft really does its thing. Lowering the gearing by one tooth should allow me to be "on the cam" more frequently on the type of roads we like to ride (see example here), but still leave me able - when needed - to tackle stretches of autostrada without feeling like the engine's out of breath.
So, since the Fastback has effectively lost a tooth, I left the old sprocket under the Norton's pillow, and the tooth fairy left a fresh quart of motor oil in exchange. Nice:
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