RD400 under construction

[Gill]

Hope this helps.

[rd400greenhorn]

Gill, looks like you extended the linkage on the Shit arm??

[rd400greenhorn]

Modify the linkage on the shift arm.
Most rearsets you can buy suck and need modifying.
I'll see if I have some pics somewhere...
Chuck
I guess I need to do a tip of the day on this...

Might be that i have to do that yes. Not sure yet though
Would be awsome if you did Chuck 💪

[Dvsrd]

Might be that i have to do that yes. Not sure yet though

The stock RD gear lever/pedal is quite long, maybe 50% longer that the average rearset pedal. So to retain the stock shifting "feel", the arm on the gear shaft needs to be 50% longer than the arm on the pedal.
Also, It is beneficial that both these arms are quite long, to reduce forces and friction in the whole system. Most rearsets are really bad in this respect, with very short linkage arms. Even the original linkage/pedal for the 350LC is poorly designed.

[SUPERTUNE]

So here is a pic of Nicks RD400 build with a set of fast from the past rearsets...pretty much all the same as the others like vintage smoke, Moto Carrera's
I did already drill a hole in the rear foot lever arm and move the linkage closer to the foot peg to help but just wasn't quite enough.




So I took off the front shift shaft arm off and welded a billet longer arm and added 2 more holes above the stock pre-drilled 2 holes to add even more leverage.





I did have it in the top hole when I ran it on the dyno here...
But think Nick liked it in the second hole better for his riding boots like above.



Little blurry from cropping the pic.




Chuck

[rd400greenhorn]

Wow.. Okay, as I suspected. Sucks it needs that amount of work at that price tag..

Chuck, the billet arm that shifts the gears, is that straight from the foot peeg to the shifter?

I Mean, if you look from birds view, is the arm straight or?
Mine as is now goes inwards towarsd the gear shaft, thinking this also effects the shifting?


I Hope My crappy english comes ascross😅

[SUPERTUNE]

If I understand you...
I always want the tie rod arms parallel to each other and the tie rod as close to 90* degree to the arm as possible.


Pic's of Pauls Rd400 build with Spec 2 rearset I modified.

You can see the new hole I drilled here closer to the pivot.





I didn't like the angle on the arm, as the arms were not parallel to each other when the toe peg was where it needed to be.
so I cut it off by make the cut line at an angle then flipping it over and rewelding back on to get them parallel to each other.



I didn't take any close up final pics....but if you watch the Dyno vid you can see it works perfect and no issues of finding neutral even from someone that never rode or shifted the RD before hand.

https://imageevent.com/supertune/paulsrd400?p=299&n=1&m=-1&c=3&l=0&w=4&s=0&z=3

Chuck

[paul1478]

What chuck did works great. Much better than before.

[rd400greenhorn]

Anyone selling these extended arms so My vintage smoke gear shifter Will work as should? 🤔😊

Iam getting My feet wet on the electrical side of things

The harness is coming along fine i think, a lot of work and redoing, even on a simple bike as this

Decided to cut the plastic wrap on the harness from the ignition, was not doing anything really, and I needed a neutral wire.
So for a clean result I made a neutral wire and threaded it with the other wires from the ignition, eveything wrapped in heat shrink ( one big piece)
For a clean tight look.

[rodneya]

Anyone selling these extended arms so My vintage smoke gear shifter Will work as should? 🤔😊

Iam getting My feet wet on the electrical side of things

The harness is coming along fine i think, a lot of work and redoing, even on a simple bike as this

Decided to cut the plastic wrap on the harness from the ignition, was not doing anything really, and I needed a neutral wire.
So for a clean result I made a neutral wire and threaded it with the other wires from the ignition, eveything wrapped in heat shrink ( one big piece)
For a clean tight look.

Do you have the rubber grommet on where the wires go through the case?

[rd400greenhorn]

No i dont have it but might need to get that
thanks

[rd400greenhorn]

So yet some work done on the rd..

Got a new headlight, same but in LED. Its BRIGHT👌

Also got some more work done with the wiring, so for now I should be done with all the light and horn.
Need to try to figure out how the rectifier, ignition, moto scope pro speedo and the moto gadget m locn work together. This is the final part of wiring.
And oh the neutral wire as well 😁

Today i also got the brakes bled.

I need to be finished with the wiring, and fire it up for the first time and hopefully everything is good.
Then i Will sendt the rear/ seat back to the fab guy, have a number plate holder made and boltet to the rear. He Will also make a seat plate with mounting points and drill holes to fit in the seat pan.

Then i can get a upolstry guy to make a seat to fit.

Still a long way to go, but step by step iam getting closer.. 

[rd400greenhorn]

Just recieved My custom cover, now Black anodized 

[rd400greenhorn]

Allright, the update thats been years in the making..

Its alive!! 

Improvised an old tank on there, got some fuel and oil in, she started up on 3rd kick yesterday and it was my 33 birthday.
Perfect timing 😁👍🇩🇰

I have never heard an rd before but wow Its loud and it sounds AWSOME!
I have only had it started 2 times at idle for maybe 10 minuts Max, a few blips or Else just idle, it goes pretty good in idle havent set anything on the carbs.

So how do I run it in? Mind you everything is 'new'?

I havent had it run throgh the gears yet, thinking i Will try today?

Can i post videos in here?

[NoRiders]

Yay...fired up is great news.

Are you running the oil pump? I have one on the GT200 and will run a ratio oil mix in the gas until I'm confident the oil pump is delivering oil correctly...it'll smoke like a sailor on shore leave but....Running in procedure would be heat cycles(so run then cool, then run etc), through the gears and use them so as not to labour the engine, better it's revving (but not crazy) freely than labouring in the wrong gear.
Brakes will need bedding in to, so go easy and enjoy  8)