RD350 Project Mustakrakish

[m in sc]

yeah at that point in the game its time to get the bores straightened out. expect to go up a piston size & a re-bore. MAKE SURE the local guy knows to chamfer the port windows after he hones or bores. if he doesnt, go elsewhere.  .02

[bostontrackrat]

Sure thing.  HOPEFULLY they dont have to go up because it'll be the last rebore size available on these.  It's already at 65.5mm.    The guy i'm going to is supposed to be very good, and has been racing bikes a long time.



Here's some pictures of the Rizoma rearsets I got from a buddy who rides modern Ducatis.   He was teaching a buddy how to ride, and he stopped for a stop light, and the new rider misjudged the stopping distance and bumped into his rear tire.  Knocked him off balance just enough to tip the bike over on its side.  Insurance paid to have every part with a scratch on it replaced with brand new parts.  He asked me to dispose of the old parts and somehow they accidentally ended up on my bench!    The mounting bolts for everything was standard M6, which is exactly what holds the passenger peg brackets onto the frame, so this was a stupidly easy modification.



To complete it, I got the little shift shaft arm from Cognito Moto.



And why reinvent the wheel when you can just chop down the old brake pedal?


One day I'll fabricate adjustable mounts and maybe swap to a nicer brake lever, but that will require me to get back to the machine shop at work.

Also,  I'd like to say that I'm pretty disappointed with the drill bits I just bought from HF.  I believe HF is great for a lot of things, but not for others, and I think the drill bits are going to fall into the latter.   I was using WD40 on the bit to keep it cool and pressing hard enough to bend this metal bracket in the vice, and it still wouldnt cut through it.



Next up, wiring work!

[bostontrackrat]

Here's some side by side pictures of the ported cylinders I bought.  I'll be sending these out to get the bores set correctly and get the nikasil coating treatment.



Stock Transfers



VS Ported Transfers



Stock Exhaust Port



VS Ported Exhaust Port



Also, here's a fun bit of the wiring work I'm getting started on.  I went to clip-ons and now have 2 holes in the top triple clam that I'm not using.  So I measured the holes and went on ebay and found round light up power switches that fit PERFECTLY.  All I had to do was use a stepped drill bit to take out a little lip in the middle of the bore.  One Red, one Blue.  They press and stay down for "on" and light up.  Then you press again and the return to the top for "off" and the lights turn off as well.    My planning here, is that because this is a dual purpose bike, street and racing, I can have the right button (red) be a power on/off for the entire lighting system, and the left (blue) will be high/low beam.



I drilled and tapped a whole to put a little set screw on the under side to retain them in place.

[NoRiders]

I look out for details and touches like this :)

[85RZwade]

I knew Colin would dig the switches! It's a cool idea, solves a couple of issues in one fell swoop.

[NoRiders]

Boston - I find myself using step drill more n more these days.....built in pilot drill, short drill bit reduces snapping (expecially push through snapping) and they de-burr too. There's a still a place for conventional drills though.
I find some elcheapo drills work better on a slow speed and I lube using GT45.

[bostontrackrat]

Boston - I find myself using step drill more n more these days.....built in pilot drill, short drill bit reduces snapping (expecially push through snapping) and they de-burr too. There's a still a place for conventional drills though.
I find some elcheapo drills work better on a slow speed and I lube using GT45.

I'm on board with that.  I just got a set of stepped bits about a month ago, and so far they seem much less of a pain.  I need to use them more.

For cutting fluid, I've been using WD40

For what it's worth I returned the "standard" Harbor Freight bits after one broke, and got their top of the line Titanium Bauer set.  I figured I'd try their best before I jump up to something more expensive like Milwaukee.   I drilled a few holes in the frame last night to mount up the Regulator/Rectifier, and so far so good.

[Kawtriplefreak]

I use cheap mustard for cutting oil. It does a great job.

[bostontrackrat]

SO......

I'm a glutton for punishment, and one headache is never enough. 

Earlier this week I drove out to western Mass and met a fellow racer from USCRA, and I ended up coming home like this....



I got a 1976 Suzuki Titan T500 ! 

With a handshake and a promise that it MUST become a race bike in the USCRA, I got it in trade for nothing more than a bottle of Bourbon.  Deals like that are once in a lifetime, and you cant pass it up.



It's shockingly complete and came with 2 boxes of parts and spares (including an incredibly clean set of carbs).

This bike will run in Period 1 : 500GP in USCRA.   For now, she's just going to sit on the side while I finish up the RD and get it smoking, then I'll get started on this.  I'll spin that off into another build thread when the time comes.

[85RZwade]

That is an amazing deal, way cooler than my last free motorcycle!

[m in sc]

dammit! thats cool, thats the exact model i was looking for when i got mine. well, actually a 74 but they are the same. 

congrats.

[NoRiders]

A most excellent deal.....that Bourbon must've been rare and aged :)

[bostontrackrat]

I heard his whiskey of choice was Makers Mark.  Who am I to argue?

[NoRiders]

I heard his whiskey of choice was Makers Mark.  Who am I to argue?

Makers Mark...is that some $10 grog? :)

[bostontrackrat]

I got some more work done on the electrics this weekend.  I'm doing the whole wiring harness from scratch, which is a fun project for me.

I found this nice little fuse box on amazon for 20 bucks.  Has 6 slots for a fuses, and an indicator light that shows when a fuse has blown.  I played around with it a little in the garage and it's a pretty good little unit.  It does not light up if the circuit opens (like if you blow a light), only if the fuse itself opens.  Which I think is a nice touch actually.  So a light goes out on the bike you look at the box, if the light next to the fuse is lit, then you know you have a short in the circuit.  If the light is off, then you know the circuit itself is open (broken wire or blown bulb).  Makes troubleshooting that much faster.



For now I'm making up brackets pretty crudely with strips of metal using cutoff wheels, files, and drills.  Once I'm back to work after quarantine and have shop access again I can make much nicer looking bracketry.  But that's a cosmetic/feel good upgrade.  Not required to get it running right now.

This picture shows how things are mounted up under the seat and tank.   I hid the key switch in the rear tank mount so the triple trees can retain a nice clean look, and I mounted up the fuse box and reg/rec so that they're covered by the seat and you wont see them when the bikes assembled.



I made up the wiring harness today for the rear tail/brake light.  Used a waterproof quick connect harness so it comes on/off quickly for race weekends.  Soldered all connections, then shrink wrapped them, and covered with that wire harness cover stuff that woven together and gets tight when you pull on it like a chinese finger trap, cant think of the name.   So it looks nice and clean going from the seat to the underside of the seat.   From the side of the bike you just see one little harness and no connector.