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I am waiting on one more batch I should have monday or tues, but can start shipping out soon. Here's some images of design 2 on non black shirts. I have a big batch of design 1 already at home, was waiting for this before I started sending them out.
 

So, my 67 kawasaki C2TR last week was being ridden, and out of nowhere, started stalling  and then just died. I go tit fired back up on the side of the road but def could hear 'something' in the motor bouncing around. figured for sure a chunk of piston broke off or a ring failed. Nope. pulled top end down, and while this piston had seen better days, there were no immediate failures except obviously SOMETHING got int he crankcases. I rebuilt the crank last year, well, the outer bearings. I have at least 150 miles on it since then, and found this. (see pics). prior it ran absolutely excellent all year.   whatever got in there was def metal, and the rod and wristpin bearings were fine as well. so, i had a spare ready to go top-end for it, so flushed out crankcases, looked in there with a borescope,  checked the exhaust and the carb and intake area, and found nothing. reassembled with spare top end, and it did the same thing inside of 2 minutes running.    no idea WHATS in there, but def taking the motor out and splitting motor see what the hell is going on. ive never had this happen and not been able to find it, especially on a single.    
 

fyi, off of the polling & side messages, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the 1st run.

here is what i have ordered:

right now, on graphic 1, i have :

on black shirts:
2 large
7 xl

charcoal:

5 large
2 xl

gold:

5 large
3 xl
1 2xl

royal:

2 medium
3 large
--------------------------------------------------------

graphic 2:

black:

2 large

5 xl

2 2xl


charcoal:

1 medium

4 large

5 xl


gold:

3 large

2 xl

royal:

1 large

2 xl



paypal is $30 usd per shirt at:

rooskie@comporium.net

(assuming the shipping and everything stays the same) and IN the paypal message, i -NEED-_ your user name, what you ordered, and a shipping address. I'll create a spreadsheet and post it here to show whos ordered what and whats shipped out, etc.

You can please wait until 12/8 until i get verification nothing changed on their end. whoever pays 1st gets 1st ones off the press.  LIke said, let me get verification BEFORE you send any $. Do not send for goods and services, if you do, it will be 35 bucks per shirt.

thanks guys

just got this, i have a 10? 12? year history with this bike and 3 owners in.. here we go.



this is what clr left in a tank does in 4 years:



now:






everything by PO was stripped, blasted, powdercoated, etc ad re-assembled. I was very involved in a lot of the work. spokes replaced by kz1000 mags as well.

bored at work a few days ago drew this up, they printed some today. the material was pretty old, very expired but enough to get a few out. Item #40

so next year will be 20 years since i first cobbled this (1st iteration) project together and figured it needed some updates. nothing major, but detail stuff. Also some major items but that's in the works in parallel, so to speak.

this will include a lot of little things, but 1st i wanted to update the hydraulic clutch setup. I 1st did it in 07? ish, then landed on a ducati master & slave cyl, but never really liked the cosmetics. also, i wasn't sure what the slave came off of so i bought an aftermarket one for a multistrada and made up a cleaner adapter (this is all bolt on not cover mods). running a rebuilt brembo clutch master.



this is the 2 mount holes, i added 2 more to utilize the 4 M5 bolt holes in the cover.

at work at lunch one day.





test fit. its double drilled so i can rotate the slave 180 if i want to later.



turned some hex stainless, and tapped it to make it adjustable the stuff in it is an old head stud from an rd motor cut, dressed, then hardened at the end. the brass nut is an 11mm hex/8mm thread vw exhaust nut.
the female side it drilled to accept a stock pushrod, even stepped to take the shouldered part. but shallow enough so only the end contacts internally. its drilled about 1.5" in.



the black line is a visual marker for setup i can look thru the old clutch cable boss hole to see the amount of movement.  the hex on the shaft was turned down just a tad so it had rounded edges and slides in the adapter smooth with maybe .010" of clearance.



I have a stock clutch adj cover i nee do mod to fill int he gaps here but you get the point. can also see the other 2 M5 countersunk screws for mounting here.



fully assembled, ive ridden it its really good.





Does it NEED a hydraulic clutch? no. i do like the feel though. this unit is a bit larger diameter than the older one bore wise, so it has more feel to it at the grab point. was cheap too, i paid less than 60 bucks for it. nice thing is it has a c-clip to keep the piston on so it cant fall out. the stock ducati one would just fall out if it was out and somebody hit the lever. Boo.

I have more planned for the lower end of this bike. I also did a new clutch basket.. so it will make the hyd clutch a bit more useful as its getting a nice beefy clutch and a few other.. things to support future improvements.. (which may also include some top end improvements..? ) in the next couple of months.  But as of now, just getting the 'basement' in order.  aside from the hyd clutch, right now all the other work is being done off bike, its still running riding great.




new basket and cush rubbers.















spare cases were dropped off for some cleanup work to be done.


.... 

just an awesome weather weekend down here. had the 72 r5, lc, 67 kawi out for 5 e
rides, even hit cars and coffee with Angie on the bikes.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1743434809420974/

lol. i figured id hear SOMETHING about the banner pic yesterday.     

So, we put a new topend on matts 350 this weekend, went really well until we went to go start it. (i'll let him share the pics of the installation).

one thing we did was, i used the non flammable brake cleaner to clean the top of the cases since both base gaskets were leaking somewhat. and while this may sound obvious after the fact, some got into the crank case.

what we should have done was blow it out, but i didn't think there was that much, if any in there. about an hour and a half later when we put the new cyls/pistons on, everything went great. went to start it would NOT fire.(mind you it ran fine before but had low compression).   Nothing else was changed.

turns out , the brake cleaner was in the crank case and was fouling the plug similar to if an oil line seeps.

to compound that, turned out the RH condenser was taking a shit at the same time.

so, if you use this stuff, make sure you blow the crank cases out prior to starting.  It just wasn't volatile enough to evaporate i guess. and, i wasn't spraying it down in there either, so it didn't take much. when we did get it fired off, you could def smell it. luckily, since it wasnt chlorinated, nobody saw any 'new' colors. 

I should have known better. - sigh.

ran across this. they have a set of cases as well. (no affiliation)

https://www.rivcycle.com/?fbclid=IwAR0Dk5wecWG16N_3c9ghFaTVpBIFpn9cQxj3wbavDovp8rxpmTFmNYTEm70

https://www.facebook.com/events/804203600734040

Have never been, but its close. seems heavy British. with the demise of the Bull City Rumble and Cyclemania in cht, other events have been sprouting and growing. Def going to check this out this year.


Event by Joe Barnes, John C. Gearst and Constantinos Voultsios
Saluda River Grill 1 Main St Piedmont SC29673
Public  · Anyone on or off Facebook
South Carolina's Largest Vintage Motorcycle Show.
Set along the Saluda River and a Historic Mill from the 1880's that has a FANTASIC restaurant / bar (Saluda River Grill). Historically we have had some very rare bikes show up from the southeast, makes that include Vincent, AWO, Laverda, Maico, AJS, Matchless and all of the other usual suspects Harley-Davidson, Indian, BSA, Triumph, Norton, Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki. There will be Vendors on site, and a Swap Meet area (I think this was a success last year). Anyone coming from out of town we do have trailer parking available. Anyone looking for overnight accommodations there are 3 nice hotels 5 miles away in Powdersville. Holiday Inn Express, Best Western Plus, Comfort Suites (they may come up with a Piedmont address). Clean up those Old Bikes and come join us for a Great Day by the River, enjoy your time with friends possibly make a new one. 11:00 am start awards at 3:00 pm

https://raleigh.craigslist.org/mcy/d/raleigh-66-honda-dream-300/7649667127.html

im actually tempted a bit but sent  it on to a few friends.

Not mine, but my friend Davids, we went and picked this up from the dealership yesterday.  we stopped by my house on way home to set up the levers and ergonomics a bit. I also got to test ride it a bit. Its eyeballs back of skull fast, its crazy, but surprisingly manageable. Hands down the quickest accelerating vehicle I have ever ridden/driven.     

My wife Angie also tried it on for size.

 

'not mine'

I think these were on the old G3 stock, not sure. anyway, had these laying around and they were in perfect shape, so decided to stick em on the T500.  I think it sort of compliments the stock fork boots. 

super basic run around, but fun. this is my new 'rain' bike. picked it up yesterday. very fun and cheap, like 3670 new OTD all paperwork tags etc. 15 of that was a tank bag i'll use one something else.

 
couldn't even feel it on the bike rail. and its a carbureted 2023 model. 

does pretty well 2 up too.

so, t500's are an interesting bike for sure. early ones ran 34mm carbs, later they ran 32s thru the rest of the run, but 2 types. they are unique to the t500 as far as I know, and are easily the heaviest 32mm round-slide I've ever come across. up to 72 they were internally vented, and that caused all sorts of weirdness.

My 72 had the last year of the internally vented carbs, and they have worked pretty well since 2017. all stock, but it always ran a bit 'rough' in midrange, to me, and I remember my OLD 74 was much smoother, or so i thought. its been 26 years since I rode that one.

look below, you can see the weird jetting and setup,. but in particular, look at the jet tubes. they are p4 and p5. that's not an 'option', that's literally one size for one carb, one for the other.      always seemed like an engineered 'bandaid' to me. I mean, the plugs always looked even, there's no differences in cyls porting, etc, so i never quite understood it. I've also never read a solid explanation either.





me being me, i actually happen to have a spare set of later carbs. all i know is they are 74 or older. the 73 and up are externally vented vs the earlier ones which are internally vented. ie: the airjet gets it air from that weird little channel and boss on top of the bellmouth on most old VMs, and feeds from the carb bellmouth itself, much in the way a 'smart carb' claims it self adjusts. the RD400s in stock form use a version of this as well with the air jets getting fed from the airbox. the later ones just have an exposed nipple off tot he side there and gets air from the atmosphere.

 keep in mind, internally vented carbs also have NO overflow tube as its suppose dot be a 'sealed' system. I don't like that one bit either. But again, the old carbs did work fine. 

last weekend i rode the 72 and the midrange in traffic was just chunky. so, i broke out the spare carbs ive had (longer than the bike actually) and cleaned them in an ultrasonic. they cleaned up well, all the jet tubes were in great shape as were the needles. (for the 73 and up model , externally vented carb)



then i was like : f it, im going to get my local guy to clean them a bit more since they are totally torn down already. (vapor blasting)

same carbs, 24 hrs later.




Sure enough, after i got them on and got it running (after a cable debacle I caused @ the splitter, but got sorted) they fred right up and the motor immediately sounded better. again, all stock jetting for 74 and up, stock airbox/pipes/ etc.

now, the bike does have a vape cdi and is set at 22.5 degrees btdc (stock is 24) but thats the only performance 'mod' mechanically. t500s have a terrible head design so this helps reduce detonation.



so, the general result, on my bike, i feel is, it seems to have lost a tiny bit of bottom end grunt (it still has PLENTY) right off the line, but tends to idle better, and the power is much smoother, especially at steady low speed setting but it buttery in the mods and up top. it revs higher as well. the pull feels about the same.

what's interesting is the jetting changes. it went from a 150 to a 97.5 , this tells me the signal across jet tube is actually stronger on the later ones, and would explain the smoother operation with the later carb. the needles between the 2 years are almost identical when they are measured  out, the earlier one just has the taper start at a 2 or 3 mm different height, but the diameters are the same.

the 72 seems to have been at a weird developmental crossroad for sure. Supposedly they claim this is the reason the later ones had 4 more hp (claimed) and the later ones were 'detuned' but, i just don't really get that impression that that was solely the carbs.

So, for now it seems the later carbs were the right choice for me, the whole riding experience is more refined. and thats the ONLY change ive done on this in a few years.

If you noticed, there also was a set of vm 34s in one of the pics  . if this didnt work, those were next to go on, but the airbox wont fit w those.


of course, test runs int he bougee neighborhood around the corner on the river      



 

kaw triple freak and yours truly 18 years ago.

I modified a few settings to make it easier to upload pics, this works both in pc and mobile applications.

few things to know:

1: there must be text in the message body of some kind. (can't be blank)

2: will not show in a 'quick reply'. has to be a full reply of new post.

3: max displayable size is 750px750px. (it will resize it down to that if its too big automatically)

you can add about 10 images to a single post. can drag/drop or browse for them by clicking bar at bottom.

hope this helps.