Benno

I liked the idea of grey, so decided to go with a metallic gunmetal grey. Keen to get into pulling off the tank and painting it, but don't really like the idea of having to walk to uni again so might have to wait.

A more simple hardware solution might be to use something along the lines of what Simon suggested, perhaps an Arduino. With a built in voltage regulator and USB programming capabilities the only hardware required would be a voltage regulator for the servo, a voltage divider for the input signal and a couple of switches and LEDs. Any software changes could be made in minutes with any laptop with a USB port. KK - adding a potentiometer/rheostat to adjust the gains would be very simple to add to the code. Also happy to help out with code or schematics if you want to have a crack at it yourself

Looking pretty good man. How stable is the PI control? Does the servo oscillate much?

Another option for colour or red

Got a bit of work done on the A50. So far I have fitted drag bars, removed indicators, added a rear light and cleaned and painted the exhaust. Next step is to get the dent out of the tank and get the paint sorted, followed by sorting out a slim seat. Still not decided on what colour to do it, tossing up between matt army green or a gloss dark blue or something. Been dailying it and it's been running like a dream.

Cruising up in one big convoy would be pretty sweet

Haha, I was wondering who that was. Yeah, it seems to smoke a bit when it is cold, seems to go away when it warms up though. Hopefully isn't going to end up being an issue

What fuel ratio would I be best to run in the ma50? Doesn't say in what little I have of the manual. Would 32:1 be safe enough?

I was feeling bored so had a go at photoshopping up some ideas for the A50. Thinking that something along the lines of this with some drag bars and a sweet seat might look alright. Planning on dailying the a50 so probably won't actually get around to doing anything major on it until the ma50 is working. Ideas/suggestions/abuse?

Progress on this is temporarily suspended as I have got myself a new toy to play with. Scored this for free off a relative. Bit of work and it seems to be running like a charm. Went down and got new plates for it today. After taking it for a ride I was amazed at how much power there was for a 50cc engine, after some investigation turns out it actually has an 80cc engine. Hopefully no-one ever looks closely enough at it for it to be an issue, engines look identical. Plans are to get this tuned up and running nicely and keep fairly stock while I work on making the ma50 wild, then once thats running turn my attention back to this. Might be tempted to repaint the tank and acquire some sweet drag bars and a nicer seat for it in the mean time, will see how things go.

Also keen

Coming along nicely. What have you decided to end up doing about the driveshaft loop issue?

How much flooding are we talking about? I discovered today the escort doesn't really like flooded roads much haha

That manifold is looking awesome mate! You just going to run the vacuum off a single runner?

Taitapu would be pretty mint

Sounds pretty ideal

Took it for a quick test ride today. Pretty sketchy on wet ground with no brakes, so didn't give it too much of a thrash. Something seems to be loose in the front suspension, it wobbles around a lot which doesn't help either. Points still fucked and needs a bit of a tune, otherwise it seems to be running well. The clutch cable is still quite sticky and takes a while to release, I'll keep trying to free it up or replace it. Need to investigate this battery charging system next, have ordered a cheap shitty rectifier/regulator from ebay.

Finally got it running today Went through checking and testing everything. Got around to removing the coil, gave it a clean up and turns out it's a 12v coil. No wonder it didn't work with a 6v battery. Hooked up a 12v car battery with a 'whats the worst that can happen' attitude, immediately starts making a fat blue spark. Put spark plug back in and started second kick. Didn't run too badly really, needs a bit of a tune up though. Hopefully new points won't be too far off. Will get a 12v motorbike battery next week, sort out some brakes and hopefully take it for a run. Anyone in the Christchurch region got a front brake lever and cable they want to sell me? What fuel ratio should I be running? Currently put some 20:1 in there as figured best to be cautious and a bit smokey, but this is probably a bit excessive.

Guypie: That would be awesome mate, appreciate it a lot

Yeah, I came to the same conclusion. Apparently there is a guy up north that has a manual, but is a dickhead and wants ridiculous amounts of money for a scan. Once I get it going I'll investigate things with a multimeter, then make a regulator and rewire it from scratch. Wiring is a mess anyway. Shouldn't be too hard. With a little luck those new points will show up in the next few days

I was fairly sure I had got the wiring right. I'm thinking the points might be contributing to the issue, but even in the condition they are in it should still run. I gave them a bit of a clean up with some fine grit sandpaper, but they seem pretty stuffed. I'll have another play with it when I next get time and test piece by piece. I'm in Riccarton. If I can't figure out what the problem is, having someone else to look at it would be awesome man. I'll let you know how I get on.

Finally got around to making a bit more progress on this. Got the rims finished off, new inner tubes and tyres back on. Looking a bit more like a bike again now. I decided I would try to start it before I did too much else, so wired it up and had a go at it. Will not start at all, pretty sure it is an ignition problem. I have wired it up as shown in the diagram. I know that the battery will go flat this way, but all I want to do is to get it running so I can have a hunt round with the multimeter to figure out the charging circuit. I removed the spark plug and kicked it over while holding it against block, no spark at all. I touched the HT lead and could feel a small shock as it turned over, but was pretty weak. The battery is fully charged (double checked this with multimeter). I removed the points and cleaned them, then re-gapped to 0.020. I wasn't really sure about the points gap, did a quick google and took a guess. I don't have a manual, and the likelyhood of getting one is basically none. I have a new set of points in the mail from taiwan (hopefully). Have I wired it up properly? What would an appropriate points gap be? What else could be wrong with it?

Looking awesome

Here is the 18R inlet manifold flange I made up for Fliboi. He has had these cut and apparently fit nicely. In the zip are DXF and DWG files as well as the solidworks part file. https://www.dropbox.com/s/kr3ke45g0m2ip37/18R%20Inlet%20Manifold%20Flange.zip

Would using a similar setup to that above with non return valves work? That way each runner would contribute to the overall vacuum, would would not induce vacuum in other runners? I've never done anything with bike carbs so no idea if it would work or not, I'm just thinking in basic fluids concepts. Alternatively, you could perhaps replace your alternator with one from a diesel with a vacuum pump and connect the brake booster to that? The vacuum of a single runner might then be enough for the vacuum advance.