Kimjon

Can't get enough of this thing. Its a miracle of technology, reviving old batteries back from the dead.

Finished charging the impala, now its working its magic on the buell.

I've got it set on motorcycle and reconditioning mode. Ctek recommend doing reconditioning mode at least once a year, so seems like a good idea to start off this way.

The leds show that the battery wasn't very charged, so its a good save.

@flyingbrick put this idea into my head. I kept putting it off, but the other day as prophesied my buell nearly didn't start. I'm having similar issues with the impala as well, and going into winter these vehicles will receive even less use.

So:

Mmmmmmm...ctek...mmmmmm

All that said and done, now all I have to do is unlock the rear compartment using the key, plug and play. Sweeeeeeet!!!

Doesn't get much easier than that eh...or does it? I've ordered a Bluetooth sender, that will send live data to my cellphone on my battery condition.

Same as this ^. If it works, I'll grab a few of them for my other vehicles with batteries. Fuck yeah, quite excited about it.

3 minutes ago, UTERUS said:

Hell yea, I have fond memories of hectic nights on Thompsons. 

Kati side next?

 

Last time I did it, it was piss easy. This time...fuck no, it was so hard. Track is fucked up big time atm, plus winter slipperyness, plus im an old man and no longer a teenager.

Katikati side, ummmm yeah/nah...

Thompsons track mission today with a few mates.

awesome line up of 2 wheeled vehicles. 

Us posing for a photo about halfway up. About now we're seriously thinking that the track is so fucked we may not make it to the top, so we'd just pretend we made it.

Another regroup at the actual top. quite an achievement given the current conditions of the track.

heading back down, this photo captures the typical condition of the track. There were much worse sections, where my spirit still remains buried and forever lost to me somewhere in the mud.

It was a great day, but I'm battered and beaten. The XR250R did so well, its a solid bike for sure.

Do the layers come out your eyes?

You genius!! Solved that problem with precision and style...

That's just the stock motor. Its actually not that bad, it moves it along at a nice predictable pace, enough power to have fun with...but definitely not fast in any way.

Years ago I had a YZ125 and it was rated at 37hp...it felt twice as fast as this XR does, so I'm not sure hp is a great measure of how a bike "feels" to ride?

I do like this XR though. Its a solid bike thats such easy-going maintenance wise.

White spoke wraps, so sexy!!

Offset risers, to shift bars 30mm forwards and 30mm up. Makes a massive difference, way more of a difference than I ever expected...in a good way too.

My knees don't hit when turning and standing up feels a lot better too. Stoked!!

Race numbers for additional horse power. I haven't dyno'd it...but at least 10hp per sticker is my best guess?

So:

That's 30hp engine, plus 3x race number stickers with my name on top @10hp each, total of at least 60hp now!!

Whats better than one awesome bike lift platform...2 of course!!

Oh, and its air over hydraulic for the super dope street cred.

I was half pie tempted to post a photo of my bigger one, lifting the smaller one, with the vespa on top...

Added a cheap hour meter, so I can keep track of those services I won't do, then I can feel guilty about not doing them on time...

That bracket for the hour meter was a nightmare to make. I stuffed up by drilling the wrong size holes, but persisted with trying to make it work after realizing what I'd done. Would've been much quicker starting again - but I didn't...FML

On the plus side, it does look tidy now its done.

Fancy new grips, stuck on with the old spray paint trick. I had to carefully cut the ends out enough for the bash guards to fit. Looks 1990's cool, which is the period correct look im after.

I made a plate for the other side, to prevent the riders foot from going into the front sprocket. Probably not really an issue, as the way its tucked away, plus the near impossible chance something could squeeze into the gap between the upper/lower chains - but hey as I've always said "Saftey 3rd"...

I also set the rear suspension up. Google tells me around 25-30mm of bike sag, plus around 100mm of rider sag is about where I want it.

I measured:

As it was when I brought it to be 32/120 which did feel a little droopy?

1st adjustment I made got 22/100 sag numbers, which made it corner like it was on rails...but felt too hard for me after riding it for the past month on the Cadillac suspension settings. It felt like it would bouncy me off when landing my epic jumps (***my jumps are less than 1m high).

2nd attempt I split the difference and ended up at 30/110. This still feels a bit hard and bouncy in the rear compared to the ride I'd become accustomed to...but I figured I get used to it. The bike corners, handles and lands pretty well, it doesn't feel as droopy as it once did. So I'm leaving it like this for now.

I may re-look at this in the future? But keen to just send it for now.

Built a heat shield, after all 3 of my kids got burns from the pipe. Slow learners - but so am I.

Beating the flat aluminum into submission.

Speed holes and file finishing.

Tadah!!

Pretty happy with it, should do the trick.

Rear so big it doesn't fit the guard, so I cut it so it's somewhat protective, but functional.

Much bigger rear sprocket.

Should do the trick, along with the 11T front

Had to machine this out. Didn't fit like it was supposed too. But sorted now

Added neoprene fork gaiters. I think its a good preventive measure to take. Pretty cheap and easy to fit.

Such a cool day yesterday. Went to a mates farm, my son was able to ride in big flat open areas at full throttle for the first time, so awesome for his confidence learning to ride in an environment like that.

Then we did a few trails through tree lined tracks following a river. He loved this, however it was quite a step up in skill level, which he handled it like a champ. By the end of the day his confidence increasing more and more.

We probably overdid it with the ride from the farmers house to the river trail. This was about 2km each way. My son was exhausted on the return leg. Next time I'll shorten this up so it doesn't tire him out as much, lesson learned on my part here, its gotta be fun for the kids otherwise you risk putting them off.

All dressed up and nowhere to go...

Fuck it, let's go somewhere and try it out!!

I gave the carrier some absorption time overnight. I was trying to take shortcuts, and just bolt on that solution for the dirt bike, while keeping the vespa channel as well.

It increases the moment something terrible. It was already pushing the limits and the additional channel increases it by 30%, something i wasn't happy about. So...

Tears to my eyes cutting this masterpiece up.

Additional rail welded in.

This took a lot of thought. But the solution was easy once I got the idea squared away in my head.

Sorted!!

A mates farm had pylons replaced with bigger pylons. They got to keep the steel. Ive always tried to think of things that you could make out of it. Today I found a use:

Sweeeeet!!!

The boy keeps smoking the clutch. These bikes aren't really suited to hills like we have, that plus he's only just learning techniques like throttle control, not stopping halfway up a hill, conserving momentum etc...so I'm going as extreme as I can on the gear ratio.

You think there'd be one that works in this pile...but nope

Pretty much the same as whats on the bike.

So I've ordered some shit off trademe:

•11 tooth front sprocket (currently 14T on there now).

•68 tooth rear sprocket (currently 54T on there now)

• some T8f chain and joiners.

That should improve things a lot, as 

54/14 = 3.9:1 ratio

68/11 = 6.1:1 ratio

So my new setup should be 2/3rds the torque, a third less strain on the clutch, but 2/3rds the current speed.

Im not worried about the loss of speed as he's not skilled enough to use it all anyway. Later I can adjust it back in stages if required. Or by then he may need a bigger bike at the rate he's growing?