Cletus's other projects

[Vintage Grumble]

11 hours ago, cletus said:

it has should be 85-90hp, which is probably good enough 

Shit yeh, its probably at 45-50hp per ton now!

[cletus]

Finished

Did the carb as well

Goes better, is a lot more responsive and definitely has more beans in the midrange of rpm 

According to the tuning book methods of seeing if its tuned right, it could probably do with next size up in the jets , which came with the carb so I'll try that, I could also put a afr gauge up it's bum to check 

Slowly getting through the list of improvements,  suspension is probably next on the list, as a little bit more ground clearance would be handy 

 

 

[cletus]

V3 of exhaust baffles

The one that came in it was 2-1/4" louvered, but the louvers faced the wrong way for noise reduction 

Made previously mentioned 2" one with holes, steel wool that blew out  then wrapped in fiberglass header wrap, this survived well but was still a bit rowdy 

This one is 2" louvered , with them faced for noise reduction,  wrapped in stainless muffler packing wool, with a stainless mesh over the top of that 

 

[cletus]

Had this for sale on trademe for ages with surprisingly little interest, I rode it to work a few times and decided it's too good to sell cheap just for the sake of getting rid of it 

 

So it gets to stay 

 

[Bearded Baldy]

Bahahahha that is the precursor to building shed number 3!

[cletus]

This is a possibility that I have considered  

[cletus]

Did a loop around coromandel on Saturday, was cold as, it started running a bit funky towards the end but half a turn on a couple of screws and it's better than ever

Got home after filling it up, noticed a slight weeping from the fuel tap,  gave it a tighten and it fell off and dumped fuel everywhere,  I managed to bung the hole with my finger and do some contortions to get my phone and call my mrs to come down to the garage to help drain the fuel into something other than the floor 

 

Anyway when I had the tank and petcock apart I'd fucked up putting it back together, it has a double ended left and right hand threaded nut and it was wound too far one way so the was very little thread holding it on, so an easy fix.

 

Also got some small saddlebags so I have somewhere to put stuff like puncture repair kit and a couple of spanners etc 

Rear tyre is pretty much smoked, so will need another one soon, haven't even done any skids 

[cletus]

New tyre fitted 

While it's off, may as well tidy some stuff up 

Mucked around for ages deciding what to do with the wheel colour/finish   as it needs to tie in with whatever colour I end up painting the bike 

Anyway decided on this, the FXDX which is the sportier version of this bike had this wheel finish, black spokes with a machined face which I replicated with satin black and scotchbrite pads. The rear one I brush painted it to avoid paint on the faces but got it on there anyway, so the front one I sprayed with a gun and scraped /wiped with thinners the paint off the faces 

This took forever 

Front disc is on minimum thickness, one other mod I'd like to do is twin discs on the front so will worry about that later

 

[cletus]

 

 

Wheels done, chin spoiler, black battery cover, painted the starter cover, fitted a direct solenoid button thing on the starter to stop the annoying "sounds like the battery is flat" noise when it's cold, new front pads

[cletus]

Cold and wet 

Still better than working on the house though

 

One thing that is quite unnerving,  is when it's pissing down wet and I ride over tar, like where the tar has come to the top of chip seal, these tyres are like riding on ball bearings when I hit that stuff 

Not sure if it's cheap tyres or that's just how it is on a bike , although I don't remember it being as bad on my Honda or anything else I've owned 

Shinko sr777, they are a cheap tyre which doesn't last long, grip great in the dry, and seem to be OK in the wet on anything but tar 

 

 

 

 

[RUNAMUCK]

You ride your Hawg on unsealed??!

What a mad dog!

[cletus]

i did get a funny look from a farmer

 

also spent a couple of hours cleaning it yesterday so its not the smartest idea

[Rookie]

It is probably the tyre, while I can't speak specifically about the Shinkos you have, I have experienced my Super 10 doing 100kph burnouts up an overtaking lane in the wet after I changed from a TKC80 to a Mitas e09, you are right that it is quite unnerving hahaha

[cletus]

Honda =wof again no issues

Chev = wof again no issues

Falcon= had a tidy up and a bit of rust fixed,paint touched up, a diff bush = wof again

HD= got some upgraded suspension and fork seals etc, head bearings goosed so front end rebuild time ,then wof 

Currently having a conundrum on finish, I had to get a new lower tree because the steering stop was broken it polished up OK but I think I'll blast and paint the fork legs and trees black 

Or get vapor blasted 

Or polish all of it 

I think I'll paint I black as I have no imagination and painting things black is my go to . And I don't like polishing things 

Also when I removed the fork springs someone had used a couple of 3/4 sockets to preload the springs ,lol

 

[cletus]

It had a trans rebuild a few months ago and now a bit getting the paint sorted, the clear coat was failing 

Boss asked if I wanted a newer car but I couldn't think of anything I'd want to replace it with so, fix it it is 

 

It is comfortable and I like it, so seemed dumb to get rid of it 

[JustHarry]

16 hours ago, cletus said:

It had a trans rebuild a few months ago and now a bit getting the paint sorted, the clear coat was failing 

Boss asked if I wanted a newer car but I couldn't think of anything I'd want to replace it with so, fix it it is 

 

It is comfortable and I like it, so seemed dumb to get rid of it 

Are fg falcons knows for having trans problems? 

[cletus]

Not as far as I know, it's done 220k so it was probably just a bit worn out. It's a ZF 6 speed so I think they are a common rwd box of the era

It still drove OK, it started to go into limp mode a few times , turning it off and on again would fix it but it got to the point of every time I got on the motorway it would do it 

[cletus]

Today was meant to be reassembly day but I woke up late and mucked around, had to go get some fork oil and a socket for the top nut , then decided to go for a ride on the way back so didn't get started till 5pm, got the head bearings and trees back on, went to reassemble the forks , thought I'd better check the fork tubes, one is bent. Not the leaking one either

 

Oh well, I'd kind of thought about doing taller forks , so now there's a new pair of 50mm longer tubes on their way 

 

[cletus]

Parts turned up so the front is all crispy fresh again 

New head bearings,lower tree, legs etc blasted and painted, 50mm longer forks, new bushes and seals,heavy duty progressive springs and 20w oil. Rear end got some new drag specialties adjustable shocks so it's a bit taller all round. Rides much nicer, the front might be a little bit stiff, I'll see how it goes but putting lighter oil in can fix that 

It's got a lot more ground clearance so the lean angle has improved noticeably 

[cletus]

20w oil was a bit much, too harsh over smaller bumps 

Put 10w in and it's better

 

Wof booked tomorrow, technically needs a cert for adj suspension so stock ones back on for now , I might do a brake upgrade later so will get cert once it's finished /probably never