30/1/09 Update

Frank Trost called me at the weekend and after a long discussion about what he's doing and what we are doing he offered to make the exhaust system for our club racer. He has a mate who owes him a favour and luckily for us his mate has a mandrel bender.
I also approached our very good Canadian mate Kim Anderson and asked him if he could kindly buy a wheel rim for us from MikesXS Canada. Mikes USA was out of stock and I looked and found one on the Canadian site, unfortunately they don't export so Kim has very kindly bought it for us and is shipping it out soon. He will also be shipping out our tank, seat and front guard which he has finished.
Also this week I received the front forks I ordered from MikesXS. I also bought some aluminium and steel bar to make some spacers.

1/2/09 Update

Mike Roberts called in on a family outing to Portarlington and bought a Calendar and two stickers and gave a donation towards the club racer. Thanks Mike.

14/2/09 Update

Ivan went to the airport and picked up our tank, seat, front guard and Mikes' performance alloy rim kindly sent by Kim Anderson in Canada.
I spoke to Mike Morse and got the details of our exhaust system ands posted the details to Frank Trost who has offered to mandrel bend our pipes.
Last Saturday I got together with Glen and we did a flow bench test on a stock head as a baseline for our modifications. This was done on a 47.9°C day in a tin shed on John Nash's Super Flow 600 Bench with his help, thanks John. Soon we will start to play with the ports in the hope we can make a killer head for the racer.

Glen was happy with the results as the data collected indicates the Superflow bench is accurate enough compared to other data we already had from other sources. We can now proceed with confidence in the data we collect as we modify the head.

15/2/09

BBQ at Dave Taylor's this weekend, good day and raised some more for the club racer, another donation from Mike Roberts.
Turnout was a bit on the low side with only nine attending but it was a good day and we enjoyed ourselves.

24/2/09

Tapered roller steering head bearings and needle roller swing arm bearings arrived today from Brian Robinson in the US.
We are now starting to receive parts from people who want to help build our racer that aren't even club members!!!
How great would it be if we could get the same response from some of our club members. Thanks to those who have already contributed by buying a belt buckle, sticker or calendar or donated parts etc. you know who you are. For the rest of you it's not too late, we still have stickers and can get more belt buckles made if someone wants one.

Dave Rayner has offered to paint the club racer so I have been trying to think of a nice colour. How about orange? It's nice and visible without going crazy. We want it to stand out in a crowd and I think this would, what do you think?

20/3/09

Unfortunately Tarozzi got back to Paul with some bad news, the fork braces were first made in 1976 and are therefore ineligible for period 4 racing. If you have a XS650 Paul can supply a number of great parts that fit so check out their website and give him a call to discuss your needs..

23/3/09

Ivan sent the Mikes XS stainless steel valves down this week so hopefully we can do a flow test on these installed in the model head next weekend. I have also started making the anti reversion cones and flanges for the exhaust. 

Here's a pic of the Mikes XS stainless steel valves, one inlet and one exhaust, we also have the new collets. Now all we need is the performance springs and retainers to complete the hardware for the head.

I'll post some pics of the anti-reversion cones/flanges when I have finished them.

29/3/09

I got busy on the lathe this weekend and made up the anti-reversion cones for the club racer exhaust. 

Yesterday Glen, Kevin and I went to John Nash's to flow the head again, this time to check if the Mikes XS stainless steel valves are better than stock, and of course they are. Glen said that on the inlet side they flowed as much as 10% better, I will post the flow chart on here when Glen has had the time to crunch the numbers. We discussed whether we the need an exhaust stub for future flow bench testing and it was decided that we do so I went to a local exhaust place and bought a 44mm 90° mandrel bend for the purpose. We may also need a ram tube or dummy carb for the inlet side as well. I have some Shell racing inlet manifolds so we might adapt a ram tube to one of them. Kevin had some ram tubes spun up by a metal spinner some time ago and they look perfect for the job.

Here is the flow chart for the Mikes SS inlet valve in the unmodified head, interestingly it flows better than the stock valve.

Here is the flow chart for the Mikes SS exhaust valve, no real gains but that is to be expected with the evil stock exhaust port.

2/4/09

Greg Baldock has also contacted me with a generous cash donation for the club racer, thanks Greg.

5/4/09

Ivan tells me he has picked up the newly welded crankcases with the welded up starter motor hole. The work was done by a mate of Ivan's. Pics to follow.

9/4/09

Michael Kennedy called Ivan and expressed his interest in buying the race suspension for the club racer.
This is a very generous offer and frees up extra funds to buy some much needed parts to complete the club racer, thanks Mike.

The XS650 engine wall charts have been printed and laminated and be posted out today (9/4/09) thanks to those who bought them, this has helped raise some more funds for the club racer. We are now looking good to complete the racer but I'm sure something else will be needed down the road so the fund raising will continue until the bike is finished.

Ivan sent the fork legs down so I thought I would make them look nice by polishing them. I will have to get some fork seals now and put them together with the stock springs. When the bike almost completed we will be able to work out the spring rates we need determined by the final weight of the bike. At that time we will also be able to determine the shock lengths for the rear as well as spring rates for them.

15/4/09

I bought some fork seals for the racer forks today. 
Dave Rayner tells me Andrew Iggo has made a cash donation for the club racer, thanks Andrew, every bit helps.

Finally all together with new seals fitted and ready to go once we determine what viscosity oil to use.

Once we have the new triple trees made I can ship the hole front end back to Sydney for installation in the race bike.

3/5/09

I spent this weekend making the megaphones for the club racer.

Mike Fitzpatrick was kind enough to donate some great parts for our race bike. Thanks very much Mike we are very grateful for your generous donation and your offer to help out.

3/6/09

All being well we will be flow bench testing several modified heads this weekend (7/6/09) to see which direction we will be taking with our head modifications. 

7/6/09

We managed to get the flow figures done on five different heads at the weekend. Some had stock valves and various port modifications and others had big valves and modified ports so we have now collected enough data to work out what modifications work best and how far we need to go with the porting and this will determine what we are going to do for our race head. Just to give you all a clue, we will be using stock sized valves and very minor port modification.

12/6/09

I rang and talked to Mike Morse at Vintage Brake this morning and he is sending our brake pads and shoes next week. Also received an email from Mikes XS and they have located a front rim for our race bike and are sending it as soon as possible.

25/6/09

Received the wheel rim from Mikes XS today so we can now get on with some wheel building for the racer. 

10/7/09

I got one of the two batteries today, these are dry and will keep for months until we need them.

Update 31/7/09

In a couple of weeks time I will be travelling up to Sydney to drop off some stuff I have accumulated for the club racer and picking up some of the stuff Ivan has been storing. I am hoping to see Ivan race at Oran Park on the 23rd of August before travelling back.

Glen has been busy checking out some head modifications we are going to do to the club racer head but is about to fly out to England and America with work so that will stop our head development for a few weeks. I discussed with Ivan the possibility of Matt doing the motor for the racer and Ivan has agreed that this would be best. Ivan will concentrate on the rolling chassis for the racer which will include the wheel building and some fibreglass work as well as any frame mods he deems necessary.

We still need to buy a few parts for the motor and the ozzie dollar is helping out by going up in value so it might time, very soon, to put in our order with Mikes XS. The fund raising continues with the sale of the Back Issues CD's and sticker deal and to date I have had several buyers but could stand a few more.

If you were intending to make a donation towards the club racer then now would be a good time to speak up.

Update 17/8/09

I talked to John at "Johny Dyno" in Geelong last week and he is willing to dynamically balance our crankshaft for the race bike when we are ready. I am traveling up the Sydney this weekend to drop off the rolling chassis stuff for the race bike and pick the engine bits for Matt. We should be able to start the head mods very soon as we have now finished the research part of the project and now know what we want to do.

Update 25/8/09

Kevin Palmer and I went to Sydney at the weekend to drop off some parts for the racer and stayed at Geoff Bamford's place where we were treated royally by Geoff and Louise who had also invited a few blokes around for a get together including Herb Conlon and Chris "Bung" Williams among others, Herb's chilli prawns were the sensation of the night. While we were in Sydney we took the opportunity to visit Dave Rayner on Saturday and had lunch with him and Jeanette before setting off to catch up with Ivan Hoey. Went out for dinner with Ivan and Caren before retiring back to Geoff's place for the night. Sunday we went to Oran Park to watch Ivan race and we were impressed by his performance on his XS 750cc racer, he got four second places and a third. Went back to Ivan's that night for dinner and loaded the bits and pieces we had to bring back. 

Above: Ivan's racer - Below: Ivan with an alternative drink (it's not what he was drinking the night before!!!)

Went back to Geoff's before heading south Monday morning. We did a bit of drinking and a lot of talking and all in all we had a great weekend and we sincerely wish to thank all those who made us welcome.

While I was at the Oran Park track I got a call from Laurie Moloney who has donated the new Mikes XS rockers for the club racer. Thanks Laurie for your generous donation.

7/9/09

Took all the engine parts down to Matt this weekend, we met half way and did the transfer at Lismore, included was the last order from Mikes XS including the cam chain, guide and tensioner as well as the competition valve springs. Matt will now go through all the parts to see if there is anything else we need to buy to complete the motor.

13/9/09

Bought a market tent on ebay, I thought it might be useful for the club racer and other club functions and I will get it painted up with the race team signage, I thought we might also use it as a pit shop to sell some caps, stubby holders and T-shirts to help raise money for the club racer when we go racing. More on this later.

1/10/09

I spend the weekend working in the shed making a jig so we can check the balance factor of our club racer crank. From what I have read from several sources is the rephased crank requires a balance factor of 50% and that the stock balance factor is around 62%. Usually when anyone has done a rephased motor they also fit a big bore kit and because the bigger pistons are heavier in theory they bring the balance factor very close to ideal. Dave Rayner found this out when he got his balanced, the bloke who did the job told him he was wasting his time doing it as it was so close to perfect it hardly needed modifying. But being the anal retentive I am I decided it better to be safe than sorry so I have organized for our club racer crank to be balanced when it is ready.

Here's a picture of the jig I made for doing the dynamic balancing of our club racer crank.

Once we have worked out the rotating mass and reciprocating mass we can apply the formula for working out the counterweights added to the jig and spun in the machine which will then tell how much and where to add or remove material to achieve our 50% balance factor. Simple right? Well actually no but if anyone is interested I will explain the procedure in more detail.

19/10/09

I picked up the market tent today after Jezza Designs painted it for me. Looks good don't you think?

The AGM has come and gone and we have a new president, Geoff Bamford and some lively discussion regarding the club racer was discussed and there will be more on this later.

The outgoing pres. Dave Taylor bought along the ignition system for the club racer to the AGM and handed it over to Ivan.

1/12/09

I rang and spoke to Mick at Moto Tumbi this week enquiring about a fairing for our racer. I talked to Ivan first and told him I thought the fairing on Rod Asher's bike would suit our bike very well as all the fairings I had looked at to date were either too big or flat fronted. I showed him the pics of Rod's fairing (below) and he agreed so it looks like we can go ahead and buy this fairing from Moto Tumbi and Ivan is going to buy one for his P4 racer as well. As you can see it is proportional to the XS650's size and is aerodynamically shaped at the front, unlike those designed for a headlight which are much flatter and wider. If we get our orders together we might even save a few bucks on the deal.

9/12/09

I rang Moto Tumbi again today and spoke to Mick Jones at length about our club racer and he agreed to give us a discount if we bought two fairings so the deal was done and now we just have to wait for them to arrive. Ivan is very keen to have a rolling chassis completed early in the new year so he will be looking at getting our wheels laced up before Christmas.