Well things have been a bit quiet over the Christmas break but our new fairing has arrived from Moto Tumbi and Ivan says it looks good. Ivan has also done the rear hub ready to get the wheels laced up. He has some frame bracing to do and when this is done and the wheels are done we should have a rolling chassis. I had hoped for some pics to show you but Ivan is a bit slack at sending them so I guess we'll just have to wait.

Glen Voice has been extremely busy at work so work on the head has temporarily been put on the back burner until he manages to find some time, Matt Moloney has also been busy but has managed to get some of the engine work done with much still to do.

I have been looking into camshaft theory and how it relates to what will work with our configuration and I have to say it is really an interesting and complex subject with so many variables that play a part in the final engine set up that it makes your head spin! I have been looking into such things as dynamic compression ratios, con rod ratios, inlet and exhaust valve openings and closings and port flow characteristics and how all these things must work with each other to give the best performance.

I am off to Phillip Island this weekend to watch the old bikes compete in the Island Classic and hope to catch up with Ivan Hoey, Rob McKie, Wayne Kennedy and Dave Taylor who will also be there, should be a good weekend.

13/2/10

Phillip Island was great and I met a few fellow club members that were also there to watch the classic racing. Ivan came down from Sydney with Craig and Marty, the guys from C&M cycles, Dave Taylor, John Chambers, Phil Mester, Rob McKie. I believe Wayne Kennedy and Mike Roberts were also there but I didn't see them. Kevin Palmer and myself made the trip from Geelong.

Ivan finally sent some pictures of the modified rear hub for the club racer and tells me he is dropping the rims and hubs into Chivo's this week to have them laced up.

All we need now is some pictures of the race fairing which also at Ivan's place.

Chivo has finished doing the wheels for the club racer.

And Ivan has finally taken a picture of the fairing. Thanks mate.

Now that the wheels have been done, we are well on the way to having a finished rolling chassis for our club racer. I'm off to Broadford this Sunday to watch the Victorian HMRAV titles and hope to catch up with Rod Asher. 

24/4/2010

I went to Broadford and both the racing and the weather were great, unfortunately Rod Asher had the flu and didn't go.

23/5/2010

True to his word Nick has made the Titanium valve spring retainers.

Greg Tow has made a cash donation for the club racer and we thank him for his generosity.

It's not our club racer but anyone who attended the Historic Road Race Championship at Phillip Island in September 2010 will have seen Sam Muldoon doing his stuff against some serious opposition on his dad Mick's XS650 racer. If you want to see how competitive a XS650 can be in P4, go and watch Sam in January when he will be back at the Island for the Island Classic.

29/9/2010

On the subject of the club racer and where we are at right now, we had a few setbacks because two of our key crew members have taken up new jobs and can no longer take part in the development of the racer. Glen has taken a promotion which leaves him no time at all to help with the development of the head for the racer so it has reverted to me.

Kevin has his flow bench working now so we will be able to continue with the head as soon as I have flowed the stock head for comparison with the figures we got with the Super Flow bench we previously had access to. I have also yet to have the valve spring retainers Chromium Nitride coated but this can be done anytime I have the urge to travel to Melbourne to drop them off at Surface Technologies along with the cash to pay for it.

The other major setback was Matt taking a job in the mining industry in Queensland, he was originally going to build the motor for the racer and has most of the engine parts at his dads place. This was a blow as Matt was heavily involved with having the crankshaft rephased and dynamically balanced  so this is now another job which will have to done elsewhere by someone else. Luckily most of the hard work has been done and Matt has offered to pay for the work to be finished.

I recently spoke to Matt and he will be home in November so I will catch up with him then and get as much done as possible while he is home then bring the rest back to my place. I need to hook up with Matt to determine some of the parameters needed for the dynamic balancing and also make some small parts for adaptation to the machine doing the balancing, once this is done we can go ahead and complete the crank and start assembling the motor.

Frank has had the exhaust pipes bent up so I should be getting them as soon as he can pick them up and post them to me.

Ivan assures me that a rolling chassis is very possible by Christmas as he is getting ready to do his own racer which he hopes will be ready for the Island Classic in January.

So work is still continuing despite the setbacks and although taking longer than anticipated we hope to complete the racer eventually.

Thanks to some of our members ordering the back issues cd's we managed to bank some money for the project last month.

8/10/2010

Today I received the exhaust pipes from Franc Trost, thanks Franc they look fantastic. The pipes were bent up by CES Racing Systems in Queensland for Franc.

Custom Exhaust Specialists, Unit 3, 2-16 Beal St Meadowbrook QLD 4131

The design brief was to make the pipes travel inside the frame rails and be low enough to allow the fitting of Ivan's drop sump.

We also wanted the pipes clear of the sump plug for ease of maintenance.

The length is also important and we need to keep it short, our research indicates that 29"-31" is optimal for the XS650 engine to perform at its best so these will need to be shortened.

Matt's dad Laurie dropped the meggas back at the weekend so I shortened the pipes and fitted them to see how they'd look.
Now I need to make some brackets to mount them properly and do some welding. Not sure which is best for mounting the meggas to the pipes whether to clamp them onto the pipes or use springs and slip joints. 

Unfortunately I missed Matt when he was home in November, it was a flying visit to compete at the sidecar cross nationals at Morgan Park in SA. He finished second by the way so well done Matt.

I also attended the AGM in November and the club racer was there for those who came along to look at.

The rolling chassis is now at Kevin Boss's shed as Kev has volunteered to do some work on it and Herb Conlon has promised he will be feeding me pics of any work done so I can update this page. Ivan was too busy to continue as he has his own racer to build. As you can see the rolling chassis is well on the way to completion with the wheels and front end virtually done and the fibreglass is all there and just needs some fitting and painting for completion. Of course the racer fund is looking a bit grim and more money will be needed to finish the project so if anyone has an idea to raise funds let us know.

11/12/2010

I put a bid in on Ebay for some Valter Moto rear sets and I won them, I will use them as a pattern and try to copy the parts that are suitable like the foot pegs and gear lever and brake lever for the club racer, mounting brackets will of course be different.

15/12/2010

I went to Geelong today and called in to Lange Engineering and Rob is going to do the alloy foot peg mounts for us. I dropped off the 12mm alloy plate and the .dxf drawing of the design and imported it into his cnc computer so now we just have to wait until he has time between jobs to run the program and produce them. I also bought a gear lever for modification and the missing heim join for the gear shifter. I will post some pics when it's fitted to the bike.

22/12/2010

Picked up the mounting plates from Lange Engineering today and fitted them to the bike, I think they look good.

Gear side rear set including newly made gear lever, toe peg and alloy mounting plate.

Brake side rear set nearing completion, I have bought some heim joints and some 12mm alloy rod to make up a connecting rod and just need to make an adapter for where the stock foot brake pedal attaches, I have done part of this and just need to weld on a lever and this side will be completed.

30/12/2010

I finally got around to doing more on the exhaust system, I had to add some 1 5/8" sections at the end as per our design from Mike Morse and I also had to do some minor bending to get the mufflers where I wanted them.

I also added some mountings on the mufflers and made some drilled 25mm X 5mm Aluminium straps back to the foot peg mounts to hold it all on and it seems strong enough. All that needs to be done now is the Jet-Hot or High Performance Coating on the pipes and mufflers.

I also did some trimming here and there to make it all look a bit better including some milling work done by Kevin Palmer to make the levers a bit lighter. The new foot pegs I ordered turned up today so the next job is to try and make some foot peg mounts for these new pegs. I am doing this because they are much cheaper and more readily available than ones I got originally. They are to suit a Honda VTR for racing.