Where we are up to with the development of the club racer in 2013.
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7/11/2013 I received some elephant's foot adjusters in the mail today from Brian Robinson in the USA, he has kindly donated these for the club racer. Brian has donated several parts for club racer including the swing arm bearings and steering head bearings in the past, thanks mate you are a star.
Club Racer at Battery World
The club racer has
recently been on display at Battery
World as part of a deal where they
supplied us with batteries for the racer
and in return we would display the bike
in their store. Update 10/10/2013 RAMS head service in Sydney reconditioned the club racer head and did some performance modifications based on the flow bench work done some time ago by Glen Voice, Kevin Palmer, Rob McKie and Terry Gliddon. This work included fitting new Kibblewhite valve guides donated by David Rayner and cutting the seats for the stainless steel valves that were donated by Mike Lalonde. Mikes Performance valve springs were also used. The titanium retainers used were made by Nick McGinn from 6ALV6 titanium donated by Dave Taylor and Terry Gliddon and these were Chromium Nitrided which was paid for by Dave Taylor.
Update 30/9/13 Two XS650's made an appearance at Eastern Creek at the weekend, the club racer (10) with Jason Blanch at the controls and our own race bike manager Ivan Hoey on his own P4 racer (72).
Both enjoyed a good days racing with Ivan coming out on top in the lap time stakes.
Lining up on the dummy grid. Update 7/9/13 Jason Blanch is planning to ride the club racer at the upcoming round 4 PCRA road race meeting south circuit Eastern Creek on the 29th of September. Update 2/9/13 I received the con rods back from DAF Industries today and as you can see by the slightly grainy surface they have indeed been shot peened. Next step is to make sure they are straight and then they can be used in our race motor.
Update 31/8/13 Club member Jason Blanch rode the club racer at Wakefield Park at the weekend along with fellow club member and race bike manager Ivan Hoey on his own new bike, both had a successful Saturday with Ivan getting a first place and Jason a third place in the P4 class.
Jason on the club racer (10)
Ivan on his racer (70)
the crew Update 28/8/2013 Jason Blanch gave a donation for the club racer and another XS News Back Issues disk was sold adding to the club racer fund as well. Thanks Jason and good luck a Wakefield Park this weekend. Update 25/8/2013 I've finally found a company to do the shot peening of the con rods, I had previously been quoted $80+GST+postage by another company and when I asked Ivan he thought this was a bit high compared to what he'd paid to have his done some years ago. I kept looking and found a company called DAF industries in Mordialloc that will do them for $20+GST+postage. I talked to one of the owners and he tells me they used to do con rods for the Holden Dealer Team before they decided to do this work in house. They are obviously very experienced which I'm happy about. I am now packing them up to post off on Monday. I am hoping the total cost comes in around $40. We should get them back in a couple of weeks.
Getting ready to package and post our con rods for shot peening after polishing. Update August working bee A good rollup to get the bike ready for Wakefield Park , just as well as there proved to be a couple of problems to be rectified. We used herbs roller starter to see if it works for the 650 , a few problems were corrected with new batteries not at full charge , but it does start the bike. For some reason the bike then became hard to start and would not idle and change of carbies and plugs did not cure the problems. Turns out the timing had shifted (not sure why) and this has now been corrected. Geoff and Rodney secured some battery sponsorship from Battery World at Penrith - 500CCA for roller starter and 2 glass mat batteries for bike. Attached photos actually caught El Presidenta fitting new stickers and fitting new Tacho. Also the heatproof paint applied to the exhaust pipes caught fire and let off plenty of smoke and was the wire brushed off. In attendance were :- Geoff , mark ,Watto ,Azza, Dave , young Blanch , Hoey , Herb , and host The Boss. Thursday saw the motor out of frame with electric start refitted and timing sorted with the plan to reinstall on Saturday so that bike is ready for second shakedown on Saturday at Wakefield Park with PCRA. will have video and photos from Wakefield as it happens. cheers herb
Update for working bee on 17/7/13 Well a fine day eventuated after early shower and a good cross section of members turned up to fine tune the xs2. In attendance were Dave Phillis, Kevin Boss, Mark Azzapardi, Mark Peatman, Mick Sayer, Herb Conlon, Ivan Hoey, Rodney, Geoff Watson + 3 others and host Geoff Bamford.Exhaust brackets were strengthened and chain guide and tensioner were added. With a Sausage and Bacon sizzle for lunch everyone was ready for a Nana Nap so back to work. The bike was presented with a complete detail by Kevin Boss and really looks the goods, anyone who may store the bike in future needs to keep up this high standard (good luck). Work needed is to clean up and paint the standard xs2 tank , and put together some spares like a range of spark plugs , some alternate gearing 32 & 34 tooth rear sprockets , levers (hand and foot) and some control cables for the Tacho. Thanks to Geoff Bamford for having the team at his place and looking forward to next session. cheers Herb
1/7/13 Update Today I thought I would have another go at checking the end to end conrod weights but this time I would take three readings of each end as well as three readings of the total weight and do some averages for comparison and see how it turns out for accuracy. Before starting I put a few drops of GTX on the new jig to make sure there was no friction, much like an XS650 clutch on GTX. First I checked the big end of conrod #1 three times and got these results 1/184.8 2/ 185.1 3/ 187.4 with an average weight of 185.7 grams Next the little ends of conrod #1 1/ 102.6 2/ 103.1 3/ 103.4 with an average weight of 103 grams (combined 185.7 + 103 = 288.7g) Next I measured the total weight of conrod #1 1/ 287.2 2/287.2 3/ 287.2 giving the average of 287.2 grams and the combined weight of the above was 288.7 grams a difference of just 1.5 grams This is extremely accurate so it proves that the process is spot on.
On to conrod #2 Again I checked the big end of conrod #2 three times and got these results 1/184.3 2/ 183.5 3/ 187.4 with an average weight of 185 grams Next the little ends of conrod #2 1/ 102.2 2/ 101.2 3/ 101.2 with an average weight of 101.5 grams (combined 185 + 101.5 = 286.5g) Next I measured the total weight of conrod #2 1/ 286 2/285.9 3/ 286 giving the average of 286 grams and the combined weight of the above was 286.5 grams a difference of just .5 grams Again an extremely accurate outcome. Next I will re weigh the reciprocating and rotating components and work the formula and see what results.
Update 30/6/13 In my madness I have now decided that a better way to determine the weight of the conrod ends is to build a better jig specifically designed for the purpose, so here it is.
There is two threaded holes for the two different bosses for the con rod to hang, this ensures the con rod hangs horizontal when weighing. The scales are positioned so the con rod contacts the middle of the scales.
So far I have just used an old stock conrod for the testing of my new device but it all looks promising. Club Racer first place debut at Eastern Creek Sunday 9/6/2013 A number of club members attended the race launch of the race bike at Eastern Creek and after some technical problems relating to batteries and electronic ignition Ivan Hoey , Mark Peatman and Kevin Boss succeeded in putting the bike on track. Under the clubs Yamaha quick shade which was appreciated as the day was quite sunny the bike enjoyed first class attention. After its first outing the bike was first in class with Ivan Hoey short shifting to run in the motor. The second race was same as first and due to a number of stoppages due to crashes by others the bike never got a third outing.Mark Azzopardi , Bill Wallace , Pat
Newman , Mark Peatman , Kevin Boss ,
Ivan Hoey , Herb Conlon, Dave Phillis
and Jason Blanch with Dave on Crutches. Many thanks to Mark Peatman for tuning and set up changes and Kevin Boss who loaned his Boyer black box (blue) as the one on the race bike failed and then had to refit to his "C" model to ride home, Thanks mate. We also had dramas with lead acid batteries which are not suitable for the race bike due to vibration issues. Will talk to Ivan to get his perspective, which for the bikes shakedown, should be all positive as the bike went very well. All had a great day and with some more refinements to the bike we look forward to the next race meeting , cheers Herb
Ivan Hoey (rider), Mark Peatman (shades), Kevin Boss and Pat Newman.
Ivan taking the club racer out on the track.
Thanks to Ray Oxford for letting us use this picture. Update 1/6/13 I paid a visit to Kevin Palmer today and borrowed a piece of kit he made for statically balancing a crankshaft.
It is made up of two stands fitted with wheels and bearings so a crankshaft can be placed on top and the weight is allowed to fall to the bottom, but when a counter balance weight is added it can be adjusted with varying weights until the assembly is balanced i.e. has no heavy spot.
As you can see the heavy side of the flywheels (where the counterweight is opposite the big end pin) is now equally balanced by the weight suspended from the big end pin. I can rotate the crank to any position and it will stay there and not rotate any further. When the weight of the components needed to work out the balance factor is known and subtracted from this weight suspended from the big end pin we will know how much weight to remove from the area opposite the big end pin to achieve static balance.
Of course nothing is ever as simple as it looks and for this to be perfect the bearings would have to be almost frictionless but unfortunately they are not. This will however get us in the ball park and will probably be sufficient for static balancing. The final dynamic balancing will make it perfect. The work continues.
I have since modified the balancing rig and removed the aforementioned sticky bearings and wheels in favour of two knife edges which cause less friction and would therefore be more accurate. By the way it takes a weight 651 grams to balance our crank components pictured which means our counterbalance weight (MC) is equal to that amount. If you are interested in the formula click on the link Update 19/5/2013 I got busy on the lathe today and made the plugs to protect the bearing surfaces on the con rods for when I send them off for shot peening. I'll send them off this week if I have time.
After talking to Ivan I need to find a cheaper option as my first quote is too much according to him. The search continues. Update 18/5/2013 Went to town yesterday to buy some aluminium bar to plug the con rod holes so the bearing surfaces are protected when they are shot peened, also talked to a company in Melbourne who can do the job and got a quote for $80 the pair + postage. Ivan picked up the rockers for the race motor after modification. Still need to be modified for the elephants foot adjusters which means trimming the underside of the rocker arm to allow room for the elephants foot part of the adjuster. Should be somewhere in the region of 4mm. We still need to buy the Porsche adjusters we want for the race motor but we might have to settle for aftermarket ones as the genuine articles are around $35 each. We should be able to buy some performance VW ones for a lot less and have four spares.
Daryl Hutcheon of Professional Motorcycle Tuning is donating the elephants foot adjusters needed for the club racer. He is also donating the 'O' rings for the underside of the valve guides. Update 10/5/13 I received the replacement con rod some time ago but yesterday I finally got around to polishing it and it turned out fine as you can see from the pics below. Next job is to find somewhere to get them shot peened for reliability, the theory is that nearly all fatigue and stress corrosion failures originate at the surface of a part, but cracks will not initiate or propagate in a compressively stressed zone.
Hundreds of impacts on the surface creates a compressively stressed zone on the surface of the polished con rod beam making it much stronger, ideal for a race motor. The difference on the small ends is 3.6 grams (below)
The difference on the big ends is .7 of a gram (below)
The difference in total weight between each con rod is only 1.2grams (below)
Just as a reference, the plastic bag the con rod came in weighs 3 grams so I don't think there is too much to worry about here. For those among you who are taking notice, the con rods weigh less than they did further up the page and the reason is they are now polished and weigh about 5 grams less. Once this shot peening is done we can proceed with the crankshaft balancing. Pictures taken for the log book
Update 26/2/13 Finally got around to polishing the crankshaft replacement for the cracked one.
While I was at it I decided to polish the con rods as well.
The first one turned out great but the second suffered from my over exuberance and will have to be replaced. It has been ordered and should be here soon. I will make damn sure I don't make that mistake again. Once I have the con rods weighing the same end to end it will be the piston's turn to get weighed and matched. Update 19/1/2013 Well to all a happy new year , In attendance were Boss , Rodney Johnson , Mark Peatman , Mark Azzapardi , Bungy , Geoff Watson , Dave Rayner and Herb Conlon. Hoey turned up after work and was happy that the members were involved and offering some good suggestions. After some visualizing it was decided to lower the fairing to allow more freedom in adjustment for the front end. The brackets and fairing mounts were then rearranged and some further development is required. Temporary shocks of a longer length were fitted to balance the bike due to longer swing arm We still need to prepare
and paint replacement tank . Cheers Herb
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