Tanto's New Redhead

[tanto]

Nah! The WD40 & fork oil were both bought locally. For that matter, so were most of the bearings, now I've found the local suppliers. As a rule of thumb, if you can source it in Thailand it will be between one third to half the UK price. So, it's worth searching. What I couldn't find in Thailand is a set of Rick Oliver's fork springs.

Searching Chiang Mai for kit is what I've been doing today. It's been a successful outing. One of the lads behind the counter at Nana Screw owns an NC30. He brought it in this morning. So, with his help and quite a bit of trial and error, we found a socket to fit the star-headed bolts on the Nissin brake calipers. I also got a 24mm socket for the front wheel bolt, to go with the 22mm socket bought in error yesterday. Who knew NC30's can have either size fitting on the front axle?

[Geeky photo of E12 socket to go here.]

Thailand presents another choice; to buy or to make? I need two C-wrenches, one for the rear shock, the other for the chain adjuster. Easy enough to make, but I thought I'd try a local "bling scooter" store who, it turns out, sell just about anything you could possibly screw or bolt onto a scooter, in rainbow of different colours. The row of YSS rear shocks hanging over the door is what drew me to the place (it's worrying what simple pleasures tempt a 400GB'er). Once inside, I found some spangley bar-grips for an embarrassingly low price, and some horrid silver anodizzzzed footpegs for GBP3. They're suitable, and perfect for, use with axle stands. No C-wrenches, though.

[Photo of embarrassing grips to go here.]

Not far from Nana Screw is "Neon 2000", a sign-maker, who happen to, er, alter reg. plates as a side business. In Thailand, registration plates are tightly controlled. Fortunately the folks at Neon were happy to cut out the top corners of the Redhead's new rear plate. Now it can use the existing fittings without having to move the rear indicator lights. The work was done for free.

Sunday is fork spring day. Today? I've had enough, so perhaps I'll get that reg. plate on before a strong cup of coffee, and a spot of real work. Something's got to pay for all this fun.

[tanto]

Bike up, ready for work to begin...

• Removed the speedo and integrated "idiot" lights. And the speedo drive cable. Think it'll stay off, to be replaced by a lighter, more accurate, more versatile, digital bicycle "computer" (45g).
• Removed the rev counter & temp. gauge for a clean.
• Removed the front fairing supports with a view to re-making them in aluminum.

Armed with a new metal drill bit, fitted the new registration plate. Not very aero.

[tanto]

A spot of gravel rash on the right-hand crankcase cover. A repair underneath the clutch cover appears to be holding, but I think a new cover would be a good idea before venturing on to the track. And, perhaps, some Kevlar armour.

[Cammo]

Sounds good mate!

[*]Removed the speedo and integrated "idiot" lights. And the speedo drive cable. Think it'll stay off, to be replaced by a lighter, more accurate, more versatile, digital bicycle "computer" (45g).

Be aware that when you unplug the speedo cluster it will cut spark to 2 cylinders when revved past 5000 rpm. You can get around this the same way that you electrically bypass the 180 km/h limit (plenty of info on this in the v4 workshop section).

[tanto]

Be aware that when you unplug the speedo cluster it will cut spark to 2 cylinders when revved past 5000 rpm. You can get around this the same way that you electrically bypass the 180 km/h limit (plenty of info on this in the v4 workshop section).

Thanks for the heads-up, Cammo! I would have thought, what the hell have I done to my bike? I haven't even touched the engine, yet!

The resistor mod is on the "To Do" list for this week, but I wasn't aware of the 5000rpm limit.



I have a question regarding the resistor mod. instructions, above. At the bottom of the diagram, "2. Ideal for road bikes", it says, "Unplug connector from speedo". Unplugging the connector from the speedo makes sense for a track bike, but for a road bike, this implies it has some effect on the CDI. Any ideas? What does it do? Why would unplugging the connection be ideal for road bikes? Or, am I reading the instructions the wrong way?

[porndoguk]

i think what the guide is suggesting is that a full HRC loom or race set up would do away with the 2m of extra cable from the CDI to clocks to save weight so the resistor would be better suited at the CDi rather than a plug and play at the clock side, also with that in mind the plug and play version is so that the clocks maybe refitted at a later date.

[tanto]

i think what the guide is suggesting is that a full HRC loom or race set up would do away with the 2m of extra cable from the CDI to clocks to save weight...

Got it! Thanks. I didn't know anything about the HRC loom... Might as well plug the resistor in at the clocks end, and make use of that cable!

[porndoguk]

you cant get them anymore, there are a few floating around but weight saving about 500g.

not really worth it TBH.

were did you find that drawing anyway its cracking.

[tanto]

where did you find that drawing anyway its cracking.

Checkout 400GB'ers very own "Document Library"!

[tanto]

Removed the front wheel and the forks. Can't for the life of me undo the f'ing bolt in the bottom of the forks. I should have thought more carefully when Rick's instructions said simply, "Remove the drain plug from the bottom of each fork slider in turn...". What he really means is the damper rod bolt, which is under tension from the fork spring. To undo, compress the fork while unscrewing the bolt... easily said, not so easy to do single-handed.

Plan 1: Invert each fork leg and let the bolts soak in WD40 overnight. Rest the top of the fork on thick towel on the floor, so as not to damage the top bolt/adjuster assembly, and compress the fork while undoing the bolt. The result looks like a madman riding a pogo stick while playing between his legs. And, it didn't work.

Plan 2: Ask my 120kg mate Thomas if he wouldn't mind lending a, rather substantial, hand. No problem.

Stripped the rest of the front fittings off the bike, inc. handlebars, clip-on fittings, upper and lower yokes with headstock races, and the brake levers and calipers.

Cleaning, replacing bearings, & powder-coating aside, there are two sub-projects on the immediate horizon:

P1 - Design a new aluminum dashboard and front fairing support, and get it made. Might as well get the windscreen support and some alloy handlebars run up, too.

P2 - Strip the front brakes and assess whether they need to be replaced or rebuilt. I hope it's the latter, and the pistons are not too worn. The pistons are seized on one side of both calipers. The uneven brake pad wear explains why the discs are so badly worn as one pad each side did not lift from the disc.

The good news is the Goodridge braided brake cable set arrived today, complete with all stainless steel fittings. Time to buy some rubber gloves, 4.1 DOT brake fluid, a large plastic washing bowl, and some medical syringes to fill the lines when it comes to re-assembly.