My Cafe Racer Build (and Re-Build)

Will be sorted soon. Had to order some bits. If my DIY cables don't work out, I'll just send the carbs and throttle to motion pro and make them do the hard work!

 

Yes, although I will be switching to a set of Uni's I picked up at Cycle Gear yesterday. I'm going to mess with those when it's dyno time. Right now for testing it will be these knockoff K&N's, which I have recently oiled.

 

I always keep an eye out, but it seems I'm one step behind someone else when they pop up

 

It's also a street bike. Ever have to kick start a bike after a stall at a busy intersection? I'd never remove a starter after going through that!

 

Update time. Took the bike out to bed in the rings, but more on that in a bit.

Had to take the motor half apart to reset the rings due to running it so much at a standstill for the cam and ignition things I was doing. Noticed the compression was up sometimes and then would drop others. This is due to the rings rotating and not being bed in. So I got it all back together, had troubles syncing carbs due to the ring issues. Works fine with throttle partially opened, so I just gave it a go.

Man, this thing is scary. It blows through the RPM range on the road way faster than stock. By no means is it modern bike fast, but compared to stock, holy crap. Carbs are a tad rich at partial throttle and WOT, so need to go with a size lower mains. The carbs are predictable, open the slides to fast and AFR goes quickly to 30 to 1 until the jets can catch up. But if you are smooth with the opening, it maintains a steady AFR and flys. Did about 10 runs in third gear at WOT from 2k to 9k rpm, letting it engine break all the way back down each run. This load on the engine should have set the rings for me, so now I can get them carbs synced. I could 'feel' the rings bed in, as the bike had a noticeable difference in power delivery as the testing went on (as well as a change in idle whackyness, since the attempted sync is now out of sync again).

Was a good day for testing. Had a few misc nuts and bolts that needed retouqred after riding, chain seems to be breaking in, tires are sticky. Only gripe I have is with 1st and second gear. SOmetime it is extremelly hard to move between the two, and 2nd to 3rd is a little less rough but still not happy with it. All other gear changes are smooth as can be, so I don't know what's up. I made sure the gears were all perfectly shimmed for engagement before I buttoned it up, so I'm thinking it may be since I stretched out the shift drum cam spring(to make find neutral easier.). I can see how too much pressure on that detent plunger would make low gear shifting a nightmare. So I'll grab an OEM spring and give it a go. It's not like it's impossible to shift, it shifts everytime, but it requires a massive amount of work to do it. Might be my clutch adjustment too, I seem to remember having the same problem the first time I built this bike.

Will have to wait and see what's in store, as this was probably the last time it will run until winter is over, unless I get it to the dyno before then. Just got furloughed over the holidays, so $$$ is nonexistent for a few months.

 

Oh, and the bike is way too loud under load. The not-so-loud idle was very deceiving. Will be a daytime only bike for sure if I take it out on the roads.

 

Dyno will happen soon! I'd like to have it 100% jetted before going, since I could just do a 3 run session(cheap). I could jet on the dyno, but the cost starts getting into the realm of 'rich people only'.

Best case scenario is to get a few more days of 50° and dry. Got it replated and insured today for good measure. If I can get it right, I can be on the dyno with a phone call

 

Garage photos suck, but It's all I can do with the snow out now. I guess it's officially time to call this one complete and move on to something else. There are a few RZ350's I've been eyeing up. May build one track bike and one 'resto' out of a beat Kenny Roberts edition.

 

Damn you guys used up all my photo bucket bandwidth? That's nuts.

Yeah I was going to buy it back from iaai, made an account and everything, but the day of bidding I was busy with my mobilization training and couldn't be bothered.
The accident messed up my leg pretty bad, still have some issues but it could have been worse. My wallet is what got hurt the most. I'm ending up loosing out on about around 80k due to missed work and medical bills. Insurance only covers so much, and you can't sue the poor for more than the insurance maximum they held. At least I'm alive I guess.

I never come on here anymore, I've moved on to bigger and better things. But if you need to know what something is on the bike, or how/why something was how it was, just ask and I may be able to help out. Almost everything should be documented here, even the issues I was working on when the accident happened. Glad it's not getting parted out.