Slow Monster rebuild

[350TSS]

Duke desmo - Get thee behind me satan! more (good) things to spend money on??
Great website though spent a good hour finding out that I know nothing.
The system looks good and in pure engineering terms is probably a much better solution than the original Monster flawed compromise. Wasted spark architecture and 9000 rpm means the coil has only 0.00166 of a second (if my maths is correct) to recover before firing again, barely time for the electrons to get round the coil wiring.
Trouble is I now have another decision to make

[350TSS]

Whilst on hols I pondered the big decision Carbon wheels or not and have made up my mind.............................................. ...........................

Definitely........................................ ..........................

Yes

Yes and with S4 Fork legs and 25mm wheel spindles.
and the S4 front fork legs will get a KTech or Maxton cartridge kit - that is about £3000 committed to a bike I could replace for around £2K - madness really but I am building the bike I want

[350TSS]

Utopia:
On the carbon wheel front can I ask a couple of questions?
Front wheel - did it come with the bearings and inter bearing spacer and was the disc mount compatible PCD of holes, number of holes and spacing widthways within the fork legs?
Rear wheel - as above plus the sprocket carrier and cush drive shock absorber arrangement or did you have to have a different sprocket.
Re LIPO4 battery what rating/model did you go for and do you have the dimensions as i want to get on with moulding the battery carrier but do not want to buy the battery until the bike is nearly ready to start - i.e next May

[Jez900ie]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Whilst on hols I pondered the big decision Carbon wheels or not and have made up my mind.............................................. ...........................

Definitely........................................ ..........................

Yes

Yes and with S4 Fork legs and 25mm wheel spindles.
and the S4 front fork legs will get a KTech or Maxton cartridge kit - that is about £3000 committed to a bike I could replace for around £2K - madness really but I am building the bike I want

I know the feeling. But I will -like you- probably buy all the goodies so that the bike becomes just what I want...

[Mr Gazza]

Originally Posted by 350TSS

Utopia:
On the carbon wheel front can I ask a couple of questions?

Utopia appears to have gone off the radar for a while. Either on holiday or lost his broadband again... You might want to leave him a PM for when he gets back.

[utopia]

Well, I have intermittent internet now .. we'll see if it lasts long enough to post.

Both (Dymag) wheels came with bearings fitted and with the correct holes/pcd/offset dims to take the std discs.
Also the rear cushdrive was all there and is of a different design (which at a glance looks simpler and with less offset to the drive .. for what that's worth).
It takes a different sprocket though .. they supply a Talon as part of the deal, but I'm told that Renthals are also available.
I believe the hub is a Talon design actually, but don't quote me.

When I fitted mine, I also swapped the steel swingarm to an ally one from a 900.
Therefore I was keen to make certain that chain alignment wouldn't present any problems.
At my request, they sent me production drawings of both hubs, to check the dimensions myself, before they built the wheels.
This was in some respects both a blessing and a curse since it shifted the onus of responsibility onto me, should there be a dimensional problem.
But if you fancy making certain, I'm sure they would "oblige" in your case too.

The battery is a Magneti Marelli, MM-ION-6
I didn't actually choose it for technical reasons though .. beyond it being the LiFePO4 type (I think I've quoted that correctly, but am relying on memory).
It was more because it was a brand I had heard of, it was Italian, it has a 3xled condition tester built in .. and its blue colour matches my bike.
Other brands are available.
I can measure it if you like.
It has started my 750 instantly for about 18months now, but although I've run the bike in mildish february weather, I've not really tested it in the cold yet.
I fret that I should perhaps fit a shindengen reg/rec to go with it because I have a minor paranoia about it ever being overcharged .. but I've not done so yet.
I also considered arranging some sort of overcharge limiter .. basically a second regulator plus a warning signal if it ever operates maybe .. I mused over a zener diode recently .. but then it went off the boil.
You may care to ponder ..?

I'd best press "post" now, while my luck seems to be holding.

[350TSS]

Thanks Utopia and also thanks for the PM (which I am not computer savy enough to reply to).

[350TSS]

Managed some good garage time this week although finished results are few. I start a particular job, full of enthusiasm, get bored with it after a few hours and do something else, also partially – it must be an age thing. My garage is a complete mess with lots of part finished jobs and their associated tools littered about the place.
About 5 weeks ago I started to make a “horse” for holding logs so I could hold them securely whilst chain sawing them for use in our wood burner. The design involved a frame from an old piece of gym equipment and a hydraulic car jack with the mechanism reversed so that it pressed downwards on the log. Every day I nearly trip over the jack, or the frame or the angle grinder or the various bits of steel selected to manufacture it from. It will probably sit there until it gets colder and we run out of logs that will fit in the wood burner. The bike obviously comes first.

[350TSS]

First, I started on a mold for the CF breather catch tank / chain oiler reservoir, being an enclosure, it will have to be made in two halves and bonded together. Some scrap 9mm ply was cut to form a template roughly with the outline shape of the aluminium version and a second one was cut approximately 1mm smaller on each dimension to make the back of the tank.
Some 50mm foam was then glued to the larger template and then filed down to approximate the shape of the aluminium version. This took less than an hour although fine tuning it so that it can be removed without taking off the rear suspension hoop took another. An all over skim with body filler followed. This was rubbed down and because the filler is additive to the foam, further filing and filling had to follow. It is now about 2 cycles (filling and filing) away from being finished. This is actually rather boring work and whilst doing this I realized that I need to get on with the battery enclosure, but I cannot do that until I know the dimensions of the battery.

[350TSS]

My rheumatoid arthritis causes sleeplessness and I frequently wake up after about 4 hours and cannot get back to sleep. I fill my time by posting here and researching what to buy for the bike.
For design of the battery box I chose a battery used for an 1198 and got the dimensions and added 12mm to allow for rubber vibration isolation and then made a wooden dummy battery. It was quite a bit bigger than I had expected and would not fit where I originally intended (alongside the lower left-hand frame tube and beneath the carburetor float bowls). On reflection, this is probably a good thing as any carburetor leak could have been catastrophic. The only place the battery could go was immediately behind the headstock and below the ignition switch, the place where I had intended to fit the fuse box, starter solenoid and the relays. This probably means I will need one of those clever (and expensive) electronic devices that replace fuse boxes and relays etc.
The manufacture of a mold for a CF battery box was started yesterday. Pictures to follow

[350TSS]

The positioning of the regulator/rectifier now also became a concern. Previously I had planned for it to be fitted beneath the RH lower frame tube under the carburetors, attached to the underside of the CF battery tray, but that had to be scrapped when the battery tray will not fit there. I considered putting it under the headlight, nicely in the air stream but the flexing of the wiring around the steering head was a worry.
I ordered a new MOSFET regulator because I did not want to make bracketry for the old one (which as far as I know still works) and then find that it didn’t and then have to upgrade to the MOSFET type with different mounting/cabling arrangements. £37 off flea bay due next week.
My solution I have settled on for the regulator/rectifier mounting will be to make a 6mm aluminium plate to mount it on then hang it upside down on an 8mm steel (but eventually titanium) rod which passes through the bottom yoke via the steering stem and threads into the tope yoke central retaining nut.
I purchased 3 oil filled shouldered bronze bushes (18mm OD x 12mm ID x 12mm long) one to be fitted into the bottom of the steering stem and the other 2 to be machined down to 3 mm long and fitted either side of the 6mm mounting plate. A shouldered and threaded aluminium component will be machined to fit the 12mm bore of the bushes, and threaded onto the 8mm rod and secured with an additional nyloc nut. The theory is that the steering stem will turn but the plate on its phosphor bronze bushing will not. I am pretty sure there will be enough clearance between the bottom of the regulator and the mudguard on full compression of the suspension. The hole down the middle of the steering stem was 17mm so using a battery drill I just opened it out to 18mm for the bottom 12mm and the bronze bush was tapped in. When I get the regulator, I will make the 6mm mounting plate. This solution is the first time that I will be adding weight to the build, it is surprising how heavy an 8mm rod x 235mm long is hence the need to go to titanium. I will make it with steel first to be sure the arrangement will work in practice.

[350TSS]

Last week I also decided to swap the forks from my tired old S4. First, I had to make arrangements to hang the bikes, so the forks and front wheel could be removed. This involved cutting some stout steel to make what look like car rear leaf spring hangers to bolt through the rafters of the garage. I had some 8mm thick by 40mm steel flat left over from a railed fence I made for the house, and, with the trusty angle grinder within 20 minutes I had the requisite 8 pieces 170mm long. I then had to make 16 holes x 8mm. This took hours and hours. On the pillar drill I drilled pilot holes first at 4mm then took them out to 8mm. I had lots of time to ponder what I was doing wrong and what I do not know. The drills were sharpened regularly, they were coming out blunt but not hot or showing any sign of scorching. I use 20k mile fully synthetic sump drainings for lubricating when drilling and machining, was the lubricant too good for cutting? Was the speed too high or too low? An 8mm drill at the outer cutting edge is travelling 25mm per revolution. If you are drilling into a 4mm pilot hole the distance per revolution is effectively half that at least until the drill has effectively countersunk itself. How do you calculate the optimum speed for cutting with a drill, the point of the drill hardly moves at all. The swarf coming off was chipped not that satisfying spiral - why was that? Is there an optimum ratio between pilot size hole and final diameter hole and what is it? I am 65 years old and I do not know any of these things – you get the picture it was bloody boring work.

[350TSS]

With both bikes ratchet strapped to the rafters, the forks legs were out of the M900 in about 10 minutes. Not so the S4, it was used all year round as a commuter winter and summer, every bolt I tried to undo was a nightmare. All the front mudguard bolts the captive nuts are turning in the plastic band, they will have to be drilled out. The rather nice aluminium socket heads that hold the front indicators sheared. I thought it best to soak everything in penetrating oil and leave it until next week.

[350TSS]

[Mr Gazza]

Mate, I know you like to take the path of most resistance, but you could be having an easier time with your mould tool making.

Rigid foams are brilliant for the job and the blue Styrofoam that you have got is one of the best.
Filler is awful as a surface substrate.
Skin your foam over with a layer of fine woven glass cloth in a medium of either, Water Based Polyurethane Varnish or, if it doesn't dissolve the foam, Epoxy.
Polyester resin WILL dissolve the foam.
Skinning with glass cloth will make a unified surface over all the materials in the mould tool.. Foam, ply or whatever. It will add less than a mm to the overall size and retain all the detail.
It also isolates the foam from any solvents that you might apply later, that might be contained in any filler primer or other coatings. You could use epoxy on top of the skin to build a finish, but I think it's rather hard to rub down? I use water based poly varnish with lightweight filler mixed in, to make my own filler primer and it's very easy to rub down indeed.