Former Race Buells hiding under tarps?

[ztied]

Try jingling the key in the ignition, when it happens. I did the mod with a digital voltage meter in the dash, so every now and then I will loose all voltage for a few seconds, and jingling the key helps. There were some issues on the ignition switch doing that, You can take apart the end of the key switch and clean the contacts, and resolder the wires.
Like I said may or may not help. Good luck

 

[Outlaw]

Never half-ass anything. Whole-ass everything....Ron Swanson

 

[Kurlon]

So... yeah... today went well until it didn't. Crashed at the track day, went in hot and ran out of talent, aka my brain tried to brain at the wrong time. Details later, gotta sleep, unload tomorrow and fully diag to assess the damage.

 

[njloco]

The bike you can always fix, ask me how I know. How are you doing, besides probably being a bit soar and a dented pride ?

 

[Tollywood]

Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that. Good luck.

 

[Kurlon]

I'm fine, other than a severely underinflated ego.

I'm going to start unloading in a bit, but from the quick walk around I did at the track:

- Aftermarket windshield trashed
- Left mirror trashed
- Left turn signal trashed
- Left front cowl housing busted
- Clutch perch rotated, possibly trashed
- Left heated grip torn
- Shift knucle busted
- Shift linkage busted
- Left rider's peg busted
- Left peg bracket busted
- Left frame protector gone, slight rash and dent under where it went



The upside, the whole reason I got into that mess is the bike felt GOOD right out of the crate. The best way I can describe it is like a big, heavy, wide, no ground clearance version of my KTM500 XC W in motard setup. Even on the Shinko 80/20 dual sport tires the bike WANTED to play, but I ran out of ground clearance almost immediately. I knew this, it was in the back of my head, but new track, didn't have the line down yet and I got some clear space with no one to reference off of and I forgot the ground clearance issue, pitched in hard based on the bike's feedback saying we're all good and then things unraveled quick. I thought I could get away with mid corner corrections my KTM allows, not on a 400lb about to ground out beast. 15 year old suspension and it wasn't pogoing, noticeable brake dive but manageable and it was composed while doing so, the bike handled great at the modest pace I was asking of it. The potential is very clearly there. If the bike hadn't talked to me like a setup motard I would have been content track daying around. Instead it was saying to go deeper, that poor Shinko rear was starting to want to drift on the exit onto the front straight but otherwise they were hanging in there.

 

[njloco]

Glad to hear your o.k. Seems like you need a lot of the parts I need except I have no electrical parts left up front, the gauge cluster along with everything else got ripped out, just wire and some connectors left. Oddly though the headlights were just hanging they survived.

I got no warning, once I realized I was scrapping next thing I was off onto the bush, still can't remember exactly what happened. Once I am able to ride, I'll go back over there and see if that sparks my memory.

 

[Kurlon]

So, I actually remember this crash fully, including thinking "This is going to wash the front and trigger a low side" before it happened. If my brain had just stayed off for a bit, I would have made the corner I bet.

 

[njloco]

Since you remember it, you'll be able to learn from it, which is a good thing.

 

[34nineteen]

Ooof, sorry to hear about the crash. Glad to know you are doing OK.

Thats why you should never follow my advice. Last season, my little R3 and I went off track more times than I can remember. Luckily, I never went down.

 

[Kurlon]

While I would have loved to put Woodcraft rearsets on, they haven't had stock for a looooong time and have no plans to do another run, so... cheap chinese it is 'cause that's what's out there. Same design sold by 4 bazillion vendors on eBay for $100 to $150, on Amazon they run $200+, etc. Same bits, every color anodized under the sun.

The good - The mount holes line up, they nestle into the frame pocket properly. And did I mention CHEAP via eBay?

The questionable - No mounting hardware included, they expect you to reuse many OEM bolts, some of which will be too short now because of changes in the rearset vs OEM bracket. For those paying attention, the bolts holding the peg brackets on are Grade 8 so not as easy to find at the local hardware store. There are a few spots where they use loose nuts on things, and only supply regular nuts, not self lockers like vibranuts. The good news is it's standard metric hardware. Yeah, metric, you get to have both a metric AND SAE toolkit out to work on these, it takes three different allen keys to swing the rearset between it's three different positions, fun.

The bad - Clearly no one actually RODE this kit after it was drawn up and put into mass production. The OEM brackets have some thickness to them, and decently long pegs. These pegs are comically short, and on thin plate brackets that don't kick out, you end up with pegs that don't stick as far out as the toe peg on the shifter and brake lever. Left side is the problem as less than half the peg is unusable because of the primary cover bulge. Making it worse, the brake lever setup has it's clevis pin replacement sticking too far out, tighten the lever pivot down and the brake rod is cocked inward and wants to bind as a result. Space out the lever with a longer pivot bolt and washers and again, lever assembly is comically sticking out compared to the pegs, though hey, no binding now! Back to the shifter side, the shifter is longer than OEM, even in it's 'shortest' adjustment, so my size 9 wee feet, with everything adjusted for maximum room still finds the lever too close to the peg.

I'm going to see about chasing down a set of OEM Firebolt peg brackets, and also see about finding longer generic M8 bolt pegs to adapt to this setup, as well as seeing if I can talk someone into re-machining a couple bits to fix the flaws.

 

[Outlaw]

Wow. Sounds like you could use some cheese with your whine

 

[Kurlon]

Would you prefer I go full influencer?

What’s up Internet? It’s ya boi Kurlon here with choo bringing ya another thrilling product review. But before I get to the hot deetz, be sure to hit that like button and ring that bell so you get notified every time new content is posted! Now, as promised, the killer add on that will lower your lap times, improve your bike’s looks and guarantee you get all the ladies or guys you can handle in your bed every night when the ride is over…

 

[Outlaw]

That's more like it. Get it all out.

 

[Barrett]

That's more like it. Get it all out.

Hey Josh: That cracks me up. How's your summer going? That Chinese gold colored festoonery is absolutely hideous.

 

[Kurlon]

You don't think the gold brings out the character in the bike, meshing in with all the other non-existing gold highlights? Racer planning 101, there are three attributes one can search for in an item, Cheap, Quick and Good. You're allowed to pick two, and oh, you're always in a hurry so Quick was picked for you, choose one more. Good not available? Guess Cheap and Quick it is... and enjoy the results. I couldn't find any real reviews, one builder mentioned they looked like potentially viable alternatives to the long since gone Woodcrafts, so I figured I'd give them a go, picking the cheapest color available 'cause as a racer, ugly is visible and visibility for my 'fans and sponsors' is good. Looking sharp doesn't lower my lap times, right? I actually had a friend refuse to sell me a helmet once, nice Shoei lid, top SHARP rating, that had a pink butterfly motif on it and it just sat on the shelf for a year. They needed room for new inventory so it was discounted heavily, it was a good fit on my head and I liked that model so yup, I'll take it. She couldn't believe that I'd wear that helmet, in public, on purpose so instead discounted a boring grey one.

How's my summer? Stress levels are at maximum, I'm running on overdrive 24/7 between work and this foolish idea of trying to go national racing on no budget with a near 'antique' bike that is still in full OEM street config and no timeframe to properly develop it. Oh, and did I mention the 4k mile round trip, trailer that's too small, etc?

Some day, remind me to show some of my prior projects, like my 1992 Yamaha WR250ZD, or my old FZR400, or my CRF70 that I did track days on...

In short, I'm in my mostly happy place with a project to chase, just gotta get past the rough patches as they come up, and ignore the purchases that don't pan out as R&D.

 

[Barrett]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Outlaw is Josh from Maryland and a good friend of mine. I apologize for any confusion. I'm glad to hear your summer is going well and sorry to have read about your racetrack crash.

 

[Outlaw]

Doing good John. Hot and humid here in the land of liberals. But doing well. Hope things are going great for you too.

 

[Kurlon]

I think the 'fix' for the right side rearset is going to be a KTM dirtbike brake master. Brembo unit, 40mm mount spacing as per OEM, 13mm piston instead of 1/2in, so in the right planetary system, integrated resi so I can ditch the OEM resi and hose, and the kicker, shorter pushrod with a clevis end suitable for bolting to the replacement brake lever. Question now is do I take one off of my two KTM race bikes to test, or try to find one elsewhere...

 

[Cooter]

It takes a tiny 11mm M/C bore to get any brake feel using the stock rear caliper. Brembo part #10477650 has the correct output placement and will bolt on and you can do the cool-racer-guy-clear-tube-thing for a 'reservoir'.