PROJECT BIKE ME! RACE BIKE PART VI

by Dino

Ready to go...

On dyno

Well we got her all ready for the BEARS meeting at Oran Park.

A couple of late nights at Motorcycle Weaponry's workshop and we had it ready for the dyno.

We strapped it in and fired it up. It purred nicely with a horny note emitting from the three into one Micron Titanium race can.

We got the temp up and were all ready to give it the berries when it stalled.

I pressed the start button again and it just went BRLEERRR and wouldn't start.

Fack.

Knackered battery? We tried several but still no go. It would just roll over once and no more every time I pressed the button.

Me thinks this is not good!

Off came the side cover, on went a big spanner to manually turn the motor over and Oh! Shit! It's really tight!

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Motor's got to come out as Steve suspects big ends.

I pulled it out on the following Friday night and Steve pulled the bottom end off first thing Monday morning while I was there.

Sure as eggs, it was big end, but surprisingly not just one or even two but all bloody three of 'em.

The main bearing shells were perfect and these are all fed from the same oil galleries as the big ends so it's a bit weird as the motor has only done 500km.

If it had been run with no oil pressure after or during the crash it would be highly likely that the mains would show signs of oil starvation but they don't. And this would be highly unlikely on this bike as they come with a tilt switch and won't run when they fall over: a fact which I took into consideration when I bought it.

So this just leaves one real explanation: they were too bloody tight in the first place when they left the factory.

Well anyway the motor was to be blueprinted sooner or later, now it's just going to be sooner.

I will keep you all informed as to the motor development etc.

Until next time

Dino

Crank failing to show signs of wear