Roxy II: Yellow Tint

 

 

Got a $6 roll of unbranded yellow tint material at Amazon.  Tested it out on the old can't-change-the-bulb headlight.  Pretty fiddly procedure and couldn't really get it very smooth.

But tried it the following day on Roxy's actual light and found the glass was much flatter so made application a lot easier (or maybe I'd just gotten the hang of it).  Came out looking way better than I'd been expecting...

 

Roxy: Stymied Left and Right

Getting stymied from every angle today.

Detaching the switches and getting the old handlebars off went smoothly.

Put on the new black bars and was looking for a comfortable position, though never quite felt 100% right.

Went to cut off the left side and after doing way more turns with the Ridgid than usual, realized that the metal was way too thick for the cutter!  Was already bottoming out against the tool before it had cut all the way through.

Left that to simmer and went to start the bike using the new throttle cable and setup and she would not hold idle!  Classic symptoms of being way too rich: had to dial out the idle and air screw way, way out just to barely keep her running.

So bizarre since really nothing on the carb should have changed as I'd only swapped in a different cable.  So tried swapping back to the old cable to test and still had the same issue.  The Sheng had been running fine just the day before!

Saw heavy white vapor coming out of the throttle cap and air intake side whenever the engine died, again confirming a rich mix.

 

 

Roxy: Venhill Throttle Cable #3

Did up a new Venhill cable for Roxy's bars.  This time just used the tiny ball nipple instead of taking the trouble to open up the hole on the lever.

Melted the solder directly over the bird's nest and just worked it in with the tip of the iron.

Venhill notes in Volume 3, page 73.

 

 

Roxy: New Headlight Installed

Was worried that it would be tough to get Roxy's bridge off, but realized that when I'd had that issue in the past it was probably due to the axle nut being tight and the forks causing too much tension in the bridge.

With the axle nut loosened, the bridge popped right out, no problem.

Got the old wiring out and fitted the new light just as I'd tested it on Evie.

Cleaned up the old wiring, added labels, swapped out to Waco connectors as needed.

Tested and everything working as expected!

 

 

Roxy: Headlight Wiring

Got new shorter black mounts, but the width of the mounting points is too wide for the forks.

But found that by using smaller 8mm bolts (instead of 10mm) it gives the mounts enough room to bend diagonally inwards so that the light can mount.

Also has the benefit of creating a tension (as both mounts push outward) that can actually hold the light in place even without the outer bracket.

So the outer bracket becomes just an extra measure of securing instead of the only thing holding it up.

 

 

Roxy: New Headlight

Testing the new Dime City 6-1/4" headlight on Evie, looking to replace Roxy's stock.

Got the wrong mounts - AGAIN!  They are way too long and extend out too far...

 

 

Ivy: Motone Shift

Ivy gets her own Motone shift.  In retrospect,  maybe should have gone for black again, but looks decent enough.  And the actual feel of shifting is excellent.

Red: DIY Camshaft Pin #2

Red started and ran for 10 seconds before dying.  Wouldn't restart.  Good spark but not even a cough. 

On inspection, discovered the DIY camshaft pin for the race cam had come out and the advance was not aligned.

Cut a new longer, thicker pin and she started right up.

Red: DRATV Race Cam

Second try installing the race cam.

Slowly but surely determined that the thick end (the end toward the cam sprocket) was the part binding up on the head.

Ended up filing it down little by little until I was able to get it installed easily with no rubbing.

Red: Race Cam Pin

DRATV race cam doesn't take a stock advance pin, but followed a Yahoo Group suggestion (from Bill, actually) to just cut down a finish nail.  The "10d" size just needed a bit of filing down to fit for diameter.  Then just need to Dremel the length.

Evie: Straight Pipe

As suspected, the straight pipe fits the Early head.

Ivy: New Bars

Swapped the bars over to the new Euro setup.

Went smoothly but realized that the old mirrors looked horrible on the new bars.  Couldn't really get anything to work that looked good and showed enough of the rear view.  Finally left just the right side on so I at least have something. But ordered some bar end mirrors from Dime City right off.

Ivy: Custom Throttle 2

Built out the second Venhill throttle cable.  Pretty much the same drill as last time except I used a leftover length of outer shroud that was already sitting there.  It was 63cm (the first one was 70cm) but I knew that I should have made the first one shorter anyway.

Used the trick of putting a little piece of solder into the birds nest and then melting it in place.  Worked fine and a lot cleaner than the soldering pot.

Went to install it into the throttle only to discover that the opening for the ferrule was just way too small.  Either that or I needed to be using a different sized ferrule than last time.  But given I had so many of this size, figured I'd just open up the hole.

Used the Dremel to slowly work the hole open but must have taken an hour to just work it big enough to comfortably fit the ferrule.

Euro Bars II

Put together a copy of the Euro bars on Red.  Testing doing the custom Venhill cable using the soldering iron instead of the pot. Seems to work but had to insert a small piece of solder into the bird's nest as the cable itself never seems to get hot enough to melt the solder on its own.