riversbikes

Wilson could pass for, like 57, tops.

It is a small world. My wife was born and raised in Swan River, near the majestic Duck "Mountains". Did you go to the Benito Demolition Derby, or the Kamsack "Kam Jam"? How about the Northwest Roundup?

Like my buddy Wilson, the Blandit is nearly ready for the first race weekend. However he has the luxury of a heated garage, so I haven't fired mine up as yet. Most importantly race numbers are on and motogp=spec reservoir sock has been sourced. He also has my "winged hammer" stickers...

I had covered some of this on another forum subsection, but since I'm now an "official" Winged Hammer, I'll summarize here: At time of purchase -- written off, purchased for $700 CAD, plus gas and lunch for my buddy Wilson who went into Winnipeg with me (400km round trip). 12,000 km on the clock, not bad for a 1996 model. Original Plan: Hacksaw comes out: Frame bracing begins: Subframe construction: Trial fitting v.1 bodywork: V.1 exhaust: Pepo-ish headlight -- although mine needs to pass government inspection, so actually has to have hi/lo beam, etc: Reassembly after frame finish-welded and powdercoated. Swingarm bobbins tig-welded to swingarm: Version 1 (street) "finished", but what followed was the summer of 2017 trying to get the bike to fuel properly on stock carbs: Fast forward, winter of 2017-18 I gave up and bought some Mikuni 38mm carbs. Ran almost perfect from the start. Also decided that another expensive to insure streetbike made no sense, so why not race it. Street bodywork removed, race bodywork sourced: Track test: Blown fork seals... Track-modified bellypan: Winter 2018-19 update: GSXR1100 forks rebuilt, with new seals, springs, and rechromed tubes. Penske shock from my street triple modified to suit the big bandit. Galespeed wheels sourced and fitted. Suzuki branded brake resevoir sock fitted.

Thanks -- this is the information I was looking for. Won't do it!

This is what I was referring to. Already have a larger oil cooler fitted. Yay or nay?

Considering buying a top end oiling kit for my track/race Bandit 1200. Something from Holeshot performance on this side of the pond... question though -- is it necessary? The bike will be run 5-6 weekends a year, with the odd weekend as "hot" -- 30+ degrees C. Track sessions are between 20-30 minutes long, and aside from a stint during an endurance race of at the most, 40-45 minutes, the bike won't be ridden hard for any great length of time. I already have an aftermarket oil cooler installed, and the bike is otherwise stock aside from carbs and exhaust. I like the idea of extra lubrication where needed as a preventative measure, but as usual the interweb opinions are divided on whether the modification is useful on even highly tuned engines. Thoughts???

At the current exchange rate that's about 350 pounds! It only had 12,000 km on it when I got my hands on it. Carbs were toast... that's a lot of years with ethanol rotting everything, and helped justify the carb swap!

You can see by this pic that the GPR muffler results in a pretty loud bike -- although its a race bike, the sound is tinny and annoying. For $50 murican on the bay of E, i found this: With a bit of tweaking it fitted a treat. The same overall length of the GPR, but I'm hoping the larger volume of the muffler itself will change the tone and quieten it down somewhat. I made some progress with the Galespeed wheels -- the rear required a custom rear rotor, which I got Kayla from Projection Components to do up for me, at a fraction of the cost ISR quoted me. Front ready to be fitted with race tires in about 4 months time... c'mon spring!

An email from a buddy -- been trying to get him to join this forum but he's a bit of a luddite. Aside from compression, or perhaps a timing issue, or way too much fuel to 1 cylinder, I'm stumped -- any ideas?: The #1 cylinder on my GSXR is not firing. It is getting fuel because the plug is wet.The spark plug is sparking.The coil’s primary and secondary resistance are within spec. Looking at the top of the piston through the spark plug hole it appears black and wet.Now that I write this it is pointing ominously toward low or no compression. I cannot test the compression because my compression tester does not have a small enough end to screw into the plug hole. Annoyingly, the bike ran well last fall. What could have happened while it sat in the garage for a few months? What do you think?

It was the rear brake disc -- Micheala from Projection Components over there in Blighty is going to help me out.

Hey all, scored a good deal on some Galespeed type C wheels for the bandit racer. I am a bit stumped at the rear rotor -- it didn;t come with one, and the stock suzuki rotor doesn't. What I need is a rotor with a 80mm bore, 240mm OD, and 100mm bolt circumfrence (if that make sense). And it also is a 5-bolt, like the suzuki. The stock suzuki comes with a 240mm OD, 89mm bore, and what looks to be approx 105mm bolt circumference. Can anyone help? I have looked through the galfer website and no other make/model has similar specs. Galespeed did sell their own rear floating rotors, but I can't seem to finds some specs and dimensions online...

Hey fellow hoser, where are you located. I can offer no other advice other than typical polite Canadian encouragement. Thanks, and sorry.

I was able to adapt the Penske shock from my Street Triple 675 to the Bandit with a change of lower eyelet to clevis. Result! Should work well with the upgraded front end!

The August round at my local track took place this past weekend. The plan was to run in the Blandit during the trackday session to see if everything works as it should. As you can imagine, some things did and some things didn't. It certainly got lots of looks and compliments in the paddock. It is by far the oldest machine at the track. First off, I need to do some work on the bellypan -- early on, as soon as I got my knee down as the pace picked up, I started sanding fibreglass! It is towards the front end of the bike, so I'll need to modify it to allow the bike to corner without dragging things. This would point to the forks, and there was certainly a problem there as well... Coming in from the second session a few riders mentioned that they noticed a bit of blue smoking coming off the bike entering the final turn -- towards the end of the same session I noticed that the brakes seemed to lose some effectiveness... it became obvious what the problem was -- the seal failed, forcing the dust wiper out of its location, and oil was misting back over the engine onto the brake caliper as well as the hot exhaust. With no way to fix it, I had to park the bike for the day. You can see where the male fork tube has worn away -- I was aware of this, but hoped it would still be OK for one day on the track -- it was not to be, and the opposite fork tube was also sweating oil. It looks like new stantions are in order (as rechroming really isn't an option 'round these parts). They'll be shipped off to racetech to be serviced. It was a gamble, and in hindsight not the right move, but all racing is a risk. I did drop 3 seconds a lap from the first to the second session, so I really feel that serviced suspension will yield a lot more control and better lap times, and of course, more fun. Thankfully a buddy let me take his SV650 out for a session, so the financial pain of paying for a day's track time and only going out 3 times hurt a bit less.

Took a punt on a BMW S1000rr shock for the Bandit... it fits other oil boilers, so I thought I'd give it a try. At 315mm eyelet to eyelet, I thought it would be close... but its a no-go. The lower knuckle fouls on the frame as it pivots down to accept the length of the shock (not sure I'm making myself clear). Too bad, as it does not require spacers for the dogbones due to the spring width, and its triple adjustable. I might consider getting it shortened based on the price/cost for labour... Just thought I'd let others know.

Locktite red, blue, or green when I reinstall?

Ah, good to know, Foz. Same tourque spec with the new one, or a revised setting?

As frustrated as I was with the fact that the recently-rebuilt FOX shock wouldn't work on the Bandit, I think I got lucky yesterday. I moved to installing the NRC engine covers, doing the RHS first, as I had a spare new gasket ready to go. Once mounted, I removed the LHS and planned to check to make sure everything was kosher by turning the engine over using the starter clutch bolt. I found the suitable 17mm socket, started to turn the engine over, and suddenly realized it was basically on finger tight!! With only 12,000 km on the engine when I bought it, I couldn't see anyone having done anything to the bottom end. I removed the bolt to inspect and found the threads mullered up close to the head of the bolt as pictured. It isn't a glob of loctite, as the wire wheel won't remove it. At $7.50 a new bolt is good piece of mind, and the manual calls for 150 nm (110 lb/ft) of tourque to tighten it. I can only imagine the potential carnage had the bolt backed itself off fully, either while it was being dynoed or later on while it was being abused on the track. Might be worth checking on your bikes when you get a chance, or right away if you are bored.

Yup that's me!

I was thinking close to 450 -- considering the weight of the bike stock... Although the rear subframe is a lot lighter, and the bodywork is also much lighter. I did google the "bathroom scale weighing technique" and it did come back as a decently accurate way to weigh a bike...

A bunch of work has been done since I last checked in. The bike went to the dyno, and the result was 112 hp and 78 lbs/ft of torque. Not sure if that is particularly high or low, but it is more than stock, and most importantly, the AFR was nearly perfect when we decided to call it a day. The main jet could likely go down one more size (has 132.5s in it), but only at max rpm did it start to go a bit rich. I still need to put on the NRC sidecovers and install the FOX shock that I got rebuilt by racetech. The forks I did myself, but I'm worried that some simple wear at a certain part of the sliders means that even with new seals, it might be sweating a bit of oil... when I inspected the forks, there was no pitting or nicks, but some discoloration right where the sliders and seals spend 80% of their time. Perhaps new ones might be in order, or maybe some rechroming. I did the bathroom scale weigh method, and I'm shocked by the results, in fact I honestly don't believe it... scale under the front wheel netted 214 lbs, and under the rear, 201. So 415 pounds? Can't be!

Some more progress... I tried to fab a bellypan from a leftover lower I had lying around but gave up as it looked like shite and was too long. I ended up buying a gimbel bellypan from Eblag Germany. Quick shipping to me in Canada, and with a little work it fits well. I do need to trim a few sections to clear the pipe (its aftermarket, so that makes sense), and fabricate a rear "dam" to ensure that if the engine does puke its guts out, it will remain in the lower. I've also properly fitter the say what now!? upper. I used a stock upper fairing stay, and then fabbed side mounted brackets out of aluminum, and knitted it all together with dzus fasteners. So the sidepanels come off with 5 dzus, and the upper with 4 m6 bolts. In all, steady and solid... don't want things flapping in the breeze. I'm also happy with the cockpit -- the frando brake and clutch resevoirs have been moved a bit, and I was able to wire up the gsxr1100 tach on the first try. There are 2 idiot lights as well, red for oil pressure and blue for neutral.... and they work as well. The grey foam on the aluminum dash is temporary. I'm going to do it over with black foam which covers the entire plate, with cut outs for the lights and the mounting bolts. I've since sandblasted the front fairing stay and have primed it in metal etching primer. I have also cut out the front "intakes to nowhere" in the upper fairing, which I will 'glass over for better aerodynamics. Note the wooden pedal plane Harvard in the background. Two students and I built it this winter, and we are going to donate it to the local Commonwealth Air Training Plan museum once the decals have been made. It'll be an exact replica of the flying Harvard the museum currently has.

You will need push-pull throttles for sure. I used an off the shelf set from Motion Pro that worked perfectly. Set the floats at 17mm (they are all out), and follow the jetting guide included the manual. It's a good baseline.