Some blog statistics

Back in 2008 when I started this blog it got about 200 visits per month.
This has slowly climbed and since about October 2011 it has been approx 1200 visits per month.
The best month was February 2012 with 1800 visits that month.

I "monetised" the blog; this placed adverts within it, and as a result I have so far made about USD$13.00
Google doesn't pay out until you get to USD$100.

Blogger Stats Page over all time

Wet Weight of 155kg. Speedo accuracy. 32,000kms

I took a set of scales up to Dave's today to do a full wet weight comparison between his MC18 R5k and my MC18 R6k.

First of all let me define "Full Wet Weight" for a road legal MC18:
1) Full radiator
2) Radiator overflow tank full up to the "Upper" mark
3) Gearbox oil full up to the dipstick
4) Correct amount of oil in the front shocks
5) Full two stroke oil tank
6) Full petrol tank when on the side stand
7) Full brake fluids (negligible)
8) New-ish tyres
9) No tool box under the pillion seat
10) All road legal gear: Rego plate etc. All lights. Horn. Rear view mirrors, and pillion pegs.
11) At least 3mm of wear left on all brake pads
12) All brake discs within wear limits
13) Standard battery. Not a lightweight Lithium-Iron-Phosphate or similar.
14) Kick start and side stand on bike.

Full Wet Weigh-in. R5k vs R6k

Dave's R5k is pretty much bog standard except he has MC21 crankcases and crankshaft which are probably very similar in weight to MC18 R5k.
My R6k has:
Supposedly lighter Chinese ABS fairings
Lighter mufflers that I measured to be 1.5kg lighter than my standard mufflers
Lighter MagTek rims front and rear
Dry clutch
SP front and rear suspension.

It must be noted that despite having a dry clutch and MagTek rims, the SP has more complex front fork internals and a remote reservoir on the rear shock.
The overall result is that a standard R6k is approx 1kg heavier than an R5k according to Honda.

Front Rear Total (R5k from manufacturer)
73kg 76kg 149kg
Front Rear Total  (R6k from manufacturer)
74kg 76kg 150kg

For Dave's R5k we measured:
Front    Rear      Total
79.5kg  77.9kg  157.4kg (8.4kg heavier than Honda's spec)

For my R6k we measured:
Front    Rear      Total
78.9kg 75.9kg 154.8kg (4.8kg heavier than Honda's spec)

That makes my R6k 2.6kg lighter than Dave's R5k.

So, lets add 1.5kg to my R6k weight to allow for standard mufflers.
Then in order for my R6k to be the standard 1kg heavier than Dave's R5k, this would imply that my fairings must be approx 2.1kg lighter than the standard fairings. This sounds about right to me.

The error in the two sets of bathroom scales that we used is probably less than +/- 1kg each.

I would still like to know:
.The actual, real, measured weight difference between my Chinese ABS fairings and standard fairings
.The actual real, measured weight difference between standard wheels and MagTek wheels.


How accurate is the NSR250 speedo?
Well, I find that in 5th gear at 10,000rpm the speedo indicates exactly 150 km/h
Now, with a rear tyre circumference of 2010mm, and standard 15/42 drive sprockets, your actual speed calculates out to be 146 km/h.
So I think that the NSR250 MC18 R5k/R6k speedo is approx 3% optimistic on standard gearing.
190km/h indicated is really about 184km/h

Today I clocked up 32,000kms on the speedo.

Quick Fang

This morning was a nice crisp fine Autumn morning so I thought I'd take the scoot for a quick fang.
I went out in to the shed and adjusted the rear brake lever position, the gear change lever position and lubed up the chain.

I went for a gentle spin up to Dave's. He was not home, but I took the front spark plug out just to see how it would read. The bike is currently on std jetting.

Not a good focus on the insulator but you get the idea.

I also took a few pictures of the bike while I was up at Dave's.

On the way back home from Dave's I gave it a good blast. Now of course, I would never speed on public roads. However, I would imagine just from the general vibe of the bike, that it probably pulls quite well up to about 190 km/h indicated with 16/42 sprockets. And I imagine that it would sound pretty sharp and crisp and have quite a nice bark to it with the free flowing mufflers as well; even though just on standard jetting.

The bike seems to run a bit better every time I ride it. It has only done about 70km in total since I got it going, so maybe the rings are "bedding in" or something.

I only rev'd it out to approx 11,700 rpm max, but it will definitely rev out past that.

I took the plug out when I got home, which is only about 1 minute from the motorway. Not quite a plug chop.

Plug colour after a fast ride.

For road use, I am pretty happy with the color of the plug. I guess it's about time to think about drilling a couple of 20mm holes in the top of the air box.

Overall I am extremely happy with the bike after a quick fang today. I still need to tweak the suspension a little and make other small adjustments, but overall there was a smile on my face today.

Oh, actually there was one thing that I was not super happy with: the handlebars set off into shaking about very easily if I took my hands off the bars.

New front fork fluid. Inlet chamber volumes.

Fork Fluid

When I initially assembled the front forks, about 5 months ago, I re-used the old oil because I was not sure if the fork seals were leaking or not.
I now know, after a few test rides, that the fork seals are sealing fine.
So yesterday I drained the forks of the old oil and left it overnight to drain fully out of the drain plugs.

This morning I put 374ml of the cheapest Automatic Transmission Fluid I could find in each fork.
Note: R6k takes 374ml of fluid (Cartridge), R5k takes 435ml of fluid (Damper Rod).

This stuff cost NZ$13 per litre from "The Warehouse"
"Synthetic Additive Formulation" = fancy stuff,.. NOT

I figure that I will have better suspension (on average) if I use cheap fork oil that I replace often, compared to  using top quality (expensive) oil that I seldom replace. I'm sure that a lot of people will disagree, but I am keen to at least try out the idea.

Inlet chamber

Also, one thing I thought about the other day:
The balance volumes that plug into the top of the reed blocks are different in volumes when the bike is standard.
However, I modified the crankcase volumes to be equal.
So,..  that means that I should probably replace the larger balance volume with a spare smaller balance volume.[edit] see below [/edit]
I have two spare balance volume units so I guess I will do it soon.

Standard inlet chambers with different volumes?

But HOLD ON  a second.

I just bought a syringe from my local rural supplies store for $2 and measured out the two balance volumes using ATF oil. See below:...

NOT what I had expected!

It turns out that the two volumes are close to equal, with only 1cc difference. 34cc and 33cc.

And the smaller looking volume is actually the slightly bigger volume.

So I will just leave them as is. The 1cc difference is possibly due to errors in my measuring anyway.

[edit] Ah,.. a bit of a mistake in my thinking here.
These "balance volumes" are actually just upstream of the reeds, so do NOT form part of the crankcase volume.
These volumes are sometimes blocked off in race bikes as they mainly affect low to mid-range I believe. [/edit]

Emulsion tube upper section missing

I have known for a little while now that something is wrong with my pair of carburetors.
I have been using Paul's set of carbies just to get me going.
Today I pulled Paul's carbs off my bike and did a side by side comparison to see if I could spot any differences.
I did spot a difference.
My carbs are missing the brass inset that goes on top of the emulsion tubes and sticks up into the main throttle body by about 6mm. Maybe this could be called a "needle shroud"?

As it happens, I have a fair few spare carby bits lying around, and that includes a couple of these brass emulsion tube uppers.
I will put them in and re-assemble, and hopefully the carbs will be fine.
Fingers crossed.

6:30pm
I have re-assembled everything and gone for about a 20km spin up the road.
Basically the carburation seems to have come right with the emulsion tube uppers in place.
So the bike is now basically finished and all the parts are my own.

I will need to make some tuning adjustments to get the bike running really well.
Maybe jetting and a bit of timing with an offset woodruff key?
This will happen when I get in the mood. Coming into winter, it's not ideal timing.

As it is, the bike revs out to about 11,200 rpm before it starts to sign off.
There doesn't really seem to be a strong hit around the 7,500- 8,000 rpm mark either which seems a bit odd.

So the bike is now running OK and is made up entirely of parts that are owned by myself.
I could easily do the paperwork and pay the money and have the bike road legal tomorrow.
I won't though as it is almost winter.

But basically, apart from a bunch of minor stuff that may never get completed,.. the bike is finally completed.
2 years, 11 months and 8 days. Let's call it 3 years.

However, the bike may be completed, but the "project" is not.
I still need to play around with the ignition advance and the jetting and get a dyno run graph posted up.