Decisions, Decisions

Geoff's website seems to be down at the mo'.

I asked him about exhaust systems for the SR, 3-4 weeks ago. Here's his reply - a few pics and '06 price list:

home.swiftdsl.com.au/~lemonct/GMC_e-mail.pdf

He makes some nice gear for trailies, but his exhausts may be a bit loud for road use!

Anyway, nice to know there's another thumper enthusiast out there making nice gear for XT's & TT's!

Rgdz
CL

Please do! So is the benefit of the Husky frame mainly weight reduction? Rigidity? Have to fab an oil tank I presume. Any details most welomce. Thanks!

You raced in Pirie?
I probably watched you!
Used to call it Scrambles then, not Motocross.
Track still there.
1/2 mile track sort of still there, too. Now has lots of piles of dirt so people can do that whacko stadium cross stuff. That looks awesome, but noooo way would I try to do it.
Mick

I never raced the beast at Pirie, Mallala and ACUSA Park were the only two tracks that I ran it at In SA in 1980, I lived in Broken Hill at the time. so only made the trip down a few times. I rode the Husky (390 Auto Mx) that I used to build it from at Crystal Brook, Clarendon and Clare (oh, that leap into the Quarry was scary) a few time in 78 and 79.

I used the 78 Husky frame because, even though the 390 Auto was a great bike to ride it, it was only really competetive on a muddy track were it gave great traction.

I used to swap the engine out of the SR chassis on the friday night, drive down to SA for the racing on the saturday, race on sunday, drive home that night then put the engine back into the SR chassis on moday night for the few week unit I repeated the whole thing for the mext MX meeting.

I used to carry spare valves in my tool box at the time, because if I over reved it, it would touch the inlet valve to the piston and bend the valve. Used to attract a lot of attention just ride a 4-stroke in those days, let alone doing a top end job in the pits between races.

The cam that I ran then and still use now is a WEB 88A grind, it actually came out of one of Dave Bashams old race bike that a freind in BH bought off of Dave. Most of the engine performance work was based on Dave's race engine, ie 11:1 piston, flow job by the same company (Port Performance in Adelaide) 38mm Mikuni jetted for methanol (it was legal in mx back then) etc.

When I get some time I will put together a summary of the mod done to this engine.

You've nearly inspired me to go the custom mofifications route.
However, after some consideration I've decided I want an everyday road registered dirt bike, so I'm going to do a quicky tidy up on my XT.
Here's the plan and progress so far:

Cleaned all the crappy black paint off the carby, and gave it a service. Bike might run allright now I've cleaned all the emulsion holes out in that bit of tube the main jet screws into.

Engine out on shed floor at the moment, all the old spray can paint job has been removed, took a whole weekend to get the old crud off. Funny how the spray can stuff fell off when I hit it with the paint stripper, but the original yammy paint put up a good fight.
Considered polished alloy finish, but couldn't get motivated to spend that much time. Settled for Pot Belly Black stove paint sprayed on. Don't laugh, several rather fussy bikers up here reckon it craps all over high temp engine paint for adhesion and looks.
Hopefully the stripper didn't bugger up any engine seals.

Also managed to blow off the bit of tape I put over one of the breather holes when I was pressure washing the engine. Didn't notice for a while. It was that little elbow fitting very close to the clutch lever just behind the barrel. Has a hose on it that goes back behind the motor on the SR, but terminates up iin the air in the frame on the XT.
Anyone know which bit of the motor it vents? I took the bottom plate off the engine, where the oil screen lives, no water present in there, so hopefully no damage done.
In anycase I know guys who have managed to ride these things into creeks and dams without stuffing the engine, so I guess she'll be right.
Finally laid hands on the original back mudguard during the week. Stripped to bare metal, filled the dings with two pack expoxy filler, stronger than normal bog, with the added bonus that I already had some, but a bugger to sand.
Painting guard nearly finished. Gave the guard a dose of phosphoric acid to convert the rust, then a coat of zinc based grey primer.
Scored a brand new aftermarket muffler off Ebay, well I've paid my money, just waiting for the muffler to show up in the post. $160 inc freight, which is exactly half what the local bike shop wants for the same item.
Won't be wasting my time trying to clean up the rusty handlebars. New ones start at $19 at the bike shop.
Probably will throw the airbox away. looking fairly cheap to get a couple of small slip on air filters from Autopro.
One engine mount plate and the bash plate are alloy, so I polished them.
Tank is alloy but has several smallish dents. Needs a half inch split in the seam welded up. Considering bogging up the dents and painting the whole tank.

Side covers are good, one is actually brand new.
Things going well. The missus reckons the lawn needs a mow and the gutters are blocked, but the bike's looking good so far.
I'm determined not to let this one end up an unfinished project sold for half what I spend on it.

If anyone in Oz has a front brake lever that is straight and has a working brake light switch, please let me know.

MIck

Progress report on the build up.
* Frame stripped to bare metal, wire brushed with wire wheel in electric drill, primed with high zinc primer, top coated with black enamel. Ain't they fiddly to paint?
* Triple clamps stripped of all paint with wire wheel back to nice clean alloy.
* Took head stem apart and washed out all the water and mud with turps. Greased and reassembled. If I was going concours, it'd get all new bearings, but I put that on the list for later on.
* Forks wire wheeled back to clean alloy.
* Hubs stripped of paint with paint stripper and wire wheel. Wheels are not all that good condition, and very difficult to get right into the centre of the hubs. I reckon I could make the original rims look a lot better if I was prepare to polish off the original gold anodising and settle for polished alloy. What do you guys reckon?
*Tightened the spokes. Wheel bearings and seals seem OK, and not that difficult to deal with later, so I left them for now.
* Had a go at polishing the carby with a homemade mop wheel and Autosol metal polish. Bowl came up nice, rest of carb very hard to get at.
* Still considering whether to polish the other alloy bits or just go with the nice clean brushed alloy look. Will not repaint anything that has been stripped back to bare alloy.
* Since a respoke has been ruled out, (time and cost, because if I repoked them, I'd consider it a waste not to do new rims as well) I will settled for wire brushing 25 years worth of crud off them.
* Got new YZ handle bars, about 1.5" narrower than stock and about 1.5" lower than stock, new mirrors and new right hand brake assembly for Christmas. All light weight after market stuff. Amazing what $49 will buy you. I remarked to my mate that the handbrake assembly in particular looks a bit flimsy compared to original, but he seemed to think it was fine. I sort of felt obligated to take it, because the dealer ordered it in specially, and sold it to me for $20. Won't throw out original mount just yet in case I find I need it. Mirrors are both right hand thread, due to after market brake assembly being right hand thread. Chose black ones with XR written on them. Probably meant for XR Honda, but who cares - its aftermarket anyway.
* Stripped and painted lots of fiddly bits - footpegs, shocks, headlight brackets, indicator brackets, engine mounts, etc.
* Scored two good front indicators out of my mates shed. Will use them as "shorties" on the back, instead of the original extra long rubber mounted jobbies.
* Mowed the lawn and got the eldest kid up on the roof cleaning gutters, so the missus is still talking to me. Shoulda had him mow the lawn too, but the mower is being difficult to start lately.

Mick