Monthly Archives: January 2012

Battery box and shift linkage

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A couplea days ago a friend came by to help me out with the battery box and shift linkage. He’s an Engineer and welder – good combo.

He took them both and worked some magic. Instead of welding the battery box to the frame, he welded on some metal (you have to say “metal” like “MEH-TAL! “)  and tapped a couplea screw holes in there so now it’ll be mounted with screws instead of solid.

Have I mentioned that it’s too early and I’m just starting to drink my coffee?

He extended the shift link by splicing in a piece in the middle. Sweet!

I’ll get these from him tonight, and hopefully put em on tomorrow.

It’s getting closer! I’m excited!
YAY!

Rearsets, calipers, battery boxes… Oh My!

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This past weekend a few friends came over to help me troubleshoot some problem areas I’ve been having with the RD project.

Today’s plan was to figure out how to mount the rear-sets, mount the rear master cylinder, route the rear brake linkage, and make a battery box.

Once we decided on a plan for making the battery box, Mike got right to work cutting up the stock one. This method is not following proper safety precautions. Good thing I’m trained as an EMT.

It needs a little tweaking, but it’s almost there! The plan is to cut at 90° (see purple mark), weld the box to the frame at those tabs, strap the battery in. It’ll be solid in the box, and easy to remove without having to undo the seat.

The tail light mount wasn’t too difficult, but I need a hole saw and a steady hand.

We tried a few different mockups of rear sets. First tried out some FZR ones I have

but we couldn’t get the brake side to work well. And the other ones look cooler anyway. 🙂 Unfortunately, I didn’t get a pic of them mounted with the footpegs. Der.

Took a little break for pizza and some benchracing…

Back to work, the brake side needed some ‘adjustment’

Working on linkage fittment

Another friend showed up later and we took it apart and measured what size new shaft I’ll need to make the shifter work properly. Now I just need someone with a lathe to turn one for me.

This belongs with the rear brake set up. It needs a clean-up.

and the offending master cylinder that has angle issues. Well, maybe it’s not the m/c’s fault. It could be that it’s trying to work with a 250 frame that someone welded a mount to at some point, I guess to work with the 400 swingarm and wheel. Feh.

Project board. The ballpoint ones are from when I temporarily misplaced my Sharpie.

So, onward to make a longer shifter shaft, continue on the quest for a reasonable rear brake setup, find a hole saw, get some welding done. Oh, and I probably need to put a front end on it at some point.

It’s progress and my friends rock!

 

almost imperceptible

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When I was a little girl I could predict earthquakes. It kinda weirded my mom out.  I called it “my radio” I could predict down to the hour or two. I would tell my mom, “there’s going to be an earthquake this afternoon around 3” and more often than not, there would be. Granted, we lived in the Bay Area California where earthquakes aren’t a rarity, but I predicted them with enough consistency that my mom suggested we go to UofC Berkeley and get me and “my radio” checked out. The day after she told me that, I told her that my radio was broken. And it was…until I was 17 and back in Oakland with my dad. Since then, I’ve had a few occurrences of my radio working and it makes me happy when it does. Like visiting with an old friend.

I guess I’ve always been pretty sensitive to my surroundings. I attribute my childhood radio to being tuned in to the normal vibrations that animals are naturally tuned into. This makes sense considering we are also animals. However, we have removed ourselves from nature quite a bit and so don’t usually pick up (consciously at least) on things like that.

I think most of us have the ability to pick up on nearly imperceptible rhythms. We get a “gut feeling” that something is off or something “doesn’t feel right.” Usually we get those feelings with people we are close to – people with whom we have a rhythm already and so when the normal patterns change or shift, we notice them even if we can’t quite put our finger on what it is. We often sense that “something’s not right” feeling when going to buy something like a used car. It’s almost a cliché how common that feeling is for that particular exchange, but if we listen to our gut, we are too often right. Our instincts are strong and if we listen to them, we are rarely steered wrong.