Brad The Bike Boy: March 2013

Monday, March 25, 2013

Adjustable cam pullies for Ducati

.
I received some adjustable cam pullies today from MADASL in the UK. I had sent Mark all the original pullies I could find that came from the days when we fitted the Vee Two adjustable pullies. Mark modifies them to make them adjustable, which suits my love of recycling just fine.

I have 16 in total, 2 round tooth aluminium (originally 916/996SPS), 10 round tooth steel and 4 square tooth steel (pre 98 400, 500, 600, 650 and 750).

The thing I really like about them is that, unlike the Vee Two pullies, you can drill holes through them to fix settings. I did this to a pair of Vee Two ones years ago for the 750 motor in Minnie, but because they have lightening holes in the back section, drilling them usually leads into air. I drilled a lot of holes to get two that were usable. These MADASL pullies have a solid section between the slots on the toothed section and the centre piece is solid. So you can fix a setting, drill a hole, then fix another setting and drill again. Up to 4 times. Woo hoo. Well, if you want to play with timing on the dyno, track or anywhere else anyway.

Prices per pair, including GST and postage Australia wide: round tooth aluminium $200, round tooth steel $170, square tooth steel $170.
.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Acewell dash mount plate for Ducati Monster

.
I recently fitted an Acewell ACE-3963 dash to a 2005 M400ie, and as part of the install had some mounting plates cut. I got 10 for my minimum design and set up charge, so have 9 left to try to recoup a little of the money the job cost me. I'll detail the drama later.

They're laser cut from stainless steel plate, with hole spacing to suit both early and late Monsters. The early carb models will need the holes enlarged, currently they're 5mm to suit the ie model mountings. $40 each as is. I really don't want to invest any more time in them, so they're flat and raw. As fitted, the last one was bent and polished.

The 851

The 400SS

I bought this 400SS (genuine 93 model Australian delivery! Woo hoo huh.) after seeing it in Ebay for what was possibly an good price. As ever, good was too good to be true. Badly repaired and rusted out fuel tank, badly repainted side panels, lots of km (83,000 of the bastards), etc. You know, the usual. Purchased in October 2012, as of now (Jan 2014) I've nearly finished a major service. The cam timing is done with some of the Madasl adjustable pullies that have been drilled in 4 different settings for easy dyno testing. And I have some 900 headers to try a 40mm dual exhaust set up on it (ala M400). Not a great deal of progress for 15 months, so it's taking on a long term feel. There's an F1 endurance style seat base (more taper at the rear) and front fairing sitting around, which will require frame mods to fit. It's a bit of a mental sticking point as this time. But hey, it's not like I can devalue it much more.

The Mighty KR1S 250

How it looked the rainy night someone came to take it away. Painted all black when I bought it, at some point later I realised i could rub the black off and have much of the original colour scheme underneath. Although the main fairing was originally from a red KR1 I think, and definitely badly repaired more than once, so it stayed black. And the tail panel shown was bought to replace the one I smashed the only time I crashed it and the last time I rode it at a Sandown track day. A sensational little bike, holed pistons and frequently failing stator windings aside. The first bike I rode on a race track and the first bike I had my knee down on. And a great commuter too I found. It's sometimes nice to have a bike that won't wheelie past the city speed limit in first gear.