Brad The Bike Boy: More Minnie fun

Sunday, March 20, 2016

More Minnie fun

I rode Minnie out to see Rob at Guzzi Spares the other day. I figured the 35 or so km to Cranbourne would be a good shakedown (if indeed shaking was required) and otherwise close enough to good help at either end to be safe. I hadn't been to see Rob's new workshop before, and, feeling like a slack friend, took the chance when I had it.

However, she has been running very well. I currently don't have a tacho fitted, but there seems to be a bit of a harsher patch around 4,500 rpm I'm guessing. Either side of that and it's good.

I did check the idle mixture again after the ride. She's done 100km now since the recommission, and I had put some of the Wurth fuel system cleaner (it's really good gear) in the tank to see if there was anything in the carbs from the 4 or 5 years of sitting on the shelf. When I first got her running the screws were either side of 4 turns out for 5 ish % CO. Now they're back to either side of 2 turns out, where I'd expect them to be for a 400. She still starts and revs from cold without choke, which seems a bit unrealistic to me. But I did go through the carbs (original M600 from 1997, which are the same as the 400 from 99 onwards) and all jetting is spec.

The gearing is still making me laugh, but it has also given me a bit more perspective on ratio spread. Maybe it's just the little engine thing amplifying stuff too. Parts of the freeway that used to be gentle rises are now hills. And, once climbed, the speed increase on the downhill is really noticeable.

The table below shows the gearing, compared to the other boxes. First is very short, and the smallest gap between gears is 13% - the very noticeable difference between 5th and 6th. I was thinking of modifying the "800" box I have (actually out of a 696) with a change to one of the 6th gears to make it 11 or 12% gap from 5th as opposed to the 8% it is std, but now I'm not so sure it'd be such a good idea. Then again, the 900 wide ratio box is 12% 5th to 6th and it feels just fine, so maybe all I need is some more cubes.

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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.