New Yamaha Project???

Today the XV took her first long ride. I put in 80 miles and she ran flawlessly.

In notes to myself; I back the shock damping off three clicks. The fork, while much better than stock, is not compliant. I'm going to try oil that is 5wt. IIRC I used 10 wt. I need to check my notes. If it is 15 wt I'll try 10 wt. If that doesn't work I need to contact Race Tech to get guidance on emulator springs and settings. With about 55 lbs removed from the bike the suspension is over dampened, possibly over sprung. I need to replace fork seals while I'm in there. The left leg is totally blown and pumping oil out onto the motor. Ick...
 

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Hellgate said:
Today the XV took her first long ride. I put in 80 miles and she ran flawlessly.

In notes to myself; I back the shock damping off three clicks. The fork, while much better than stock, is not compliant. I'm going to try oil that is 5wt. IIRC I used 10 wt. I need to check my notes. If it is 15 wt I'll try 10 wt. If that doesn't work I need to contact Race Tech to get guidance on emulator springs and settings. With about 55 lbs removed from the bike the suspension is over dampened, possibly over sprung. I need to replace fork seals while I'm in there. The left leg is totally blown and pumping oil out onto the motor. Ick...
Click to expand...

You know you've got next months entry pictured right there pal! Great shot!
 
Yesterday I worked on reshaping several of the upper cooling fins on the heads. The XVS heads have many more, and much larger fins than the old XV heads. However the upper ones contact both intake boots. I used a Dremel tool with a metal cutting disk and a Dremel, flexible extension. The extension is great a nice addition to the tool. I'd meant to buy one years ago and finally did. I first tried cutting the fin in a straight line with the cutting disk in edge. I later pulled the tool along the edge of the fin and learned I could shape it better. This gave me much better control over the tool and I was able to use the contour of the fin to better determine the final shape. Once I figured out how best to do this the process went much faster. With our move pending I had limited time but I was able to get 90% of the project done. I'm trying to get some small projects done prior to the move as I won't have time once are finally moved.

On a side note, the bike now has 365 miles on the new motor and runs like a champ! I think the tuning is very, very close. It pulls to 7,000 (stock redline) with ease and does so very smoothly. I rode 100 miles last Saturday morning and the bike is a blast. I do need to change out the fork oil to a lighter weight as the compression damping is too firm. The brakes are bedded in and it stops on a dime.

Left side.

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Right side.

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I stumbled upon this little gem. It's an RZV500 rear wheel from Japan for $45.00. The reason I picked it up is that it's an 18 X 3.00" wheel, an odd size. The RZ350 rear is an 18 X 2.50". The OEM wheel is a 18 X 2.15" wheel.

With the new RZV500 wheel the 130/80 X 18" tire will have the correct profile. The RZ350 rim is within the acceptable range for the 130, but is pinched. I like a profile to be flatter and use more of the tire.

The wheel is also much lighter than the RZ350 wheel. I'd guess 1 to 1.5 lbs. This wheel doesn't have the "chrome touches" that the RZ wheel has so I think I'll just powder coat it all black.

RZV500 Rear Wheel.JPG
 
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Note to self:

Removed front wheel to find slow leak in tire.

While apart removed left fork leg to replace leaking fork seal. Used Leak Proof Seals Pro-Moly brand. The old brand was All Balls IIRC.

Also trimmed 10mm off the preload spacer and changed from 10wt oil to 7wt Bel-Ray oil.

The oil and preload changes should help with the fork having too much compression damping/firmness. The source of this is removing 62 lbs off the bike and me loosing 18 lbs. The front spring is too firm.

The Leak Proofs Seals do not have good reviews online, we'll see... They are the only ones in my parts box.
 
Well I'm very happy to report that the fork works MUCH better. 1) No leaks! 2) Much better action over frost heaves. It's about like a stock FZ6 fork. You former FZ6 owners know what I mean. Kinda sucky compared to modern bikes, but better than an early 1980's fork.

For now I think it is at a good spot. Once we are moved I want to contact Race Tech and get directions on how to use the different spring that come in the emulator kit. I've no idea which are firmer, how they respond, etc. If anyone has any insight please enlighten me.
 
Time for licence plate bracket 2.0.

She rode her first twisty road and performed great!

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Eric, yes, only the oil and spacers. It really makes a big difference.

That said the ride is a little bumpy. One gets spoiled with how well modern suspensions work. They are much more responsive to changes in the road.
 
Hellgate said:
Eric, yes, only the oil and spacers. It really makes a big difference.

That said the ride is a little bumpy. One gets spoiled with how well modern suspensions work. They are much more responsive to changes in the road.
Click to expand...

True! At least you can shim it back up with washers if needed. Are those forks like the FZ1 where one is compression and the other rebound? It reads like you did one leg and not the other. ;)
 
These are fully non-adjustable forks! Totally old school.

I can do preload with the spacer length, oil for overall damping and I think compression with the Gold Valve.

What I don't know is how to adjust the valve. Race Tech provides two or three different valve springs however no instructions on what does what.

I'm sure it's straight forward.
 
I picked up a new set of gauges from an internet friend in Belgium. My gauges look okay however from a crash some of the internal parts are broken, mounting points, etc. The new gauges appear to be mechanically solid and the plastic idiot light cover is in very good condition compared to mine. I also like that the speedo is in kilometers! Not limited to 85 mph. I think that's pretty cool and now I'll know how fast I'm actually going.
 

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A can of SC1 clear coat will make those gauges look incredible. I spray my whole bike down throughout the year for a glossy coat and the gauge plastics benefit most of all

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Silicon is actually bad for plastic & paintwork, it will degrade it. I use CT18 to clean my bike and Plexus (visor cleaner) to clean any plastic parts after a ride to get the bugs off. A autobody shop owner friend of mine who is fanatical about detailing his restored cars filled me in on all the details, basically don't use silicon products. He only uses turtle wax.
 
I think what your friend says is not strictly true. I have done some research and found that silicone is a common ingredient in high end detailing products and does not degrade plastics or paintwork. However, the presence of petroleum products in things such as silicone sprays (like the one I'm suggesting) can do that but it depends on a lot on the formulation and the percentage of petroleum present.

I can vouch for this SC1 spray, though. It was given to me by a friend of mine last year and I tried it out and liked the results. I have been using it on a regular basis on all my bikes with nothing but glossy goodness
 
I have had a nice series of chats with the shop manager at Revival. Bottomline, I'm really impressed and they really know what they are doing. Valve adjustment is done, oil changed and a bracket fabricated and welded onto the muffler. They also checked the torque on ALL of the bolts. I really wanted a second set of eyes to look at the entire bike as it's easy to not see the forest through the trees.

We also began the tuning process. The first thing we learned it is lean on the bottom end. Pilots and mains on order. Also the carbs are not bench sync'd but way out of wack. Hummm...that's okay. Once the carbs are dialed in we'll work on developing the correct map for the ignition. Together the bike should be smooth, and make a lot of power. I really looking forward to seeing how it turns out. These guys are perfectionists and it really shows.

The XV hangin' with a clean RD350. Nice.

XV Bracket Revival.jpgXV Bracket Revival 2.jpgXV Revival with RD.jpg
 
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