Suspension Upgrades

[wyly]

Now it's down to some comparatively little stuff (dialing in the suspension, dyno tune for the carbs, new coils & plug wires, ceramic coating the exhaust, upgrading brake pads) and just having fun on it.

I can't tell you how badly I wanna convert this thing to closed-loop EFI with a catalytic converter. Hopefully a good dyno tune will get it running (and cold-starting) well enough to put that out of my mind. But it looks like I'm gonna keep this thing long-term so in a way it would be stupid NOT to do it!

Really what I wanna do next is put a few 10's of thousands of miles on it! I really wish I could make it to the rally this year, but it's not in the cards.

I'm assuming when you say you plan to ceramic coat your exhaust you're referring to the exterior only.
Some coating companies claim improved performance and will encourage the inside of the exhaust be done as well, that happened to me. Faced with that option I called Peter Gray of Pipemasters in Australia and he told me that he has done before and after dyno tests on internal ceramic coatings and found no significant performance increase. A complete waste of money according to Peter.

[Syscrush]

I'm assuming when you say you plan to ceramic coat your exhaust you're referring to the exterior only.
Some coating companies claim improved performance and will encourage the inside of the exhaust be done as well, that happened to me. Faced with that option I called Peter Gray of Pipemasters in Australia and he told me that he has done before and after dyno tests on internal ceramic coatings and found no significant performance increase. A complete waste of money according to Peter.

Thanks very much for the information.

I don't care about power, I care about rideability and longevity. I was leaning towards having the inside coated along with the outside on the assumption that it would help protect the pipe against corrosion, and I would like to hold on to that pipe for a very long time. Did your research tell you anything about if the inside coating helps the system last any longer?

[wyly]

I discussed this with the tech doing my rebuild, he says the biggest cause of rust in exhaust are short grocery runs. Moisture collects in the low points of the exhaust because there was insufficient heat developed to vaporize moisture.

If you do a lot of short runs ceramic coating in those areas will certianly work but cleaning those areas prior to coating can be difficult, water may still get in between the coating and the pipe if the cleaning isn't 100%. Best chance of success would be coating a new pristine/clean exhaust. If the ceramic coaters can guarantee you they can do it go for it.

One suggestion I've found to prevent rust is drilling a small hole in lowest point of the exhaust and spraying WD40 in at the end of a short ride. If I had done that with my OEMs I'd still be using them instead of my pipemasters.

Peter at Pipemasters told me not to worry about rust as my 6 into 6 are SS and they'll outlive me.

[Syscrush]

Peter at Pipemasters told me not to worry about rust as my 6 into 6 are SS and they'll outlive me.

I would really like a SS system, but I also really like the 6-2-1 setup I have now - including the looks, performance, and sentimentality (it was hand-built by Gary Wolf as a personal favor the the PO after he stopped doing exhaust fab).

The Pipemasters 6-6 are awesome and I love them, but it's not what I want on my bike. The Schuele 6-3-1 looks pretty amazing:

http://www.schuele-maschinenbau.de/page ... ik/cbx.htm

But if I can get my Wolf setup looking good and lasting well, I'll stick with it.

[Syscrush]

As it turns out, a very important fix/mod for getting good handling is properly inflating your f'n tires!!!

As noted earlier, I had some mid-corner wallowing that I thought would require a few clicks here and there to dial out. But before getting into that, I thought I should have a good baseline with all of the easiest stuff taken care of - so I checked the tires. YOW - they were way under. My little test ride after getting the tires where they should be showed a world of difference, and I left the screwdriver in my backpack. It might want some fine tuning to get to 100%, but it's close enough now that I'd need a few hundred uninterrupted miles to make & sort out any additional changes.

Other things that were taken care of recently are new Dyna 3 ohm coils and 8mm plug wires (with DEI silver Protect-A-Wire braided covering) to replace the old Accel coils & awful gangly red plug wires. The wires & connectors going to the coils were also replaced with all-new. The plugs were inspected and put back in as they still look healthy. The bike starts a bit easier now (which could be weather), and runs a bit smoother - especially in the midrange. The tach signal is much smoother - it used to be quite jittery & would jump around a bit, now it's very smooth and steady. My guess is that the tidier stock-like plug wire routing and the replacement of corroded coil wire connectors probably have more to do with the cleaner tach signal than the new coils & wires, but I'm happy with how the bike is acting now.

Rear brake was also bled & is working perfectly now (not that I ever use it, really).


The bike is not yet finished/perfect (I know, I know - they never are, but it should be very close by next spring), but it is absolutely ready for some serious riding. But with a 3 month old at home, I don't have the same opportunity or desire to take off for a long ride anymore. We'll have my wife's Ducati out of storage soon, and in a month or so I think he'll be ready to spend more than a couple of hours alone with a babysitter so I can see us doing some very enjoyable rides together this fall - but no big road trips for a while.

For now, I'd be glad to have a few hours to clean it up nicely again and snap a few more pics with the new plug wires in place. Hopefully soon!

[daves79x]

Yes, properly matched and inflated tires cures a lot of handling woes! Especially on the Pro-Links.

Dave

[steve murdoch icoa #5322]

Phil, just think if you had used nitrogen instead of air. Mosport would be your next stop.
Of course, just kidding. Glad things are getting fine tuned.

[Syscrush]

Phil, just think if you had used nitrogen instead of air. Mosport would be your next stop.

[NobleHops]

As it turns out, a very important fix/mod for getting good handling is properly inflating your f'n tires!!!

I could only laugh a little, having BTDT myself.

[Mouse]

awful gangly red plug wires.
snap a few more pics with the new plug wires in place.

What? You mean those wires were not supposed to be like that? I thought they, like, gave the bike a "bad to the bone" vibe.

[Syscrush]

What? You mean those wires were not supposed to be like that? I thought they, like, gave the bike a "bad to the bone" vibe.

I guess you would agree with the previous owner, then.

In addition to not really liking the looks of the color or the routing, I always worried that there would be some crosstalk/induction between the wires which could potentially harm the engine. No evidence that that was happening at a significant scale/frequency, but the cleaner tach signal now and slightly smoother running makes me feel better.

[Mouse]

[quote="Syscrush"]

I guess you would agree with the previous owner, then.

I blame my teenage years in Guelph during the 70's where most of the muscle cars and hot rods had bright yellow Accel wires and coils as a prominent feature. I remember quite a few Honda 750 Super Sports sporting the same bright yellow wires.

[wyly]

I guess you would agree with the previous owner, then.

I blame my teenage years in Guelph during the 70's where most of the muscle cars and hot rods had bright yellow Accel wires and coils as a prominent feature. I remember quite a few Honda 750 Super Sports sporting the same bright yellow wires.

Then you wouldn't like my bright orange wires
My orange wires match up nicely with the orange oem pin stripes on the gas tank.
Personal colour choices are always subjective, I quite liked your red wires

[Mouse]

Then you wouldn't like my bright orange wires
My orange wires match up nicely with the orange oem pin stripes on the gas tank.
Personal colour choices are always subjective, I quite liked your red wires

You found wires to match the pin stripe.

[Syscrush]

Then you wouldn't like my bright orange wires
My orange wires match up nicely with the orange oem pin stripes on the gas tank.
Personal colour choices are always subjective, I quite liked your red wires

Honestly, if you like them, then I like them because it's your bike and I like to see variety. I tried to keep pretty close to stock appearance, but I love seeing personal touches on bikes.

For me, the biggest problem was the length/routing, not really the color. But I wanted them to look more like my braided oil cooler plumbing and brake lines - I want to cover all of the wiring harness with a similar braided cover.

I like a coherent look to my bikes, but I'd hate to live in a world where everything is done exactly to my taste!