my journey begins and never ends

Hey Chaz. I'm still shaping the down pipe for the exhaust, I am going to bring back over to the left side. and I will wait to dial in carb until I'm running 100:1 opti-2, then see about jet.

from going through the mega thread, the only direct negative was the guy who had a dax motor that failed(gtr50 or something not ht). if I remember correctly he first blamed opti, then said it was engine failure, then came back later saying he blamed opti again. and didn't like it at 32:1 either. as opposed to, like you said many respectable riders and many other lesser known members love it. so I'm down.

hey Steve I hope you get healthy soon, sorry I missed that in my first response.

you weren't kidding about the chris craft, that is pretty cool and unique. never seen a side car like it, and then I saw silverbears. and it is just as unique. yours be a sea going cruiser and his for the lakes, very appropriate considering your locals.

how is that e power for moving that boat?

you guys do nice work too, impressive. you would cringe at my oxy ac shaping of my muffler down pipe, but muffler wrap will cover it anyways.

any pics of the summer projects you guys are working on? they sound pretty interesting too

two years! glad to hear your near the end of that painful saga.

wow 3000w, no doubt you need a good battery. and pedaling 450lbs? i think I'd phone a tow truck. well I'll have to try and get to the pne this summer and check it out, sounds pretty interesting.

I've been playing with my new poo poo exhaust. I opened it up a bit, and put on some new wrap. it is still running out to the right side, but I am enjoying the ride. I'm running with a 70 jet (back to stock) and needle is in 2 down position. when I run the opti 100:1 (if my engine likes it) I will finish tweeking.

again best part of this pipe is that it is much quieter than I expected.

well changed my air filter housing. I had the black punisher skull looking one with extra holes drilled in it. I replaced the foam with rain sock material awhile ago. so now I have taken the black grid disc that comes in the nt and nt speed carb air filters and adhered the rain sock material to the face of that disc, then it holds on a steel rim for appearances I guess. it sure not a velocity stack, but she's sucking a lungful.

went for a 30 k ride, she loves it. it was cold and rainy. 10k or so out I blew the front tire, my fault with the brake pads rubbing on one side. luckey I had checked my tool bag for an innertube in the afternoon and found it missing. so I had just put the new innertube in, I had a patch kit always though.

well my custom front fender makes it interesting, but I was riding again in 1/2 an hour. in 10 minutes my carb got loose and fell off. that was weird, also my jackshaft crank set seemed to have let go, broke, snapped, gave up. one or the other. it's not under engine power yet, but it was free so whatever. so about 10k away from home now, pretty hilly. but she got me home, and a new top speed around 60kph.

looking for a new crank set I called around, and before go to grab one for $80 I called the store I bought the bike from and they had an unused townie crank set for $20. so painted that and put it on. just missing the pedal in the pic.

so switched up the air filter set up again. small changes. I also fixed the townie chain guard, one of these days you'll see a thread call "Goop I put that s@#t on everything"

a few hundred miles ago I was playing with intakes and split my jug at a intake stud threading. my bad. i used jb to hold the stud in place and today it let go. I have a Cheez jug on hand thanks to Legwon. I have cleaned up the transfers and am leaving it at that. I am painting the new jug right now. but I wont run it until tomorrow, when my opti-2 arrives.

I know this is one of "those" topics, but I am breaking in this jug and rings with opti-2 100:1 and I am not pampering it in anyway. call it a personal experiment. I'm not the first, and I have not read any convincing 1st hand negatives to offset the users predominant love of the product.

well not only did I not pamper her, I let my maintenance slip. lost a rear mount bolt, resulting in a cracked frame. so I killed her, I thought I liked her. once I knew she was gone, I realized I loved her. my slothfulness snuffed out a young frames life. repairs unlikely, and in 90 minutes she lay naked and cold on floor.

I am already busy on recovery, but it will be a week or so before I'm rolling.

but I will be back...

thanks Chaz, I'm mid bounce.

Steve I have frame, stripped and waiting for prep and paint.

so got out for a short maiden ride tonight, was pouring rain quite aggressively so I only went for a short ride of 7 km. now familiar readers will remember before the frame breaking debacle to start the new year, there was a new jug and rings to be broken in on opti-2. well 7 km is not going to say much, but I did hit 33 mph and the jet isn't right. when I get it out for a proper warm up ride I'll do a plug chop and see what's up.

so what is it you ask. well I hit up CL and found a townie 3i





so now it is a 3 speed internal hub with coaster brake, frame differs in two spots of stronger build and narrower chain stay spread. front gusset and tube fattens up right where my old one cracked (not of it's own fault of course) giving this frame a little more strength. of course my rock shox are on now, and painted finally.
it's not finished. drive chain is too tight, post mount need better shimming, fenders still need to be mounted. and my beloved poo poo pipe needs to adjusted to fit this mounting.



so on we go...

well I've been busy and distracted, and also dealing with the chain rubbing the chain stays. the townie 3i chain stay spacing is a full inch narrow than the 7d, thanks to the stack of 7 sprockets attached to the side hub to 1 sprocket. so the tensioner is back as a path guide, yay I'm so happy. still a close call on the top chain stay, and I refuse to go double tensioner. I'll switch frames before I do that, I also have a 41T I could swap out the 44T with. But I like the tourqe, and I think I may have settled the rub issue. also put on a pair of 2" schwalbe marathon tires, better handling and the ride is still good.

I did get it out for a ride yesterday for the first time in awhile. since the new rings and jug I'm still only around 40 km in total maybe. and she is running like a hot damn, with stock muffler, still reshaping my poo poo pipe. I'm riding it normal, with no break in pampering and 100-1 opti 2. way too early to tell I know, but man she is running well. probably the best feeling I've had riding this bike yet. hitting my highest top speed of 57 kph (tires probably help top end) so far, and pulling up hills seems stronger.

onward and upward

So after a motorbiking hiatus, I pulled the ol bike out of the garage and set to it. she has gained a patina of rust, I would almost say ratrodish. I think I left off when my engine from Cheese sheared a mounting stud.

So I had the engine off and the bike sitting there when a buddy needed a ride because his had been stolen. He is the guy that helped build and get it running in the first place. so he mounted my original zoom motor (pk80 i think) with my port and polish work and the modded piston and used for a few months before he parked it. The whole time he ran it, he used opti 2 at a 100:1 mix.I picked up later and parked it in my garage.

Last summer I drained the gas tank and cleaned the carb, wouldn't start. never got around to checking spark. Last week I went and sprayed her all down with a penetrant and let her sit a few days. Then I remover the head and dumper a capful of opti 2 on top of the piston, and let it sit a couple more days.

Pulled it out last night, checked the spark today. it was good. Pulled out the mag and found a trace of oil. popped out the seal and replaced it. Not starting last summer loss of compression? I dunno, it wasn't a lot of oil, but I had seals buddy gave me so I replaced it. smeared white lithium grease on anything moving, including both chains. gave the jet (66) a gas bath and used a burned clean twist tie to clear it. tightened all the bolts.

this afternoon after a few go's she fired up, it wasn't tuned. I dont have any filter or housing. just rainsock clamped over a short wide mouth v stack kinda thing and a stock muffler. so I put some pollini filter foam I had bought for my ruckus under the rainsock material and clamped it down.

she ran pretty good tonight, 54 kph (33.5 mph) topped out so far. I believe the best I ever got out of her was 60 k. I'll probably replace the chain, I have a couple in the parts pile. and investigate a noise I dont like.

Kinda surprised me how well she ran, and the mix is super oily right now. opti 2 is blue, but at 100:1 it's hard to tell if gas has been mixed already. last summer I was unsure and impatient and dosed it hard to be safe. it's pretty blue right now, so I will top up the can before using it all and going back to my mix.

I also have a few carbs kicking around to play with, so I may tinker a bit. I'll try put up some ratrod pics later.

It's been quite the journey, and it probably wouldn't have gone well (or at all) with out this forum and it's experienced and generous members.

Reading through this thread again, makes me want to thank everyone for their help again.

You guys rock!!!

Thanks Steve