At last, something to report

It's been awhile since I have had something to post; longer than I like, actually. There were some delays getting the necessary parts in and modified, but they are finally here. The cylinder is back from American Bike Tailor where it was bored 1mm over and media blasted. The 80mm Wiseco forged 10.5:1 piston (PN 4576M08000) had to arrive before the overbore could be performed. And then the timing chain guides, gaskets, and other miscellaneous items were all sourced from different distributors. Coordination fail on my part.

Piston and media blasted cylinder sitting pretty.

The cylinder after three coats of Dupli-Color® Engine Enamel (DE1651 - Cast Coat Iron). One of my favorite motorcycles ever is Odd Job by Dues Ex Machina. I'm a sucker for the raw aluminum engine with the bright red cylinder. However, for fear of following too closely in their tracks or creating a clown-bike mega-fail, I opted for a subtler contrast between the factory dark gray engine paint and Cast Coat Iron.The engine enamel is a little more metallic than I anticipated, but am confident it will look good when all buttoned up.

A small item I splurged on was a polished stainless steel engine bolt kit. It was fairly inexpensive considering each bolt head was hand polished and allows me to migrate away from hex heads to allen heads. Kinda stoked for all those little baggies.

Financing has arrived

The CRF is SOLD.  I am now free to order parts.  Stay tuned for progress... finally.

Sizing Up The Swingarm Options

I like most things about the DR350's design, but one thing I can't get past is the rear swingarm.  It's clunky looking and those fins have not aged well.  I'm sure the three-piece design was cheaper to manufacture than a welded, boxed aluminum design that can be seen on almost every modern dirt bike, but it's also far more flexible with the open C-channels.  Most DR owners agree that the rear swing arm is the DR's biggest weak area.

I have been toying with the idea of swapping it out in favor of something else.  Since I am not too concerned about suspension curves (maybe I should be more so) and I have no issues cutting or adding tabs to the frame to support new linkage mounts, my options are broad.  So broad in fact that I put #2's swingarm side-by-side against one I have from a CRF450.  Granted, the linkage designs are wildly different, but it's eerie to see how similar they are despite their 15 year design gap and different manufacturers.

1991 DR350S swingarm in the background, 2005 CRF450X in the foreground.  The DR swingarm is at least twice the weight of the CRF swingarm.

DR350 swingarm in the background, CRF450X in the foreground.  The pivots are aligned, which helps show the added length of the CRF swingarm.

There are a couple dimensions that really give this wild idea some traction: both swingarms take a 17mm pivot axle, and the CRF swingarm is 5mm narrower at the main pivot than the DR swingarm.  That doesn't mean a swap like this one, or any other, will be remotely easy, but it does mean I won't have to modify the frame-side of the main pivot.  Just say'n...

For the fun of it, I placed my components in their places.  That's #2's frame, the DT250/400 tank, #2's forks (lowered 3.5"), an 18" CRF rear rim floating in the front, a CRF swing arm, and #2's rear 18" rear wheel.  Mentally photoshop some tires and a different, more road-race-esque rear section, and we are in business.

Tiny War Tank

I had a CL score [impulse buy] this weekend.  I picked up a tank, fender, and seat for $100.  The tank was primered and seemed to be repaired based on the magnet test.  When I got it home and sanded it, it became more ugly-duckling and less beautiful-swan.  It doesn't have any major dents, but it does have a few minor ones that need to be addressed.  I will probably make it work.  It would be a good candidate for the rusted look.

The seller didn't know what it came off since he bought someone else's street tracker project for parts.  I'm guessing a late 70s Yamaha DT250 or DT400.

 The purchase came with a fiberglass fender and seat.  The whole reason I pursued this was for the seat, but after seeing that it has a constant curve in the sea pan profile, I might not use it.

This is the shape I am after.  Flat for the first 80%, then an upsweep for the last 20%.  I guess I could make a new seat pan with the shape I want, then steal the cover and foam from this one.  That's a pretty dirt-bag option, but it would be cheap and easy.

Short Fork

I have been tallying expected costs and become a little concerned that my dreams may exceed my pennies; or at least eat into my "buffer" line item too significantly.  As a precaution, I decided to experiment with the stock Showa 43mm conventional forks.  If I use the stock forks instead of USD forks off another moto, I should save around $400 on my budget, so it's worth considering.  These forks do have the added benefit of already using a 15mm axle; the same bearing ID in the front wheel I would like to use.

I made these 2.5" spacers for the damping rod fork during a couple lunch breaks at my company's machine shop.  The hole and channel are for the rebound circuit.  I used two set screws to fixture the spacer in place and prevent it from covering an orifice.

 

The right leg (closest) has the spacers and shortened spring installed, and is moved up in the triple clamps as much as possible.  This results in 7.75" of exposed tube versus the stock 11.5".  I would like to go lower, but the spring rate increases for each coil that is removed from the fork springs.  I'll try this first and go from here.

The perks of working for a bike component manufacturing company are pretty huge.  Add to it the fact that I work in the R&D building for mountain bike suspension.  Even better, the machine shop policy is pretty liberal; as long as you aren't preventing work from being done, the machines are yours to use.  I love my job.  :D

#2 is Done

Took some time yesterday afternoon to bag and tag #2. I got almost everything into a medium sized moving box. Score.

What my corner now looks like.

I then tried to remove the exhaust manifold studs from the good head.  No dice.  I ended up breaking both studs off at their welds.  I then center-punched and attempted to drill out one of the studs.  My carbide left-hand drill bit barely made a dent.  I tried a right-hand drill bit as well with equally poor luck.  Either all my bits are dull or this stud is seriously hardened.  :-(

Total Annihilation

After what has felt like months of no physical progress, I finally picked up a wrench and did something. The CRF hasn't sold [yet], so I haven't been able to order/send off the engine parts I need to make progress on that bike. Instead, I tore into the second DR (dubbed "#2") and disassembled it.

Saturday

Sunday

The resulting mess.  This is what I still have to go through, clean, label, and box.  Some of it will be discarded.  Most will be kept, especially small or expensive stuff.

The case cleaned and ready to be put away.  All in all, it looks pretty good.  I like the gray color that Suzuki used on the DR cases.  If someone knows the paint code for this color, let me know.

One total bummer was the wiring harness.  Since #2 is an S and had turn signals, I hoped the wiring harness would be unmolested.  Not the case.  At some point, someone decided to use speaker wire to get power to the back of the bike, not to mention sever a lot of the original wires.  Grrr...  So much for that idea.

One bit of good news is the oil pump in #2 works... even if the oil it pumped out smelled like burnt hydraulic fluid.  If the same test in #1 does not flow oil, at least I can rob #2's crank case of its oil pump, or in a worst case, use #2's crank case and internals, which feel pretty good considering the bike's life outside.