bikes – what else matters!
There will be lots of content coming just haven’t had chance to upload. My dad died after a few days my last post so needed a break and had to deal with all the issues nobody wants to be dealing with.
However there will be something familiar, but new appearing –
In the words of Britney – ‘Oops I did it again.’
KTM has had lots of updates which I’ll upload as soon as I can, but will then be sold as my shoulders can’t cope with its size due to the mobility and strength I’ve lost.
Finally some good news PJME have sorted the machining process for removing the fixed crank pin and boring a hole to accept the same pin as the right side, happy days!
This is now available to all RG owners with written off cranks
My crank is on its way back ready for the rebuild of the rest of the bike.
Updates have been a bit slow, as been swamped with catching up on house renovation work since my frozen shoulder was fixed. Lots of updates to come on the KTM and sadly I sold the Fantic, as I’d run out of garage space.
There may be light at the end of the tunnel after some discussions with PJME they’ve found some engineers to machine off the crank and and bore a hole to take the pin the fits the other side of the crank and fix the issue once and for all.
Jig has been made to sort the pin machining just waiting for an update on the hole boring then the service should be available to all RG owners, no idea about the price though but I guess its pay it or your bikes scrap, sigh.
Was doing some work of the front fairing and noticed the headlight connectors were damaged. I removed the fairing and could see that the connectors were hanging down underneath the nav tower and look like they’ve been crushed.
More time doing research and I’ve identified the connectors as Yazaki –
I bought both from Auto-click.co.uk, part numbers linked above, the only issue I discovered is the new ones don’t come with the seals, so de-pin carefully!
De-pinning tool goes in from the front of the connector.
Whilst doing these jobs I also thought I’d design my own nav tower and have nearly finished the 3D printer models. The whole thing will be printable plus a few bolts. Once I’ve printed the prototype and am happy with it I’ll make the files available.
I also want to do a second version based the the Fantic Issimo frame, as I think that would A – be cool and B – work really well
To go with the high mudguard I’ve designed some brake hose guides to fit on the fork legs with a cable tie.
3D printer files here.
The Kove came with an after-market navigation tower instead of the stock plastic one. The issue with that is it doesn’t have the pins to hook the screen on and when I got the bike A – the screen was broken and B it was bolted on defeating the whole point of the quick-release.
I’m getting to grips with my Bambu Lab P1S and designed some pins that push into the screen’s rubber mounts and just hook into the nav tower holes.
Pin model is available here.
Bit of a work in progress, but getting there.
Front mudguard is sorted and am designing some adapters to allow fork guards to fit the 990 forks as the bottom bolt holes are too close together to accept anything ‘off the shelf’.
Currently I’ve designed an adapter that I’ve 3D printed allowing KTM 85SX 2004 – 2017 fork guards to be fitted.
There’s a hidden bolt under the guard which secures the adapter to the fork leg, once I’ve got the design sorted for both sides, as the guards are slightly different on each side, I’ll publish the STL files.
Bolts are M6x16mm countersunk and 2 – M6x20mm flange button head
3D printer files for adapters here.
Currently removed the Z Adventure diffuser from under the fairing, but will see if that can be refitted once I’ve worked everything out.
I’d started changing a few rusty spokes, which you can do with the wheel in the bike, just let the tyre pressure down fairly low just enough to stop the nipple falling inside the rim, then unscrew the nipple and remove the spoke.
However on closer inspection most of the nipples were rusty, so I decided remove the tyre and strip the wheel, doing wheel bearings and seals at the same time.
Spokes and nipples came from SM Pro Wheels. Who are part of Central Wheel Components.
Job was pretty straight forward pull bearings, ones in the hub I pressed out then swap spokes and nipples. Due to the spoke lacing I found it easier to do groups of 3 spokes then rotate the wheel 180 and do another 3 to keep the rim true.
Bearing and seal part numbers are shown in the gallery. One side of the wheel has a Nilos seal which is basically a metal washer. Bearing used were all Koyo. I also replaced all the cush drive rubbers with parts from Gear 4 Motorcycles.
The closeup pictures of the rim show changing individual spokes. Once undone with my spoke tool, I unscrewed the head to allow me to spin it between the spokes for removal. All of the spokes were corroded in and required pliers to assist in their removal.
Hub was given a full clean prior to reassembly.
Anthony at Haines fitted and balanced a new Pirelli Scorpion rear tyre for me and when balancing confirmed the rim was perfectly true. Interestingly he was also able to remove most of those enormous lead weights you can see in the photos, as they weren’t required to balance the tyre.
So sent the crank off for a rebuild as the engine was full of water on arrival, hence the massive strip down, and have been told the crank web with the fixed pin is worn beyond use and guess what?
You can’t get the part and no one has started producing one. You’d think with Suzuki offering the vintage parts programme they might produce a few engine parts to keep two-strokes running.
Alternatively no one is even offering a service to machine the pin out, so that you could press in a pin like on the other side.
I’m amazed, particularly as I used to be a precision machinist years ago, I’d estimate maybe a couple of hours work tops – machine off the pin and then bore to suit the pin. Should be doable on a quality lathe with a 4 jaw chuck or a jig bore.
So currently the bike is a write off until this issue is sorted, if at all. Crank builder told me he has 3 other customers with the same issue, FFS.
My advice is don’t buy a Mk1 or 2 RG250, on top of the crank issue, you also can’t get head or base gaskets.
Should have kept and finished my 350 YPVS, before COVID and old fart taxes pushed prices through the roof, SIGH!
