2009 News of The Fang: Supercharged, methanol, Honda CB500T!

6th April

We headed up to Shakespeare County Raceway early on Sunday morning and arrived to brilliant sunshine and lots of nerves for Bryony (memories of tank slapping wheelies from her last visit to the track on her 125!).

Scrutineering and signing on were smoothly completed and by 11:20 Bryony was at the head of the fire up lane being waved onto the track alongside a 9.50 bike. A steady 15.0 was enough to dispel the nerves and from that point on there was no stopping her – apart from a huge full ¼ mile oil down which held things up for a while.
Quickest run was a 14.2 at 91mph which equates to about 7,800. At this point the power is just beginning to fall off, so I think it may be a little over geared.

Her 3rd run would have been a real cracker if not for loads of wheel spin followed by a wheelie as the tyre gripped: Check it out on YouTube.
Unfortunately shortly before her 6th run Bryony noticed a spatter of silver paint on her leg. A quick investigation revealed a small leak in the fuel tank, so we beat a hasty retreat to the pit and removed the tank in a hurry as petrol was dripping on the hot engine! There was a microscopic fracture next to one of the mountings, so sadly time to head for home.

A great day though, and so nice to meet some of the people who follow my ramblings.

I've repaired the tank so hopefully we will be back at the next track day, work and weather permitting. Bryony is eager to get more track time in, learn how to do a burnout and get in the 13's.

The poor old 125 is now relegated to the back of the garage and may be up for sale later this year, though I hope to bag a ride on it myself before then.

Bryony waits for action on 'The Fang' in the Shakespeare County Raceway fire up lane

I'm not really nervous, honest.

'The Fang', CB500T dragbike on a good pass with daughter Bryony in control

Not any more anyway.

24th March

Yesterday morning 'The Fang' was delivered to the Tim Blakemore Racing shop for setting up on the dyno.

Initially run with the standard ER5 main jets (102), it was incredibly weak, so Tim suggested a change to 120's. The transformation was immediate, though Tim wasn't happy and recommended going up to 136 on the main jets and raising the needles to richen the bottom end. A quick blast up to 8500rpm followed by a tweek of the pilot screws and she was done: 40.3bhp at 7500rpm and 29.48ft/lbs @ 6000rpm. I'm happy with that on the standard 8.5:1 compression, as it is about 9bhp up on the standard bike at the crank .
As you can see from the dyno chart the power is spread wide at the top end, falling off above 7800rpm. Tim suggested more spacers under the needles might help a little as (middle curve) it is still a bit weak at the bottom end and this is reflected in the lumpy torque curve at corresponding revs (bottom curve).
Check out the last run on Youtube.

The next job is to get out on the track and get some ET's before I fit the newly bored spare block, and high compression Kawasaki Z1 pistons. Meanwhile the 125 is nearly ready and work continues on refurbishing the S&S Super B carb. More next month.

10th March

OK, now you can listen to the 'The Fang' running on carbs and petrol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkHN5hRNxZI CB500T aficionados may notice that it ticks over slower than a standard engine, this being due to the more even firing intervals.

1st March

Yesterday Bryony and I removed the supercharger and associated parts, and replaced them with the carburetors. I then spent a few hours checking the engine over very carefully and made a startling discovery: The ignition timing was retarded by 15°! I don't know how this has happened, but it certainly explains a lot of our problems; from lack of tick over to lack of power.

With everything now sorted we topped the bike up with some petrol and started the old thing up. After a bit of warming, up she settled down into a nice even tick over, sounding something like a Harley Sportster. Now I want to put the blower back on!

During the week I hope to run the bike again and video the result for Youtube.

Kawasaki ER500 carburetors fitted to the CB500T engine

23rd February

Despite all the doom and gloom in the media, Turnertech have been very busy and time for working on the bikes has been pretty limited so far: Until last Saturday 'The Fang' had lain where I parked it in September.

However I have converted the front brake on Bryony's 125 'Luigi' to hydraulic operation, by fitting a Derbi Senda brake caliper and master cylinder. Also making a new brake lever for the master cylinder so that it matches the existing clutch lever. The caliper grips a much modified CB125TDC brake disc and the result of all this is a weight saving of over 1Kg. Work on a spare engine has begun with a lightened crank and new main bearings but that is as far as it has got to date.

The Kawasaki ER5 carburetors I bought were spaced closer together than the 500T so much spare time was spent making new brackets and extending the fuel connector and choke linkage. Two shiny new manifold adaptors finish the job and the carbs are now ready to go on. Fuel line will be plumbed in to the existing fuel tank by a threaded union, thus allowing easy return to the blown arrangement.

However, before we go to carbs and petrol I wanted to fit the S&S Super B carb to the supercharger manifold. The plan being that near the end of the season when the bike is running fine we will go back the the blown methanol setup and run an 8 (only joking Bryony!).

I managed to adapt the existing inlet manifold from the SU setup, though I had to modify the clutch cover to clear the fuel line. This weekend the ER5 carbs go on and then later off we go to Tim Blakemore Racing for a dyno setup.

After last year's few runs, I was convinced that fueling was our problem and that I would have to go to a 360° crank. However after a few gallons of homebrew, months of pondering and examination of videos I am not so sure. I now suspect the ignition, and a quick look at the optical pickups showed that the right one is covered in dust. The video of my last run at Keevil shows a plume of methanol from the right exhaust. Hopefully by going back to carbs and petrol I can resolve the issues for later in the year.

More news next week....maybe

ER5 carburetors modified to fit the CB500T head

S&S Super B carb on The Fang


11th December NOVEMBER was a busy month at Turnertech, so work on the bike was limited to a session on the dyno at Tim Blakemore Racing with the supercharger re-fitted. This proved to be interesting to say the least, the S&S carb was spraying fuel out of the float bowl vents over the exhaust and Tim's right leg. I had lots of fun trying to prevent this, while attempting to hold my ear defenders tightly against my head and watching the boost gauge. This was very satisfactorily sweeping across the scale in concert with the rev counter - excellent! We tried various float settings which didn't really seem to make a lot of difference! I suspected that it was down to a couple of things; vibration and inadequate overflow capacity from the float bowl. I didn't realise the S&S nitro carb is designed (?) to overflow and the needle valve is rather crude which doesn't help. We completed about 6 runs and used a gallon of methanol, ending up with a 4mm main jet which seemed to work fairly well. On the first run I was rather surprised to see a momentary, foot long flame blast from the right exhaust next to my leg. I guess this may have been from oil which I had primed the cylinders with a few weeks before. The good news is the engine revved freely with no miss fires and the fuel curves looked pretty good. In marked contrast to the last time we dynoed the bike in supercharged form a couple of years ago, when the ignition timing was inadvertently retarded 15° and nothing seemed to work right. This is what I really wanted, as it means we can continue developing the bike with the 60° crankshaft. I suppose I should really refer to it as a 300° crank, as that gives a clearer indication of how it compares with the old Triumph twins. Well I guess you all want to know what the results were? For a few reasons I am keeping that to myself at the moment, one reason being things are still not perfect. Though thanks to Tim Blakemore's help and Bryony's enthusiasm this is the closest we have ever been. All I am prepared to say at this stage is that at 2500rpm, we are making 425% more power than the standard CB500T!! In fact 'The Fang' now produces more power at 2500rpm than the standard bike's maximum at 8500rpm! The maximum torque figure is positively alarming. With things easing off in December, I attended to the float bowl overflow issue and made some improvements to the float valve. I'll be making a new valve assembly of improved design for next year, ie; one that actually shuts off the fuel flow! There are lots of things to attend to; the first was relocating the throttle return spring anchorage on a nice shiny new stainless steel bracket so that jetting changes are easier. Next on the list is an outrigger bearing for the gearbox sprocket. This is quite a big job as the extended splined boss also includes the sprocket and will additionally need some mods to the frame. Plus of course the aluminium bearing housing which will bolt on the inside of sprocket cover (the latter was designed with this in mind in 2003). More news soon, or next year even.
12th October With our new ignition installed and timed to perfection, we headed off to Shakespeare County Raceway on the 4th October, full of confidence. This turned out to be a little misplaced as Bryony had a dreadful misfire on the first run, what now? A look at a spark plug solved that one; running horribly weak again. I would never have thought that the previous ignition was that bad, and this explains a lot of our problems last year. Unfortunately the biggest jets I had were only two sizes up, and I doubted it would be enough judging by the state of the plugs. Back to the track, and the engine misfired at high revs in each gear, yet Bryony still came within 0.10 second of her personal best time. We tried again but there was a misfire in the burnout and the bike almost ground to a halt at the finish line. Although Bryony was able to ride back to our pit, the bike cut out for no apparent reason when we fired it up again. So a frustrating end to our 2009 season. Today I managed to get over to Tim Blakemore Racing for a dyno session, as I need to get the engine running right before refitting the supercharger. The first thing we found was an intermittent connection in the power feed to the ignition pickups causing the cutting out. Next a terrible miss fire at 6000rpm turned out to be a faulty brand new multi plug connecting the battery to the bike. With that sorted we finally managed to get a baseline run and established that yes, it was running very weak. The 136 main jets were replaced with 145's and things were nearly spot on, though Tim feels that there is more to come and suspects that the air gap on the pick ups is not correct. I can't do anything about this at the moment as the backplate retaining screws are in the way (see the electronic ignition page). Oh well just another little job to do over the winter.
28th September I checked the battery when we returned home and it was down to 9 volts, so ordered a backup. This was duly charged and tested, producing nice healthy sparks. So it was with some confidence that we headed off to Wroughton on the 13th, on what the Met Office predicted to be a sunny day: As we warmed up the bike on a freezing cold, windy, overcast morning I noticed an occasional slight miss fire, however it seemed to clear up so off we went for our first run. Bryony was in an aggressive mood and launched in dramatic style with some wheel spin into the stiff headwind, recording a 14.11 @ 90mph. She shut the engine down at the other end of the strip after feeling it wasn't running right. At least I was warm by the time I had pushed her back to the pit! The engine seemed to have been OK during the run so we tried again, though by now the miss fire had become worse and low speed running was not good: 14.20 @ 91mph. This time the engine cut out as Bryony turned at the end of the track. Back in the pits nothing obvious was wrong, but as soon as the engine was running the right cylinder cut out. The right hand spark had now disappeared completely, so time for home. During the following week I tested the Newtronics ignition amplifier, and confirmed that this was the fault. No spares are available so a new ignition system is required. Check out the Electronic Ignition page to find out what I did next.		Click on the picture above to see Bryony's first run at Wroughton (Youtube)
7th September Amazingly another rare dry weekend coincided with a chance to test at Shakespeare County Raceway , so off we went on Saturday. Of course, being England, it had to be dull and windy. Even though the track was not super sticky, the difference in grip from Weston Zoyland was dramatic to say the least. For starters the front tyre stayed put while Bryony did her burnouts. The first run saw the bike leap off the line with the wheel in the air instantly, unfortunately Bryony missed the change to 2nd but still ran a 14.2. Second time round the launch was even more impressive, but the bike got really out of shape at about the 60ft mark, and Bryony had to ease off a little before the bike would straighten up, nevertheless a 14.1. Both 60 ft times were in the low 1.9's, best ever for the bike. Bryony later confided that she had considered going back to the van to recover as the run really gave her a scare, but decided it was best to go back out straight away. A more careful launch resulted in a 14.0, all very encouraging. Sure enough it wasn't long before Bryony was in the 13.8's and then a great 13.7, despite a slow 60ft. The key to this was me forgetting to signal Bryony to end her burnout while I fumbled with my camera (I had accidentally disturbed the diopter adjustment on the viewfinder), obviously the tyre was nice and sticky and there was no sign of wheel spin in 2nd gear. All we need to do now is stick the 1.9 60ft on a run like that and we will be close to the 13.5's. Sadly the battery decided to expire after the 7th run so we headed for home, tired, but very happy with a new PB for Bryony and The Fang


9th August After what seems like months of rain, a dry weekend beckoned, so off we went to Weston Zoyland yesterday. Fortunately with a smaller entry and modification to the flag system the meeting ran very smoothly and we managed 12 runs. This was invaluable for Bryony who has so little experience of riding bikes. The first run was a no burnout affair and resulted in total wheel spin off the line and a change to 2nd within a couple of metres! However it was an encouraging 14.5. For the next run a burnout made a huge difference and we dipped into the 14.0 region. The 3rd run would have been amazing as the bike flew off the line and then wheelied in 2nd but as the wheel hit the track again Bryony missed the gear change. Meanwhile yours truly forgot to press the record button on the video camera! Bryony certainly made amends on the next run with a new PB of 13.83. Time to retire to the pit for a celebration and let the engine cool off a little, as it tends to run hot on petrol with the reduced finning. We decided to concentrate on clutch less gear changes and burnout technique for the rest of the day. Burnouts proved pretty tricky, as the front tyre just slid across the track unless I held the bike back with the wheelie bars. Mid way through the day Bryony pointed to the rev counter, the screws holding the scale onto the mechanism had vibrated out! Fortunately the needle was not affected so I marked the glass for the change point, which is all we need after all. Alarmingly the engine developed a strange noise at tick over around the same time, and I noticed that more oil than usual was coming out of the breather. As the engine seemed to run fine we carried on. I wonder what I will find when I change the oil? To conclude; an excellent day with our first runs in the 13's and much valuable experience gained. During the preceding week I modified the wheelie bars to compensate for the new smaller front wheel. I set these a little on the low side and never got around to adjusting them at the track so a few small mods to make. Pending an engine examination, hopefully we will be out at Shakespeare County Raceway next month.
3rd August As mentioned below, I tried an idea out at Weston Zoyland which looked as though it could give us a bit more power when set up on the dyno. Fortunately Tim Blakemore managed to fit us in at short notice, so off we went to Bristol this morning. Slotted in between a Kawasaki H1 500 and a new Triumph Thruxton, it soon became apparent that the carbs were now way out. First Tim suggested raising the needles substantially and then a slight reduction in main jet size before things were spot on. Tim was very pleased with the resulting air/fuel curve and I was very pleased with another 3hp and 3lb/ft of torque bringing the totals to 46hp and 35lbs/ft. Amazing what you can do with an £80 set of used Z1 pistons and a £40 pair of used ER5 carbs, allied to Tim Blakemore's skill in set up. Crank horsepower is now around 62 which is nearly 50% up on the standard bike! All that remains now is to lower the wheelie bars and find somewhere to run in the racing summer break.
23rd June We made it to Weston Zoyland on Sunday for the NSA 'Keith Parnell Tribute Sprint' (Keith ran the first 8 in Europe). Unfortunately, due to the NSA's crazy flag system and some older NSA members flagrantly ignoring the system, we only managed 4 runs before a bike blew its insides all over the track effectively ending the day. The good news is Bryony ran her best yet, with a 14.1 ET, despite the speed being 10mph down on last weekend due to the strong headwind and uphill nature of the track. A burnout must have helped on the notoriously slippy track, but huge wheel spin again in 1st meant the change to 2nd happened way too soon. More good news is that I have devised a small change that should give us quite a power boost. Next report will be another dyno run.
15th June Having handed in her final work for her degree last Friday, Bryony was determined to celebrate the next day at the drag strip. This despite suffering with hay fever, a cold and generally being tired out after 2 feverish last weeks at University. The bike was fresh from the dyno with another 3bhp and 3ft lbs of torque, plus of course our new lower front end. I noticed a new high frequency vibration whilst warming the bike up on the Tim Blakemore Racing dyno, no doubt due to the new Z1 pistons being a bit lighter than the standard ones. This was to lead to the loss of several nuts and a rather important item during the day. First run was a mid 14, but with another 5mph on the top end at 96mph. However all was not well as Bryony, besides feeling unwell, reported an alarming wobble just across the finish line. The second run produced the same but worse and Bryony began to look understandably unenthusiastic. Raising the fork yokes and dropping the rear tyre pressure cured the top end wobble, but instead it happened at half track and by the 4th run was getting really violent. We retired to the pit again for a rest and discussion. As Bryony described to me what was happening I suddenly realised what the problem was; over tight steering head bearings. Backing these off a smidgen cured the problem, sighs of relief all round. By this time it was unbearably hot, but Bryony insisted she was OK, though not up to doing a burnout. She also noticed a top yoke pinch bolt nut missing! This turned out to be an obscure M7 and I didn't have an M6 that was long enough to replace it. Thanks to the guy from the Kawasaki Triples Club who saved the day with one just the right length. Now we began to get clutch slip, this proved to be the lifting mechanism sticking slightly. Back again for another run in the low 14's with 97mph terminal but again the first half of the run was well below par. A member of another team said that the back tyre was pattering really badly. So for the next run I filmed from the other side of the track to try to get an overview of what was happening. As Bryony crossed the finish line, I saw marshals jumping into her lane to retrieve what proved to be the left hand exhaust.This had come adrift at about 300ft. Amazingly it proved to be our best time yet at 14.2 and 97mph despite loosing 4 tenths in the 60'! The exhaust flange had sheared off at the head, so much to Bryony's dismay it was time for home, and time to scrutinise the video footage. It soon became apparent why we were so slow to half track; the wheel was spinning through first gear and then erratically through 2nd. This resulted in a bouncing up and down on the rear tyre as it gripped and broke loose again repeatedly in 2nd. The bottom run of the chain can be seen flying all over the place and indeed it was well stretched by the end of the day. Earlier in the week I weighed the bike in it's un-supercharged form: 132Kg, that is 12 stone lighter than a standard CB500T and with nearly 40% more power! If I can repair the exhaust and service the bike we hope to be at Weston Zoyland this weekend, where perhaps we can get all the power to the track.		Go Bryony! New front end is apparent in this photo at Shakespeare County Raceway. Note shiny, curvy, tube type thing on the track.
8th June We missed the last RWYB opportunity due to the lousy weather so I decided to get on with the next step: Bryony and I removed the engine, and I chopped down the headstock tube by 20mm, welded in a new bearing cup and added some bracing. This improved the look of the bike quite a bit as planned. I also discovered how the ignition timing had become retarded by 25°: When I made the supercharger drive pulley I engraved a degree scale into it for timing purposes. Unbeknown to me the woodruff key had rolled over and allowed the pulley to rotate on the crank 15°. Hopefully all our supercharger woes have been down to this. While waiting for the new front wheel to be finished by Central Wheel Components, we stripped the top end of the engine. I then fitted the new shorter block and forged high compression Z1 pistons which takes it from 8.5:1 to about 10.4:1 and 528cc. Whoa, heady stuff! Wheel collected, and an 80/90 17 tyre fitted, the new front end was complete. The new tyre is about 2" smaller in diameter than the original 18" one and just makes the bike look so much better. I might need to alter the wheelie bars now as they have run out of adjustment. Whilst we worked on the bike, the starter cart battery quietly died in the other corner of the garage. Still showing 12.4 volts but it just fizzed when the we tried to start the bike. To add to the fun a wire then fell off one of the starter motor brushes and the push button switch developed an intermittent fault. Fellow racers assure me such things are common. Having replaced battery, starter motor and switch, normal service was restored and the bike burst into life. It certainly sounds snappier, we shall see: Next item on the agenda is a dyno session at Tim Blakemore Racing
26th April Here are a couple of pics from Eclipsephotos: Top; from the first RWYB and the lower from last weekend's event. The blur in the other lane is a new GSXR750 being thrashed - 2.1 to 2.4 60' despite Bryony's lazy 0.6 reaction to a 0.4. I just can't wait to get the high compression pistons in and supercharger back on! Over the last week I have lowered the gearing by juggling available front and rear sprockets. Hopefully this will improve things as on the previous gearing the bike would have reached top speed somewhere near Daventry! I also noticed that the front brake had been dragging, so overhauled the caliper and fitted a new disc with a few holes in it! Combined with the titanium wheel spindle, this has lost nearly 1Kg off the front end
20th April Another trip to Shakespeare County Raceway on Sunday with the Met Office promising a scorching day despite a very overcast dull sky on the way there. Our aims were to complete Bryony's first burnout, refine the launch and try to get some consistency into the 60ft times. A 13 would be nice too. To tackle the burnout she had a couple of practice sessions on our Monkey Bike during the week resulting in much sillyness. What is it about those bikes that just instantly puts a smile on your face? There was a huge crowd of RWYB cars mixed with various race cars and bikes, including the Ferretti brothers with 2(!)Top Fuel bikes. Whilst looking along their pit I noticed 2 short crankshafts on a bench, perhaps they are running some new set up with the cranks geared together Helmut Fath style I wondered. Sadly no, the crank on the new bike had broken in two on Saturday. Undeterred they were readying the other bike and put in 3 passes during the day. One of these would have been a real stormer if the blower belt had not broken before the half track mark. The 60ft was 1.00 something; probably between 80-90mph! Several oil downs during the day plus the huge queues meant we only had 6 runs between 11am and 5pm, but it was huge fun - aided by the very friendly staff at SCR. As to our objectives; no 13, but on 5 consecutive runs the 60ft was 2.1, but still with loads of wheel spin. Bryony also worked on cutting down the time of each gear change successfully after a couple of missed shifts. For the final run Bryony was determined to have a go at the burnout. As you can see this was something of a success. Even better it cured the wheel spin but caught her out a bit with the throttle so another 2.1 60ft. An excellent day where we also determined that the bike is definitely over geared, barely reaching 5th before the finish, so much more to come. I'd rather hoped my new titanium front wheel spindle would have cut at least a second off the ET . Created in the Turnertech workshops from £35 worth of material, and weighing in at a gnats whisker over half the weight of the Honda one. It was almost too beautiful to fit. More titanium to come as the year progresses. I have also acquired a spare CB250RS front hub which will be built into a 1.85 X 17 lightweight rim and skinny tyre when time permits. Much to do...........		Another superb photo by Peter Donaldson Well I think that is the burnout business nailed, now where is the gear lever!


	6th April We headed up to Shakespeare County Raceway early on Sunday morning and arrived to brilliant sunshine and lots of nerves for Bryony (memories of tank slapping wheelies from her last visit to the track on her 125!). Scrutineering and signing on were smoothly completed and by 11:20 Bryony was at the head of the fire up lane being waved onto the track alongside a 9.50 bike. A steady 15.0 was enough to dispel the nerves and from that point on there was no stopping her – apart from a huge full ¼ mile oil down which held things up for a while. Quickest run was a 14.2 at 91mph which equates to about 7,800. At this point the power is just beginning to fall off, so I think it may be a little over geared. Her 3rd run would have been a real cracker if not for loads of wheel spin followed by a wheelie as the tyre gripped: Check it out on YouTube. Unfortunately shortly before her 6th run Bryony noticed a spatter of silver paint on her leg. A quick investigation revealed a small leak in the fuel tank, so we beat a hasty retreat to the pit and removed the tank in a hurry as petrol was dripping on the hot engine! There was a microscopic fracture next to one of the mountings, so sadly time to head for home. A great day though, and so nice to meet some of the people who follow my ramblings. I've repaired the tank so hopefully we will be back at the next track day, work and weather permitting. Bryony is eager to get more track time in, learn how to do a burnout and get in the 13's. The poor old 125 is now relegated to the back of the garage and may be up for sale later this year, though I hope to bag a ride on it myself before then. .		I'm not really nervous, honest. Not any more anyway.
	24th March Yesterday morning 'The Fang' was delivered to the Tim Blakemore Racing shop for setting up on the dyno. Initially run with the standard ER5 main jets (102), it was incredibly weak, so Tim suggested a change to 120's. The transformation was immediate, though Tim wasn't happy and recommended going up to 136 on the main jets and raising the needles to richen the bottom end. A quick blast up to 8500rpm followed by a tweek of the pilot screws and she was done: 40.3bhp at 7500rpm and 29.48ft/lbs @ 6000rpm. I'm happy with that on the standard 8.5:1 compression, as it is about 9bhp up on the standard bike at the crank . As you can see from the dyno chart the power is spread wide at the top end, falling off above 7800rpm. Tim suggested more spacers under the needles might help a little as (middle curve) it is still a bit weak at the bottom end and this is reflected in the lumpy torque curve at corresponding revs (bottom curve). Check out the last run on Youtube. The next job is to get out on the track and get some ET's before I fit the newly bored spare block, and high compression Kawasaki Z1 pistons. Meanwhile the 125 is nearly ready and work continues on refurbishing the S&S Super B carb. More next month.
	10th March OK, now you can listen to the 'The Fang' running on carbs and petrol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkHN5hRNxZI CB500T aficionados may notice that it ticks over slower than a standard engine, this being due to the more even firing intervals.
	1st March Yesterday Bryony and I removed the supercharger and associated parts, and replaced them with the carburetors. I then spent a few hours checking the engine over very carefully and made a startling discovery: The ignition timing was retarded by 15°! I don't know how this has happened, but it certainly explains a lot of our problems; from lack of tick over to lack of power. With everything now sorted we topped the bike up with some petrol and started the old thing up. After a bit of warming, up she settled down into a nice even tick over, sounding something like a Harley Sportster. Now I want to put the blower back on! During the week I hope to run the bike again and video the result for Youtube.
	23rd February Despite all the doom and gloom in the media, Turnertech have been very busy and time for working on the bikes has been pretty limited so far: Until last Saturday 'The Fang' had lain where I parked it in September. However I have converted the front brake on Bryony's 125 'Luigi' to hydraulic operation, by fitting a Derbi Senda brake caliper and master cylinder. Also making a new brake lever for the master cylinder so that it matches the existing clutch lever. The caliper grips a much modified CB125TDC brake disc and the result of all this is a weight saving of over 1Kg. Work on a spare engine has begun with a lightened crank and new main bearings but that is as far as it has got to date. The Kawasaki ER5 carburetors I bought were spaced closer together than the 500T so much spare time was spent making new brackets and extending the fuel connector and choke linkage. Two shiny new manifold adaptors finish the job and the carbs are now ready to go on. Fuel line will be plumbed in to the existing fuel tank by a threaded union, thus allowing easy return to the blown arrangement. However, before we go to carbs and petrol I wanted to fit the S&S Super B carb to the supercharger manifold. The plan being that near the end of the season when the bike is running fine we will go back the the blown methanol setup and run an 8 (only joking Bryony!). I managed to adapt the existing inlet manifold from the SU setup, though I had to modify the clutch cover to clear the fuel line. This weekend the ER5 carbs go on and then later off we go to Tim Blakemore Racing for a dyno setup. After last year's few runs, I was convinced that fueling was our problem and that I would have to go to a 360° crank. However after a few gallons of homebrew, months of pondering and examination of videos I am not so sure. I now suspect the ignition, and a quick look at the optical pickups showed that the right one is covered in dust. The video of my last run at Keevil shows a plume of methanol from the right exhaust. Hopefully by going back to carbs and petrol I can resolve the issues for later in the year. More news next week....maybe

News 2009