Author Topic: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?  (Read 43520 times)

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Offline Koncretekid

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #60 on: April 08, 2014, 09:31:28 PM »
Jon,
I'd say you were lucky.  When I broke the primary chain (first time), it wadded itself up around the clutch chainwheel and locked up the rear wheel when entering the front straight at Shubie (Nova Scotia road racing track).  I did somersaults down the front straight - - ended up with a badly abraded helmet and faceshield, torn leathers, and a broken ankle.  I didn't know it was broken, so I loaded up the wreckage and drove 250 miles home only to find out the next day when I had trouble putting my boot on.

I'm buying a new chain for this years runs, even though the old one doesn't look worn out!  If I throw a chain, it will probably end up inside the crankcase.

Tom
We get too soon oldt, and too late schmart!
Life's uncertain - eat dessert first!

Offline Rasmussen

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #61 on: April 10, 2014, 02:15:52 PM »
Tom: PM`ed you. Great info on the Scitsu. Never heard about them, but they surely look like the right choice, especially the built in rechargeable battery is a nice option when running without a generator. It doesn`t make a lot of sense to order one at the moment, as I hope to disassemble real soon, and probably won`t ride the bike before that. It´s definitely going on my wishlist though.

Jon: Automatic chainoiling doesn`t sound all bad. You may know this, but the first of the 750 SOHC K models actually had it fitted from the factory, I believe up until the K4 :-)

Had the day off today, and got a few loose ends tightened up:

Had the tire moved to the new rearwheel. Made a brakestay and a new attachment for the cable. It feels like this brake may actually be able to slow the bike somewhat down from speed as opposed to the old Jawa drum I used to run.

Finished mounting the fairing. Rulebook says at least 3 attachments, so that`s what it got. 2 bolts to the lower triple tree, and this, kind of rude, attachment at the top. Could have made it fancier, but this was the easiest, and makes the fairing very easy to remove in case of a class change.

This could be the last photo of it assembled on the lift :-)

Have drilled a lot of nuts and bolts for lockingwire. Needed just one single hole in the frontaxle, when my drillpress suddenly started to run kind of concentric. In my hamfistedness I managed to break both the small titanium coated drills I had at hand, and ruin my borejig, before figuring out what was wrong. Bugger!

Hope to get my tank and fairing painted this weekend, if it isn`t to cold. Painted the frame last January in 5 degrees centigrade, and won`t do that mistake again. Paint never adhered properly, and a simple slip of a spanner is enough to make it scratch or in some instances even come of.

My leathers are at the taylor to be made SCTA legal. Had 2 sets, a onepiece suit and a zip together set. Reading the rulebook carefully I suddenly realised none of them were legal. The suit has minor perforations on the back of the legs and on the inside of the elbows, and the zip together set only zips together in the rear. Well, nothing is simple I guess. I´m having it fixed and hope to bring them both, just in case.

UPS has promised to give me a quote on shipping tomorrow at the latest. Hope to get a decent offer, and start building a shipping container next weekend. Fingers crossed!

Keep forgetting: numberplates! I have to make numberplates :-P
« Last Edit: April 10, 2014, 02:19:20 PM by Rasmussen »

Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #62 on: April 10, 2014, 02:29:12 PM »
Are both ends of your stay removable?

When we installed a Charlie Toy/AirTech fairing on my ZX12 I wanted to be able to take it off and run naked, too, so I used some stays to hold the windscreen/fairing top stable.  All was fine until I took off the top of the fairing - and noticed these two pieces of 5/16 rod sticking back and up at me from the nose of the bike.  I cut 'em near the bottom, drilled both the cut ends, and fitted a collar (holes drilled to match the ones in the rods) and secured with safety pins.  I expected that the inspectors wouldn't like it if I had two shishkebab skewers sticking out and pointing towards my shoulders when making a run.  It doesn't look all that pretty, but it does pass inspection.   :-)
Jon E. Wennerberg
 a/k/a Seldom Seen Slim
 Skandia, Michigan
 (that's way up north)
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Offline Rasmussen

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #63 on: April 10, 2014, 02:47:36 PM »
D***! Yes it is, now I have to admit I lazied out and simply bent a piece of threaded rod :roll:
4 bolts removed and both brackets and fairing comes off as a complete unit :-)

Saw your bike on their homepage btw. Beautiful fairing indeed :-).
Funny how I`ve considered myself a gearhead for all of my adult life, but never had given aero a thought until half a year ago. Now I read anything on the subject I can find. This place is slowly changing me :-D

« Last Edit: April 10, 2014, 02:49:19 PM by Rasmussen »

Offline Koncretekid

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #64 on: April 10, 2014, 11:11:19 PM »
Ivan,
Good Aero is everything at Bonneville and a good body has netted me 15% gain over naked (well I never really had a good body, anyway!)  However, partial attempts rarely pay off big dividends, but they do add to the "Bling" factor.  The tail end is at least as important as the front.  Keep up the good work.
Tom
We get too soon oldt, and too late schmart!
Life's uncertain - eat dessert first!

Offline Rasmussen

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #65 on: April 12, 2014, 11:20:04 AM »
Tom
A 15% gain! That is not to be taken lightly. When seeing the lenghts some of you guys go to to get good aero, I can see how primitive my attempt seems. Would love to try my hand at building a full fairing one day, but initially I wasn`t going for PS, it was like a last moment decision, mostly because the record was lower. If everything goes well, I hope to remove the fairing and run unstreamlined. I also did build to fuel specs despite running gas. Just wanted to keep my options open :-)

Todays work: A fresh coat of paint on tank and fairing



Used Hammerite metal paint because it`s simple to work with and pretty tough stuff.The hammered effect is probably not to everyones liking, but hey; who can argue against a paint that comes with built in "speed dimples"? :-D

Offline sofadriver

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #66 on: April 12, 2014, 11:44:56 AM »
Uh-oh......... this isn't going to start another one of those "golf ball dimple" discussions, is it?  :evil:

That looks good. I've always liked the look of Hammerite but I can never get the proper finish with the spray cans. I think using Hammerite out of the regular cans and a small roller probably gives the better dimpled effect. Did you roll or spray?
Mike in Tacoma

"aww, what the hell - let's just do it".............

Bike #833
100cc A/G, A/F and APS/G (in 2019)

Offline Rasmussen

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #67 on: April 12, 2014, 12:27:51 PM »
Haha, now that would be fun :-D

I sprayed this on, but with a decent spray gun, and not a rattlecan. I´m not sure Hammerite wants you to do that. Have used the stuff for about 15 years, and there used to be instructions on how to spray it on the can, but those disappeared some years ago, and now it only says apply by brush or roll. Another peculiar thing is that is used to say it took a month to harden, now it says 4 hours. Guess they changed the formula :-)

You can get a fairly decent result with a brush, maybe not good enough for a tank, but pretty allright for a wheelhub or similar stuff :-)

Offline Koncretekid

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #68 on: April 12, 2014, 07:27:27 PM »
Tom
A 15% gain! That is not to be taken lightly. When seeing the lenghts some of you guys go to to get good aero, I can see how primitive my attempt seems. Would love to try my hand at building a full fairing one day, but initially I wasn`t going for PS, it was like a last moment decision, mostly because the record was lower. If everything goes well, I hope to remove the fairing and run unstreamlined. I also did build to fuel specs despite running gas. Just wanted to keep my options open :-)

Todays work: A fresh coat of paint on tank and fairing



Used Hammerite metal paint because it`s simple to work with and pretty tough stuff.The hammered effect is probably not to everyones liking, but hey; who can argue against a paint that comes with built in "speed dimples"? :-D
Ivan,
Can't argue with your logic. In 2011, first year for my bike, I built a small tail section which was (by the new 5" rule) ruled partial streamlining.  I went 114 mph without the tail section, then mounted the primitive tail and added 3mph to get both ends of the record.  In 2012 I built the full fairing and went 134 mph, so you see the advantage of the full meal deal.  Just a few changes for 2013 and added another 9 mph. 
I hope I get to see your bike, but I just can't make it to Speedweeks; only Bubs.
Tom
We get too soon oldt, and too late schmart!
Life's uncertain - eat dessert first!

Offline Rasmussen

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #69 on: April 26, 2014, 07:55:01 AM »
Hi all. Sorry about the lack of updates. It`s not that I haven`t been doing anything, on the contrary I`ve been very busy working with getting eveything ready.

UPS finally came through with a decent offer. 1000$ shipping each way. On top of that comes 500$ worth of customs papers. Apparently some special papers are needed, to avoid paying import taxes going into the US and again when returning here. The UPS representative has been very helpful in explaining to me how it works, and they even offered to handle everything for 200$. An offer I definitely couldn`t refuse :-)
A big thank you, to all of you who have been helpful with advice regarding shipping, both here in the diary and through PM`s

Time to build a shipping container:

The size of the frame pretty much dictated the shape of the box, that has to stay below 1 m3. Lenght and height of frame +roughly an inch is the same as the inside measurements of box, and width was adjusted to just stay below the 1 m3. Had hoped to be allowed to make a square box and put it on a pallet, but was told the size of the pallet would be added to the final measurements. That`s the reason for the "fork lift opening" in the bottom of the boxframe.

Finished box. Believe I have more hours in this thing than I have in my blower setup.

An unexpected problem was that I´m not allowed to ship to a private person, but have to ship to a company.
Wes of Four Aces Cycle Supply, has very kindly agreed to receive the bike, and keep it until I come and pick it up :cheers:
A few photos of the finished bike before disassembly:

In front of the container. Not much room to spare it looks like:

Still have to figure out where to place the numbers :? Believe the sides of the fairing will be ok, but in case of a classchange to non streamlined I´m lost. Can`t see any way to mount plates without violating some rule. Bill has been in touch with tech, and they have promised to take a look. So far the plan is to just bring along the plates and a bunch of printed stickers with the numbers, and figure it out on the salt, in case they don`t get back before I start packing.

Still waiting on my leathers to come back from the taylor, but helmet and gloves have been bought, and I´ve started collecting spareparts from Ebay and other sources. Shipping price is independent of weight up to a metric ton, so may as well bring everything that can be crammed into the container :-D

Tom: I´d really love to meet up with you some day, and pick up some of that "go fast" knowledge you have aquired :cheers:. Maybe, just maybe I`ll show up at BUB`s in a couple of years :-)

Offline Rasmussen

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #70 on: June 29, 2014, 04:16:17 AM »
One final update:
Not nearly as much space in the container as hoped for. Well, managed to cram it all in with a little effort. On the bright side there won`t be much space for my stuff to bounce around to much


Around the 28`th of May, when I know the Brits had their deadline I started to worry a bit, and called UPS twice a week. At last they got tired of me, and finally picked up the crate 2 weeks ago. They tell me not to worry, and promise to have it in California by the first of August

Tickets have been ordered, and we`ll be flying into LAX late Sunday evening on the third of August. 2 return tickets were cheaper than freighting the bike, as expected. Makes you wonder :roll:
Had the bike drawn from a photo, and figured it would be a nice touch to have some t-shirts printed to hand out to those who have helped come this far. They`re not here yet, but looks nice in the photo. Being black they`ll help to keep us warm on the salt :-D

Had a few parts coming in to late to be packed in the crate, so they`ll have to go in the suitcase. A spare blower may be overdoing it, but made a good deal on a brand new one, and couldn`t resist. Hopefully it won`t be needed and will find a new home on a streetbike after SW. Also Bill is running a similar unit, and I suspect someone else may be running one also, so if I won`t need it, it could maybe save the day for someone else.
The new piston is a stock 6,5:1, as opposed to the 8,7 in there now. If the current one decides to give up, going down in compression may be a wise move :-)

Suddenly having the project out of the shop left a bit of a vacuum after some busy months, so to avoid going cold turkey  I turned my old lawnmover into this. Doing almost 30 MPH I hope it won`t get me killed before Speedweek :-D


See you guys on the salt!

D.... it felt good writing that :-D

Offline tauruck

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #71 on: June 29, 2014, 06:29:38 AM »
Hey, son of Rasmus.

Hope you have a great time over there.
Run fast and safe.

Do you know how to put that bike together?. :-D

Offline thefrenchowl

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #72 on: June 30, 2014, 08:43:16 AM »
Hi Rasmussen,

See you on the Salt Flats, not too long to wait now...

Patrick
Flat Head Forever

...What exactly are we trying to do here?...

Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #73 on: July 01, 2014, 01:48:25 AM »
The UPS folks do a good job.  A few years ago they shipped an adult live killer whale from here in Oregon to some place far away.  The big fish survived the trip and no one got eaten during the journey. 

Offline tauruck

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Re: It`s it`s The Ballerum Blitz. Room for another Beeza?
« Reply #74 on: July 01, 2014, 01:52:43 AM »
I'd love to know how they'd handle Luis Suarez?. :-D
He bites.