Track Bike Update 2017 - Part 2

Turns out that the simple changes I was planning for the 2017 Track Bike Update spawned so many little subprojects, I ended up having to brake it up into two parts. This is Part 2. It is nearly as exciting, mostly because you haven't seen it yet. If you want to go back and review Part 1, click on that link! If you'd like to see more interesting things about the R6 Track Bike, click that or maybe here on the 2016 Track Season Review.

Its now the weekend of Feb 4. When we left you at Part 1, the Woodcraft clip ons had just finished. But I was a bit concerned about the throttle.So I took everything apart with the idea of getting a new throttle cable or maybe lubing up this one. I ordered a new cable and a Motion Pro Cable Luber (and some $14 lube). For lubing throttle cables, this thing was a 100% COMPLETE TOTAL FLUSHING of $10. What a waste. It completely doesn't work on any cable with an adjuster or anything else on the end. It MUST have only the cable sheath end or the lube just sprays out of the joint between cable end and sheath end. Maybe it would work on the clutch cable.

Here is what it takes to get to the other end of the throttle cable. These are the "new" Motion Pro cables. The cables come through an opening under the frame and above the radiator. They then go over to the top left of this picture. It uses two cables in push-pull operation. One cable goes under and the other over. All that to move the sensor just to the right of the cable attachments. Seems the sensor could have been located somewhere a bit more convenient. And, BTW, once I had these new cables in place, I had to use a pipe wrench to open and close the throttle. So my problem was not the cables or the lube. I am a rube for thinking it was lube.

So I put the old cables back on. Seems the poor action has to do with a couple of things - how the thottle tube is put into the sleeve, the angle the throttle sleeve is mounted, how far the handlebars are turned, and the route of the cable. I found that if I mounted the throttle sleeve a particular way and routed the cable a certain way, then the throttle wouldn't bind. Note the white cable tie - that keeps the cable route from changing

Here is how the throttle sleeve is mounted to work the best. Maybe I could mount the power switch and starter on the other side. There is lots more room.You can also see both halves of the Woodcraft clip on clamp.

These are wheels. Some people call them rims. Some people call them tires (??). But they are wheels. Bought them from a guy on the R6 forum. They are in excellent condition. I pulled off the front rotors (not the same kind that the GB Racing cover covers on the engine) and cleaned a bit of surface dirt from the wheels. I also cut off the vertical valve stem on the front wheel and will put a 90 degree valve on it. I have new bearings and seals too, but the ones in the wheels feel fine..

I didn't know the history of the wheels or the bearings, so I figured I'd replace the bearings. This is the brake side with the seal removed. Note the c-clip in the groove. Lucky I have c-clip pliers. I knocked this one out from the other side using a big drift (kind of like a punch).

On the chain side, the main bearing (same size as the one on the brake side) is in the chain cush drive. I guess that's cause the chain side carries a lot of load. Then, in the wheel itself, there is a needle bearing. No inner race - the axle just rides directly on the needle bearing. I tried using my drift on these, but there was very little edge of the bearing I could get my drift on. So I slowly destroyed it. Here it is destroyed.

I was pissed and frustrated and found nothing about the proper way of removing these needle bearings. I tried cutting them with a crappy dremel, tried tapping it out with a screwdriver and every other long thing I own. I tried to heat the wheel hub and then hit the outer race with some ice. Then pick it out with picks. Nothing. Eventually I used a socket coming from the other end. The first one was a couple of mm smaller than the bore. It was working ok, but then I found I just went through the race. I found another that fit perfectly, maybe a bit too tight. So, what the hell, I hammered that one through from the other side and voila, out pops the race!!!! Very happy. It was a 29'' craftsman 1/2" drive socket, btw.

Ahhhh! The offending needle bearing race, ejected from the cush drive side. Funny how the dremel didn't make a mark on the inner race.That's pretty hard metal.

This is the wheel with a new needle bearing put in place. Its tough to get these started. Heated the hub good and hot and had the bearings in the freezer. Brought them into the garage in a bowl of ice. Then, when the hub is nice and hot and expanded, I drop the bearings into place. They make it about 3 nanometers deeper than if I just left them all ambient temperature.

Once the wheel bearings were done on the spare wheels, I got the oil changed. I had drained the oil about three hours earlier to get all the drops out. While I was on the left side, I thought I'd clean up the spocket cover and the case guard. So with those off and cleaned, I got the heavy gunk off the case and surrounding areas.

Here's the new oil filter. Its a HiFloFiltro. Its an HF204 RC. RC means RaCing. But you can still use it if you just do track days. It is definitely different than the K&N. Inside is much different. Also, the o-ring was pre lubed.

I safety wire all the oil fittings. This means the oil filter and oil plug. That's how oil can get out. But it can get out the holes that let it in as well. So here I drill a bolt that goes into the water pump to hold the safety wiring for the dipstick. Its a 1/16" bit with the bolt in a 2" drill press vice. Works pretty good.

Here both the oil fill plug and the dipstick are safety clipped. The oil fill plug is wired to a bracket that holds that water pump tuve. The dipstick is clipped to a wire into the far left water pump cover bolt.

It's March 12 and I will finally get around to installing the Woodcraft Shark Fin / Toe Guard. The first thing I did (after waiting two or three weeks to figure how I was going to do it) as to mock up the install point. I started with some painters tape along the bottom of the swingarm and then taped the toe guard in the position I wanted.

The

The reason for the tape was so I could see the positioning markings on the swingarm, by the magic of the Sharpie. First I marked the forward position of the toe guard, taped it on, and then drew the marks for the mounting holes.

Next, I tapped the holes. I decided to drill 3/16" holes and tap them for M6x1.00 bolts. Woodcraft instructions have you drill much bigger 7/16" holes and then insert Rivet Nut Inserts (like wall anchors for metal). You then would use 1/4" bolts to tighten the anchors into the bigger holes. I prefer to leave as much swingarm as possible to minimize weaking. Plus, I figure most of the force on the bolt will be shear forces which should not put much load on the threads. Plus, if they strip, I can drill them out and use the Rivet Nut Inserts.

The hardest part about tapping by hand is getting them perfectly perpendicular. The first hole I started very slowly and ensured the tap was entering perpendicularly along the swingarm and from the side. Once that was done, I ran a longer 6mm bolt into that hole as a reference guide for the second hole.

Once tapped, I ran in a couple of black hex head bolts and was done. In this picture, it appears the toe guard is behind the sproket. That's just due to the angle of the photo. The toe guard is about 3/4" in front of the sprocket when looking directly from the side.

Here's another picture of the bottom left side of hte motor. You can see the MJS exhaust collector feeding to the slip on over to the right. You can also see the oil filter and drain plug safety wiring.

End of March 2017 and all done. This is actually after the first practice session of the year (March 25, 2017). I call it practice since I was like a slug. I think I will widen the bars (pull the bars out about 25mm) for some more leverage. Rear brake worked fine. I was a bit concerned I might foul the brake resevoir after its relocation. But no problems.

This is the left side. My practice day was the first ever I did GP shift. Kind of weird after many old man years riding standard shift, but I can see why the good riders like it. Much easier to tap down an upshift as leaving a turn before getting all the way back on the bike. Right now, the rear sets are in the highest, rearest position. They felt fine and I was comfy. But I may move them down and forward one notch - just cause I can and I should experiment.

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