chris2992

SEXY!

I'm in the process of restoring a 1971 Kawasaki F7 enduro that hasn't been ridden for approx 10 years and the time that it was ridden (9k miles) was 95% off road. Therefore there is a lot of old baked on grease, dirt and crap. I have tried the Pine Sol parts wash basin, and while it works well for dirt, grease from the chain and swingarm pivot area laughs at the "de-greasing" powers. I'd say that if you have some serious funk going on, that you better spend the jack on real degreaser. On a second note, it appears to take off paint too if left too long. I have been letting parts soak for 3 to 4 days at a time, some parts do two or three cycles, and when they come out after a longer soak the paint is blistered. This may be the fact that it is a 40 year old bike, or it may be the fact that it is paint and not powder, but I don't think that I'd trust my VFR parts in the solution. For reference, my solution is mixed 5 parts pine sol 3 parts water.

Sweet, thanks a ton for the info, I'll be picking up a set asap. In reguards to the older model R1RR with the smaller heat sink, I was told that the internals were far less superior to the 04-06 units. Not sure is this is valid or not, but something to think about. Either way I'm sure that both are a vast improvement over the honda peice.

Post the charging system results from the chart on the first post of this thread. That will allow for a proper diagnosis. However I'd say that your RR is smoked. Look for the R1 RR thread how to.

The 04-06 RR was upgraded from yamaha, slightly larger foot print and larger heat sinks. However you have to cut some of the heat sinks off so the end result may be the same. Personally I think that the 04-06 probably runs cooler than the previous ones, but they will likely be so much better than the OEM that either would be a good choice. I just crimped them, but put some di-electric grease in the hole before inserting the wire to prevent corrossion Yes, Yes and Yes. I would not use the OEM connector, it has proven time and time again to be a weak link and you are already altering the bikes harness removing the OE RR. You will still have a "quick disconnect" point at the rr by just unpluging the spades. Hope this helps, if not ask some more.

After watching some of the videos on the Blaxey website, I tried to put the bike into the chock by pushing it from the side (the way they do it in the blaxey video's) and it rolls in much easier. And since there isn't as much effort going in, the chock has much less force tring to slide it forward. I have re-done the Plasti dip paint, and am letting it dry, hopefully tonight I'll get to see if it works for sure. I did a few trial runs with the paint that had pealed up and it worked great, now I just have to figure out how to keep the stuff from rolling.

Here is a picture of the bike in the chock and tied down. Here is a short video of me putting the bike into the chock, then shaking the bike, and removing from the chock. The plasti-dip paint just rolled up on the bottom, so it isn't the answer. This is the reason that the chock slides forward when the bike falls into the chock. I have a few more ideas, but if push comes to shove, I'll just install the McMaster bumpers.

It is shielded gas, however the tank was nearly empty, and I was having a hard time getting the pressures right. Since welding that, I got a new tank and the splatter is much better. That was one thing that I did notice is that clean is very impportant, if there was any paint residue or anything else on the surface the weld sucks.

That is how I learned too, I welded two peices together then looked at the back to see how it changed, then cut it apart to see how much penetration I got. I was getting 3/4 of the metal thickness on most welds that I cut open, so I assume the same here, the back of the metal looks similar. However where I could I welded on both sides to eleminate any concerns. I'll have to post a picture when I get home of the welds before paint. There was no more heat avaliable from my little ole mig, I had her pegged out to get these results. It is rated for materials up to .125" (1/8), which is what I used, but I do agree that alittle more heat and I'd have had better results. Only time and testing will tell if I have any structural concerns, but I'm not too worried, it is strong as an ox and as anal as I am, I'll frequently check all the welds for stress cracks.

Just out of curiosity what were you charging, I put a pencil to materials and my time to build a slight variation of this one. There is over $75 in materials and supplies involved in this monster. Plus to build this one I have about 20 hours in it, but figure that I could probably finish one every 6 hours or so (welding, cleaning and paint). So for me to sell these, I'd have to charge minimum of $150, and at that price, you can buy the harbor freight one that I listed above for $90, or stroll over to new enough and pick up the power stand for $120.

I got the McMaster bumpers in, and I just didn't like them. They were too small and looked cheep. So I got to thinking about the rubber dip coating for tools and such. Then I found out that you can get it in a spray can, the product is called Plasti Dip, here's the website LINKY. I have only put one coat on, and they suggest 4, so over the next few days I'll post some pictures of the process if it works. After one coat, the surface isn't soft, but it is tacky, so I think I'm on the right track.

See first post for attached .dwg file for the chock. As for building one, to even break even on time and getting materials (I'm out of freebies), I'd have to charge too much. Here is a link to one in harbor freight that is built like mine but bolted together ( Harbor Freight Linky ). At $92, it seems like a steal. Thanks for the comments guys. Seb, on this particular one, you couldn't back the bike into it. You could make a second flapper gate that was wider and it would work, or come up with some way to make the side supports on the flapper adjustable so that you could scoot them in for the front and out for the back.