Ash-en Faced!

Given the unholy speed with which fellow supermonoist Ash is throwing together his very tasty looking CRF 450-based project, (click it; he puts us to shame!) and the excruciating pace of ours, we had better get the finger out.

Its not that we’ve not been working, but there were some minor yet fundamental details which needed sorting:

So:

oil lines- check! Thanks Ben at Pirtek...
exhaust springs- check!
clutch lever assembly- check!
front brake line- check!
stripped thread on the brake caliper –sadly, also check….
the all-important kill switch –check!
ignition timing- check, check and check again!

You can see the trigger for the latter on the end of the crankshaft. Its a Silent Hektik unit, and allowed me to ditch the hefty alternator rotor/flywheel unit.

It also became evident that the cam was a tooth out, so I’ve had the engine out and back in as well. One tooth- “a minor yet fundamental detail”…

So these photos now show rather less of a mock up and more of a near-final machine.

Boyd will soon be on the case with a battery box and a few little brackets (ahem! once I send him some details on sizes etc- sorry mate!). However, as previously, these can be secured with cable ties. We just need to get her on the rollers. Because now I think with some oil in the frame, some fuel in the tank, and a car on the rollers, she may be in a position where she'll bang and pop. I do have the feeling that the 145 jets in the Keihin CR33s will be too big (these were feeding a 690 motor), and that the ignition timing is very approximate. But we need a starting point and now its tantalisingly close.

However neither of us can meet until 3 weekends from now. Life has seemed to get in the way of Team Thumper. This is piss! More on that later. And priming the oil system would seem like a very good idea. This will require running (plug out) on the rollers until we are sure there are no air locks and that its all getting where it should. Even when the motor turns by way of 4-stroke internal combustion principles we then have the chassis to address. Of course, a test day at Mallory may show that she handles absolutely beautifully, runs in without any drama and then gives herself a lick of paint whilst driving us back from the pub. Although I feel even most optimistic reader will know that this is not an entirely likely scenario.

It has been noted that it has taken us an unfeasibly long time to get ourselves into a semblance of shape. And we have had a lot of help from lots of people, to whom we are indebted. Thus the executive decision has been taken that we will have to compete next season. However, the author hasn’t quite broken it to one of the (generally) silent partners of Team Thumper. I am almost certain that she does not read this….