emry

Heat is used during the vulcanization process to turn a very soft plyable rubber into a very durable and resiliant one by actually changing the chemical compounds in the rubber. This is done in a mold under very high pressure. Granted the heat used is higher, this is what is required to cause the chemical changes. After the vulcanization the tire is quite chemically different than it began, heat now acts difeerently on the newly formed molecules. And the forces acting on a tire on a motorcycle is very different than sitting in a static mold. Vulcaniztion Sorry to swipe your link, it appears we were researching at the same time. Kudos. Jim Allen is the US manager of Roadracing for Dunlop. That was a tongue in check suggestion.

But a voltmeter on the battery. Should have at least 12.25 with the key off. Turn the key on, if the voltage drops below 10.5 volts most electrial circuits will not operate, ie ECM. It is fairly common to have a battery loose one cell, but be still be able to be read over 12 volts, after a charge due to its surface charge. Appling a load will quickly drop the battery to its true level. Remeber that a light bulb (headlight) will illuminate with very low voltage, so that is not a very good indication of charge. Be very careful jump starting your bike. Most bike electronics do not take kindly to high voltage levels. Many starter / chargers can put out over 15 volts in starter mode, this can quickly fry expensive parts. Many car alternators can also put out 14.5 volts which I have seen cause problems also.

Most race teams will do what is called "scrubing in" to check for balance and vibration issues, normally this is only one lap. This also should generate enough heat to allow the tire compounds to settle. It is fairly well accepted that a race tires first full heat cycle is its best. As more heat cycles are put though a tire or a prolonged heat cycle (such as a race) the tire becomes greasy and begins to loose grip. You will hear riders talk about how their tire "went off" toward the end of the race. As for the chemistry don't forget that tires are vulcanized rubber. Heat is used to cure the rubber. Tire rack heat cycling As for the true chemisty - Fire an email to Jim Allen

For changing tires I am old fashioned, spoons and a gravity balancer. Gravity balancer page Tire changing tools This should work for motorcycle tires, if not you can find ones similar pretty cheaply. As for buying the tires I do try to buy locally, at least I give them a chance, as for letting them change them. Not so much. If I was forced into letting someone else do it I would probably look for a BMW dealer, they should be competent enough to be able to handle it.

He did another trip from somewhere in Europe to East Asia that I watched. It was prety neat.

I triple that motion.

Ohh.. Assembly error from the factory.... Whodathunk??? Do a search for crabing the engine/trans. If you have even meger mechanical skills you can tackle this project, just be paitient and take yor time, ask for help before you need it. Maybe the clutch tech had to much grappa at lunch. Shame. Would be worth looking in to though.

Dodge 300 Cross Ram. They later designed a shorter version where the carbs sat just above each valve cover. Similar intakes are often seen on dragsters and are normally called "tunnel ram" where the intakes are pointed straight up through the hood. As the pressure wave travels back and forth in the intake or exhaust it is known a 1st order, 2nd order, etc. Utilizing the 1st order pressure wave often results in very long lengths. Tuning is normally done for the 3rd and up. As stated previously the pressure wave does lose some effectivness during its reflections.

No crossover on the Vincent. Single straight pipes. Interesting that it has a flat spot at 4k too.

Car exhaust tuning page HD exhaust page, some other interesting tidbits too Another car article with a good explaination of exhaust theory. Interesting College page, calc's and has Thermodynamics info, may be high level for some. For those of you who prefer tree based reading More tree based reading. And I will try and dig up my old engineering notes, I have all of those darn formulas somewhere. Most definately, but often designers, goverment regulations, and space requirements can dictate the real outcome.

Touche, Ratch. As usual you do a very good job of backing up your statements. Evidenced by many of your previous posts you have both knowledge and experience, a key requirement in many technical fields. So how about this, instead of pointing out in detail the flawed logic (or fantasy) of others, take the opportunity to educate them. Find a link or two related to the subject and expand on them. You have stated in the past that you spend a great deal of time in front of a computer, and we both know the wealth of knowledge that is available online if you know were or how to look. As for your responses, I was only refering the ones on page 4. Sorry for any confusion. Don't forget flight was fantasy as was many other things that are taken for granted. Let us steer thoose to the resources that will allow subjects like this to move forward instead of trying to silence them. Here dlaing, exhaust theory. Just one I picked from google. quote]As a continuing habit, I find this to be disingenuous, potentially damaging, and that it erodes the credibility and value of any public Forum. Sadly, there are some who don't seem to have much of any built-in monitoring capability for recognition of when they're in over their heads, or for separating fact from fantasy. Somebody's gotta make the appropriate challenges, Emry. I reckon making and defending challenges are a primary benefit of Web discussion, or very quickly there's no value left in the Forum. I really do appricate your challanges, normally they are insightful, but lately they do seem more like an a attack (towards some). As a previous educator I was rather put off. Curiosity = Diveristy. It is Ok to let someone know that their ideas are not realistic, but lets spend the time to educate them as to why, and if you want to add credibilty to the forum bring in outside supporting info. That way we all benefit.

I really hate to get drawn into this but, Ratch you are off base here. This is a Technical forum, but many do not have the technical background so they speculate. I see no folly in someone wanting to learn or improve something. But picking apart someones posts. I found no techincal insight in your responses to dlaing. If you have something to offer towards the posts intent, then please add it. If you just want to vent on someone who has an idea please send them a personal email and lets try to keep our posts on track. As for desinging an exhaust system there are numerous formulas that are used for designing an exhaust. Im sure a little google action would turn them up. Normally exhaust tuning is used to take advantage of a negative pressure wave during valve overlap so that the fresh incoming intake charge does not go straight out the open exhaust valve.

No, but some feel that the very tight valve clearences (at least here in the US) were done to help noise tests. Motoguzzinix - Quite right, a MAF or other element designed to sense pressure would make for a better fueling. In our case predicted airflow was calculated by the factory and used to generate our static 3D fueling map.

Unfortunatly not true. TP values just report how far the throttle is open. This valve corrolates to a predicted airflow. Which may or may not be right.

Engines are dynamic devices. They operate over a broad range of rpm's, temp's and pressures. Not to mention fuel quality etc. Unfortunatley while the engine is a dynamic device the components it is made up of are mostly static devices. Exceptions being igntion timing and fueling. It is well documented about the tuned length of the intake, exhaust, flow and velocity of the intake and exhaust, port size, cam timing and valve lift, bore, stroke blah blah blah. At times (rpm) these static systems work well, at others they work poorly. When all of the static systems are working well together you get really good power, when only a few are working well your output is ok, and when they all are out of wack, power stinks. Finding the right combination is a very tricky matter and many people claim to have the proper solution which may produce good results, even though it can vary from another method that produces as good as results. Car makers (and some mc makers) have been adding dynamic systems to the engines, multi-length intakes, variable valve timing and lift, exhaust backpressure valves, etc. Even experiments with variable compression have been done. Most of these systems are better able to perform over a broader rpm range thus minimizing the "out of wack" flat spots. Engines are very simple devices that mainly are design to ingest a quantity of air, heat it up really fast, and use the expanding gas (nitrogen) to do something, move a piston, turn a rotor, spin a turbine, etc. The more air in, the hotter you get it, the more power you get out the the fuel. Most likely the imfamous "flat spot" and resulting lean running is not just a fueling / timing issue. Otherwise a simple reprogram would solve the problem quickly. Many have reported sucess by changing the crossover and reprograming, I am sure there is dyno chart around here somewhere. Could a cylinder head re-design (proper porting) and correct cam also solve the problem. Maybe.

Was passing a camper in Colorado on a '85 ZX900. Twisty road, really no where to pass, and it was cold. Short straight, Wide Open- blast pass the camper. About 80mph. Kool. Close the throttle to hall it down to about 45 for the right hand turn coming up. OHHH SHITT!!!!!Yep, carbs iced up WFO!!! Probably could have reached for the key, but coming up to a turn going way way to fast I was really glad I could keep both hands on the bars and just use my thumb to flick the switch. One hand was holding in the clutch in the other was slowing me down. Just made the turn by using the run-off on the outside of the far lane. It was only about a 50 foot drop down to a river. Luckly no one was coming the other direction.

Ratchet - you really do live here don't you.

Now that I think about it back in the eighties when a customers "cush" rubbers were worn and they were to cheap to pay for new ones we would just fill the space with some silicone - yeah tub & tile. Pop the drive back in, let it dry for a day and send them on their way. Never had any complaints.

I just had to chime in. First Drill the valve stems - many Hi-Po versions are already hollow and filled with sodium --- ooohhhhh.... salt..... Second "Lash" would be defined as clearence "open space" between two parts. What our cush drives allow is "deflection" or movement beyond initial contact. Normally deflection is used when a material will return to its orginal position when the force is removed - springs, bump stops, cush rubbers, etc.. If the material does not return that would be called --- bent or compressed. By drill or replacing with a lower durometer material you are allowing more deflection. This could allow more "slop" which is unwanted lash, drive a 100k Chevy 4x4 and go from reverse to drive, that nice clunk whould be slop. So what is the target resilience of the material, we have a durometer, (how much force it takes to defect our cush) how fast should our cush return to its orginal state. These are the questions that inquiring minds want to know. Man... all these pages over some holes in a rubber. Almost forget... Balsa wood rocks!!! Pete i'll take a set. Whittle 'em up. But seriously balsa wood is still a popular material in light aircraft. Heck even Lotus dashboards were made out of it until the 90's

Not to throw a stone in the works, but lets not forget what that magic "psi" means. Pounds per Square Inch. When used to describe a material a sample is a "square inch" Our bolts are neither square nor are they one inch. You would need to calculate the area of the bolts an use that as a percent of the total.

Luigi found an old spring in the corner of his seat and tossed into your trans. "Why waste a good spring." he thought. "So that is what has been poking me for 8 months...mmm... time for some grappa me thinks..."

A big metal hammer. A machinists 18 or 24oz works really well. I have been using mine for 10+ years and the end is barely marred. The impact sockets I use are made by Wright, both metric and standard.

I always have used an impact driver. Rarely ever had a problem. When I did manage to round one out, A quick blast of heat, Mapp or Oxy/Act and then used a sharp chisel to turn the bolt. This is the only impact that I have found that worked well. The one that you have to turn and hold just does not cut it. http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P6...amp;dir=catalog

Well I tried my own suggestion. I ordered some rods from www.durafix.com and used it to repair a pitted water out on a 300zx. Works very similar to solder. Very interesting to say the least. While grindind back to shape i noticed that the material is definately much harder than the aluminum. I will let you all know how it works out after it has spent some time back on the vehicle. I did have to used a Oxy/Act. torch to heat the pipe, propane just would not heat it enough.

Oops. I forgot to re-read the inital post. Maybe something like this would work better. http://www.muggyweld.com/super5.html or http://durafix.com Never tired it, comments anyone?