68C

The goal! I soon realised how little I really knew about the correct fueling of an engine when playing with the MyEcu and later with Guzzidiag. It was fairly easy to alter the map, and to 'demand' a specific AFR using a closed loop system. The problem of course was what AFR, the stoimetric ideal does not work in the real world, every engine and situation requires its own setting, I was just never clever enough to know what was, a bit like hunting in the woods when you don't know what to shoot at, pigeon, rat or tree.

Like all extra gauges it means less time looking down the road where you are going and so adds to the usual dangers of riding. AFR gauges take a little time to stabilise after a throttle change so you tend to look at it longer than a glance at a speedometer. AFR is best logged and then perused later. I fitted one for a while, screwed into the factory O2 sensor port in the standard crossover.

I bought a Norton Commando 750 new in '72. Advertised as 0 to 60 in 4.5secs and top speed of 124mph. They forgot to mention you had to change gearbox sprockets from 19 to 21 tooth to get that top speed and of course then lost the acceleration. Truth in Advertising?

Don't the carb accelerator pumps add that extra fuel when you close and reopen the throttle. Perhaps it just needs bigger jets. There again shutting off at high revs means the inrush of air cannot all go into the engine, instead it semi pressurises the ambient air side and reduces the fuel entering the float bowl so you need a fuel pump, bit like a blown motor. Have fun.

I spent a year in nortkern Pakistan as a Helicopter engineer on a Bell 412 for the Aga Khan Rural support Program. Absolutely stunning scenery, so many mountains that if under 20,000ft they rarely have a name. I often saw groups of motorcyclists snaking their way up the Karakorum Highway. This is a good road built by the military to serve the Northern Areas, pretty empty once you get into the foothills. Gilgit is lovely, sitting at the base of Rakaposhi, a huge mountain rising up from the valley floor. Google 'The Gilgit Game'. Hunza is close and is where the author James Hilton got inspiration to write Lost Horison, Shangri-La is said to be based on Hunza, there is even an ancient castle, once a Tibetan style monastry. OK its 30 years since I have been there so perhaps some of the mountains have eroded a little.

My car gives better mileage than my V11. Of course my car was designed by computer to have little wind resistance, where of course I am not so blessed.

If in doubt, chuck the fluid out.

Stunning! I kept trying to work out how the camera worked, seemed gyro stabalised but then rotated to look straight through where I thought the mount was. Not even obvious in the shadow. That man must have the reactions of a mongoose.

Thanks Kiwi Roy, I will pop doen and grab a handfull. Of course now nothing will ever fail!

I see my local shop has fuses with an LED that glows if the fuse fails. Anyone tried these? I suppose the thing the fuse is protecting has to still sink a current to light the LED.

Are you sure you mean a four valve engine? My Rosso Corsa has that, perhaps you really mean an eight valve engine. Four valves per cylinder x two cylinders. Edit: Hi GuzBun, just re-read my reply to you and realise it comes accross as rather rude. I was trying to make sure your advert would recieve the attention it requires, suggest either call it an eight valve motor or four valve head.

So how does this dynamic thing work? Seems to me you need a closed loop system for that with an O2 sensor. Like the WM15RC or the MyECU.

Now it is this

Then it was this

When I was younger this was my head protection

You are right, mine is a Combat engine. There are two problems with that engine. To increase the compression they just skimmed the cylinder head but they did not alter the pushrod lengths so the geometry changed increasing side load on the valve stem, cured by shortening the rods. The main bearing problem came about due to fitting roller bearings on both sides of the crank rather than the earlier roller and ball bearing set up. At max revs the crank flexes and so the edges of the rollers dig in and fail. The Superblend bearings are slightly barrel shaped so no sharp edge. Any other manufacturer would have tried to stop the crank flexing! Of course this was the 1970's when British manufacturers sold you what they could make cheap rather than what you wanted. Think of the number of Brit built 'US spec' bikes that we lusted after but could not buy in the UK.

Does anyone know anything about Aspen Alkylate fuel? I was in my local garden machinery shop when the guy tried to sell me the 'latest long life fuel'. He reckons it is the answer to ethanol fuel system damage and does not go off like unleaded fuel, tells me he sells it for garden machinery as it can be left in over winter with no damage and no starting problems. He also sells it to classic car and bike enthusiasts. Apart from the fact it costs £19.00 for 5 litres as opposed to £6.50 for 5 litres of unleaded in the UK, I wondered if it works. A scam does not usually cost more than the thing it is replacing so it caught my attention. He also said there are attempts to get the fuel duty lowered on it as it is less harmful. Can't see that happening. He tells me it is an American product although the leaflet he gave me has a UK website. At the price it is of no use for a regularly used machine but may useful for that bike you rarely ride. www.aspenfuel.co.uk

I know I keep on about this but....... Remember carbon fibre is not fibreglass or plastic. It conducts eletricity and so will cause galvanic corrosion if water gets between it and metal, in particular aluminium alloy. Not a problem provided you make sure there is no bare alloy to carbon fibre contact. When I picked up my Rosso Corsa and gave it a good clean I found the lugs on the Ohlins forks were very pitted with corrosion. Cleaned up OK and now insulated with plenty of paint on the lugs and plastic washers. You just paid a lot of money for those lovely parts, make sure they will last.

Looked closer at your photo of the manometer. Perhaps it is not a true manometer. Instead it is a balance tube in which the pipe is one piece , coming from one cylinder manifold then down the wooden support and looping round then going back up the the other side to connect to the other manifold. This will work with most fluids as the difference in height is only the difference between the two cylinders. My dislike of this system is that if one of the pipes connecting the engine manifolds comes loose the fluid will be instantly ingested. The same may happen if the carbs/throttles are completely out of adjustment. Hopefully there will not be enough fluid in the pipe to cause a hydraulic lock and a bent con rod. An improvement to the 'balance pipe' device is to have water traps at the top of the tubes. These can be complicated float type shut off valves or a large chamber that can hold the total amount of fluid. An advantage of the chamber is that it damps out the fluid level oscillations.

Oil would be even lighter requiring taller tubes.

Looks like fun. I use a homemade mercury manometer, had the bottle of mercury since the days it was not considered too dangerous for the common man. Now I get readings of around 8 inches of mercury, what sort of readings do you get with your water manometer? As water has an SG of 1, and mercury 13.5 I suppose you must get around 108 inches of water. Or perhaps I have got my maths and physics wrong.

This also starts you off on the search for a suitable fueling and ignition map. Have fun.

Bit worried about you working with an open fuel system and live electrics!

Nice pic but she is a little out of focus.