March 29 2009

I took my first ride on “The Project”. I ran it up the street a few hundred yards and went thru the first couple of gears. The tranny shifts good, and it’s not making any bad or unusual noises. Thank goodness. The engine is running super! I think I have the jetting spot on. I got the steering damper on today and did a few small little things. I still have to figure out how to mount my gas pump. I think I may have to get an actual 400 fuel pump. The one I have on the bike now is huge. I’m going to order the K&N filters this week. Now that I have the carbs all dialed in, I’m pretty much set. It’s a real cold and crummy day out here today. It’s raining and spiting snow. I hope to have better weather this week so I can take the bike a little further.

I hope my body work is done by this weekend. The entire bike is going to be Yamaha Blue. I haven’t decided what color to paint the wheels yet. I was thinking Black or Gold. Here is a picture of the steering damper on. Also a quick video of the bike running. It was very cold here today and the bike didn’t have enough time to warm up.

 

400 at idle

March 28,2009

I got the little beast running! I rebuilt and re-jetted the carbs. It sounds sweet!!!!!! I got the pipe put on and mounted. I’ve been running it for a few mins and then shutting it off so the paint on the headers cure good. I hope to have all the little stuff done this weekend. I still have to mount the fuel pump. I don’t think the fuel pump is a 400 unit. It looks like the fuel pump on my 1000. I have to figure a good way to mount it.

Now I just need the body work, some new “skins” and some minor tuning and I’ll be ready for the track. I thinking of going to the new race course in Kentucky with my friend Jim if I get everything done in time. More tomorrow on the “project” 

March 25, 2009

I got my Fox Shock back tonight. I got right out to the “Man cave” or “the shop”and started to get busy. The shock went on real easy. Lot’s easier than when the rear wheel is on, LOL. I found that out on my other 400.

After I got the shock installed, I put the rear wheel and back brake on. I did notice when I put the muffler can on, I may have to do some adjusting and fabrication work.  There are some odds and ends to finish up now. The body work I hope is ready next week. I still have to buy a new chain, tires and get the engine running right. I may have to re-jet. I hope I can mess with the carbs some this weekend. I have to get the steering damper on as well. I put the old yellow cover on the gas tank to take these pictures. Jamie from Daugherty Motor Sports did an excellent job on my shock. www.daughertymotorsports.com Thanks Jamie. More to come this weekend. I’m sending my leathers to Lizzy tomorrow to have my name put on. Check out her site. www.lizzyleather.com I’m starting to get excited about this year and getting on the track again. I need to buy some race stands soon. Darn! I’m getting tired of using my jack stands. LOL

Sunday March 22 09

I haven’t been working the the 400 at all the past week. My Fox Shock has been up in Ft. Wayne at DMS being rebuilt and re- valved. I should be getting it back this week. I’ve been pretty much waiting for the shock so I can continue. Danny McDermitt has started painting my body work. It will be painted Yamaha Blue. 

I’m sending my new leathers out tomorrow to Lizzy’s Leather’s in PA. to have my name put on. I’ve been keeping busy the last week doing stuff around the house and a four wheel brake job this weekend on my Honda Accord.

I started working out again with Dedra my 11 year old. We’re riding our bikes in the neighborhood and slowly taking longer and longer rides. I’ll be ready for the local Mt. Bike park in a few weeks. It feels good to get back on the bike and riding again after the car wreck. It’s been a long time coming. I plan on losing at least 30 lbs before racing season. I have to attend the road racing school at Gateway International to get my racing license again. That’s a month away. I’m looking forward to it.

I took the FZR 1000 out yesterday with my new leathers on. They need to be broken in badly. There very slippery on the seat. :) I’ll have them broken in before I get to the track I hope.  For now my ride is my Giant NSR.

I’ll have more to post when my shock gets back. Think spring and warm weather. Yahoo…………………

A week gone by

I haven’t done very much this week on the bike. I’ve been Mr. Mom this week while Holly’s been in Florida. Let’s just say I’ve had better weeks. It sure will be nice to have Holly back!

I got the tail section back form Danny McDermitt yesterday, so I can get it all fit up before he paints it. He’s going to do some “glass” work to repair where it was rashed. I have my work cut out for me on this project. The seat pan doesn't fit right so I’m going to have to do some fabrication work. I’m waiting for my Fox shock to come back so I can get the rear end of the bike complete. I have to buy a new chain too.

I got my new Yamaha factory leathers this week. They fit great and look wicked. I hope to get some work done this coming weekend. The end of April is coming up fast.

Thunder in Indiana

Yahoo…… I got the bike started today. After I installed the carbs. radiator,and gas tank, I finished up all the wiring. Now it’s time to fill her up with water and gas and fire her up. Ready……………………nothing. Darn it! I looked the little beast over good, and couldn’t find or see anything wrong. I pulled the number one plug and cranked her over…….nothing……no spark, nada. Hum…… I must have forgot something.

After looking at all the wires I found two that were not plugged in. Opps! The dummy working on the bike forgot, yes forgot to plug the CDI unit in. Boy what a dumb a**. LOL After I did that , WHAM-O……………..  FIRE IN THE HOLE. Man does this thing sound SWEET! The header pipe is open right now because I have the bike on jack stands. I didn’t want the neighbors to call the cops, so I only ran it for about 45 seconds. It sounded real good.

I learned quite a bit today. What to do, and NOT what to do. The throttle cable was a real bear for some reason. Yamaha must want us to remember we are “mere mortals” when it comes to working on their products. Still I enjoy all the hassles, and swearing. :)

I hope to get the Fox shock back this week so I can finish up the bike and get all the mechanicals done. It’s going along  good. I think I’ll chill this afternoon and watch the NASCAR race. I did check out the Daytona 200 Friday night and it looked a little chaotic. It looks like the new promoters are not used to motorcycle racing. Glenny Bates was at the race. He said it was pretty dead, and not a lot of people there at the race. Hopefully they’ll get it right, and the AMA will have a close racing series. I was surprised to see Miguel Duhamel on a Suzuki. by the way Daylight Savings Time…………….SUCKS!!!!

Sat March 7th

I got an early start this morning. I took out the 1000 (Serious Black) and my other 400 (White Whistler) nicknames compliments of Dedra! I had to charge both batteries because they were low. I normally start the bikes once a week in the winter but since I’ve picked up the other bike I’ve been spending most of my time working on that. Dedra and I took a little ride (48 miles) because the weather was righteous! LOL. Thank you God we needed a nice day here in Indiana. The winter has been long a COLD!

I did some major work today. I got the engine back in after screwing around for about an hour.  What a pain in the a**  It sure came out a lot easier than it went back in. I got the header on, the electrics plugged back up. The back brake and floating stay are on, most of the water plumbing is on a hooked up. I’m putting the rad, carbs, and gas tank back in tomorrow. I’m going to put straight water in the rad until I can get some Red Line Water Wetter. I’m going to try and fire up the engine tomorrow. Like the Rasta’s say, “Until such time”. More on the project tomorrow.

Thursday Night March 5th

I finished up my header pipe tonight. I have about 10 coats of Hi-Temp black paint on the header. This should keep the rust at bay. I started to put the rear mud guard and battery box in tonight. I need to tidy up the wires because I want it to look nice and neat. 

I will get that all finished up before I put the engine back in the frame Sat. I have the bowling league tomorrow night (Friday) so I won’t get anything done tomorrow. I hope to get a lot of the major heavy stuff done this weekend so I can focus on the little stuff.  Here is the header pipe. I still have to polish the alum can.

March 4th

I painted my header and can pipe tonight. I had stuff to do so I didn’t get much else done. I hope to start on the engine tonight.

pictures of my project

Here are some pictures of the project

More work...... not much

Wes bent back my rear brake petal today. I re-installed the footpeg and brake petal back on the bike. Tonight I'm going to start sorting out and cleaning up the wiring. There are a lot of wires that won't be needed any longer so I may as well get rid of them.

I got my new carbs from NY yesterday (Mon) and I'll check them out tonight. Dee's birthday was last night so I didn't get much done. I hope to get some pictures posted tonight on the progress. I forgot my password to the blog. I have it written down now.

Starting out

It's been several weeks since I got motivated to start on the project. I'm behind on my blog so I have to play catch up.

Feb 21st - I started tearing into the bike. I removed the gas tank, body work, and all the easy stuff.

Feb 22nd - I removed the rear wheel, carbs, battery box, wiring, front fairing stay, gages, rear sub-frame and swing arm. I started to clean all the parts.

Feb 28th - The rear Fox shock is off and it's being repaired now. The fairings and body work are at the paint shop being preped for paint. The frame, swing arm and sub frame are now all primmed and painted satin black like the newer sport bikes.

March 2nd - Happy Birthday DEDRA!!! Daddy loves you! I hope to get the engine back in the frame this coming weekend. Things are going pretty darn good!

The 2009 FZR 400 Race Bike Project

The FZR 400 Race Bike Project

This blog will take you thru my 2009 race bike project. I hope to have this project complete by the end of April 09. I'd like to thank my wonderful wife Holly for putting up with me for all these years, and never holding me back when it comes to my bikes. My plan is to get back into racing again after not being involved in the sport for over 12 years. I plan to do several trackdays this season, get my WERA and CCS license and do some 4 hr endurance racing in 2010. The bike looked pretty rough when I picked it up In Little Rock AK on Feb 9th, but it is coming along nicely as time moves forward.

On Feb 9th my friend Carl Jarvis and I took off at 4:30 a.m. and headed to Little Rock to pick up the FZR 400. We had my YSR 80 in tow on my trailer to trade with Mike the guy with the 400. It was a very long ride (8) hours to get down there. Carl and I were amazed how much destruction the ice storm had caused down there. We heard on the radio that 14,000 power poles were down from the ice storm that had gone thru the week pior to our trip.

When we arrived in Little Rock, the weather was wonderful. It was 70 degrees and there were quite a few motorcycles out. Both Carl and I enjoyed the warm weather. When we left Indiana that morning it was in the low 30's. We spoke to Mike for about 30 mins, and then we were back on our way. The trailer was a little heavier now with to 400 in tow. We had a very uneventful trip (which was nice) and rolled back into Bloomington, IN around 12 mid-night. It was a very long 17 hour trip and both Carl and I were happy to be home, safe and sound and all in one piece. Thanks for being my co-pilot Carl and keeping me awake.