Amazing, great work and looking forward to the first ride report

 

Keith, I've already put over 200 miles on it. Read some of the replies throughout the thread to see the first ride report!

Overall I am very happy. Much smoother and the valve train is much quieter than before. Power is very similar, but I don't want to give my full opinion on that until I get out of break-in stage and can open her up more. From what I can tell running around at 3000 or less RPM, I will be VERY happy with this engine for a long time!

 

Don't forget to rev it through the gears to 4-4,500 rpm at times.....if you run it in too carefully it will always be a slug.

There was a link on the forum recently to a guy who uses a radical system of running in......I know it works as I've tried it.

 

Same as my opinion when breaking in rings. Don't baby it; break it in the same as you ride it. Just make sure you warm it up before each run. http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

Thanks for re-posting the link...I had lost it :-)

 

Put another few miles on it tonight. Only 80 more to go before the first oil change at 500. It's running great and still no leaks. What I thought was a leak on the back of the inner primary turned out to be caked on sludge which I mistook for crinkle-coat. When it would get warm, it would liquefy and create a tiny drip. Now that I have it all scraped off, no more drip.

I went to a local Indy clothing and aftermarket parts store(M&M Leather in Greensburg, PA) tonight and ordered a couple things as well as picked up a couple things they had in stock. I ordered a Tappet Plug socket to get into the tappet screen without messing up the pretty, new cap on my pretty, new engine as well as a pair of offset crash bar peg mounts to move my highway pegs a little further away from the seat. At 6'5" and all leg, I needed more room to stretch out!

I picked up and brought home a wrist rest paddle for the throttle and a Heim-joint style aftermarket shift linkage. I was appalled at the cost of some of the fancier shift linkages, but I found a plain-jane chromed rod style one with fancy acorn-style jam nuts for only $40. I'd have been up to at least half of that cost trying to piece together hardware store heim joints, jam nuts, bolts, etc, and I would have still been using my old, oxidized stock rod.

The wrist rest got used the whole way home. After a couple minor re-positionings, I have it where I like it and think it will help out with finger circulation on longer rides for sure. I don't have a throttle tensioner/clamp yet, but that is one of the next things I will probably be adding.

I just got done installing the shift linkage. After reading the other post about the inner shift lever on the tranny, I took a good, close look at mine and found it a little too far out on the shaft from the tranny and slightly loose as well. I wonder why I didn't notice that when I had the engine out? Anyway, I slipped the lever back against the tranny and tightened the clamp bolt securely, installed the heim joint shift linkage and tightened up the front shift lever's slop against the inner primary pivot as well. I can already tell that it is going to shift nicer and that my gremlin-bell-sounding rattle from the old linkage is now gone.

I just love finally getting to the point where I can stop throwing money into repairs and start fine-tuning and dressing it up the way I want it, which is making me love this bike even more.

 

Great job. Glad it all worked out for you. Enjoy the ride.

 

I know this is an old thread now, but I just wanted to add a little update. Ruby now has just over 3000 miles on the new engine. She is still running well, although I did have an issue with an intake leak that was there apparently from the start. I think that's why my idle jumped up that first night I fired her up, and it just got progressively worse as time went along. The plugs still look perfect, so it must not have been bad enough to run too hot, just bad enough to affect the idle. I just fixed the intake leak for good last week using a tip from MIACycles about lubing the seals up with dish liquid when installing them so they can slide and squish where they need to to seal well.

One other issue that came up was the front engine mount went bad. I replaced it, then when the vibrations didn't get any better, I discovered a bad front engine stabilizer link. I replaced that and it helped some, but I still had a vibration worse than normal.

She was just in the shop a couple weeks ago getting a new rear tire(Dunlop 491 Elite 2), new rear wheel bearings, new upper stabilizer link, repacked and adjusted front wheel bearings and adjusted head bearings. The vibration is strong around 1500-2000 RPM, but it's virtually gone above 2000. She rides like a brand new bike now. I love it!