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December 2002 |
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Woke up this morning and checked my email .... Mark obviously was working late last night as he's almost finsihed the bottom pipes. He's even installed stainless stinger pipes so they look nicer when on the bike. The photos section includes the additional photos. Gorgeous or what :o) This is one very happy bunny. Can't wait to see the upper pipes and the modified subframe. Oh and guess what else turned up today ...... a lovely Ohlins shock :o) Some more progress. Some cutting and re-welding of the rear subframe and we have upper pipes that will fit. We'd had some concerns about the width of the expansion chamber, and had toyed with losing the lower subframe arm, and using a seat support with a similar design to Mark Drysdales RGV seat support ... but in the end it was not needed. A smal modification to the rear subframe and hey presto we have pipes in situ. Still some work to modify the fairing etc .. but almost there. I'm typing this up in complete awe! As usual I checked my email late on today for an update from Mark. Top geezer that he is, he's kept me bang up to date with the progress. So when I saw the zip file attached to an email from Mark's address I, like a child presented with the Christmas present he'd hoped for, opened the zip file and was confronted with the most drop dead gorgeous looking set of four pipes, lined up perfectly, and held with a beautiful bracket that allows the lines of the upper pipes to follow the line of the seat unit. Simply put, they look awesome. Maybe it's just me, but I have a thing for four two-stroke pipes exiting around a seat cowling - call me perverse, but ... bollox .. have a look you decide!
"Hello!", says Me. "Hey Sol, Mark. I'm standing by your bike - You ready then?". Mark had phoned me earlier in the day to let me know that the bike had run, and was sounding sweet, and he'd call me at lunchtime. I was seriously chomping at the bit "It's ready then .. kewl ... gwan then .. been waiting for this for ages :o)" Kick .... Bring bring ... gggrrrringding .. grrrbringgggggg ... b b bring ding a ding dinga ding ... BBrrrrr bbbbbringgggging. ... bwwwaaaarrrrrrrrrr Silence! "Oooo fook me that sounds loud over a phone ... but fooking hell it sounds good!" "You want to be standing here Sol .... Music to my ears!" The one thing Mark and I seem to share is a passion for the sound of two strokes. I now can't wait until this weekend to get it set up on the dyno. We're still be a ways off finishing the project ... but having a running engine is half the battle is it not :o) Cheers to Mark Dent .. all round top Dude, RG500 affectionado, and bloody star engineer! Here's to Saturday. Oh and BTW the other two bikes in the photo ... well Mark puts it perfectly =================== From: Mark Dent Talk about having all the cake and eating it. Three bikes, Twelve pipes.....i'm in heaven :o) My RG500 - 144.5bhp Who'd like to be standing in my boots ;o) Later Mark Gamma Site - www.suzuki-rg500.com - Gamma Site ====================
Once onto the dyno, and after a few heat cycles, Mark connected his lambda sensor, detonation detector and other electronic wizadry and we were ready to run the bike on stock ignition, Shell Opitmax fuel (98RON), 25:1 ratio premix, and ITG filters. Right off the bat 110 actual horsepower. The look on everyone's faces! I'd hoped we'd end up with 115 after a day of fiddling, I was nothing short of stunned - this boded well :o) A few more runs and we were ready to try some new press fit bellmouths, they improved everything through the range by a tiny amount, looked gorgeous, and were left on for all subsequent dyno runs. The BDK SEAC controller was also fine tuned to optimize the powervalve open and close cycles, and we were then ready to bring out the big guns! Unfortunately there was a slight delay as the bike starte really sounding bad. It was obvious as soon as we put the bike on the programmabe ignition. Even the stock map didn't help matters. A slight delay in proceedings then commenced as Mark proceeded to plug and unplug his programmable ignition. This is a development model, and not for resale just yet, but his idea of using the flywheel for a pickup (rather than the crank sensor) looked sound, but still the bike was running like a pig. The temporary loom came in for a lot of criticsm, not least the mountain of scotch connectors clustered around the ignition connector. So we redid all the wiring in that area to no avail. In the end it was something quite simple. To cut a long story short, a balancing hole on the flywheel was also acting as a trigger for the ignition, so an additional spark was being generated. Funny to think that there were 4 engineers in the room looking at the loom, the connectors, the electronic gizmos, and all it takes is a mechanical and electrical numpty like me to point at an additional hole in the flywheel to get them all to slap their foreheads in unison and burst into action! Needless to say a bit of welding and grinding later and the next run proved successful. Mark preceeded to take the next few hours to fine tune the motor as only he can, and every succesive run produced more power, more overun, or more torque. Mark and James from BDK work very well together and I sat back and watched the drama unfold occasionally offering tea or coffee to keep them going. The charts just kept getting better and better. So what did we end up with ... best run of the day 128.4 actual horsepower with 70.6 ft lbs of torque. How amazing is that? The best dyno run I have saved shows a little less, as we did come back on the ignition a wee bit for safeness and we did put the filters back on. You'll find those dyno runs in the dyno section of this website. I keep staring at the numbers and thinking, "how amazing is that!". Consider that those numbers are similar to a stock R1, and then think about the fact that the RS500 wheelbase is shorter than a stock RG500, the weight is seriously less, and the motor is now working as God intended with 70% more power than stock!! I take my hat off to Mark - now all I have to do is wait for the electronics to go into production get re-fitted to the bike, and then wait a little longer for the warm weather or dry roads to arrive. In the meantime I'll be finishing the bike off, and getting her ready for what promises to be a bit of an exciting season next year! Well Christmas is just around the corner, and the bike is tucked up warm and cosey in the garage. I'm still bouncing about the place over the dyno results. How cool does a 127bhp 70 ftlb two stroke sound. Anyhow ... good bits aside, I've been doing some more thinking!
Bouncing vigoursly on the seat should in no way be considered a valid test, but I can just trap my finger between the pipes and the rear hugger. So, for saftey sake, or at least my piece of mind Mark and I are going to look at the problem in the New Year. Two options jump immediately to mind. Fabricating a new subframe or jacking the existing one up. Both have their issues .... but it's worth doing one or the other. The photoshop image on the left gives some idea how much extra clearance can be achieved with a few degrees rotation around the top mounting point of the seat. A small change makes a big diference in pipes space and doesn't affect the overall looks too much. Actually i think I prefer the rasied rear - a little more agressive. Second thought .... isn't the internet a wonderful place. I've had someone mail me about the RS250 engine for sale, someone has bought my RG500 panels and exhausts, and someone offered me an SpA tacho ... cool! Just the 400 quids worth or pistons and rings to sell now. Third thought .. Grrrrrrrrrrrr rear wheels. What a hassel. I've even wasted trip to Harris in Hertford (mental note, don't go to the Harris factory when they are knocking off to go out on their Christmas do). It's a dead tie for me between Machesini and Dymag. Although the PVM five spokes are rather nice also!! Marchesini are so far up their own arses it's untrue .. backorders everywhere. Dymag have some really tasty wheels, but do not make the wheels I want in a 5.00. In fact they have very few wheels in 5.00 inch. They do offer a 5.5 and 5.25 (The carbon rimmed wheels only come in a 5.5), but not being sure they would fit, or I'd have the correct chain run, I've been playing with my TZ wheels. I have three pairs of wheels I use with the TZ for wets, inters and slicks. I have a 5.00, a 5.25, and a 5.5 rear ... all wearing 160 or 165 tyres. The 5.5 is marginal fitment, but it will fit I think especially if I put the 520 chain on instead of the 530 the bike wears at the moment. The 5.25 is spot on takes the 160 section tyre well, and seems to offer the right chain run. The 5.00 inch fits fine, but the 160 tyre has always seemed pinched too much for my liking. Just as well dymag don't sell a 5.0 rim isn't it! A mate is coming round tomorrow, So we'll double check widths and go from there. Looks like I'll be going with some 5 spoke magnesium wheels in 5.25 if we can't convince ourselves that the 5.5 carbon rimmed wheels will fit!
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"Do
dah dah do dah dah" goes my phone ... 
Well
what an amazing day. I went to BDK's to meet up with Mark Dent to set
the bike up on the dyno. We had a number of things to try, and I arrived
bright and early with Neil and Kevin (two mates who have sorted the electrics
for me). We'd been swopping predicted hp guesses all the way up to deepest
darkest Norwich, but I don't think anything could have prepared us for
the results. 
Thought
number one .. we need to lift those pipes up a wee bit. I've installed
the Ohlin rear shock and setting the correct sag doesn't leave a huge
amount of space between the rear wheel and the bottom of the pipes. Don't
get me wrong, in most cases it will be fine. I don't think it would be
an issue unless you are cranked hard over round somewhere like "Coram's
Curve" or through the "Bomb Hole", or even the bottom of
"Paddock Hill" where the suspension tends to be compressed lots.
I'd hate to hit a bump in a 100 mph turn and find out the hard way!