Glowing Dolphin chopper

Glowing Dolphin chopper is probably already 10 years old or more. It was build by MrMoore Custom craft.

The attention to detail in this Chopper is just amazing. The whole stance is pure Skandinavian Chopper style, with the Swedish style lenght, but the narrowness + usage of springer that is usually associated to Finish Choppers. With old style spoke rims, no front brake, long sissybar and flake paintshop reminding the style of the 70’s.  It’s perfect.

here’s link to the Mr Moore website. http://www.mrmoorecustomcraft.com/

JP

Bmw cafe racer

Nice bmw

Triumph ignition lock wire

Triumph has common problem that ignition lock wires can bend so much that they finally get cut completely. One cause is quite short wiring and another is wire holder near the headstock. This causes 90degree bend to the wires when steering is at the right lock. When steering is a left lock thr wires are almost straight. One modification is to remove the wireholder so the bend is smoother at right lock. Overal design is flawed. I personally like ducati style steering lock/ignition lock which is located behind the headstock, so wires are not moved at all when steering is used.

If you just solder the wire where it has been cut, it’s not going to last, I soldered new wire to the old one, and pulled new wire to the loom and soldered the new wire to the ignition lock bottom, and other end was soldered to the old wire near the connector that is stationary under the tank. This way it holds up.

Speed Triple throttle body mod

Triumph Speed Triple was introduced in mid’s on 90’s, but it only got the ‘big’ 1050cc engine starting from 2005 year model. The engine is three cylinder inline engine with 12 valve. Engine is rated for 130hp, usually these engines produce 110RWHP  in dyno testing totally stock. Open exhaust can liberate couple of extra ponies, but to get more you need to do more. One intake area modification is to grind off the step from the throttle bodies. The step visible in this photo is against the flow.    Also the throttle blade holder shaft can be smoothed out and narrowed a little so it doesn’t interfere with the airflow. To accomplish this the throttle body set needs to be almost completely taken apart, which means lot of setting up and tuning after it has been put together. All the throttle blades need to close exactly similarly or it’s impossible to set the throttle body vacuum balance.

Balancing the throttle bodies, in triumph the balancing values can be seen in tuneboy software. It uses the bikes own vacuum sensor and it knows which cylinder sucks at a given time when the engine is running, so it can differentiate the vacuum values for each cylinder and show it. During this it’s possible to adjust the throttle body balance by adjustment screws in throttle body housing.

The power gains in probably very small, but for people wanting to do every little part little better, it is mandatory.

JP

Triumph Bonneville Steve McQueen Special.

http://www.ultimatemotorcycling.com/Triumph_Bonneville_Steve_McQueen_Special

Triumph has announced that they are bringing out Steve McQueen Special bonneville. This is great news for anyone wanting something special and still reasonable cheap.

but I think Steve would have hated it. Because it’s missing aluminium rims(like in thruxton), it’s also has normal bonneville pipes which look just heavy and again Thruxton pipes or scrambler pipes would have complimented Steve’s style much better. The bike also has stock narrow chrome handlebars, even thou Steve almost always used more dirt bar looking handlebars.

Can’t really see from the photos, but looks like the bike doesn’t even have the thruxton style floating front disk brake. I would think Steve would have wanted that!

So some improvements are needed to really make it a Steve McQueen Special. I wonder what they have paid for using Steve’s name? I assume something extra payment has to be made, when such a big company uses it on product marketing.

JP

Polaris Warn winch rope conversion

Converting polaris warn winch for dyneema rope is a great option when your old winch cable needs to be replaced. Most common option is new dyneema ropes. Dyneema is very tough synthetic material, it doesn’t stretch and has more tensile strength than steel. This why its used in bullet proof vests and other extreme applications.
Dyneema can be used in normal winch, but the wire roller quide needs to be changed for aluminium slide quide as the roller version can cut the rope. Also used roller has usually sharp edges so these can also damage the rope. Rope weights around 300grams and steel wire 1400grams. Aluminium quide is 300grams and steel roller quide is 1000grams. So for people searching for ATV weight loss, this is one good way to drop some unwanted weight. Also rope is said to be more tolerant for tight bending, like plowing with ATV. Steel cable easily brakes as the plow up and down movement cause tight bend in the same part of the cable constantly. Dyneema is also more hand friendly as it has to sharp cable ends and it’s not so cold in winter time. Downside is that steel cable can withstand lot more surface abrasion over rocks or other edges. Dyneema gets damaged much easier and you should also protect it from abrasion against rocks or other sharp objects.

Polaris also sells ready conversion kit for and it is not that expensive. This is not that kit, this is dyneema rope and aluminium quide purchased separately.

Updates to follow when I have some usage experiences…

Life in North Korea 1 of 2 – BBC Doc State of Mind YouTubessa

North Korea famine

Again there was news how north Korea is strugling with famine. Food portions are cut down to 200grams per day. It’s strange that country located so near the ecuator could have so severe famine. If you open google earth and see the country has lot of fields, but also lot of mountains than probably cannot be modifed to farm land. Still i highly doubt that the problem is more in fact they they are probably selling some of the crop to china. But could be that the system is just so poorly run that they really cannot produce enough food. The country is small and it has amazing amount of people. 24 million people in 120 thousand square km. If you compare that to finland that has 300 thousand square km of land and little over 5 million people. And even finland had famine many times, the last in 1866-1868.
Anyway the famine in north korea is mostly caused by the political system. With more free market and more open political system the country would have lot of outside investments and would probably be a great holiday resort. Too bad they don’t have that.

Triumph tiger 800 and BMW GS1200 rear peg fail

both are great bikes and rivals in same category of bikes, but both have one major flaw in my opinion.

These bikes are made for road and moderate off-road or dirt road usage. As a long time motorcycle rider I know people like to modify bikes to suit the usage. If they run solo most of the time, many bikers want to remove rear passenger pegs. There is couple of reasons for this. First it saves weight and also removes pegs so they don’t broke if the bike falls down and sometimes just looks as the bikes looks more purpose full without rear pegs. If you want that Paris Dakar look, you don’t want rear pegs.

Both bikes share this plus another issue that the rear peg frames are welded to the rear subframe. And the worst part is that in both bikes the rear frame is welded to the front frame. So there is no way to change the rear subframe if it’s damaged. Also minor crash that bends the rear peg frame would end up in totaling the bike. The whole frame needs to be changed.

The only reason for this design flaw is cost saving gone too far. They want to weld everything ready to the frame so the manufacturing line has less things to bolt on. Less bolts, less parts, less time.

http://www.mcnews.com.au/Testing/Triumph/2011_Tiger800XC/TriumphTiger800XC.htm

JP

Intensives works only for mechanical work

Great article in TED talk. How poorly intensives work in mentally challenging work. It seems that it doesn’t work at all. It works only in mechanical tasks that have clear task in hand. How ever intensives are mostly used to boost performance of high management, so they are used for people that don’t have any mechanical tasks at all?.