RIP - Pirate

Yesterday I lost my best mate Pirate after having to make one of the toughest calls in my life. Unfortunately over the last year he developed renal failure which progressively become more aggressive.

Below are some shots of us together moments before he had to leave in peace.

I miss you my boy.

Here's some shots of Pirate over the last 10 years or so.  My mate was always there with me through thick and thin.

Piccies

With the build slowing down a little whilst awaiting my next injection of funds, for shits and giggles I thought I'd kill a bit of time taking a few shots as it currently stands.

The system lives!

Here's a video showing the system in action, utilising my home built lipo battery pack located within the milk urn.

It should have enough juice to not only run all of the accessories, yet be powerful enough to run the starter as well.

The bike will be using a Pamco electronic ignition and Hugh's Handbuilt PMA charging system.

 

The world's most complicated "simplified wiring" system!

After way too much time away from the build, I finally got my ass into gear and knocked up my wiring harness.

As this build is absolutely from scratch, I had any number of options available for the wiring diagram.

I took it upon myself to knock out my wiring own design in CAD, prior to ordering my extensive list of parts. As usual, the devil is in the detail with plenty of forward thinking required.

My system contains seven fused relays that are operated by closing an earthed circuit via the switch assemblies. The only switch that is passing any voltage at all is the indicator. It really was my intention to minimise the risk of having any potential shorts within the system by switching the relays via an earthed signal.

I did face a particularly big challenge with where to mount the seven fused and indicator relay upon the bike. It had to be relatively easy to access the fuses, whilst being in a discreet location. After much though I decided to relocate the coil upon the forward chassis down-tubes, as shown upon the mock up pics. This left an appropriate, if not tight location for the wiring harness within the gas tank tunnel. I am hoping that I'm not asking for a bucket load of potential problems in the pursuit of outsmarting myself.

Despite my build intending to be a fair weather daily rider, an obvious problem did present itself in the form of the potential dramas I might face with keeping the relays dry and safe in the event of a sudden downpour. My solution was to insert a rubber umbrella of sorts around the electronics. Fingers crossed that this rubber cover combined with the tank above and engine just beneath will provide satisfactory protection against the elements.

Servicing any blown fuses is also a piece of pie even with the tank and engine in place. I really hated the thought of trying to get access to them should they be squirreled away in an electronics box that was secured too well.

Hopefully engine heat and vibrations won't be my downfall, with using the bike once complete being a trial by fire!

I also made my own miniature battery to fit into my milk jug with A123 cells. I used these two links to help with the making of the battery which were very helpful.

http://www.scriptasylum.com/rc_speed/lipo.html and http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=599316

Right now the battery looks as ugly as all hell, however, once I get my hands on some heat-shrink that's large enough I should be able to sex it up a touch.

Here's a short clip of a guy that had built one with exactly the same setup as my battery.

The great news with my battery and wiring system, is that my first trial test of the setup went absolutely perfectly! Everything is spot on so far in operation.

Kick it, kick it good!

Well it's been sometime since my latest update. Things are slowing down due to funds and electrical parts taking their time to arrive.

A concern that I had whilst most of the bike was together during the New Year period, was the fact that my beautiful brand new Mikes XS kicker smacked the Dunstall exhaust at the bottom of the stroke. For obvious reasons a solution needed to be found.

With my powers of research at full strength I managed to discover that the RD400E kicker had the same splined shaft mount. The most appealing aspect is that it has two bends that ensure the pedal pushes outwards during a downward kick. It should also blend in better than the straight XS650 kicker whilst in the "at rest" position. It seems to be of lighter construction yet am hopeful that it will be strong enough anyhow.

I picked RD400E kicker from Yambits.

Below are some comparison shots I'd taken this evening.

Swiss Cheese

Well after getting my knuckles wrapped by my mate Rob who'd sold me the bike originally, and getting some very polite and constructive feedback from the fellas on XS650.com, it was obvious the taillight assembly had to be re-located.

Truth be told I was pretty hasty with where I had originally mounted last weekend, with my wanting to smash it off with my boots everytime I walked past it in the living room!

Unfortunately my ballsup has left me with a fender that resembles Swiss Cheese. I'm proud to say that I'm probably the best person I know when it comes to making holes in perfectly good metal, however, I'm not so good at repairing them.

I'm really very happy with how it looks now, with the lines of the bike remaining relatively undisturbed.

Stay put!

After test fitting my 7 Metal West ribbed front fender on both Harley Sportster and the original XS650 fender stays, it was clear that I needed to construct my own to minimise the clearance between the top of the tyre and fender.

One of the challenges that I faced was that the ribbed fender didn't have the same radius as my 19" wheel and Firestone tyre combo. I decided that trying to position the fender so that the gap was smaller at the front than at the rear duck tail would be the best compromise.

Having a front fender is another strict regulation enforced within Australia, which is why I have to run one whether it looks good or not!

The pics below show the trial mock up, with my still needing to radius the sharp edges.

Regs and rules, rules and regs

Living in this fine state of NSW throws up many a drama when it comes to building a project such as this. As much as I wanted to side mount the taillight and licence plate, it would be asking for a whole lot of trouble from the local constabulary.

One of the painful rules and regulations includes having to mount the taillight dead centre of the rear fender. Unfortunately it does ruin the lines of the ass end, however, I'm making the best of a crap situation.

I went with the "Black Beauty" taillight because it has a Bates style appearance similar to the main headlight. It's also a cool design that is adjustable.

I now intended to keep the blinkers in the general vicinity of the rear lamp so that I could minimise the running of wiring all over the place, and to also help keep following drivers focused upon a single region of the bike.

To do this I simply welded on a steel tube with suitable threads to allow the blinkers to screw in neatly, hiding the wiring in the process.

The wiring will be fed within the fender's rib keeping a good clean appearance.

One of the things that bugged me was the way I rushed mounting the fender stay last week, so today I remounted it so it is more perpendicular to the ground. I'll have to fill in the left over holes as a result.

70's effect

The urge to stuff around with the shots I'd taken yesterday was too strong.

Since the pics where taken within the neighbourhood that I grew up in during the 1970's, and the fact that my bike is a 1975 year model, I thought a 70's treatment would be appropriate.

Glamour shots (progress)

As promised during yesterday's post, I managed to find a few moments to take a few in-progress "glamour" shots, prior to tearing it down for the remainder of the project.