Manky's XS650 Yamaha

[merv]

"Oddly", Manky's new name - yeah, it suits!!  



 

[Manky Monkey]

Had a weekend off from garage stuff to celebrate my birthday -I declared a national holiday for it. Didn't you get the memo?
So just nipped into the bike garage today to measure for the mounting holes for the new baffles. I passed lots of Falafel shops in London yesterday, so these are now my exhaust balaffles. The black sooty one's the previous attempt at quietening. 12"" long perforated cone. New ones are 30" long straight & will be wrapped in a thin layer of wadding, if I can fit it in the pipe. If that doesn't knock the edge off the noise, nothing will. Just concerned it might take the edge off the performance too.
I had an afternoon out after this, walking around all day without realising I had a huge soot smudge on my nose. D'oh -never wear a balaffle as a comedy nose, especially when you're on your own in the garage.

[Manky Monkey]

New, modified kickstart tried in place. Still needs welding, but I think it looks O.K, (I was worried it'd look enormous & a bit odd). Should make kicking it more comfortable. I may have to shave a flat on one edge of the arm cos the previous one fouled ever so slightly on the footrest bolts, just enough to scrape the powder-coating off.
I spoke to Tony the engraver on FaceBook & mentioned that the black had worn off some areas of the casings. Apparently it's etching ink, but he has some much better stuff now -Just bung 'em back in the Post to me & I'll re-do them. He lives in Spain. With my luck they'd disappear in transit & never be seen again.

[Manky Monkey]

This lever's off an earlier model & tucks in tighter to the engine, which fortunately means it follows the line of the frame rails quite nicely, almost like it was intended rather than entirely accidental.

[Tony oily bike]

New, modified kickstart tried in place. Still needs welding, but I think it looks O.K, (I was worried it'd look enormous & a bit odd). Should make kicking it more comfortable. I may have to shave a flat on one edge of the arm cos the previous one fouled ever so slightly on the footrest bolts, just enough to scrape the powder-coating off.
I spoke to Tony the engraver on FaceBook & mentioned that the black had worn off some areas of the casings. Apparently it's etching ink, but he has some much better stuff now -Just bung 'em back in the Post to me & I'll re-do them. He lives in Spain. With my luck they'd disappear in transit & never be seen again.

Kickstart suits the bike really well, another individual touch to a very neat looking XS.

Re the engraving ink – as opposed to tempting fate and having the cases lost in transit before you even get to ride the bike, how about suggesting your engraver sends you some ink, or maybe send the cases at the end of the year when the bikes off the road.

The bikes soooooo close to being on the road, it’ll be shame to postpone its riding debut.......  get your motor runnin’, head out on the highway 

[stinkey]

Hey smudge..next time I'm off to Spain I can pop the casings into him ? If I remember he's not to far from me out there ?  Or ask another engraver in UK ?

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah I think sending 'em back's asking for trouble really. I'd be heartbroken to lose them & it might take several months of faffing about to get them there & back, just for 5 minute's of work. Presumably you can buy etching ink over here. I've been tempted to try rubbing some black paint into it, but knew I'd probably bugger it up. The engraving looks fine on it's own, but the black background just really makes it stand out.
Cold & dark here today, so no progress to report.

[minimutly]

The crazy manky alternative would be to ride it out there....
At least better than pushing it....

[morrag]

Mr M, ask Dave, he will have a sensible option that will work, without the risk of losing them in transit, you know what the PO is like ....honest!!....Morrag

[the coppersmith]

The crazy manky alternative would be to ride it out there....
At least better than pushing it....

gotta be done 

[Manky Monkey]

Yeah Dave, (Mr Olds), will undoubtedly know -he's probably built his own printing press at some point & mixed his own ink 
I'm hoping to ride this to the Flanders Chopper Bash in Belgium in June. Maybe I can convince Tony the engraver he really wants to go too, & should bring his ink with him.
Exhaust balaffles drilled for the single mounting bolt at the back end & the welds flushed off a little till they slide nicely into the pipes.
This was the smallest bore perforated stainless tube I could find. It's about 2/3 the bore of the pipe, so only 3 or 4mm gap around it for wadding, but they run the full length of the pipes. No idea if that'll actually achieve much, but there's one way to find out.

[Dslam]

Try them without the wadding first.
Adding too much restriction may richen the mixture and further carb adjustments may be required.

[Manky Monkey]

That's just what I was going to do Andy -don't want to strangle it too much & upset things, just take the edge off the noise.

[minimutly]

I don't see how wadding outside the tubes will add any restriction? Probably reduce it..

[Olds]

Birchwood Casey do a black aluminium stain. Should be available from most gunsmiths (Dave in Whitchurch) or on line,but I have never tried it myself so can't comment on how easy it is to use etc. but their cold bluing is quite good. Might have to be carefull about application. Think I'd go with using black permanent marker ink. On metals it adheres well, assuming no oil contamination, but can be polished off on areas that you don't want it.
Oh, and no I haven't yet built a printing press, but I have mixed my own inks for calligraphy and to make stains for furniture restoration. Nothing suitable for use on aluminium though.