Changes to my VMax :
ARTICLE IN:
IT HAD TO HAPPEN; PAGE 9 OF MY
EVER GROWING VMAXPAGES
As page 8 grew too long I created this 9th page, with again new parts and some minor changes ( I've got some bigger changes in my mind, I'll let you in on those when the time and funds permit ).
At the Street or Track show in Nieuwegein I bought a new frontfender for which I have to make new brackets, nice job for one of those dark winterevenings. I bought it through Hennie Raats , as I did with many of my parts. The rearpart is standard VMax, the front part is a widened Malagutti scooter item. It had no holes so it's universal, I'll adapt it to my frontfork and have it painted by Frans de Weerdt of course.
Update 040704: Decided not to use the frontfender, didn't look good on my 18"frontwheel and have not deceide yet to finally change to 17"ers so I gave the fender to Niels.
Hennie and Ans opened their new shop today ( 29-12-02 ) and while there I bought 2 new engine covers, one for the generatorcover with the Yamaha sign engraved in it and a second for the waterpumpcover, specially made for my bike: it has 1300 CC engraved in it. It seems the original waterpumpcover needs to be drilled and smashed to pieces to remove it, another nice winterevening job ;-)
You can see these items in the picture below.
While I was at the opening of Hennie's shop he showed me the swingarm I had been longing for ever since I saw it in Option Moto, the French Streetfighter Magazine. It's a one piece billet aluminum swingarm from OTEC, France like the one in the picture below, only mine will be specially made, without the groove on top of the right hand side of the swingarm for the brakeline, and a special bracket for the underslung black Billet 4 brakecalliper I have had in my garage for ages. Yes, after all these years I will finally come round to putting it on the bike, together with the smaller discbrake: a frontbrakedisc from a Yamaha RD 350, one of the 2- stroke Stinkwheels. Don't use the rearbrake anyway, might as well be small to show off the swingarm and rearwheel !
WOW, DOESN'T IT LOOK SEXY ??
And No, of course it's not polished aluminum, it is BLACK Anodized to suit the rest of the bike.
For the final result, watch the pictures below ( pictures of the build-up will follow as soon as I will receive them )
Looks cool, feels great going around corners, even better than it already did !!
One BIG drawback, I had to have the bigger BRM fueltank removed because the swingarm is so much bigger and square where the normal swingarm is just a small round axle, so it didn't leave room enough for the fueltank. I'm now looking for a company that can "weld" plastic to adapt the BRM fueltank to suit the new swingarm. I'd rather have 1 liter fuel less than 7 liters less again. Also the swingarm is made to accomodate a bigger tire, but not when it's on a 18"-er like mine ( it's made for a 17" wheel ), so it needed a 2.5 mm shim between the wheel and the pinion.
I also finally got round to mounting the BRM frame to engine braces I bought over a year ago. They go where the original footsteps were and are bolted to 2 non used 8 mm holes in the bottom of the engine. I didn't even need to change the aluminum braces for the bellyspoiler ( which made a change for once: something fitting without having to cut, weld or file down ). Can't tell you wether they really make a difference, made too many changes already.
The black rubber pad on the left picture is where the sidestand hits the bellyspoiler.
Went to a VmaxClubHolland run and had to have the bike push started every time we stopped,which is not very cool :-( Talked to some guys at the club and decided it had to be the starter-motor failing it's duty after 18 years ( of which the last 2 years were heavy duty ). Part exchanged my old starter-motor for a rebuilt one with Cees Cornwall of the Dutch VMaxClub. He also improved the earthing of the disc the stator brushes ( which were practically gone on mine ). Bolted it to the bike and it started right away ! Only problem I now still had was the battery ( the expensive Odessy from America ) would not hold it's power. Had it on the OptiMate batterycharger all week, seemed fine but today I tried to start it and the volts went down in a couple of seconds from 12.8 through 6 to only 3, without any startingsounds !! Decided to take the battery out as well ( a lot of work on my bike because of the extra electrics and extra fuellines beneath the set and look what I found..................
..................................it
looks like it exploded. I think there might be small problem with this
battery, though my wife Cora thinks it just a matter of some DuctTape
;-)
Luckely it's a battery without acid in which case the rearpart of the
frame might have come off.
I've bought a new standard battery, I can go through 3 of them for the price of just 1 Odessy.
Update 2004: I found out through the English VMaxClub site that the battery they sold me wasn't a Odessy at all, it was a standby battery for computerservers which is not up too the job of being run in a motorcycleframe ! Knights batteries in England replaced the battery for free !!!!
Just a quick look at the Dynochart we made this friday ( at 01.30 !!! ) Click the thumbnail to see the sheet in detail.
205 RHP and 217 Nm on Nitrous @ 6850 revs !!!
Sadly the standard head- and enginebolts and nuts were not up to this abuse and gave way, streching just enough to let the coolant enter one of the cilinders, so we had to stop with this last run. Engine is now apart, new Cometic headgaskets and APE head- and enginestuds are ordered and on their way ( upon taking the enginecases apart it appeared they had moved just a little opposite each other ). I'm also having the cilindersleeves "ringed", meaning a small slot is being milled into the top of the sleeve ( at about half the width of the sleeve looking from the top ), into which a metal thread will be put during engine build-up. When the heads are being torqued down, the ring will settle itself into the copper headgasket, producing an unbreakable combination.
Update 040704: went to Paul's shop yesterday and we talked everything over. We had been waiting for special hardened steel enginestuds and bolts to come back from a shop in England ( APE didn't want to make them ), but the guy that was supposed to send the original VMax-enginebolts to said shop had not done so, so we have been waiting for about 6 weeks for something that wasn't going to happen in the first place :-( Paul is going to produce them himself after having had contact with the shop in England. They will be hardened studs with APE Kawasaki headbolts as enginebolts. Headgaskets were in, headflowing had been done and checked and a lot of special stuff had arrived like the Titanium pistonpens.
He is aiming for about 230/250 RHP and reckons the bike will be ready somewhere at the end of August !
Update May 2005:
Nothing to tell you guys except we have been waiting for a guy in Belgium ( a V8 dragrace-engine builder ) to make my cranckshaft from some very special metal............and we are already waiting for 6 months now !!! At this moment the cranck's ready and nitrated, just needs to be balanced, which will not be ready for some time ( he's a busy guy ). I'll be glad when I will be riding my VMax this season !! Paul has everything ready, conrods and pistons balanced, heads optimized, just need the cranckshaft !
Finished last season on Cora's Hyosung Comet 650 and started this season on the same bike, hope to finish it on my own bike.
Did buy some new scoops and special - one of a kind - inserts from Hennie Raats, painted by Frans de Weerd of course:
UPDATE JULY 18th :
Finally I received an Email with pictures from Paul Ritzen in Weert, who's had my engine for over 1 1/2 years in parts in his tuningshop.
The cranckshaft is ready, just under 1 year after we ordered it !!!!!!
It's well worth the wait, just look at the pics, that will even survive an atomic war ! The guy that made it is the smae guy that makes the cranckshafts for Dutch TopFuel driver Lex Joon !
2 more pics of the head and carb in the flowbench:
And then Paul had to do "some" calculations:
He also changed the stacks for better flow ( and incorporating the jets ):
and slotted the camsprockets for timingpurposes:
Oilsealmod, nessecary for the tuned VMax ( even for untuned VMaxxes a must ) !
Biiiig venttubes, with specially designed ventcase under tray and loads of electronics on it:
Now all I have to do is wait for Paul to find some time to put the engine back together, so Niels and I can put the engine in the frame and have Paul strap the VMax on the Dyno !!
Now stop drooling and come back for more pictures soon ;-)
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