Secret stuff for members only

This page was formed to follow the development of the club racer.

The first step on the road to building the club racer was to have a bike kindly donated by life member Kevin Boss seen here with Ivan Hoey the originator of the idea. Ivan proposed the idea of the club getting involved with building a club racer to inspire the members who always wanted to do one but never got to do it. The idea was proposed at the AGM in Sydney in 2006 and passed by those in attendance. Since the bike was donated all those parts not needed Ivan have returned to Kevin. The club has kept the engine and frame and also the wheel hubs and some brake parts, the clip-on handle bars.

The next step was to try and raise some money towards getting the project started and to this end we got some stickers (thanks Dru) and sold them to anyone who wanted them and managed to raise enough to get started.

Donations:-
Kevin Boss - XS frame, wheel hubs & axles, engine, clip-on handle bars, brake master cylinder, shocks and various other small items.

Ivan Hoey - high ratio primary drive gears, bike building, planning and lot of running around (time off work, very expensive.)

Kevin Palmer - Mikes big bore kit, alloy triple clamps & machining of several small parts & many hours flow bench testing. Made the fixtures for the flow bench to adapt the XS650 head.

Dave Taylor - Ignition system, XS performance coils and race leads, new advance/retard mechanism & two BBQ fund raisers.

Matt Moloney - Delorto carburetors and crankshaft modifications and a new billet camshaft when needed.

Terry Gliddon - rephase pin, swing arm, clutch kit, fork seals, disc rotor, anti reversion cones, fork spacers, polishing, megaphones, port casting material, transport, rear sets, sign writing on the race tent, information gathering, organizing the auction of Glen Voices' donated spares to raise money for the racer. Other fund raising including belt buckles, calendars and laminated XS engine wall charts + lots of phone calls. Donation of all money raised by selling back issues CD's at no cost to the club. Making jigs needed to hold the valves open for flow testing and making the jig for the crankshaft balancing. Bearing mount sleeve for the new secret racing crankshaft arrangement. 

Drug Booker - Promotional stickers.

Daryl Hutcheon - Dynamometer time.

Doug Gallie - Billroy seal kit.

Geoff Bamford - Front end parts, Koni shockers, chain & sprockets, BBQ fund raiser.

Herb Conlon - race stand, advice and also played a large part in the success of the fund raising BBQ's in Sydney.

Lance Stewart - Brake calipers and bead blasting services.

Ross Lawson - Racing oil & fork oil.

Anthony Fredrick's - Cash donation, thanks Ant great effort.

Mike Fitzpatrick - spare crankshaft, head, rocker box and barrels.

Mike Lalonde has donated conrods, crank bearings, transmission bearings and a wheel rim. He has also donated a rephased camshaft from Jerry Heiden and a set of stainless steel valves. Mike received a belt buckle for his generous donation.

Steve and the Cairns boys had a BBQ to raise money for the club racer, thanks guys, great work!!!

Glen Voice - flow testing and advice. Donation of parts left over from his tracker build for auction to raise money for the racer.

Greg Baldock - Cash donation, thanks Greg it will be well spent.

Michael Kennedy wants to donate the rear shockers for the club racer.

Andrew Iggo - Cash donation, thanks Andrew.

Bill Wallis - Fork damper valves

Laurie Moloney - Mikes XS rocker arms

Greg Tow - Cash donation, thanks Greg for your generous donation.

Franc Trost - Exhaust header pipes.

Terry Gliddon & Dave Taylor supplied the Titanium for the valve spring retainers and Dave paid for the CrN treatment.

Nick McGinn - Made the Titanium valve spring retainers.

Dave Rayner - Bronze Kibblewhite valve guides.

New Sponsors
I just got off the phone to Michael Morse in the USA and he has agreed to sponsor our racer with some of his Pads and Shoes from Vintage Brake. Mike has proven to be a very helpful source of information as a racer with many years of experience racing an XS650. Mike also runs 650 Central an excellent source for parts for the XS650.

Kim Anderson in Canada has donated a race seat.

Discounts offered:-
Walter Preisig - Discount on suspension needs from YSS. I have spoken to Walter and he has offered us a very good discount.

Kim Anderson - Discounted fibreglass fuel tank (900SS Ducati style) and front guard.

Robert Lange (Lange Engineering Geelong) - Alloy stock for part fabrication at a discounted price.

Mick Jones of Classic Motorcycle Fibreglass (Moto Tumbi) - Discounted price for a race fairing.

And of course where would we be without the best source of new parts in the world for the XS650

Here's the club Racer with most of the donated parts we have so far.

We are also still seeking sponsors who will get their business name on the bike.

All being well we will end up with something like this which will be displayed and raced around the country. 

We are all set to make our first purchase for the race bike, Kim Anderson has sourced a fibreglass tank and front guard for us at a good price. This is too good an opportunity to pass up so we will be taking up Kim's offer. Here is a picture of the tank and seat as used on Kim's own racer. 

Kim's tank, front guard and seat are the same as those for our race bike.

These purchases will be a great start towards building our race bike project.

Update 24/11/08

We now have access to a flow bench to develop the club racer head. John Nash at Geelong Performance Imports has agreed to let us use his Super Flow SF-600 and with Glen Voices' help we should be able to get a good flowing head for the racer.

Glen just  happens to be an engine designer with Ford and he has kindly agreed to help with the project. I spent the weekend working in the shed to make the required fittings to to use on the flow bench so we could get going on the development as soon as possible. Kevin Palmer is making the adapter plate to fit the XS head to the SF-600 flow bench. Once we have all the pieces we can do a stock head as a baseline and start playing with some ideas we have to see if they work and hopefully we will gain an edge on the track.

Head fixture for lifting valves by a measured amount.

Kevin Palmer made the adapter for mounting the XS head to the flow bench (left) We still need to drill a few holes in it and add some studs like the sample on the right. The bore size is 75mm to simulate the XS standard bore size, we will also make another for the big bore kit (80mm).

The adapter plate bolted up to a head.

One of the first jobs we will be doing to the club racer is to modify the rear hub, it will be drilled to lighten it but will have the added benefit of also aiding the cooling. Mike Morses' racer gave us the idea of copying this design from a picture on his website.

Notice the holes drilled between the spokes how they also catch the fins in the middle of the hub, this effectively increases the surface area of the fins increasing the cooling. The other holes drilled radially around the centre of the hub behind the sprocket also help by ventilating the brake drum and all of the holes lighten the back wheel helping the suspension to work better because there is less unsprung weight. It is this attention to detail that will make the difference in racing.

Update 27/12/08

We now have the camshaft we will be using in the race motor and it is a MikesXS billet cam that has been rephased by Jerry Heiden in Holland and we were also lucky enough to get some of MikesXS stainless steel valves. We now need to get some performance valve springs, retainers and seals to complete the set. Cam bearings, chain, guide and adjuster will also be needed. If you would like to donate any of these please let us know.

Glen managed to get access to the flow bench at work just before Christmas so we now have some baseline flow data for a stock XS650 head. This will be essential for comparison purposes when we start modifying our head so we will know if we are going in the right direction with our modifications to the ports.

As you can see our data (GV trace) varies from that supplied by Mike Morse (US trace) so we will need to do another session on a different flow bench for comparison, luckily we have access to a Super Flow 600 at Geelong Performance Imports so we should be able to verify which set of data is closest to reality early in the new year.

I will also be talking to Mike Morse at Vintage Brake in the new year to get some of his excellent brake shoes and pads for our racer. (Mike is a new sponsor)

I just received an email from Kim Anderson and our tank, seat and front guard are almost ready to ship to Oz.

Kim has done us a very big favour organizing this for our race bike project and on behalf of us all I would like to thank him for his hard work, if you ever find yourself in Oz Kim I'm sure we can organize some laps on the bike for you.

2009 is here, so it's was time to make a start on the club racer.
I have stripped the engine down, degreased all the part's and headed over to Billroy Engineering to bead blast the cases.
Did a couple of my own cases at the same time.
Now I have to work out a needs & wants  parts list, so we can order the remaining parts required. 
I will press the crank apart early next week, ready for rephasing.
Ivan

We got a special delivery this week from Ross Lawson at Amsoil, enough oil to lubricate the Queen Mary, thanks Ross.

One of our new members, Robert McKie, is an XS650 racer and I took the opportunity to talk to him at length about what we can do to our club racer to improve the handling and still be period 4 legal. 

I finally caught up with John Nash at Geelong Performance Imports yesterday and returned his adapter plate for the flow bench. 

Wanted - Donors to buy these parts

Wanted - Damper rods and caps for 35mm front forks (used) provided by Geoff Bamford (club member)
Wanted - Gasket set for 750cc big bore motor (Part #18-0752) $90 donated by Bruce Cannon (club member)
Wanted - Cam chain (Part #52-4008) $70  bought from club racer fund
Wanted - Guide (Part #05-0006) $45  bought from club racer fund
Wanted - Tensioner (Part #05-0004) $90 bought from club racer fund
Wanted - Steering head bearing kit (Part #28-2009) $60 donated by Brian Robinson in the USA
Wanted - Premium valve stem seals (Part #01-0115 ) $25 set of 4 donated by Bruce Cannon (club member)
Wanted - Performance valve spring set (Part #05-0029) $214 bought from club racer fund
Wanted - Swing arm needle bearing conversion (Part #28-1011) $120 donated by Brian Robinson in the USA
Wanted - Top end engine 'O' ring set (Part #18-0855) $21 donated by Bruce Cannon (club member)
Wanted - Camshaft bearings x 4 (Part #05-0007) $74 set of 4 donated by Bruce Cannon (club member)
Wanted - 17 Tooth 520 front sprocket (Part#22-1617) $25 donated by Bruce Cannon (club member)
Wanted - new rockers (Part #05-0037) $152 donated by Laurie Moloney
Wanted - fork damper valves (Part #27-1086) $75 donated by Bill Wallis (club member)
Wanted - progressive front springs for 35mm forks (Part #27-1088) $106 donated by Bruce Cannon (club member)
Wanted - aluminium rocker shaft plugs (Part #05-0081) $20 donated by Bruce Cannon (club member)

MikesXS part numbers are listed with the wanted parts and approximate prices in AU$ freight delivery charges extra.

If anyone would like to donate anything from the wanted list please contact Terry Gliddon at toota@internode.on.net or call  0408746881

30/1/09 Update
Frank Trost called me at the weekend and after a long discussion about what he's doing and what we are doing he offered to make the exhaust system for our club racer. He has a mate who owes him a favour and luckily for us his mate has a mandrel bender.
I also approached our very good Canadian mate Kim Anderson and asked him if he could kindly buy a wheel rim for us from MikesXS Canada. Mikes USA was out of stock and I looked and found one on the Canadian site, unfortunately they don't export so Kim has very kindly bought it for us and is shipping it out soon. He will also be shipping out our tank, seat and front guard which he has finished.
Also this week I received the front forks I ordered from MikesXS. I also bought some aluminium and steel bar to make some spacers.

1/2/09 Update
Mike Roberts called in on a family outing to Portarlington and bought a Calendar and two stickers and gave a donation towards the club racer. Thanks Mike.

14/2/09 Update
Ivan went to the airport and picked up our tank, seat, front guard and Mikes' performance alloy rim kindly sent by Kim Anderson in Canada.
I spoke to Mike Morse and got the details of our exhaust system ands posted the details to Frank Trost who has offered to mandrel bend our pipes.
Last Saturday I got together with Glen and we did a flow bench test on a stock head as a baseline for our modifications. This was done on a 47.9°C day in a tin shed on John Nash's Super Flow 600 Bench with his help, thanks John. Soon we will start to play with the ports in the hope we can make a killer head for the racer.

Glen was happy with the results as the data collected indicates the Superflow bench is accurate enough compared to other data we already had from other sources. We can now proceed with confidence in the data we collect as we modify the head.

15/2/09
BBQ at Dave Taylor's this weekend, good day and raised some more for the club racer, another donation from Mike Roberts.
Turnout was a bit on the low side with only nine attending but it was a good day and we enjoyed ourselves.

24/2/09
Tapered roller steering head bearings and needle roller swing arm bearings arrived today from Brian Robinson in the US.
We are now starting to receive parts from people who want to help build our racer that aren't even club members!!!
How great would it be if we could get the same response from some of our club members. Thanks to those who have already contributed by buying a belt buckle, sticker or calendar or donated parts etc. you know who you are. For the rest of you it's not too late, we still have stickers and can get more belt buckles made if someone wants one.

Dave Rayner has offered to paint the club racer so I have been trying to think of a nice colour. How about orange? It's nice and visible without going crazy. We want it to stand out in a crowd and I think this would, what do you think?

20/3/09

Unfortunately Tarozzi got back to Paul with some bad news, the fork braces were first made in 1976 and are therefore ineligible for period 4 racing. If you have a XS650 Paul can supply a number of great parts that fit so check out their website and give him a call to discuss your needs..

23/3/09

Ivan sent the Mikes XS stainless steel valves down this week so hopefully we can do a flow test on these installed in the model head next weekend. I have also started making the anti reversion cones and flanges for the exhaust. 

Here's a pic of the Mikes XS stainless steel valves, one inlet and one exhaust, we also have the new collets. Now all we need is the performance springs and retainers to complete the hardware for the head.

I'll post some pics of the anti-reversion cones/flanges when I have finished them.

29/3/09

I got busy on the lathe this weekend and made up the anti-reversion cones for the club racer exhaust. 

Yesterday Glen, Kevin and I went to John Nash's to flow the head again, this time to check if the Mikes XS stainless steel valves are better than stock, and of course they are. Glen said that on the inlet side they flowed as much as 10% better, I will post the flow chart on here when Glen has had the time to crunch the numbers. We discussed whether we the need an exhaust stub for future flow bench testing and it was decided that we do so I went to a local exhaust place and bought a 44mm 90° mandrel bend for the purpose. We may also need a ram tube or dummy carb for the inlet side as well. I have some Shell racing inlet manifolds so we might adapt a ram tube to one of them. Kevin had some ram tubes spun up by a metal spinner some time ago and they look perfect for the job.

Here is the flow chart for the Mikes SS inlet valve in the unmodified head, interestingly it flows better than the stock valve.

Here is the flow chart for the Mikes SS exhaust valve, no real gains but that is to be expected with the evil stock exhaust port.

2/4/09

Greg Baldock has also contacted me with a generous cash donation for the club racer, thanks Greg.

5/4/09

Ivan tells me he has picked up the newly welded crankcases with the welded up starter motor hole. The work was done by a mate of Ivan's. Pics to follow.

9/4/09

Michael Kennedy called Ivan and expressed his interest in buying the race suspension for the club racer.
This is a very generous offer and frees up extra funds to buy some much needed parts to complete the club racer, thanks Mike.

The XS650 engine wall charts have been printed and laminated and be posted out today (9/4/09) thanks to those who bought them, this has helped raise some more funds for the club racer. We are now looking good to complete the racer but I'm sure something else will be needed down the road so the fund raising will continue until the bike is finished.

Ivan sent the fork legs down so I thought I would make them look nice by polishing them. I will have to get some fork seals now and put them together with the stock springs. When the bike almost completed we will be able to work out the spring rates we need determined by the final weight of the bike. At that time we will also be able to determine the shock lengths for the rear as well as spring rates for them.

15/4/09

I bought some fork seals for the racer forks today. 
Dave Rayner tells me Andrew Iggo has made a cash donation for the club racer, thanks Andrew, every bit helps.

Finally all together with new seals fitted and ready to go once we determine what viscosity oil to use.

Once we have the new triple trees made I can ship the hole front end back to Sydney for installation in the race bike.

3/5/09

I spent this weekend making the megaphones for the club racer.

Mike Fitzpatrick was kind enough to donate some great parts for our race bike. Thanks very much Mike we are very grateful for your generous donation and your offer to help out.

3/6/09

All being well we will be flow bench testing several modified heads this weekend (7/6/09) to see which direction we will be taking with our head modifications. 

7/6/09

We managed to get the flow figures done on five different heads at the weekend. Some had stock valves and various port modifications and others had big valves and modified ports so we have now collected enough data to work out what modifications work best and how far we need to go with the porting and this will determine what we are going to do for our race head. Just to give you all a clue, we will be using stock sized valves and very minor port modification.

12/6/09

I rang and talked to Mike Morse at Vintage Brake this morning and he is sending our brake pads and shoes next week. Also received an email from Mikes XS and they have located a front rim for our race bike and are sending it as soon as possible.

25/6/09

Received the wheel rim from Mikes XS today so we can now get on with some wheel building for the racer. 

 8/7/09

Picked up the battery charger for the club racer today and should get the batteries next week.

10/7/09

I got one of the two batteries today, these are dry and will keep for months until we need them.

Update 31/7/09

In a couple of weeks time I will be traveling up to Sydney to drop off some stuff I have accumulated for the club racer and picking up some of the stuff Ivan has been storing. I am hoping to see Ivan race at Oran Park on the 23rd of August before traveling back.

Glen has been busy checking out some head modifications we are going to do to the club racer head but is about to fly out to England and America with work so that will stop our head development for a few weeks. I discussed with Ivan the possibility of Matt doing the motor for the racer and Ivan has agreed that this would be best. Ivan will concentrate on the rolling chassis for the racer which will include the wheel building and some fiberglass work as well as any frame mods he deems necessary.

We still need to buy a few parts for the motor and the ozzie dollar is helping out by going up in value so it might time, very soon, to put in our order with Mikes XS. The fund raising continues with the sale of the Back Issues CD's and sticker deal and to date I have had several buyers but could stand a few more.

If you were intending to make a donation towards the club racer then now would be a good time to speak up.

Update 17/8/09

I talked to John at "Johny Dyno" in Geelong last week and he is willing to dynamically balance our crankshaft for the race bike when we are ready. I am traveling up the Sydney this weekend to drop off the rolling chassis stuff for the race bike and pick the engine bits for Matt. We should be able to start the head mods very soon as we have now finished the research part of the project and now know what we want to do.

Update 25/8/09

Kevin Palmer and I went to Sydney at the weekend to drop off some parts for the racer and stayed at Geoff Bamford's place where we were treated royally by Geoff and Louise who had also invited a few blokes around for a get together including Herb Conlon and Chris "Bung" Williams among others, Herb's chilli prawns were the sensation of the night. While we were in Sydney we took the opportunity to visit Dave Rayner on Saturday and had lunch with him and Jeanette before setting off to catch up with Ivan Hoey. Went out for dinner with Ivan and Caren before retiring back to Geoff's place for the night. Sunday we went to Oran Park to watch Ivan race and we were impressed by his performance on his XS 750cc racer, he got four second places and a third. Went back to Ivan's that night for dinner and loaded the bits and pieces we had to bring back. 

Above: Ivan's racer - Below: Ivan with an alternative drink (it's not what he was drinking the night before!!!)

Went back to Geoff's before heading south Monday morning. We did a bit of drinking and a lot of talking and all in all we had a great weekend and we sincerely wish to thank all those who made us welcome.

While I was at the Oran Park track I got a call from Laurie Moloney who has donated the new Mikes XS rockers for the club racer. Thanks Laurie for your generous donation.

7/9/09

Took all the engine parts down to Matt this weekend, we met half way and did the transfer at Lismore, included was the last order from Mikes XS including the cam chain, guide and tensioner as well as the competition valve springs. Matt will now go through all the parts to see if there is anything else we need to buy to complete the motor.

13/9/09

Bought a market tent on ebay, I thought it might be useful for the club racer and other club functions and I will get it painted up with the race team signage, I thought we might also use it as a pit shop to sell some caps, stubby holders and T-shirts to help raise money for the club racer when we go racing. More on this later.

1/10/09

I spend the weekend working in the shed making a jig so we can check the balance factor of our club racer crank. From what I have read from several sources is the rephased crank requires a balance factor of 50% and that the stock balance factor is around 62%. Usually when anyone has done a rephased motor they also fit a big bore kit and because the bigger pistons are heavier in theory they bring the balance factor very close to ideal. Dave Rayner found this out when he got his balanced, the bloke who did the job told him he was wasting his time doing it as it was so close to perfect it hardly needed modifying. But being the anal retentive I am I decided it better to be safe than sorry so I have organized for our club racer crank to be balanced when it is ready.

Here's a picture of the jig I made for doing the dynamic balancing of our club racer crank.

Once we have worked out the rotating mass and reciprocating mass we can apply the formula for working out the counterweights added to the jig and spun in the machine which will then tell how much and where to add or remove material to achieve our 50% balance factor. Simple right? Well actually no but if anyone is interested I will explain the procedure in more detail.

14/10/09

This week I ordered some burrs so we can start modifying our race head. I got them delivered yesterday. At the weekend I blasted the head to clean it up ready for some work. I can't wait to see how it turns out and get the flow bench fired up again.

19/10/09

I picked up the market tent today after Jezza Designs painted it for me. Looks good don't you think?

The AGM has come and gone and we have a new president, Geoff Bamford and some lively discussion regarding the club racer was discussed and there will be more on this later.

The outgoing pres. Dave Taylor bought along the ignition system for the club racer to the AGM and handed it over to Ivan.

1/12/09

I rang and spoke to Mick at Moto Tumbi this week enquiring about a fairing for our racer. I talked to Ivan first and told him I thought the fairing on Rod Asher's bike would suit our bike very well as all the fairings I had looked at to date were either too big or flat fronted. I showed him the pics of Rod's fairing (below) and he agreed so it looks like we can go ahead and buy this fairing from Moto Tumbi and Ivan is going to buy one for his P4 racer as well. As you can see it is proportional to the XS650's size and is aerodynamically shaped at the front, unlike those designed for a headlight which are much flatter and wider. If we get our orders together we might even save a few bucks on the deal.

9/12/09

I rang Moto Tumbi again today and spoke to Mick Jones at length about our club racer and he agreed to give us a discount if we bought two fairings so the deal was done and now we just have to wait for them to arrive. Ivan is very keen to have a rolling chassis completed early in the new year so he will be looking at getting our wheels laced up before Christmas. 

20/1/10

Well things have been a bit quiet over the Christmas break but our new fairing has arrived from Moto Tumbi and Ivan says it looks good. Ivan has also done the rear hub ready to get the wheels laced up. He has some frame bracing to do and when this is done and the wheels are done we should have a rolling chassis. I had hoped for some pics to show you but Ivan is a bit slack at sending them so I guess we'll just have to wait.

Glen Voice has been extremely busy at work so work on the head has temporarily been put on the back burner until he manages to find some time, Matt Moloney has also been busy but has managed to get some of the engine work done with much still to do.

I have been looking into camshaft theory and how it relates to what will work with our configuration and I have to say it is really an interesting and complex subject with so many variables that play a part in the final engine set up that it makes your head spin! I have been looking into such things as dynamic compression ratios, con rod ratios, inlet and exhaust valve openings and closings and port flow characteristics and how all these things must work with each other to give the best performance.

I am off to Phillip Island this weekend to watch the old bikes compete in the Island Classic and hope to catch up with Ivan Hoey, Rob McKie, Wayne Kennedy and Dave Taylor who will also be there, should be a good weekend.

13/2/10

Phillip Island was great and I met a few fellow club members that were also there to watch the classic racing. Ivan came down from Sydney with Craig and Marty, the guys from C&M cycles, Dave Taylor, John Chambers, Phil Mester, Rob McKie. I believe Wayne Kennedy and Mike Roberts were also there but I didn't see them. Kevin Palmer and myself made the trip from Geelong.

Ivan finally sent some pictures of the modified rear hub for the club racer and tells me he is dropping the rims and hubs into Chivo's this week to have them laced up.

All we need now is some pictures of the race fairing which also at Ivan's place.

Chivo has finished doing the wheels for the club racer.

And Ivan has finally taken a picture of the fairing. Thanks mate.

Now that the wheels have been done, we are well on the way to having a finished rolling chassis for our club racer. I'm off to Broadford this Sunday to watch the Victorian HMRAV titles and hope to catch up with Rod Asher. 

24/4/2010

I went to Broadford and both the racing and the weather were great, unfortunately Rod Asher had the flu and didn't go.

23/5/2010

True to his word Nick has made the Titanium valve spring retainers.

Greg Tow has made a cash donation for the club racer and we thank him for his generosity.

It's not our club racer but anyone who attended the Historic Road Race Championship at Phillip Island in September 2010 will have seen Sam Muldoon doing his stuff against some serious opposition on his dad Mick's XS650 racer. If you want to see how competitive a XS650 can be in P4, go and watch Sam in January when he will be back at the Island for the Island Classic.

29/9/2010

On the subject of the club racer and where we are at right now, we had a few setbacks because two of our key crew members have taken up new jobs and can no longer take part in the development of the racer. Glen has taken a promotion which leaves him no time at all to help with the development of the head for the racer so it has reverted to me.

Kevin has his flow bench working now so we will be able to continue with the head as soon as I have flowed the stock head for comparison with the figures we got with the Super Flow bench we previously had access to. I have also yet to have the valve spring retainers Chromium Nitride coated but this can be done anytime I have the urge to travel to Melbourne to drop them off at Surface Technologies along with the cash to pay for it.

The other major setback was Matt taking a job in the mining industry in Queensland, he was originally going to build the motor for the racer and has most of the engine parts at his dads place. This was a blow as Matt was heavily involved with having the crankshaft rephased and dynamically balanced  so this is now another job which will have to done elsewhere by someone else. Luckily most of the hard work has been done and Matt has offered to pay for the work to be finished.

I recently spoke to Matt and he will be home in November so I will catch up with him then and get as much done as possible while he is home then bring the rest back to my place. I need to hook up with Matt to determine some of the parameters needed for the dynamic balancing and also make some small parts for adaptation to the machine doing the balancing, once this is done we can go ahead and complete the crank and start assembling the motor.

Frank has had the exhaust pipes bent up so I should be getting them as soon as he can pick them up and post them to me.

Ivan assures me that a rolling chassis is very possible by Christmas as he is getting ready to do his own racer which he hopes will be ready for the Island Classic in January.

So work is still continuing despite the setbacks and although taking longer than anticipated we hope to complete the racer eventually.

Thanks to some of our members ordering the back issues cd's we managed to bank some money for the project last month.

8/10/2010

Today I received the exhaust pipes from Franc Trost, thanks Franc they look fantastic. The pipes were bent up by CES Racing Systems in Queensland for Franc.

Custom Exhaust Specialists, Unit 3, 2-16 Beal St Meadowbrook QLD 4131

The design brief was to make the pipes travel inside the frame rails and be low enough to allow the fitting of Ivan's drop sump.

We also wanted the pipes clear of the sump plug for ease of maintenance.

The length is also important and we need to keep it short, our research indicates that 29"-31" is optimal for the XS650 engine to perform at its best so these will need to be shortened.

Matt's dad Laurie dropped the meggas back at the weekend so I shortened the pipes and fitted them to see how they'd look.
Now I need to make some brackets to mount them properly and do some welding. Not sure which is best for mounting the meggas to the pipes whether to clamp them onto the pipes or use springs and slip joints. 

Unfortunately I missed Matt when he was home in November, it was a flying visit to compete at the sidecar cross nationals at Morgan Park in SA. He finished second by the way so well done Matt.

I also attended the AGM in November and the club racer was there for those who came along to look at.

The rolling chassis is now at Kevin Boss's shed as Kev has volunteered to do some work on it and Herb Conlon has promised he will be feeding me pics of any work done so I can update this page. Ivan was too busy to continue as he has his own racer to build. As you can see the rolling chassis is well on the way to completion with the wheels and front end virtually done and the fibreglass is all there and just needs some fitting and painting for completion. Of course the racer fund is looking a bit grim and more money will be needed to finish the project so if anyone has an idea to raise funds let us know.

11/12/2010

I put a bid in on Ebay for some Valter Moto rear sets and I won them, I will use them as a pattern and try to copy the parts that are suitable like the foot pegs and gear lever and brake lever for the club racer, mounting brackets will of course be different.

15/12/2010

I went to Geelong today and called in to Lange Engineering and Rob is going to do the alloy foot peg mounts for us. I dropped off the 12mm alloy plate and the .dxf drawing of the design and imported it into his cnc computer so now we just have to wait until he has time between jobs to run the program and produce them. I also bought a gear lever for modification and the missing heim join for the gear shifter. I will post some pics when it's fitted to the bike.

22/12/2010

Picked up the mounting plates from Lange Engineering today and fitted them to the bike, I think they look good.

Gear side rear set including newly made gear lever, toe peg and alloy mounting plate.

Brake side rear set nearing completion, I have bought some heim joints and some 12mm alloy rod to make up a connecting rod and just need to make an adapter for where the stock foot brake pedal attaches, I have done part of this and just need to weld on a lever and this side will be completed.

30/12/2010

I finally got around to doing more on the exhaust system, I had to add some 1 5/8" sections at the end as per our design from Mike Morse and I also had to do some minor bending to get the mufflers where I wanted them.

I also added some mountings on the mufflers and made some drilled 25mm X 5mm Aluminium straps back to the foot peg mounts to hold it all on and it seems strong enough. All that needs to be done now is the Jet-Hot or High Performance Coating on the pipes and mufflers.

I also did some trimming here and there to make it all look a bit better including some milling work done by Kevin Palmer to make the levers a bit lighter. The new foot pegs I ordered turned up today so the next job is to try and make some foot peg mounts for these new pegs. I am doing this because they are much cheaper and more readily available than ones I got originally. They are to suit a Honda VTR for racing.

Update 4/2/2011

The VTR foot pegs are now mounted ok, the only downside is they don't fold like the others did but as they are about $60 a side cheaper I think we can live with non folding foot pegs. These rear sets are now all but finished as is the exhaust system, just a few tweaks and some springs fitted to the pipes' slip joints and I will be done. I bought some exhaust springs from JBM Industries in the USA when I got my carburettor diaphragms this week. He sells them for ultralight aircraft.

 
Stainless steel exhaust spring

Bruce Cannon, a new Geelong member has donated a bunch of parts. He tells me he has bought everything on the list below which was all the parts outstanding on our want list. As we get into the build we may need some more parts so keep an eye on our want list
I just bought some parts from Bruce on Ebay so I will pick up these donated parts when I go to pick my own parts from Bruce in the next week or so. 

Gasket set for 750cc big bore motor (Part #18-0752) 
Premium valve stem seals (Part #01-0115 ) set of 4
Top end engine 'O' ring set (Part #18-0855) 
Progressive front springs for 35mm forks (Part #27-1088) 
Aluminium rocker shaft plugs (Part #05-0081) 
Camshaft bearings (Part #05-0007) set of 4
17 Tooth 520 front sprocket (Part#22-1617)

Bernice Jurgeit was so pleased she sold her bike on our website she has made a small donation for our club racer which I will pass on when Dave Rayner gets back. This donation has now been transferred to the club racer account on 23/2/2011.

Update 19/2/2011

Went into Geelong today and picked up the donated parts from Bruce Cannon listed above, Bruce reminded me that he is not a member yet but soon will be. Either way thanks Bruce your generous donation is very much appreciated as are all donations to the club racer project.

I have decided that the rear set foot peg brackets are too high and I have designed some others to replace them. To make this easier to do I went to Geelong to buy another band saw blade as the 12mm aluminium sheet I am using to make the brackets is too difficult to cut with the current blade and too damn fiddly to do with a jig saw. I measured the blade and went to a place that makes them to any length and gave them the dimensions and they said come back tomorrow and it will be ready. So yesterday I went in and picked up the new blade. When I came to fit it I discovered it was too short. So back I go to get it fixed and was told it may be ready today and they will call me if it is, needless to say I did not get called so it looks like I will now have to go back again today. 

I only mention this to point out that even the simplest of jobs on the club racer can end up taking days instead of hours. After three days and driving 120Km and spending $30 on a band saw blade so far, I still have to make the brackets !!!

Update 27/2/2011

Finally after the band saw blade fiasco I cut out the newly designed foot peg mounts for the club racer.

 As you can see there is now much more scope for adjustment to suit whoever rides it and once I had the proper tools for the job it only took a couple of hours to do. I only have to make the adjustment rods for the gear shifter and brake now so I can retrieve the ones belonging to the rear sets I bought on Ebay.

Update 7/03/2011

Went to Geelong today and bought the rod ends and left hand nuts for the adjustable connector rods for the rear sets. I'm still waiting for the left hand taps to arrive from China to complete the job.

Update 14/3/2011

Ivan Hoey sent me these pics of the new engine mounts he has made for the club racer, made from aluminium, they weigh 600 grams less than the stock items. All the bolts have been drilled for safety wiring and the front mount is designed to add strength to the frame with the addition of the tube that clamps between the frame rails much like the Percy Tait modifications done by the Yamaha factory to the post '74 XS frames.

Ivan also tells me that Kevin Boss has been  busy removing brackets that are not needed from the racer frame including the rear foot peg mounts, the removal of these has shaved over a kilo from the weight of the frame. Hopefully someone will take some pics of Kev's work and send them to me so I can keep you all updated on the progress.

15/3/2011 

I received the left hand threaded taps in the post today so now I can complete the rear sets for the club racer.

Gear and brake connector rods are now done and the rear sets have been polished.

Gear side

Brake side.

Well it's been a bit of an epic but I have finally finished the rear sets for the club racer with the help of Kevin Palmer and Robert Lange Engineering here in Geelong. I just weighed them on our kitchen scales and the total weight is 1.31 kilos for both sides. I didn't weigh the stock brake and gear levers and foot pegs and mounts but I suspect they will weigh a lot more.

The next job is to weld some loops onto the mufflers and pipes to hook the springs which hold the slip joints together. This is a very effective way to hold the muffler on. I will post some pics when it is done so you will see what I mean.

19/3/2011

I got some 3mm filler rod from a mate and bent up the anchors for the springs and put them on using hose clamps to make sure they are both functional and good looking. When these are welded on (tomorrow) I will lose the hose clamps.

I would like to go ahead and have the pipes and mufflers HPC or Jet-Hot coated silver like I did on my tracker pipes, but at a couple of hundred dollars I can't afford it at the moment so they will have to wait, unless someone else wants to pay for it? Any takers?

I have arranged to go to Warrnambool in April, to pick up the the engine bits for the club racer.

Update 22/3/2011

I was just talking Steve Hobbs and when I mentioned I had finished the rear sets for the club racer, he told me he thought the stud spacing for the foot peg mounts on the early frames was different to the later frames. You guessed it, he was right, so now I will have to remake the rear set mounts because they are different. The early frames i.e. XS1,XS2 & TX have a wider spacing on the foot peg mounting studs of 83mm whereas the later frames have a spacing of 80mm. Oh well, live and learn.

Update 29/3/2011

Finished at last with the proper stud spacing for the early frame. Polished and ready to go. Oh by the way these are now made from 7075 T6 alloy and laser cut by Lange Engineering in Geelong, thanks Rob.

Update 4/4/2011

I went to Warrnambool at the weekend and picked up almost all of the club racer engine bits, when I say almost all I mean everything that would fit in the car. All the new bits and the engine crank cases etc. All I left behind at Laurie's place was some second hand front forks which were unserviceable and some crank pieces left over from a rephase. I also left behind some second hand pistons and various small items which I will get the next time I'm down that way. I have yet to get from Matt his donated DelOrto carburettors and a camshaft he was making for us as part of a later development of the motor.

Now that I have all the necessary bits I need to work out the balance factor for the new crankshaft I can go ahead and make some weights for the jig I made a while ago and do the static balancing prior to dynamically balancing the crank. Daryl Hutcheon has kindly offered to press and align the crankshaft for us prior to welding. I also spoke to Steve Bell while I was in Warrnambool, for those who don't know Steve his business, Jettco , builds race motors for mini sprint cars using 600cc Hondas etc. 

Steve Bell's 840cc Rephased Tracker.

To make a long story short, Steve has offered to run in our race motor on his engine dyno and check it out under controlled conditions and make sure everything is ok before we go racing. He also mentioned they can do a cam swap while the engine is mounted on the dyno for comparison purposes and do a bunch of data on the motor to see if it is working correctly. Steve has a very nice XS650 tracker himself and is very keen to build another XS this time a café racer. I'm sure if we can fit into his busy schedule our race bike will benefit from his experience.

Update 26/4/11

Went to Broadford Sunday and dropped off the exhaust system and rear sets for the club racer to Herb Conlon who was down for the Bonanza with Mark Peatman. Hopefully everything will fit as it should when offered up to the racer.

Next job will be to weigh pistons and con rods etc. to establish the 50% balance factor for the race motor. The head will have to wait for a while as there is a possibility that some of the work may be done by a company in Sydney, this is being investigated by Steve Hobbs on our behalf. 

Update 10/5/11

One problem encountered is the exhaust sits too low, this is easily rectified and Ivan is onto this. Unfortunately the system was set up on a later frame to the one used for the racer where the motor sits lower. 

6/6/11 UPDATE

Glen Voice one of the original members of the club racer build team has decided to take the family back to England for what may be forever. Glen was instrumental in developing a planned approach to developing a head for the club racer and helped us with his expertise when we were flow testing several heads in an effort to determine what direction we would take. Thanks for that Glen we will miss your input. 

Glen Voice seated on his 840cc Tracker

Update 22/8/11

Sent off the valve spring retainers last week and received them back today CrN coated. Dave Taylor has offered to pay for this process to be done to the club racer set, thanks Dave. Job was done by Surface Technology Coatings in Thomastown. The reason this was done was because of a reported problem with premature wear on this type of retainer. Surface is now harder and slicker and should prevent the problem. Here is how they compare.

On the left are the Titanium valve spring retainers that have been Chromium Nitride Treated and they weigh 40.1 grams.
On the right are the Mikes' Chrome Moly valve spring retainers and they weigh 92.8 grams. 
The Titanium retainers are an exact copy of the Mikes' Chrome Moly retainers but weigh less then half.

Here is a stock XS650 retainer and if we multiply by 4 a set would weigh 21.0 X 4 = 84.0 grams.

Update 16/9/11

The last piece of our very trick, and so far, very secret crankshaft is finally being machined by Lange engineering in Geelong.
In case you were wondering why the crankshaft is secret, the reason is, it is a copy of Ivan's race crank layout and Ivan wishes for it to remain secret. As it is his intellectual property I think it's fair enough for us to respect his wishes and not publish details on our website. When this is finished I will be able to proceed with the balance factor work and hopefully assemble and dynamically balance the crank ready for use. Dave Rayner will be ordering the bronze valve guides he is donating for our racer very soon and hopefully Hobbsy will get some good news regarding the head porting. (Steve is negotiating with a Sydney head specialist about a port job on the head for the racer.) 

Steve Hobbs has also been busy designing and building a new seat for the XS650 café racer boys which mounts to the stock seat mounts and does not require the removal of the rear frame loop. He wants to donate one for the club racer when it's finished.

Thanks Steve it looks fantastic, even in this unfinished prototype stage.

The latest picture I have received from Kevin Boss's workshop of the club racer.

Update 28/12/11

After receiving the reground crank pin back from Lange Engineering, a job that needed to be done to allow easier assembly of the crankshaft for balancing, I got busy and weighed all the bits necessary to determine the correct balance factor of 50% for the race crank.

First thing is weigh the piston and all its parts i.e. piston, pin, clips and rings. total weight 439.2 grams

small end weight 102.6g + big end weight 193.5g = 296.1g 

measured weight of the whole con rod = 295.3 ( therefore 296.1 - 295.3 = .8 gram ) 

My measurement end to end has an error of .8 gram, this is minimal (0.27%) and nothing to worry about.

Next is the big end bearing and spacing washers, 60.4g

The big end pin is not weighed as it is deemed to be part of the crankshaft as in one piece cranks.

The only other part to be weighed and considered in the equation is the jig or device used to attach weight to the crank pin for static and dynamic balancing, the weight of this device must be included in the calculated weight (C).

Keep watching this space.

Last Updated 04 February 2012