Topic: "Little Horse," and "Little Dragon" the war of the 500's

[Little_Horse]

yeah I can get measurements later tonight. They are very small diameter and also very short since this fork has a 4 in long top out spring. So there is two springs in there. One 4 in and one 14 in aprox.

[Zaipai]

So correct me if I am wrong, fork oil and auto transmission oil are interchangeable? I have always used fork oil but I remember hearing whispers of this before and I haven't ever confirmed it true.

I am not sure they are interchangeable, however my manual (CB550) calls for 10W30 motor oil for the front forks, so that is what I use. It seems to do the trick.. But then I don't have the custom bike you have..so...

.: Scott :.

[Little_Horse]

I did a little reading on the cx forum and found most people have had the best results with 20w fork oil so that is what I got. I will report back on the results.

[Zaipai]

I did a little reading on the cx forum and found most people have had the best results with 20w fork oil so that is what I got. I will report back on the results.

Ok cool. I would like to know, over the winter I will have to do my fork seals, so would be nice to know if that works better, if so I will use that when I put them back together.

.: Scott :.

[my78k]

Some spacers and higher weight oil really do help the CX alot. That is why I haven't bothered trying to find new progressive shocks that fit. I just used 5 or 6 washers on each side and it made a world of difference. I am using ATF in them right now but I may change it up.

[Industrial Cafe]

you can use 1 washer and a 3/4in long piece of 1 inch pvc pipe in there.  that's what progressive sends to you in their kit.

[Little_Horse]

you can use 1 washer and a 3/4in long piece of 1 inch pvc pipe in there.  that's what progressive sends to you in their kit.

yes this is what I was planning on doing. I should find the time to complete the fork job this weekend.

[Little_Horse]

So I finished the forks on Friday. I put in 20w fork oil and pulled out the short spring and replaced it with a long spacer. My theory is that they where trying to make a progressive rate fork by using two rates of spring. I don't much care for the progressive rate idea anyways for a bike made more for sporting. So after the tweeks I took it out for its first 40 mile spin and even though back at the shop the forks felt a little too stiff the bike actually felt setup pretty well. The garbage tires limited the testing some though. I had to take it easy. No problems with the mono shock although I may dial it down on pre load and mess with the dampening a little. No weird shaking or even the hint it wanted to head shake.

On to the next issue while riding I stopped to check the bike over and when I was done it would not start again. Do you guys think it is just too rich on the idle mixture setting? The bike was full temp. I ended up coasting it down a hill and bump starting eventually worked. The battery turned the bike over just fine FWIW.

[Little_Horse]

Big day yesterday. The tires came, Avon Roadriders the date stamp is 2010  a pleasant surprise they are so fresh.

The ignition control came in so I will pick it up at the post office today.

After taking off the rear wheel so I could mount the tire today I noticed that the reason the rear brake was squealing was because one of the pads had broken off of the shoe  hopefully the dealer stocks the part because my sister is visiting this week and was hoping to get to ride.

[Little_Horse]

I successfully mounted my rear tire! The tool I made worked awesome! I am very excited.

[Zaipai]

Gratz on the mounting tool. Also on the brake pad, finding out while taking off the tire is better then finding out at 60+ Mph.. 

.: Scott :.

[Little_Horse]

very true... the only problem is now my miracle might be over. My sister is coming down tomorrow night and I had up until the brake pad issue "everything" I needed to get the bike to run right. I went to the dealer and the shoes where out of stock (like always). So now I have to decide if should disable the rear brake so she can at least tootle around some and just use the front brake, or call it off. I guess it could be ultra tough love on the whole using just the front brake thing.

[Zaipai]

Why call it off. Can't you just order the brake and let her know it will be ready soon? In the mean time you can ride it, however just using the front brake. Seems like a reasonable thing. Unless you can take the pad from another bike?..

.: Scott :.

[Little_Horse]

She only wants to put it around the neighborhood so I took the whole brake pedal assembly off and reinstalled the drum minus the broken off pad so nothing loose in there and since there is no pedal there is no way of accidentally going metal on metal in the drum. Today I am going to mount the front tire, I need to make an exhaust baffle as the bike is too loud when riding and I need to make a new electronics tray as the new ignition is different.

I installed the new ignition box it is a kick ass unit from ignitech a programmable ignition (although I don't think I will ever change the programming). Very well built, very easy to install much smaller and lighter then stock and fully sealed. I was able to get in on a group buy on the cx forum so I saved about $60 off of list. Bike fired right up and seemed better but I won't know for sure until the front wheel is back on and I can ride some.

[Zaipai]

Any chance you have a picture of the new ignition? Or a link?

.: Scott :.

[Little_Horse]

All I have is a website for now.

http://www.ignitech.cz/english/aindex.htm

The box itself is about the size of a cigarette box and has a computer serial com end along with the bikes connector coming out of the end. It uses one 12v+ switched power one switched ground 2 wires for coils and a pulse pick up wire to the pulser already in the engine.

I believe that they do ignitions for just about any bike and will do production runs for cheaper than list the more units the cheaper it is. It wouldn't surprise me that one box will run every points driven sohc 4 if they supplied an assortment of ends with their kits.

[morethrottle]

I said to them mount and balance... they charged me for it. What is the deal with shops these days?

It's not just shops.  It seems very hard to find people, in general, that are good at what they do nowadays.  That's why I like this forum.  The workmanship of the folks here is top notch.

[Little_Horse]

Quizzing the brain trust



It won't start back up after it is shut down at full operating temps.

The details:
The starter turns the motor just fine but not even once does a cylinder fire, then after waiting 10 to fifteen minutes it starts right back up just fine idles just fine runs just fine.

The condition of parts:
I haven't checked coils yet
Spark plugs used to be fowled but now with the new ignition they are tan
The bike did this with both the OEM CDI and the new aftermarket CDI
The mixture screws where at 2 turns then at 1 turn and did the same thing.

Any ideas?

[traveler]

Glad you figured out whole whole front shock thing.

10W30 and progressive shocks with no preload spacers is PERFECT for my 550 Racer, but since you are in "full custom" territory, you had to step out of the box, and fiddle with it a hair.....glad you got it working!

I guess you sister is just going to have to accept that her CX is NOT a "plug and play" bike.

~Joe

[traveler]

Quizzing the brain trust

It won't start back up after it is shut down at full operating temps.

The details:
The starter turns the motor just fine but not even once does a cylinder fire, then after waiting 10 to fifteen minutes it starts right back up just fine idles just fine runs just fine.

The condition of parts:
I haven't checked coils yet
Spark plugs used to be fowled but now with the new ignition they are tan
The bike did this with both the OEM CDI and the new aftermarket CDI
The mixture screws where at 2 turns then at 1 turn and did the same thing.

Any ideas?

pop the fuel cap off and let it vent......could be vapor lock.

~Joe

[Laminar]

Quizzing the brain trust

It won't start back up after it is shut down at full operating temps.

The details:
The starter turns the motor just fine but not even once does a cylinder fire, then after waiting 10 to fifteen minutes it starts right back up just fine idles just fine runs just fine.

The condition of parts:
I haven't checked coils yet
Spark plugs used to be fowled but now with the new ignition they are tan
The bike did this with both the OEM CDI and the new aftermarket CDI
The mixture screws where at 2 turns then at 1 turn and did the same thing.

Any ideas?

pop the fuel cap off and let it vent......could be vapor lock.

~Joe

Wouldn't vapor lock expose itself while running, too?

[traveler]

tends to raise it's head when restarting on hot days after bein run, and the engine is hot.

~Joe

[Little_Horse]

I will check for vapor lock, but I am not convinced since it runs great until you shut it off then it won't restart even if you try 5 seconds later.

So far I am thinking weak spark or an incorrect idle mixture.

[Frankenkit]

is the timing spot on?  Some folks were telling me that if it's too far advanced, hot starts become a problem.

[Little_Horse]

Well timing is static on these weirdly enough today it started hot just fine. I even pulled a plug and checked for spark and it was good. I am beginning to think it was/is fowled plugs. Now that they are turning tan again I think it may more consistently start time will tell I suppose. I will keep the updates coming until the issue is resolved still very weird.