Today's update has some good news and some bad...
Good news first:
I finished up the wiring and went for a nice ride. I started with visiting my two local moto shops just a few miles from home. That way, if anything came up, we could fix it. Bike ran great. Front brake is awesome. Very very fun to ride. After the shops, I took the back roads to a friends house about 10 miles away. It is absolutely everything I had hoped for in the build.
Bad news:
The engine paint, which was by far the most annoying part of this build, is already irrecoverably ruined. The silver paint and/or the clear coat (both of which was previously cured in my oven, per the can's instructions, has turned to gold/brown across the whole top end of the motor. The stator cover still looks good, as does the oil pan and filter cover. But even half of the tranny/bottom end has turned.
I'm super disappointed because there is no "good" remedy. Notice no bluing on the pipes, and I've got 90 mains, so it's not dangerously lean.
Naturally, I am wondering if the bike somehow got too hot. I measured some temps within about 5 minutes of shutting down the bike. Prior to shutdown I had ridden about 10 minutes at moderate speed, not in traffic. The cylinders were showing 120C (246F). The oil itself was about 110C. I did notice a small amount of steam coming from the breather hose when I was at stop signs. Normal? Also, when I checked the oil temp after riding, there was a little mist down inside the filler.
Question is, how hot should one of these motors get? Surely not 550F degrees, like the paint is advertised for! But also, in general, for the motors safety, what kind of temps should I be seeing?
I do not have my oil pressure light wired in yet. However, I did watch and see oil pumping up into the tappet covers when I first started her up. So there is oil circulating.
Gotta admit, the bad news is outweighing the good after the first real ride. Mechanical glitches cause me no great discomfort, but this is a real suck.
ARG!!!