Don't you mean ride.

Dude... it sucks to not have you around for this.

 

That bike runs awesome on top, but I am sure that they originally got better than 45mpg. I would encourage limiting changes to minimize fuel mileage loss, if that is your thing.

 

Well my dad's 750 gets around 50 mpg, it has a stock filter and aftermarket pipes. Stock jetting though. Well for now then I will just tune it for high flow pipes and filters. Stock they produced around 55 hp so hopefully with the mods I am planning I can get an even 60 hp. I am hoping to also have the dry weight around 350 pounds so it should accelerate pretty well even though it won't have a super high top speed. Maybe 100 mph.

 

I tore the carbs off yesterday. My work is cut out for me for sure. Two carbs had not been drained and the stale green gas barely dribbled out when I took off the drain screws. I have the yamaha carb cleaner concentrate that I will fill a five gallon bucket up with so I can just set the bank of carbs in and let soak for a few days. Then I will tear them down blow out all the openings and determine if I need rebuild kits. I still haven't had any luck finding off brand tappered air pods that are the right length. K and N has them but it is $120 for a set, ouch.

 

So I began the tear down process on the carbs and already found a couple of problems with whoever tore it apart before me. The first one was the float valve was upside down in carb number one also the float bowl gasket was pinched in between the bowl and carb body. I still need to tear down the next two carbs and inspect everything in there.

 

Andrew, haven't been here for a while. Man, am I envious of your skills! I'm about 3/4 of the way through "Shopcraft as Soul Craft." It would be very affirming for you to read. I'm working on my retirement trade - gonna call myself "Happy *** Bike Seats." Was a leather craftsman and am customizing my stock VTR seat as my first attempt. I'm leaving the back of it as stock to use your rack on it. Then I have an Aprilia to build a new seat for. When I'm ready, I'll have you send me an *** mold for your VTR seat.

 

i had some carb dip do some weird crap before. We use Yamaha combustion chamber cleaner. You should be able to turn those around in a few hours, and you won't have to worry about it eating the carbs.

 

Autoteach, so far no weirdness with the yamaha cleaner. and as a side not it softened all the old clear coat that can be such a pain to clean off the float bowls and needle covers. Saved me alot of time. I tore each carb bottom end apart and blew every thing out, also wiped off the residue in the bowl chambers. Made sure that fuel would flow through the valve. Put everything back together then test for leaking or overflow issues and everything looks good for now.

Blustreak, I may need advice/help I am not sure where to start with covering my seat. I could probably on my own make a cover that functions but I am not sure I can pull off somethin that looks really nice. Problem is its not just a simple covering job. It has to match the cowl and the tank. So at the tank it is curved and slops toward the back. I made holes in the pan so I could rivet the cover down. Any tips?

 

Great news, today I hooked up the electrical put the cabs back on. Filled the carb bowls with fuel . Turned on the bike kicked it a few times, and bam she started! New plugs would probably make starting a once or twice kinda kick ordeal instead of 10. I am just happy she runs!

 

It lives!

 

Blustreak, I may need advice/help I am not sure where to start with covering my seat. I could probably on my own make a cover that functions but I am not sure I can pull off somethin that looks really nice. Problem is its not just a simple covering job. It has to match the cowl and the tank. So at the tank it is curved and slops toward the back. I made holes in the pan so I could rivet the cover down. Any tips?[/quote]

Andrew, it looks like you already laid a layer of rebond foam on the pan. There's a couple of issues and I'm guessing given the style of the bike, your priority is looks, not comfort. First of all, you would normally add another layer of less dense poly-urethane foam (1/2" or 1") on top of the rebond. You can add foam with spray upholstery glue and trip back where you need to with a drill and disc sand mount (5 or 6"). You can shape the seat however you like with foam, glue and a sander. In a perfect world, you'd build up the back to support the back of your ***, shape out the seat with the sander, add the less dense foam and then cover it w/ leather. Given the pan is sheet metal, I would think you would attach the leather (no vinyl after all that gorgeous work, please) with short sheet metal screws and maybe washers. Check out this website. "Black jewel" stingray leather would look devastating, with the "eye" strategically placed on the seat. I'd have a professional upholsterer put the leather on. See this website for "how to."
DIYMotorcycleSeat.com Also, see this website for stingray hides - www.rojeleather.com.

 

I have two layers of rebound foam, I was also planning on putting another 1/2 thick piece of softer foam then possibly stitching in a 1/4 in piece of very soft foam to pronounce the stitched sections. We will see. I want to keep the overall height very slim.

 

A few small things to report back on.

The clutch cable as seen much earlier in the thread is way too long, being cheap and lazy I decided to make an attempt shortening the cable. I melted off the cable end that connects to the lever with a torch. It was just soldered on. Melted the metal end off the cable housing, it ended up that the end was not reusable so I began my quest for a suitable replacement part. I then stumble across a unspent bullet and case. The case was just about the right size so I pulled the bullet out popped the cap and drilled the case for the cable. You can see it in the picture below, it became a very nice housing end. Then I put it all back together soldering the end back on and now I have a clutch cable that is 13 in shorter.



Also in this picture I glued a newer style clicker switch on to the modified master cylinder and lever assembly. This was to avoid using the inline pressure sensor that originally came with the bike.



Here is my battery quick connector end. I scavenged a broken flashlight that used a similar battery for the internal pins. I will the solder heavier duty wiring that will connect it to the existing harness.

 

Keep up the work. We need to see a video of this in action.