That tank is looking killer! Makes me think that maybe I could fix the trashed clear coat on my 4Runner.
Sucks about your motor though. That's some gnarly carnage.
That tank is looking killer! Makes me think that maybe I could fix the trashed clear coat on my 4Runner.
Sucks about your motor though. That's some gnarly carnage.
Not that it makes much difference to the outcome, but my theory is the rod cracked in the middle when you missed the shift and over revved. Then broke under load. Methinks I would look through the shifter mechanism carefully to see if false neutrals can be eliminated. They were a nemasis on my rd Yamahas.
In reply to TurnerX19 :
That is a very distinct possibility. It's also possible I wounded it in a practice session earlier in the night.
I spoke with Ossa engine guru Keith Lynas last night about putting together a bulletproof crank with the modern Yamaha rod conversion. No cheap, but apparently worth it. Keith claims that a large percentage of the factory Ossa rods made it out into the world without proper a heat treat. I'm also interested in something other than a stock reproduction cast piston. It will be interesting to see what he says about that.
At any rate, I tore down the popped motor and the spare Pioneer motor I have been stealing parts off of. The Pioneer crank looks to be in great shape, so it will be the one that gets sent off for the rod upgrade.
DANG! With the new years game haul and this you are acquiring quite the collection of dead pistons and rods. Sounds like you have a solid plan to make that awesome bike go again though, so I hope that goes smoothly and you can get racing again soon.
I look at the engine remains and remember Ed Harris as Gene Kranz in the movie Apollo 13 saying, "What have we got on the spacecraft that's good?"
Another double header race weekend is already upon us. Since the Phantom motor is now spread out across three states, my buddy Joel is going to let me ride his little Suzuki TS185.
This frame has been de-raked and it has a custom CRMO swingarm to bring the wheelbase back into check. Nobody is really sure what all has been done to the motor, but it is downright quick for a mere 185cc.
Wish me luck!
In reply to Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado :
Oof. That Suzuki speaks to me in some weird way.
Good luck!
That picture gets me going. The TS185 was more desirable than the 250. Supposedly the frame was lighter, and the motor was nearly as powerful as the 250.
That one has obviously lost a lot of weight by deleting all the street legal stuff and the airbox. It has also had the oil injection system modified or removed. I can't quite tell in that picture, but it looks like there is a really small reservoir under the seat. Cool way to shave some weight but avoid the complexity of deleting the injection system, which lubricates the left side of the engine.
Well, last weekend wasn't quite as successful as I was hoping it would be. I couldn't get comfortable on the bike and never really felt like I could make it work for me. The rear brake was super touchy and difficult to modulate. There were a few times where it lock up suddenly and unexpectedly, then heading into the next turn it wouldn't work at all. The saving grace was that it was turd slow on the straights, so it wasn't unmanageable to ride it without braking for the most part.
We had 7 in the class on Saturday. Mostly the usual suspects and a new comer on a really nice Champion framed Suzuki TM/RM. The TS was pretty good off the line, and although I couldn't get the holeshot on it, I would usually arrive to T1 in second or third. I was able to push my way into 3rd in the heat, which was better than I expected.
The main was very much the same story. A little off pace coming off the line, and a little gun shy considering the braking situation. I came out of T1 in 4th and started pushing on the new guy. He was fast coming out of the turns and would gap me heading down the straights, but he had a habit of braking early and was consistently taking a mid-low line. After probably 6 or 7 laps, I was able to dive in on the inside and carry enough speed to push him wide and out accelerate him on the straight. By that time Chris and Cory were way too far out in front, but I was able to put a little breathing room between myself and the new guy. I'm well enough chuffed with 3rd on a completely different and new to me bike that's down 65cc from the front runners.
Here I am in my new leather duds about to get gapped by Chris, with my buddy Landon bringing up the rear on a wildly ported 100cc Hodaka.
I was a little slower on Sunday. I was only able to get the TS up to a 4th place finish in both the heat and the main. I was right on my buddy Todd for the entire main, but couldn't make a pass stick.
I'm going to give another buddies YZ a go for the next race. It probably won't have the handling prowess of the TS, but it should have ample power on tap. I think I can manhandle it in the turns and be faster overall on it. I'm going to run down to Eugene tomorrow to fetch it and give it some love during the work week. He took a pretty heavy digger on it at The 1 Pro and hasn't touched it since.
I tore into the lent Why-Zed this week and found some troubling items that explained my buddies comments on the poor handling. The upper bearing race on the steering tube is wallered and stretched heavily. Once I got the front end of the bike off the ground in the shed, you could easily moved the triple trees back and forth a good 1/8", which translated to far, far more play at the end of the forks. Couple that with a pair of extremely worn swingarm bushings that allowed the rear wheel almost a 1/4" of play side to side, and I bet it was downright terrifying.
I did the wrong thing the right way and shimmed the head tube with some SS shim stocked and Loctite 660 (the Miata short nose crank goo).
And the bikes owner turned out some new swingarm bushings on the lathe at his work and had them overnighted to me.
With both of those outstanding ailments having been rectified, I treated the bike to the rear tire I started the season with on the Phantom to replace the haggard and rock hard one he's been running. I also tossed on a 12 tooth countershaft sprocket, dropping down from a 13. One of the other guys in the class that used to run a DT250 is going to bring a small selection of rear sprockets so we can fine tune the gearing a little bit.
These also arrived yesterday:
They're a little tight in the gentleman's region, but at least all my riding buddies get to learn a thing or three about male anatomy. 
Been meaning to update this and bring the Indoor Season to a close and detail some plans for the summer. That will have to wait just a little bit longer, unfortunately.
The good news is that my engine parts are finally finished and should be on their way to me later this afternoon! The new motor should be a real ripper and nearly bulletproof. Can't wait to get stuck into assembly and get the mighty Phantom back on track.
Got one of these.
Which is trued, welded, stuffed, and loaded up with a modern Yamaha rod.
One of these .
Which is forged.
One of these.
Which is ported. 
The liner took a little bump in shipping, but I was able to file out the damage and radius everything so a crack can't propagate from there.
I'm slowly putting everything back together and it's all going very smoothly. With any luck I will be ready to stick it back in the bike this evening.
Been meaning to update this thread for ages now. The assembly process of the new motor went well, even the painstaking task of shimming the crank and transmission.
I made sure to check that all 5 gears were present and accounted for before closing up the cases all proper like.
I broke apart a fouled plug and turned the threaded base into a little dial indicator adapter so I could set the ignition timing more accurately.
Overall the motor came out pretty tidy. It's nice and clean, but not so much so that I won't want to get it dirty. 
I also took the time to fabricate a little straight through style glasspack silencer so I can run the bike out at Lucky Dog Speedway until Salem starts back up in the fall.
That little can really knocked the exhaust noise down a significant amount. I am far from the loudest bike in the group now. 
At this point I think I have about an hour of seat time on the bike with the new motor. I'm still running the stock head gasket as I'm slowly burning through the pump gas I have. When that's all spent, I'll pick up some VP C12, install the thinner gasket the engine builder supplied, and let her rip.
Oh, and I finally got a chance to put the bike on the scales at work. I was hoping to be in the sub-200 club, but 204 with about half a tank of fuel is nothing to sneeze at.
I'll probably only update this thread sporadically until the winter indoor season starts up again, or if I get a good result at an outdoor race and feel like bragging. 
After some thought, I am ditching the Mikuni VM and going back to the proper Spanish made Bing 54. These are supposed to have a more efficient venturi and run at angles better than the Mik's. The intake spigot on the cylinder head sits at about a 15° angle, which is about max for a VM. I have to run the float level a fair bit lower than typical to keep fuel from coming out the overflows and I fear that it is randomly going lean under load as a result.
I'll be out riding our private little track "Lucky Dog Speedway" tomorrow. Last time out was an absolute hoot!
Those action shots are wicked.
bigeyedfish said:Those action shots are wicked.
There should be plenty more of those coming. We had some miscommunication and Sunday ended up being race day at Lucky Dog. Since it was Mother's Day, a whopping 4 guys showed up to race. Our resident photographer Rick Barbosa was there all the same, though, so there should be plenty of action shots of yours truly. I tried my best to ham it up and hang it wide for him every chance I got.
Here's a few more from the same session as above, also by Rick.
Here's a pile of action shots from Lucky Dog a few weeks ago.
Old man Otto had about 3 bike lengths on me when the white flag came out. He rode way wide into T1 and T2, I dove in on the inside, and almost caught up to him on the back straight. I moved inside again, pushed him out, and had him by a wheel at the line. Neither of us knew who won, he was a little salty when the flagger called it in my favor. 
And one that I might cherish forever; photographic proof of my very first victory lap with the checkered flag. 
Haha, that last shot is awesome indeed!
This thing is so awesome, and it looks like you have a great time with it too.
I just picked up a few Hodakas (it's a little hard to count, 2 are mostly complete then there are bits and pieces to at least 2 more) so I'll need some vintage 2 stroke advice!
Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado said:Here's a pile of action shots from Lucky Dog a few weeks ago.
This is such a great picture.
Dang. Just found this thread. Super fun read! Awesome progression on the bike. These vintage machines are very beautiful! I’ll be following along.
Sent you a message about a car in Portland. Wondering if it is possible to check out if you have the time.
Ethnic Food-Wrap Aficionado said:
Fantastic sellable image. Gives a sense of speed and what it's like to be on track and competing. Great shot.
Not much racing has been happening over here. We're all done at Lucky Dog until the weather cools back down a bit; we just can't keep enough water on the track in the summer heat.
I had a few teething issues with the new motor. Turns out that massive exhaust port likes to wear piston rings. I was able to source a pair of fresh wiseco rings that are a direct fit, so now I have a spare for the next time. I can deal with $4 worth of rings for every 5 hours of race time. Not ideal, but whatever.
I also tore down the primary drive components to install a shim behind the clutch basket. No harm done.
I have shifted my focus back to jumping stumps and dodging trees since the racing has dried up.
This bike is way better than it has any right to be. Total keeper.
I, uhh, also bought a new frame.
Originally set up for a Kawasaki F81. Supposedly built between 1975 and 1978 by C&J. Ossa motor swap is going to be easy peazy.
Looking forward to getting started on the build, but it's going to be a little bit. Got a couple flippers I need to finish up first. Not positive what direction I am going to be taking with it yet. This C&J Ossa is a big inspiration right now.
Indoor season has officially arrived! Loading the bike up for the first open practice of the season tonight.
I didn't get to race quite as much as I would have liked over the summer, but I still had quite a few successful weekends at Lucky Dog Speedway racing with the good old boys club. I really feel like I learned a lot riding out at Otto's, and am being excited to see if it translates to Salem.
It sounds like the Vintage 250 class is going to see some fresh blood this year, too! Class should be fifteen plus strong on good nights. Five Spanish bikes in the mix this year as far as I know. One Ossa, one Rickman Montesa, and four Bultacos, plus any strangers that show up from out of town.
It should be an exciting year! Got my fingers crossed for no big wrecks or bifurcated connecting rods.
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