Crash and Burn pt 2

Here's a few pics of my crash, it got pretty gnarly. Accompanied by one handed typing!

About a half hour before the accident. I built this bike, and I'm pretty proud.

Crash and burn

First day out on a bike ended badly. I was doing a check ride on my friend's bike after some tuning, and got tangled up with a mini-van. Four total broken bones, 12 days in the hospital, and a lot of pain later...I'm recouping. See y'all again soon as I heal up and slowly (very, very, very slowly) get back to a normal life.

Passenger peg mounts

My new bike is an Aprilia RSVR 1000 Factory. It's dead sexxxy, and has more horsepower than I should be trusted with. In fact, it is 131 pounds lighter, and has triple the horsepower of the Sportster that I traded in. Being the "Factory" model, as best as I can tell it was never equipped with any passenger seat or pegs. Normal models would have had a back seat and pegs on the exhaust hangers.
Provided my looks and personality don't get in the way, I thought it might be good to equip my new bike to carry a passenger, just in case I meet some unfortunate young lass who has bad taste in men and decides she'd like to go for a ride.

Basically I'm using a piece of scrap 1/4" aluminum as my stock. The idea was to see if I could squeeze a pair of mounts out of it. Here, it has already been cut in half. It was a bit of a "U" shape. I also had to dodge some existing holes. I pulled the mount dimensions from the exhaust bracket, and just eyeballed the rest.

Carburetion

Pre-blow up, my chopper was a 650cc machine with twin 30mm Amal carburetors. Post-blow up, she is a 750cc machine, sporting a single 34mm Mikuni round slide. Not knowing a bunch about Mikuni carburetors, I consulted the lads over at the Brit Bike Forum. After a brief description of the motor, I was given a good starting point to set up my new Mikuni.
Now it's just a matter of tearing into the Mikuni a little bit, and finding out what jetting I have. Then it's off to see my new friend at the dealership for jets. I hope she can get them, because searching for the exact one's on my barely-faster-than-dial-up internet is a real pain.

My new 34mm Mikuni, with the top and slide removed. See the three small holes at the bottom of the main bore? The one to the left houses the air correction jet, it's a tiny little bugger.

Triumph Cylinder Head

During the tragic valve/piston integration incident, my cylinder head got really tore up. The left side combustion chamber got chewed hard core. That's what happens when you throw valves. So, I had two spare heads, I sent one along with my other parts during the whole Let's-Rip-Mark-Off-Fest...and interestingly enough never got it back. I have my suspicions about that. I think it got rebuilt and sent to another customer. Evidence? No...but he said it was ready to run about a week before telling me it couldn't be repaired.
When it became apparent that I was getting hosed, I got hooked up with Phil Wyatt (thank you, Adam). Phil took what was otherwise a chunk of scrap aluminum and turned it into a gorgeous functioning part. Phil charged me $600 to do some pretty extensive work. About half of what my previous source was trying to charge me for half the amount of work!

Valve go BOOM! The intake valve clattered around in there and did its best to destroy my head. For most of us, this is unrepairable. On the bright side, there are a few good Triumph head guys out there that can actually salvage it. We may be looking into that for the next engine. For now, this head is shelved.

back in time...

I spent a chunk of my morning pulling pictures off of my old computer, and got sidelined into viewing hundreds of pics from the last couple of years. Thanks to digital cameras, we no longer have to share mischief and mayhem with the kid at the photo place...honestly, it would ruin their life (no need to worry, I'll try not to share any of those pictures)

ahhhh...when I first met LaCucaracha. This machine ruined my life, and I've been happy ever since. A throw back to a bygone era of chinchilla fur and guys wearing daisy-dukes.

This is from the day we fired her up the first time. I didn't even have a side stand on the bike yet...which is why there's a 4x4 underneath. I had a Honda Nighthawk front end, and had to stretch the stem out in order to make it fit. Don't try that at home unless you really trust your welding abilities!

LOML

It's spring time, when a young man's mind turns to thoughts of gasoline fumes, burning tires, and all things horsepower. At this moment, the lower half of my chopper's engine is out for grinding and balancing. It's a waiting game. I ordered some brandy new Crower rods for my girl, and they had to make 'em since they are not always in stock. Add to that a Morgo 750cc big bore kit, some Johnson cams, and a head from Phil Wyatt, and you've got yourself a hot rod. Every bit has been worth the wait.

Light Sweet Crude.