Crankcase breather box

Crankcase breather container, quite ingenious, lightweight and tough. Just waiting for my tyres to come.

Ready...like my cheeky paint scheme...found a roll of gold sticky tape

Booked Donington for a test, 6th June, taking a personal day off work. Some thunderbike mates will meet me there so it should be a good day out. This will literally be the first try of the bike  with no previous tries down the back street....me being paranoid that the chances of getting caught it will be me...especially as there's CCTV everywhere so there's no escaping the evidence!

Spent a lot on tyres, some Dunlop qualifiers 2 for the zx10, and metzler racetecs k3 for testing, plus I've got some slicks that have life still in them if I flip them...and some part used Michelin wets that I got off fleabay.

For knee padding I used some 3mm foam padding from the local art shop, laser cut yamaha with a bold font, then bought why not stick the gold tape under the gaps of the wording..ingenious..

Finished for now ready for testing

The trx is ready for its first test, I'm in Two minds whether to test at brands or donington. Ill probably do donington in early June because bemsee thunderbikes will go there at the end of July. It's quite pricey for a track day when I could go to snetterton for 50 quid less. Brands is always pricey but I'm familiar with the track so it might be a good idea to revisit donny as I haven't been there since 2003!

Footrests and chain

A few hours of tinkering and I managed to squeeze on my new 'yoshimura' ...rearsets ah..em..From Thailand. They are actually quite neat, very light, machined well apart from a few burs and heavy handed bearing placement but apart from that they look the part...seem sturdy enough...time will tell. All I had to do for the gearshift side was keep the universal joint from the original arm at the gearshaft end, use about 30mm of threaded 6mm bar which screwed into the Thai linkage to the original. The right hand side foot brake was trickier, I had to nibble a tiny amount away from the aluminium frame bolt holes because the hangers were 70mm apart and the Trx's are 73mm apart....why such an odd number....I also had to open the holes out a little on the hangers for the bolts to go in.The master cyclinder had to go in front of the hanger because of it fouling the frame.

The chain alignment...well I had to send the 110 link chain back to A&R racing as it was too short!...so if you use a 45 renthal thundercat sprocket and a 15 or 16 tooth front you will be .a link out!.....so get a 114 link chain. Alignment I found the rear sprocket is too far left, I tried packing the driver sprocket out but could only go about 7-8mm but it isn't enough!...so the only thought is to machine out where the rear sprocket sits....I looked on the trx forum but that seems to give differing advice...and that's for a yzf 750 rear..they suggest add 1mm washers to the sprocket and 4.1 for the front?..strange....
Really I think the best answer is to take the swingarm out and machine off some from the right hand side and pack out the left.

Footrests and fairing

Well my screen arrived and it looks like it will fit, so ill mark and drill some holes at some point. I've lost a bit of momentum and enthusiasm. Things not going the ways planned. The footrest of the left with a bit of jiggling will fit and I've temporarily fitted just to get the linkage the right length. These I admit are from Thailand, they look ok and need some tinkering to fit. They seem sturdy enough so will see!..the right side is the problem and ill take a pic of that later.
The fairing and tank I've painted ford puma black...lots of blacks out there but this has a pearlescent effect....the front fairing looks good and I have seemed to got that just right, no orange peel effect, a nice shine....the tank is different as I completely forgot about the petrol resistant lacquer after spraying it with normal lacquer...so sprayed over it with that causing it to bloom..bummer. I've told myself not to spend any more on paint...just get stickers to bung on it from now .

Annoyed too that the when I finally got around to fitting the chain....moving the rear wheel as far forward as possible..the chain still didnt fit..it's a link too short!!....after asking advice on the length...Witt the sprockets in mind too....another bum deal.....then coming off the zx10 on some loose pot holed surface Ive given up for a bit...going to do some decorating.

Comparison from fairing superimposed to actual

This pic shows the comparison between the virtual superimposed fairing and the actual one. The actual one is slightly squashed, has had the vent holes opened out to allow the fairing to be pulled inwards. The fixing holes have remained and I've ingeniously created some brackets that's hold the fairing in. Pics to follow of that.

So if you want a full fairing fitted to the trx...it only works with a lot of tinkering because these fibreglass fairing copies are not all the same as I've noticed comparing mine to West Country Windings trx.

Fairing tweaking

Trying to fit this is proving tricky. Ive cut out some of the vents bigger so the engine can come through so I can pull in the fairing sides. I've rejigged the front fairing frame, I've had to cut off its fixing holes so I could re-position them. The fairing halves aren't a good match which makes it more awkward. Ive also cut a gap for the exhaust. I knew this wouldn't be easy. next would be to make some brackets to fix the sides and also pull the underside up. The radiator is fine so that can stay. A test of the forks under compression showed nothing fouling, but my nice mudguard may need a little shaving. When I've fixed those bits Ill have to some how pull the screen fixing s up . Also I will weld up the lock stops.