Motor rebuild proves good

News about sidecars competing in the Dakar Rally and other enduro related items

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Scott
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Motor rebuild proves good

Post by Scott »

We took the motor out a few weeks ago to inspect the insides and replace anything that looked worn. It looked pretty good inside, and we found no real problems. We replaced one shifter fork with a new improved version. The old one looked fine, but the new one is supposed to make the shifting a little smoother. We also put in a new water pump and a new clutch.

The motor went back into the frame last week, and we took the sidecar out for a test yesterday. That went well. We had no problems at all except when I stepped out of the trailer and cut the top of my head on the doorway. Lots of blood, but no pain. Duane said I needed stitches, but we just put a few band-aids on and went out for one last ride.

Our new digital gauge (V-Gauge) gives us lots of good data, like coolant temperature, air temperature, RPM, MPH/Km/h, altitude, gear position, and miles per gallon (Km/liter) of fuel. The mileage (Km/l) is calculated every second based on the fuel injector pulse widths, and it provides very accurate measurements. We can see the instantaneous MPG (Km/l), so we know exactly how much fuel we are using at every moment. It also calculates the average MPG (Km/l) so we know how well we are doing between each fuel fill up. And finally, it tells us exactly how much fuel we have used, so we always know exactly how much is still in the tank. The bad thing about this is what we saw while riding. I have known for a while that the motor was running too rich. But little did I know how bad things were. We are now getting about 10MPG (4.2 Km/l) in the sand dunes, and 20MPG (8.4Km/l) while riding easy on good roads. That doesn’t seem very good. So, I’m going to get the bike on a dyno and re-map the fuel injection. We should end up with more power and less fuel usage.

On another subject, we are working with Charlie Rauseo (2-time Dakar solo competitor from San Francisco) on setting up a mini rally in Death Valley to help us prepare for Dakar. Charlie has two other Dakar teammates who will join us for this “Death Valley Rallyâ€
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Pascal
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Ouch!

Post by Pascal »

Seems you have to wear your helmet not only on the bike...! ;-)

No... thanks for these interesting informations about the bike-preparations. And beware of the scorpions... :shock:
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