Ah well at least the there's footie on the telly....

OK I know they're a bunch of overpaid, diving, hair gelled, crybabies but just occasionally they do something quite exceptional, not often but occasionally. Failing that they are a distraction or at least a diversion when you're running out of things you can get on with. As is normal, most weeks a box of goodies (not Bill, Graeme and Tim) was on the expected list but upon opening I seemed to have received a food parcel. Turns out it was just packing to protect the contents but I am somewhat concerned by Peters diet.

"What was in the box" I hear you cry, well some jolly nice air runners with extra layers of carbon to survive the rigours of the TT.

They fitted straight on and with some new rubber mounts on popped the ECU with carbon dash. Now we did discover something and that was that the standard tachometer is 80mm diameter and the Corse one is 85mm. Peter's now going to produce a blank version of the dash for us mere mortals with standard clocks. Anyone going down this road in future will also notice that the standard clock is deeper than the electric version so careful positioning of the clock and ECU is required. All that said I now have a Laverda tacho to try that runs from the same P8 ECU, just might have to put a sticker over the name though.

Other parts were a splendid pair of end caps for the swingarm. Now as with some parts that are small, it is hard to justify the cost but when you realise the hours that go into making them and that there are around 20 layers of carbon in there it kinda makes sense. 

I've also added fixed studding and roll pinned to retain. This should be better than the standard bolts and I think is in line with race bikes of the day so it's also in keeping.
With the air runners in place and checking clearance with the dash I've popped on the brake and clutch reservoirs.

So with most of the larger parts to hand and fitted I've really only been able to trawl eBay and outlets for nuts and bits and bobs. Holes for the breather and air pressure sensors have been made in the air box along with tie wrap holes in carbon where required and some new lock stops have been fabricated.

Some lock wiring has taken place, one of the few things that I can say is staying as it is!

I even found the bobbins I'd been after all the time, so two M8 helicoils later we now have bobbins you can get a paddock stand on to. (Apologies to Stu, he'll know)

New hose clips and wiring waiting for a loom are there but the shock is at service still waiting for a new longer hose, so apart from the odd little job I'll get on with I'm running out of things I can do. Maybe it's just as well as I'm off to London for the rest of this week.

  
It really won't take that long to finish with everything in place but I'm trying to avoid constant fitting and stripping in case I miss a lockwire or Loctite'able part for safety.
Almost finally I'd like to thank Anthony at Avanti Race Parts for a box of very handy consumables and a rather nifty folding brake lever for the Brembo master.
Finally I'd also like to thank my employer TRE for their timely paid bonus, not enormous but it pays the bills. Please click on the following link to get Celeres as the highest referring site to ours at http://www.trerail.co.uk/. It'll be great to see this on the kitchen wall in a few weeks. 

Good things come to those who wait, you'll just have to wait a little longer Stu.

One busy Saturday later......

A week away put things on hold but with the promise of a box of carbon goodies from Peter at Oronero Friday couldn't come soon enough, oh and some home cooking would go down well also. I received a text from my wife, Liz, at 07.45 letting me know that a large apparently empty box had arrived, luckily she just managed to get dressed before dashing to meet the postman.   

Black gold had indeed landed on the doorstep, all I had to do was to get home from Crawley. Incidentally if anyone knows of anywhere decent to eat in Crawley please let me know it's a dire place.  
So calls were made and Stuart was happy to pop up Saturday and get stuck in and deliver the footpegs he'd been working on. Various tasks then ensued, Stuart got stuck into fitting the radiator and guard, followed by the hose kit. Whilst I "borrowed" bits off my 888 starting with these calipers.

A nice pair of billet brakes which will be paired with a Brembo radial master cylinder, hopefully they should do the job required. The rear sets bought by Rob Scheuer, president on the UKMOC, were fitted and of course adjustments and parts were required. More "borrowing" from the SSie gave up some gear change rod ends. The brake push rod was also relieved of it's position but this was found to be a little too long at minimum adjustment to give the required angle on the "I don't use it anyway" rear brake. Stuart was subsequently tasked with making a shorter one from a 6mm cap screw. He's also narrowing the front wheel spacer by 1mm to get the wheel back in the centre of the forks. This would have a been a much simpler solution than the previous owners shim method behind one caliper to stop it fouling the disc. Stuart being the owner of a lathe was also tasked with making a spacer for the new front brake protector, neither of the two supplied fitted the Renthal bars. In the meantime between cups of tea and coffee various parts were test fitted and checked, Loctited if good or listed for later work if required. We even discussed pit stop strategy and decided that as Liz is the lady of the team she should be doing the visor cleaning and a bit of dusting.

       
Most surprisingly the oil cooler was in almost mint condition and married with a new oil feed hose and fittings looks resplendent. They're all hidden by the fairing, but I know they're there. The carbon air box goes straight in with a pair of velocity stacks, each the size of a small tornado.

So come Sunday morning I have a basket full of goodies on eBay to press buy on, a selection of titanium pre drilled bolts and general bike build ephemera. This week I'll test fit the exhaust and make a decision on which to use, the original or the set off my 888 along with ordering hose clips, Bendix pads and chase up the paintwork.  

     
Apologies to the purists but a Japanese part may have sneaked under the radar.
Up until now I've been reluctant to ask and have been very appreciative of the offers of tyres and the assistance by my main sponsors but, if you'd like to get your name on the bike for the Classic by sponsoring test days, oil or even an oil filter please drop me a line at stafford@metronet.co.uk

Moving on.......

The engine's back!!!!

 But let's just step back and review what's been going on. So with the heads built, the crank balanced and the re bore back the engine was left with Chris to get stuck in. Due to having to be at the UKMOC weekender I had to miss the birth but did get over a week later to see the umbilical cord get cut, well by that I mean see the cams get dialled in. Prior to this a few other little internal jobs took place with the main bearing holders changed for later ones and a better shim selection. This entailed having the sockets bored to accept the later type. The crank has had some small tear drops added to the big ends to aid oil flow.

Gearbox assembled and checked for end float.

Some of the original lightened gears are re installed.

Except for the original primary drive gears, these have been replaced by later 1.84:1 as opposed to the original 2:1, Ah I hear you ask "why?". Right, thanks to Brad for this one, see "Ducati gearing" for the full explanation, but in a nutshell the same tooth on the primary gears now meets every 1888 revolutions as opposed to every other and it makes the gearing a bit longer, ideal for the TT course.

A couple more shots taken by Chris just to show the assembly process.

So as always the final part is the grand dialling of the cams. It all seems quite straight forward with some simple maths but you do need a couple of bespoke tools to make it as simple as Chris makes it look though. Timing is set to factory standard for now with the standard cams.

Once completed the last few pieces can get bolted into place like the snazzy Louigi Moto cover and a replacement water pump cover was fitted as the original one was cracked.

So home again and Stuart found time to pop up and assist in fitting the seat unit, this along with the tank is already at the paint shop D-W-Automotive to try and keep things moving along. Del has done work for me before and it is simply stunning. Emily will look good if nothing else. Which reminds me we have a date at Sammy Millers on the 20th July for the Italian Race Bike Day, eek!

Stu was also strangely drawn to the battery, at 791 grams as a racer I guess you would be. He did seem to stroke it a lot though.

  

So this weekend is all but over and I've managed to move forward a bit more with rear suspension in but the shock is still to be serviced. Upper and lower hugger fitted, sharks fin added along with what you can see.

I'll only get a couple of evenings in this week as I'm working away, hopefully as new items are added the build will get easier as at the moment I seem to have to do everything 3 times. Simple things like a worn thread on the sprocket carrier should be easy to fix but you find the previous repair helicoil that had been fitted, out of pitch so the sprocket retaining nut doesn't sit in the counterbore. So that's put to one side and the old 900SSie gives its carrier up for the cause. Ah well you can only ride one bike at a time, just don't tell the wife.