My 950 Refresh or Mission Creep...

Thanks Gregor........ Thanks Ben

I guess Pyn had the right idea from the start....... one thread and just keep it on track and keep it going. FOOD FOR THOUGHT !!!

Well, I'm bummed to not have the 990 done but I'm going to toss my Husaberg into the pickup with my buddy Jason's 690 and head over to Bend tomorrow to check out the rally and hopefully get in a bit of riding. Hope to see some of you there. Look for my white FE450 and say hi.

Gregor

---An update for anyone joining this thread in the last few months; I've finally gone back and updated the first pages to include the old photos. It's all now hosted on Smugmug so we should be good on that front now. If you find a broken link let me know and I'll try to fix it. ---

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The KTM rally was fun. I didn't really get to ride much for various reasons but that's okay as I did get to meet a few folks. Boy did I wish my bike was done. Well, now I can start hoping my bike is done by next years Colorado rally - I can win the award for longest non running KTM... It was great to see CJ's bike in person - man, he killed it on the fabrication. Nice job CJ!

In other news I've decided to sell my MV Agusta. If you're interested in an amazing bike for super cheap check it out here: MV Agusta Brutale for sale

And finally I've got my flights booked to head back to NYC for the final chapter of putting my bike together. Flanny is going to come down the weekend of Oct 6-8 and we've got Monday scheduled to spend the day on the dyno with both our bikes testing the bellmouths... er, velocity stacks. Flanny thinks that sounds sexier. I've ordered a floatbowl full of main jets and Flanny has a collection as well. I'll test my different mid-pipes and we'll test various lengths of intake plus the filters. With any luck we'll find some ponies or at least some miniature horses.



Stay tuned...

Gregor

Well in the time my 950 has been broken I've owned three different street bikes. First the Hypermotard which was stolen, then the MV Brutale which was sold and now this, a BMW R1200S:



It's quite a different bike but so far I really like it. Sorry for the crappy iphone pic - I didn't take a camera as I just wanted to ride.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. I'm back in NYC and I spent today buttoning up the 990 - I still don't know how to refer to it since it's been a 950 all it's life but I guess it's a 990 now. Some friends are going on a ride tomorrow and since I have no reason to not go I'm going. I bled the radiator, looked for leaks and sealed up the front wheel again. It was holding air this afternoon. I took it down to our loading dock and ran it for half an hour and it was fine.

Starting the bike with FCR's is a bit like having a big single cylinder dirt bike - you need a very specific starting routine. I pump the throttle 4 times to prime it with the accelerator pumps, crack the throttle very slightly and hit the button. Once it fires hold the throttle at that cracked open spot and just let it idle for 30 seconds or so then try giving it just a hint more throttle. If it stalls start over. If it revs then just start goosing it to get some heat in her. It's a pain in the ass. Once she's warm it's not an issue.

I left the shop and was really worried the bike would either die or stop in the Holland Tunnel - it's every motorcyclists worst nightmare to stall in a NYC tunnel. You'll back up traffic for miles and then they uncerimoniously put your bike in a sling behind their special little tunnel tow truck and the take you out. Oh the horror.

But it didn't happen. She ran fine, idled fine and the temp only ran up to the fifth bar in traffic and when both the fans kicked in it was only for a few seconds so it seems the second one is really helping. I got her to the studio and it turns out that a 990 will just barely fit in a standard passenger elevator!



So tomorrow will be the shakedown run. I think the guys have a plan to ride up to the Hunter Mountain bike rally but frankly if my bike is running I don't care where we go. If I don't come home in a truck I'll consider the day a success and I'll have a good read on how the bike is working so I can compare it to next week when we tune it with Flanny and our new velocity stacks.

Gregor

Well, that's a supermoto elevator wouldn't fit with the original 18/21 set...city elevators dont know sh%t about dirt wheels

Gregor,

I just spent the last couple hours reading this thread. You've got some mad skills going on. I sure hope you get this sorted and soon but if nothing else that is one nice looking bike.

It'll come around, really

Gerg

Looking forward to hear how the shakedown run went.

So today was a big day for me. I haven't ridden this bike in almost two years? Is that possible? A second child and a cross country move can put a damper on things.

Anyway, the big day. Seeing as I'd run the battery down twice trying to start the bike with the petcock off I was nervous about starting it this morning when it was cold. It coughed and sputtered but with a little attention she came to life. The Brooklynites met at the studio and it was great to have my old neighbor Isaac come along. We took off and rode across the Williamsburg bridge, through Manhattan and the up the west side to the GW and then met at the traditional bike meeting place, the first gas on the Palisade. She ran fine and I topped up the tank but as we sat waiting for everyone I saw drops of oil, then drops of coolant and then the tanks were overfilled and they spilled gas. We joked that if somehow I got separated from the group you could just drop a match on the road and then look for the explosion in the distance...



We headed up on back roads but since our group was 7 people (and covered a very large experience gap) it was a chore to keep everyone together. Typically I lead but I was happy to just let someone else do the navigating. We had a few "incidents" but outside of scratched plastic no one was hurt.



One of the causalities was Gino's front tire but lot's of hands and river stones and a spare tube got him back on the road. I took the opportunity to shoot some photos of my bike and generally heckle the tire changers.



Here's I'm meditating on the Renazco... Tommy's new iphone really does do cool panos. Thanks Tommy!



So here are my impressions:

The bike is obviously down 10hp and it feels like it. It lacks the snap it used to have and it feels like fat jetting although the main is pretty darn close. It has huge instant acceleration when you whack the throttle - it leaps like scalded cat. The mid range is really strong but it seems like it flattens out. Good top but again it's just down 10hp. Most of all nothing fell off. It did leak some oil and coolant but very little and I think I know the culprits.

Here's the thing though. I got to ride Gino's 990R and Tommy's 990 and I can't say I was as impressed as I'd hoped to be. The injected throttle is crazy light and that's nice. My carbs are like a Russian gym exercise. The 990R motor really spins up quick when blipping the throttle. Before I left the parking lot I was in love and considering just stealing Gino's bike. Then I got it out on the road. Holy cow, the snatchiness of neutral throttle was killing me. The bike was great on the throttle and fine off but if you came into a corner and just trailed the throttle before you screwed it on the bike lurched and bucked. Gino supposedly did something where he removed one set of butterflies or something - he doesn't know exactly as a friend helped him - but the result is not fun. Other than that his bike pulled hard. My seat of the pants dyno felt the bike had about 105-107rwhp. I might be off but it didn't seem much stronger than my old 950 that was making 98. We won't have to speculate as we'll run his bike next week too.

Tommy's bike seems better but still had that snatchy neutral throttle. It felt like it was making about 99 or so. Similar to my old bike. Tommy felt like my bike had more mid and low end power. It certainly had a nice smooth throttle and no jerkiness anywhere. It was great to ride two 990's as now I don't feel so bad. They're nicer in a lot of ways but there's still a couple of shortcomings. I feel like my bike still has about 10hp hiding in it. If I can get that and maybe a few more I'll be happy. My bike certainly sounds the meanest as it snorts, barks, pops on decel and has a great intake roar. Good audio.

More than anything I had a great time riding with friends. By the end of the day I felt like I was comfortable enough to start to really push her and it was a hoot to wheelie off the tops of hills. Good times.

I like the look of the bike. I think pinstripes will tie it together but the seat that James (Renazco for those new to the party) made is a new style he's doing and it was the most comfortable seat I've ever had and it looks the business. The wheels (Woody of course) rock and I'm just convinced that 17/19 is the bomb for pavement. Even Tommy was convinced when we were swapping bikes. Lastly here's a side on shot.



Looking forward to getting back to riding it instead of working on it.

Gregor

Glad to see you made it back and didn't have to tow/push/leave the bike and head home with a key and a bill.

Know what you mean about the 990 and there's two different types of snatchy throttle. The first kind is when you're at maintenance/neutral throttle and the bike just doesn't know what to do. It's like a cold two-stroke; it just goes back and forth between too rich/too lean really really quickly. The second kind is when the slightest bump will jolt your hand enough to move the throttle, which gives a very abrupt acceleration.

Both are fixable. For the first kind, TuneECU and Wheeler down at Deal's Gap did mine and it's a lot, lot better. 99.9% gone. It'll never be as smooth as the SE I had but I'm ok with that. The second kind is fixed with a G2 throttle cam system and the 200 cam. Takes just enough edge off.

When you riding it back to the PNW? You're just now getting into the good riding weather.

I could have told you just looking at this pic that Gino was going to have troubles with his front tire. . . .

Glad to hear that the ride went well, seems like you're 99% there with this bike. Of course, that's often the hardest spot. . . .

Good post Gregor!

See you next weekend!

Sorry I missed such an exciting ride

Gregor, The bike looks fantastic

Since I'm out of things to work on at the moment we'll have to go for a ride next Sunday. Looking forward to seeing you and getting our bikes in really sorted. Thanks for the FCR tuning guide. We're on the verge of something here, I feel it.

Gregor

Yeah - a big ride on Sunday would be awesome!

B.

Great to see you get a ride in on the bike! I have a bunch of needles for the FCRs if you want more variables to fumble with on dyno day. When do you fly to NYC? I could pull my 41's off for you to take, as well...

I've been reading FCR tuning stuff and it seems the most important thing is to get the main right as it has an effect on the rest of the jets - which is counter intuitive and not like other carbs. So I think we're going to just concentrate on the mains and the other differences like mid pipe. I would love to try 41's as my bike has so much in the middle but flattens on top that I think it would benefit from them but boring them is a one way street. Anyway, I'm already back east so maybe another time.

If anyone near NYC has a set of 41's and would like to rent them for a day let me know. I wonder if I could buy them and then return them? Hmm, don't want to try that.

Gregor

Fed ex could still help us with those 41's

Thanks Justin. Shipping cost would kill us at this point. I think we'll limit what's on our plate right now but I'll take you up on it the next time I'm coming back and then I can do a proper 39 to 41 comparison. I feel boring is the right way to go but empirical data would be nice.

Gregor

First off thanks to Kamanya for some jetting tips from his FCR/990 setup. Hopefully by tomorrow night we'll have this bike jetted in and working. I shared that info with Flanny and he had some questions so we'll reach out to you tonight.

On that front I just heard from Flanny and he's an hour away from the shop. We're going to meet up tonight at Gino's restaurant Tre on Ludlow tonight for dinner around 7-8 so if anyone who's followed this is in the area and would like to join us tonight for dinner you're more than welcome.

Tomorrow should be a busy day so we need to fill up with good Italian food and red wine.

Gregor

Good luck and have great time dialing the beast in.