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PostPosted: June 29, 2016, 9:19 am 
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Man it's good to see updates again. I missed seeing the photo essays.

Make the mirror mounts a triangle and drill holes to (add lightness) access the mounting bolts. Any time you've got something with any mass hanging out is space it'll eventually fall victim to metal fatigue. That's the main reason so many fender mounts fail.

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PostPosted: June 29, 2016, 9:54 am 
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TooBusy wrote:
Man it's good to see updates again. I missed seeing the photo essays.


well, consider yourself enabled. ;-)

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Make the mirror mounts a triangle and drill holes to (add lightness) access the mounting bolts. Any time you've got something with any mass hanging out is space it'll eventually fall victim to metal fatigue. That's the main reason so many fender mounts fail.


I'd had the thought of adding a little triangulating strut, like I did on the windscreen mounts...

Attachment:
20140126_130634.jpg


that'd be the easiest.

fortunately when the last one broke, it was in the Graj, rather than out on the road, so I was able to save the mirror. Inspecting the break, it turns out that the way I formed the bracket (clamping a piece of 1 x .188 mild steel strap in the vise and pounding it over) added a causal factor to the failure, as I could plainly see where the vise jaws had made a sharp little fold on the inner surface of the bend, from where the crack started, and then propagated. there was also a small area of rust which grew as the crack propagated. Took a whole year but eventually...


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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: August 18, 2016, 12:24 pm 
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Location: worcester county, Massachsetts
I've been on Vacation at Plum Island MA, and of course the B-3 came with. Here's some passenger-perspective in-car goodness ;-)

http://youtu.be/wzR7VHMV3dk

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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: September 21, 2016, 2:24 pm 
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Hey folks, the house is coming together, though we've still got boxes in the kitchen, dining room, and living room, there's just enough space in the G'raj for the B-3, and the music room has an actual footpath thru the guitars (23 of the damn things), but I was able to make space for my tiny little work-from-home desk space.

but I have had some time to apply a repair or two to the B-3.

I've mentioned it vibrates a lot, right? And, that I can't keep mirrors on it because the mounts keep breaking due to the vibes, right?

so yeah, on the way to the Climbing gym a few weeks ago, I noticed that the driver's side mirror was vibrating at an oddly slow frequency, so I grabbed it, and it broke off in my hand. Again. For the third time. The one I had welded the last time it broke. And thought was good for at least a year. Maybe. Sentence fragments. Are a THING.

"well doesn't that just suck."
Attachment:
20160827_120343.jpg


This time I thought I'd quit farking around and just make a nicely triangulated mount with a bit of tube and some 1/8 strap.

I finally took the time to bolt one of my big vices down, scrounged around the confusion until I found some leftover 1"sq 16 gage tube, and made this:

new triangulated box bracket, drilled for prettiness, next to the previous, twice broken and welded .188 thick strap bracket.

Attachment:
20160905_122233.jpg


then "hey" thought I, "why should I make a new top strap when that busted piece of the old bracket already has the correct hole for the mirror?"

Why indeed! Mocked it up prior to welding...

Attachment:
20160905_122304.jpg


...and, then - after discovering how utterly out of practice I was with the whole welding thing - I weldedgrindedreweldedfiledgroundsmoothsandedpainted the thing, et voila ici!

The - sort-of - pretty side.

Attachment:
20160905_182716.jpg


works, as was recorded by the ancients, mint.

I recent;y bought some 1 x 2 rectangular tubing and some .125 strap to make a more quality matched pair, since the passenger side is still the old style 1 x .188 thick strap, which we all know is going to fail at some point, amIright? But, that story is for another day. In the Future. Not sure when. With sentence fragments.


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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: September 21, 2016, 3:39 pm 
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That looks like it'll do it.

I never bent any sheet metal to make brackets for my car. I always used 1/16" or 1/8" tubing in whatever size I needed. I always thought bending just the first step in breaking something.


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PostPosted: September 22, 2016, 9:25 am 
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nick47 wrote:
That looks like it'll do it.

I never bent any sheet metal to make brackets for my car. I always used 1/16" or 1/8" tubing in whatever size I needed. I always thought bending just the first step in breaking something.


I just like beating on steel with a hammer, I guess, helps release my latent social frustrations.

I do know that the new mount is definitely strong enough, because this morning on the way to work, the mirror itself broke off, at the threads.

"well doesn't that just suck", V 2.0

Attachment:
20160922_062232.jpg


good thing I have several spares.

its a bit weird, the drivers side mirror vibrates noticeably more than the passenger side. dunno why, but it does.

the idle speed screw has also fallen victim to long term vibration effects. Monday last week when I got home, the Idle had gotten really low, so I set about adjusting the thumbscrew in between carbs 2 and 3, but it seemed stuck, so I put a pair of pliers on it, and freed it, gave it a shot of lube, and adjusted the idle back up to my preferred 700-900 rpm (manual specs 1100 for the XS850, but that seems a bit buzzy to me).

the next morning I took off from home, and found that the engine wouldn't idle at all, dying at each light unless I heel-toed the brake adn gas to keep it running. After I got to work I found that the thumbscrew was so loose in the threads (5mm-0.5) that it would "snap" in and out 3-5 threads just pushing and pulling on the head of the screw.

the thumbscrew is a couple inches long, steel, with the head end supported by a plastic bushing in a bracket screwed to the side of the #2 carb. unfortunately over time and miles (and vibes) that [plastic bushing has become oversized and the head end of the thumbscew can waggle around a bit as the engine runs.

so, over time, the waggling back and forth has beat up the threads both on the screw, and in the boss on the carb body.

I effected a simply "temporary" fix, by taking a .75 inch long panhead 5mm-0.8 screw,and threading it into the worn 5mm-0.5 hole, with the cut-down idle screw spring and washer from the thumbscrew. My thinking was that the slighly larger major diameter of the 5mm-0.8 threads would bit into the oversized 5mm-0.5 hole, enough that the screw would thread in and stay, and since it was so short, the effective cantilever would be negligible, and unaffected by the vibration.

so far it seems to have succeeded, idling evenly and smoothly without dropping revs over the last couple commutes since I made the repair.

means I have to carry a flat-blade screwdriver in the glove box for OTR idle adjustments, but I have multiples of those too.

as far as another mirror repair, I think I'm going to have to come up with a solution that holds the mirror somewhere along the stalk as well. Then the mirror will break off at the reflector disc, right?


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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: September 22, 2016, 9:55 am 
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No wonder you like driving it so much, you've got the worlds biggest "personal massager".
:lol:

Fatigue sets in on anything that's hanging out in space. It's always just a matter of time.

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OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216


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PostPosted: September 22, 2016, 11:38 am 
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Sentence pieces. Found some. Don't fit C9, B3? Give Rob.

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PostPosted: September 26, 2016, 7:43 am 
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So Metals Depot came thru with a tube of, well, metals, so I got on with Mirror Mounts V...umm, let's see, one, then there, was the ...2, FOUR! Mirror Mounts V 4.0

I cut a 3 inch length of 1 x 2 x .065 wall rectangular tube, and then slice that length so I wound up with two angled pieces, with tops @ 1.5 and bottoms @ .5 inch...

Attachment:
20160923_175716.jpg


...then cut a 1.63 length of 1 x .125 steel strap, and welded it on to the top.

oooh those welds look blobby, but they had good melt-thru on the inside corners and the HAZ was well down the tube and all over the top plate...I'm still out of practice a bit.

Attachment:
20160923_183448.jpg


Grind off some of the ugly and fire up the drill press! Random-pattern varied-diameter "lightening" holes are becoming my signature, I think.

Attachment:
20160925_112850.jpg


...and the house's PO left convenient paint-drying hooks under the front eave of the G'raj...

Attachment:
20160925_114653.jpg


NOw, each of the previous mounts wound up with some vibration fatigue damage (including the 1-inch version I'd made about one week previous, from which the mirror itself had broken off, at the mirror stalk threads), so I though it would be worthwhile to attempt some level of vibration attenuation.

borrowing from the rubber-mounting-of-just-about-everything methodology from the original XS850 , I cut two approx. 0.5 inch lengths of .3 ID braid-reinforced fuel line...

Attachment:
20160925_120143.jpg


...which would replace the flat washer stacks, between the mirror mounts and body.

Attachment:
20160925_120206.jpg


Driver's side mount in place, Iso-washers compressed about 50%. on the inside, I replaced the old chrome acorn nuts with stainless nylocks.

Attachment:
20160925_120109.jpg


To further attenuate vibration fatigue, I also installed a mirror with a shorter stalk. The shorter cantilever reduces the length of the lever working on the mount, etc etc blah blah blah.

Attachment:
20160925_121409.jpg


So far so good. The driver's side is still blurry, and still vibrates more than the passenger side, but when I put my hand on the stalk, the felt vibration is noticeably reduced. with any luck this mount will last more than 3/4 of a season.

yesterday afternoon Pam and I took the B-3 for a ride to the Hopkinton Farmers Market, and then to the old Hannaford supermarket near my old apartment in Milford (at which we were regulars every weekend prior to the Millbury move) so I needed to figure out some sort or cargo carriage, to get the groceries home, that didn't include Pam carrying everything home in her lap.

About 25 Ty-wraps, 4 accessory straps, and 2 long bungies later...B-3 Cargo Rack V 1.0

Attachment:
20160925_165655.jpg


It worked, and carries on the fine CBMMA tradition of strapping a milk crate to the seat of the motorcycle because real saddlebags are bourgeois. And for the B-3, they don't exist. (Today's sentence fragment. Now two. Wait, three. four.)

V 2.0, in steel, to come.


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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: December 15, 2016, 8:41 am 
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Location: worcester county, Massachsetts
From the Archives: The MSR-V1, and The Dirt Machine.

The B-3 is NOT the first vehicle I'd designed, but is the first I'd designed and then successfully built. Way back when I was an SCCA member and participating in Solo II autocross (circa 1996-1998) I decided that designing a D-Sports racer was a bitchen idea and so I did. Back then, the Idea of scratch building suich a device was enormously daunting, but today, I'm like "Meh, this'd be easy-peasy"...

May I present, The MSR-V1.

Attachment:
MSRV1B5.JPG


Attachment:
MSRV1B6.JPG


Attachment:
MSRV1B4.JPG


there even exists a drawing, such as it is...

Attachment:
MSRV1B_1.JPG


I still have some of the CAD files for it, though the chassis, and many of the suspension bits are lost.

even farther back in time, in the late 1980s - early '90s, I built this thing (never got finished) totally eyeball, from start to finish such as it was. Lawn tractor donor ;-) I called it "The Dirt Machine", and it was supposed to use a Honda CB400 bike engine as power, (found in a boneyard for $25...sigh). Wish I still had that little Honda. Engine was a jewel. I still have the carburetor rack.

Attachment:
20160326_094658.jpg


It was a roller, look at all that hair! The steering wheel and shaft are from a Triumph Spitfire I had in the early 1980s, but which got totalled one day when my wife (at the time) was driving to work. Frame material? You're gonna love this. The chassis is made of MIG-welded scrap electrical conduit that I scrounged from a building demo near the rental studio where my band practiced. ;-) Heresy! YEAH!

Attachment:
20160326_094946.jpg


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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: December 15, 2016, 10:08 am 
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The robbovius Mirror "The driver's side is still blurry"
Try this: Take a spool of solder and warp some of it around the mirror. Add more wt if it still vibrates, and less if it stabile. Once you have determine the wt needed to change the natural frequency, glue that amount to back side of the mirror. {I used ceiling fan wts which comes with 2 sided tape on my center Mirror} Dave W


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PostPosted: December 15, 2016, 10:57 am 
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Electrical conduit. I wonder if that's an upgrade or a downgrade from scavenged chain link fence posts my buddies and I used to build a 250cc shifter cart.

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216


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PostPosted: December 15, 2016, 10:58 am 
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davew wrote:
. . . Once you have determine the wt needed to change the natural frequency, . . .


God bless engineers. You do think differently. Now, if we could just apply the same rational thinking to politics, we'd all be a lot happier. Merry Christmas, Dave. You too, Rob.

Cheers,

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Damn! That front slip angle is way too large and the Ackerman is just a muddle.

Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5886


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PostPosted: January 7, 2017, 3:48 pm 
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Hey! I check in so seldom these days, hope you all had a good holiday season.

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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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PostPosted: May 15, 2017, 3:04 pm 
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I AM ALIVE. Or I REMAIN ALIVE. Or something.

here's a milestone. the B-3 got up in the jackstands in the New G'raj for the first time a couple weeks ago, when I finally broke down and drilled out the break-off bolts that yahama used to stake the ignition plate into place, so the timing couldn't be edjusted (easily) once the XS850 had left the factory.

Attachment:
20170419_162514b.jpg


I'd been putting htis opff for over a year, ever since I'd bored the thing out to 896cc, which also increased the com[pression from 9.5:1 to about 10.25:1 (or so all my research led me to believe), at which level it would detonate lightly unde load at part throttle NO MATTER how much I farked around with the jetting.

I knew it was going to be a giant pain in the ass, mostly because the ignotion cover was no longer out in the open as on the original two-wheeler, but rather in the B-3 engine cradle, surrounded by tubes. I suspected drill access was going to be problematic. It was, but, circumstances proved to make the job rather more easier than I'd thought it might. n s out, much of what I thought I "knew" was wrong.

at the factory, the break-off bolts were fastened inside these little metal collars which had an ID of .409...

Attachment:
20170419_162615b.jpg


...so I dug around in my box-of-bits, until I found my .406 (aka 13/32) bit. Which item I then chucked up in my lovely new Ryobi 18V right angle drill, and then drilled away enough of the bolt hed until I could crack it off by applying a chisel to the collar, and hitting it with a hammer.

Twenty minutes later, after the application of some nice new 6mm flange bolts, and retarded about 2 deg.

Attachment:
20170419_162531b.jpg


...and, detail view. bottom left yo'll see two black paint spots on the case and ignition plate near the letter "P", misaligned a bit. those were the original alignment markings. I held my degree wheel (that in the past was whjat I used to time my Kart racing engines) up againt the center bolt as best I could and eyeballed it, using TLAR estimation.

Attachment:
20170419_162338b.jpg


It started up more easily than it had since the 2014 bore-job, and even seemed to idle a bit more smoothly. The timing light confirmed my estimation of retardation. And the engine's timing as well.

in other news, the B-3 is dirty and rusty and beat, oil on the engine, white pitting in some areas of the body from the one time I took it out this past winter, and got some salty road splash on it. its a bit rough around the edges - like its builder/owner/driver, but gaining on 13,000 miles nicely.

AND the detonation is gone. Which of course puts the clutch at risk, because, well, burnouts, hey!


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The B-3 build log: http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=13941 unfortunately, all the pictures were lost in the massive server crash

The beginnings of the Jag Special,
https://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=19012
Again, all pictures were lost.


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