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Message started by carguyz on 12/12/16 at 12:37:08

Title: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/12/16 at 12:37:08

Hey Guys,

Thought I would show youse my Street Tracker project. I finished it enough to take it to the Chopperfest bike show in Ventura yesterday. Didn't really fit in with the Harleys but got a lot of positive comments.

I have only driven it around the block a couple of times. It isn't too loud, which surprised me, as it has a big 2 inch pipe and a Supertrapp muffler. Not much power and terrible backfire. Lancer sent me some jets; soon as I find them can start tuning.

What do you think?

John in Kalifornia

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by batman on 12/12/16 at 12:53:55

Looks very good! but a 2" pipe ? even the raask is only 1.5" ,your problem may be not enough back pressure no matter how you jet,but you have a long straight run in the pipe maybe you could run a pipe inside your pipe to reduce the size without even changing the look.or even a small slide in baffle before the muffler ,you'll figure it out .great job so far !I'd ride it!

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by Kenny G on 12/12/16 at 13:11:02

Guyz,

I like your tracker.

Love the flame paint on the tank.

Kenny G

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by verslagen1 on 12/12/16 at 13:20:06

The supertrapp is tunable.
Take out a couple of disks out of the super to increase back pressure and richen it up a bit.

What jets do you currently have?

What you removed the idle mixture plug and adjusted?

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by Mr.T on 12/12/16 at 15:43:28

Sweet looking scoot. Simple, clean build, I like it.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by Bobber on 12/12/16 at 16:24:18

Like the bike but I agree a 2 inch exhaust could be most of the problem!

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/12/16 at 17:59:35

I don't know how much backpressure there is, probably not much. The Supertrapp has 12 discs in it now, that's a lot. The muffler itself has only about a 1 1/4 inch inlet; found it in my stash of old dirt bike parts. Therefore, I do have a way to reduce the backpressure, as was suggested.

I checked just now and there is no way to get to the spark plug. I cut out the "tunnel" and welded in a new one that let the tank set lower down. I also had to make a custom compression release lever to clear the tank.

Therefore, for tuning purposes plug reading is out. S'pose I should make up a temporary small bungee on gas tank and use that while carb tuning. That way I can get at the spark plug and the top of the carb (for adjusting the "white spacer".)

The bike just doesn't rev up. I don't know the history of the motor. The cam chain tensioner is not overly extended, it doesn't smoke and compression seems good. I ordered a cheapy inductive tach from Amazon to help with the tuning. There is no speedometer, of course. How high is the Suzuki supposed to rev in each gear?

John in Kalifornia

So, for tuning purposes plug reading is out. S'pose I should make up a temporary small bungge on gas tank and use that while carb tuning. That way I can get at the spark plug and also the top of the carb (for adjusting the "white spacer".)

The bike just doesn't rev up. I don't know the history of the motor. The cam chain tensioner is not overly extended, it doesn't smoke and compression seems good. I ordered a cheapy inductive tach from Amazon to help with the tuning. There is no speedometer, of course. How high is the Suzuki supposed to rev in each gear?

John in Kalifornia

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by Ruttly on 12/12/16 at 18:01:11

Looks great,I'm a street tracker guy too !
Try reducing amount of discs in the supertrapp try 8 discs , wouldn't go any lower than 5 or 6.
Good job get it tuned and ride it!

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by batman on 12/12/16 at 19:16:33

The torque peaks at about 3500rpm after that power drops off ,so that is probably the area for a normal shift point .The motor redline is 6500rpm but I believe a stock motor won't reach that in 4th or 5th gear due to lack of horsepower.If you measure the stock header pipe I think you'll find it to be in the 30-34inch length ,and this is a tuned length for 650cc motors .your pipe looks much longer and might be a problem in getting it to run right.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by Dave on 12/13/16 at 03:40:33

Plug reading is most likely not going to tell you anything about how a bike is tuned....when it doesn't run.

Plug reading cannot be done on a cold engine, and to get accurate results you need to be running the bike at a steady state speed or throttle setting - then turn the ignition off and get it stopped as quickly as possible. If you slow down and take your time getting the engine turned off - the only thing a plug reading is going to tell you is what the idle mixture is. However....a horribly black sooty plug will tell you the engine is running rich most of the time, and a black oily plug will tell you that you have a problem with your valve seals or rings.

http://www.enginebasics.com/Engine%20Basics%20Root%20Folder/Reading%20Spark%20Plugs.html

http://www.dragstuff.com/techarticles/reading-spark-plugs.html

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by Struch on 12/13/16 at 04:54:14

John it is cool that you finish it looks good. Hope its gonna get beater after re jet ))

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by ohiomoto on 12/13/16 at 05:25:53

Looks good. What tank did you use? Do you have any details/pictures on your mid controls?

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by philthymike on 12/13/16 at 06:23:59

That bike looks awesome! Good job!

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by ditz on 12/13/16 at 07:54:50

Dave's advise is sound about plug reading. I always use a higher gear such as 4th and drop the rpm's to the lower end of useful and then open up the throttle and let the engine pull into a good strong rpm range and turn off the ignition and pull in the clutch and bring the bike to a stop and then pull the plug for the read. It is best IMO to read the plug in a full load condition but not nessasarily in it's highest rpm mode unless that is where you intend to run it most of the time which I doubt with this bike. It does need to be under a load and not in one of the lower gears. It is a little unhandy to read plugs along side the road but this is the condition that needs to be checked IMO,,,,, good luck

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by nerdsports on 12/13/16 at 10:03:21

We need more pictures!!!! I like the mid control position and tires.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/13/16 at 10:18:14

The mid controls are from an old Yamaha Enduro bike. The foot pegs and side stand were installed as a unit. Just welded some tabs on the frame and the rest was just a matter of adjusting bolts nuts and spacers. I used the original Suzuki Brake pedal. The shifter was off another Suzuki street bike. It’s an odd 11-spline unit, hard to find.

The key to the mid controls is having a high exhaust pipe. The stock low exhaust system interferes with the location of the right side peg. The only high exhaust pipe available that I know of is from Ryca, kind of pricey. They sell tracker and scrambler kits but for some odd reason these have the rear sets like on the café racer. Doesn’t make sense to me. A proper dirt bike has the foot pegs right under the engine.

Here is a pic of the foot peg assembly.

John in Kalifornia

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by old.indian on 12/13/16 at 10:47:56

Dave's advice is right on. The only suggestion I would make would be for fork boots and a fork brace if it is going to be a dirt bike / tracker.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/13/16 at 13:51:57

Here's the difference between the stock, Ryca and my foot peg locations.

I had to make my own brake rod also. Problem with that compared to a cable is that the brake lever at the hub moves up and down when the swing arm moves. When I first finished the bike and went to ride, it kept stalling. Couldn't figure it out. Turns out that when I let out the clutch and put my weight on the seat the angle of the swing arm changed, making the distance between the pedal and the brake arm longer. That activated the rear brake and stalled the motor. When I adjusted the rear brake looser it finally was able to move.

John in Kalifornia

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/13/16 at 13:53:07

Here's my brother welding the tabs for mounting the footpeg assembly.

John in Kailfornia

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/13/16 at 13:57:50

Shifter from Suzuki street bike from the 80's. Note the close clearance. I had to be very careful not to snap it off when I bent it to clear the engine case.

John in Kalifornia

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by verslagen1 on 12/13/16 at 15:09:40

Hope he doesn't drop one of them sparks into his shorts.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/13/16 at 17:44:01

Rear brake and right side foootpeg.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/13/16 at 17:47:04

Brake light switch setup. I made the actuator from a 1/4 inch wheel collar soldered to a steel plate. That is the stock brake light switch, which crapped out. I replaced it with one from another Yamaha Enduro. Note the custom bracket to attach to the frame.

The brake rod is 1/4 inch aluminum. Rear is threaded metric for the stock adjuster. At the front it is American thread with a clevis to attach to the brake lever.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by ohiomoto on 12/14/16 at 06:34:17

4D4F5C495B57542E0 wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

The reason you had such a problem with the rear brake is because the pivot point of the rod is so far from the pivot point of the swing arm. Google "BSR SR400" and look at how long they made the rear brake lever so that they could keep the OEM pivot location with the modified peg position.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by ohiomoto on 12/14/16 at 06:34:55

Oh, and what tank did you use? Did it require any modifications?

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/14/16 at 19:55:23

The tank is from a Gs450 Suzuki. I didn’t like what they did with the Ryca tank, which was to cut the bottom off and weld a flat plate on. Looking down on it from the top you still had the big hole for the speedometer. It also was out of proportion, too fat in width.

The frame of the Savage is rather unusual. First you have the high single tube going to the headstock. This splits into two and makes the frame quite wide in the rear. Therefore the rear of the GS tank had to be “massaged “ with the BFH quite a bit.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/14/16 at 19:56:36

The stock petcock mount at the rear of the tank interfered with the frame so I made a new mount and relocated the petcock forward.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/14/16 at 19:57:47

Relocated petcock

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/14/16 at 19:59:32

The tunnel for the frame tube in the front had to be cut and recreated.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/14/16 at 20:00:10

A new tunnel was welded in.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by ohiomoto on 12/14/16 at 20:03:17

Thought it looked familiar. I almost bought one on eBay, but realized it might be too much work for my taste. Looks like it proved to be quite a challenge!

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/14/16 at 20:06:43

New mount for rear of tank.

As you can imagine, this was a LOT of work. I filled in the sides where the emblems were located. Many dents also showed up during the process of filling and sanding. Mucho work with the angle grinder, too.

I get tired just thinking of all the work involved. If you look at the bike from the side, you can see where the bottoms of the tank and seat "flow" together. This is in my opinion a much more aesthetic finished look than the Ryca tank/seat combo, which is rather disjointed.

The downside, of course is no access to the spark plug. I had to make a custom manual decompression lever also, to clear the tank. All in all

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by zipidachimp on 12/15/16 at 13:49:25

Nice work! what size rear tire and wheel? 8-)

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by Ruttly on 12/15/16 at 15:16:54

A lot of slack in that chain , is your life insurance paid up ?
Helmet law in your state ?
Still very nice build !

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/15/16 at 21:26:05

The chain looks loose because there is no weight on the bike. I weigh about 250 so it sags quite a bit when I'm on it. Chain slack was set with the shocks compressed.

Wheels are H2.15 x 18 36 hole shouldered aluminum rims from Mike’s XS. I paid 85 dollars each back in 2012. The stainless spokes for the rear were 65 dollars. The prices for the same stuff from Ryca were more than double. Quality may have been better, I had no complaints.

The rear hub of the Suzuki was close to the same diameter as that of the Yamaha XS 650 so I used the spoke set for the Yammy.

I went to Buchanan’s in Irwindale for the front spokes. I took my hub and the rim to the shop and they made up spokes while I waited. They also had to redrill and realign the spoke holes, as the angles were not quite right.

Lacing the wheels was no big deal, just took patience. I made my own truing stand, really just a dial indicator and a piece of rod for the axle. Trick was to use oil on the spoke threads so they wouldn’t bind up. That helped get a good torque value, too.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/15/16 at 21:26:58

When I got the spokes aligned with minimal run out I used a fish scale and a quality spoke wrench to set the tension.

Title: Re: Street Tracker Project finished (sort of)
Post by carguyz on 12/15/16 at 21:28:34

Tires are Duro HF308 Pirelli Universal clones. I had the Pirellis on a bike in the 60’s and think the pattern looks neat. This is the tire used on the Ural sidecar rig. Sizes are 3.50x18 front and 4.00 x18 rear.

Note that the swingarm had to be cut for tire clearance and then rewelded with a reinforcing plate.