[Swamp Daddy]

Changing the air filter is a pain. Remove the tank and the ecu just to get to it. Im glad the filter on my dirt bike is much easier to get to.

What other color of coolant would you expect to find in a Kawi?

What’s the benefit of changing the radiator cap to one with a higher bar rating?

 

[Swamp Daddy]

Why did you decide to go with @vcyclenut over graves for the ecu flash?

 

[AV80R]

What’s the benefit of changing the radiator cap to one with a higher bar rating?

The higher pressure radiator cap allows the bike to get hotter and run harder without allowing coolant overflow

 

[AV80R]

Why did you decide to go with @vcyclenut over graves for the ecu flash?

Two reasons:

1. @Gravesport doesn't offer a tune for a stock bike with stock exhaust, so they're not really an option for me until I get their full system shipped to me in about a month.

2. I spent some time talking to @vcyclenut the phone and he's a knowledgeable, good guy. His tune for the stock bike/stock exhaust gets me most of the way to where the Graves tune with their full exhaust will get me. I'm excited to try it out.

$300 for a month of nearly 50% power increase sounds like a great time to me!

 

[AV80R]

I got most of the factory goop off the chain before I rode the bike, but I wanted to do a deep clean to get it all out of every nook and cranny and then treat it with ACF-50.

After 763 miles, the chain was slightly loose, outside than the 25-35mm spec, so I took the opportunity to fix the rear wheel alignment which was slightly off as delivered new while also tightening the chain into spec.

 

[AV80R]

In preparation for my ECU to arrive back from @vcyclenut I need to remove the stock O2 sensor, plug the hole in the exhaust, and tidy up the connector on the harness.

Removed the stock sensor and bought a $12 one off Amazon to harvest the connector as a dummy plug.

Remove the wires and pins off the Amazon O2 sensor.

My favorite silicone is 1211, so use that to plug the rubber holes where the wires were.

Harvest the silicone heat resistant sheath and toss the rest in the trash.

Put the dummy plug all back together

Look ma! No pins!

Then grab some 1 1/4" 3:1 heat shrink without adhesive.

Install the dummy plug

And add heat shrink...done!

Next I have this titanium M12 plug with washer

Add my favorite anti seize for exhaust stuff (2000F)

And torque to 18 ft lbs per the book.

Now I just wait for my ECU to arrive.

 

[50]

Nice work and tutorial @AV80R . 👍

 

[AV80R]

Titanium goodies just arrived.

Rear axle nut
Rear rotor bolts
Sprocket studs and nuts
Rear brake caliper bolt
Front brake caliper bolts
Front brake rotor bolts
Front axle pinch bolt

Front brake caliper, 1 rear brake caliper bolt (they don't give you both in the kit, weird...), and the front axle pinch save 110 grams (just under 1/4 pound).

They don't sell the bolts individually so I'll probably buy another pair of bolts for the rear caliper that match.

Always use anti seize with ti fasteners and torque using the book.

More to follow.

 

[50]

It's going to be interesting to see how the caliper bolts will be safety wired in the configuration. 🤔
Challenge accepted.

Nice work @AV80R 👍

 

[AV80R]

Thanks!

I'm an airplane mechanic and inspector so I'll have to turn in my credentials if I can't [emoji1787]

I won't be safety wiring any of the bolts except for the rear axle nut. This bike is gonna be a street fighter and occasional track day queen.

If I was gonna race it or go track only, then I'd wire it all up.

 

[AV80R]

And lastly the ti rear axle nut saves another 30 grams.

The steel axles have to to go. I'll be having a set of titanium gun drilled ones made eventually.

Anti seize and 72 ft lbs with some 0.020" stainless wire button it up.

So that's a total of 140 grams or just under 5 ounces saved so far with this "titanium kit".

I'm saving the sprocket studs/nuts, and brake rotor bolts for the MOS lightweight wheels that @SCracing is working on getting built up for the 4R.

 

[AV80R]

Running out of dumb things to do while I wait for my ECU, but some protection for the radiator tanks is on the list for tonight.

Nearly invisible, but really makes cleaning bugs off the tanks much easier and also provides a layer of protection from big rock dings.

There is a super light custom carbon kevlar radiator screen in the works that should be ready soon...

 

[AV80R]

My ECU doesn't arrive back from @vcyclenut until Monday, so starting a couple projects for the tail section.

1. Protective film under the tail - getting some rock chips from the rear wheel

2. Fabricate a Delrin spacer so the license plate light is level with the ground and isn't shining white to the rear.

 

[AV80R]

The tail tidy from @SCracing is a really nice kit, eliminating the gigantic OE signals and giving you small ones with sequential lights that look pretty cool.

I made a Delrin spacer to make the license plate light flat as the cops here will ticket you for shining any white light to the rear.

Came out good, but took me way longer than it should have. All I had was a hacksaw, belt sander, and a drill.

Also got my Kawasaki OE rear seat cowl assembled and installed.

 

[50]

Really nice work on the tag lamp modification. 👍
Always nice to see some thoughtfulness coming from the true enthusiasts. 🙏🏽

You wouldn't want to sell a few of those would ya? 😉🙏🏽
Nice work.

 

[AV80R]

The best would be to 3D print it.

Although I work in tech, I'm illiterate when it comes to creating digital models or using those 3D printers, so someone smarter than me would have to figure that out.

Shaping it out of Delrin using garage hand tools is super labor intensive, and I'm not sure I have the stomach to build another! If mine didn't work, I'd probably throw the whole thing in the trash and give up. [emoji1787]

Here's a link to some Delrin on Amazon that will let you make a few mistakes before you get one that works. Give it a shot and let me know how yours comes out.

USA Sealing BULK-PS-UHMWB-376 Black UHMW Polyethylene Plastic Bar, 3/4" Height, 3/4" Width, 12" Length

https://a.co/d/a8S5gpT

 

[ithaca00]

@AV80R , do you know the final angle you made, or the angle of the tail tidy relative to the ground? I can model something up really quick and print it. It'll be easy enough to make that variable on my end and have different options too.

I see a couple of imprints on your part, are those for locating nubs or similar?

 

[AV80R]

@AV80R , do you know the final angle you made, or the angle of the tail tidy relative to the ground? I can model something up really quick and print it. It'll be easy enough to make that variable on my end and have different options too.

I see a couple of imprints on your part, are those for locating nubs or similar?

My joke with stuff like this is I measure with a micrometer, mark with a grease pencil, and cut with a hatchet. [emoji1787]

I just sanded it until I got the angle I needed. I didn't measure. Here is a side view that shows the angle I ended up with.

I wish I had picture of the back side of the license plate light since you'd quickly understand what all those holes are for, but here's a crude drawing (not to scale [emoji16] )

The first thing I did is cut the wire for the plate LED so it can be removed from the assembly.

Then I drilled a hole in the spacer for the LED wire.

Next I used a piece of paper to imprint the outline of the back side of the LED housing and used that as a template to transfer over the position of the two inner M5 holes.

Once I drilled the two inner M5 holes on the spacer, I cut the heads off two M5 bolts so that they would thread into the LED housing and insert into the spacer to fix both items together. I used JB weld to glue the spacer to the LED housing using the M5 studs sticking out as reinforcement (but gluing it together came way later).

After that I cut the spacer down with a hacksaw leaving some excess around the housing so I could sand the outline to shape using the belt sander.

Once that was done, I used the belt sander to get the angle I wanted, test fitting it on the tail tidy often until I had what I wanted.

Then while holding the spacer in place, I marked, drilled, and tapped the spacer for M5 x 0.8 to mount to the tail tidy using the same bolts it came with. Here is a photo of the underside. The spacing on these holes is identical to the two outside M5 holes pictured earlier on the backside of the LED housing.

If you could get your hands on a LED light from @SCracing, it would make your prototyping for a 3D printed spacer much easier!

Here's a 3/4 view of the spacer installed. A 3D printed spacer could match the outline of the LED housing much better than my Neanderthal hand sanding!

 

[ithaca00]

I'll take a look at mine tonight and mock something up. Having to cut bolts and wires is not ideal but I'll see what I can do.

 

[Florida lime]

Titanium goodies just arrived.

Rear axle nut
Rear rotor bolts
Sprocket studs and nuts
Rear brake caliper bolt
Front brake caliper bolts
Front brake rotor bolts
Front axle pinch bolt

Front brake caliper, 1 rear brake caliper bolt (they don't give you both in the kit, weird...), and the front axle pinch save 110 grams (just under 1/4 pound).

They don't sell the bolts individually so I'll probably buy another pair of bolts for the rear caliper that match.

Always use anti seize with ti fasteners and torque using the book.

More to follow.

Regarding the "they don't sell the bolts individually..." who is "they" ?