Fireblade Fountains

I finally got the carbs sorted on the Fireblade project (sense of achievement!) and when I fired it up they felt very responsive... but then a giant geyser of oily water spewed out of the valve cover exhaust pipe and hit the ceiling (!).  Never seen that before.

Rather than repeat the fountain, I put a pipe on it, ran it into a container and videoed the weirdness...

(it's a 360 video, you can move the mouse to look around - like at the oily water dripping off the ceiling)

So the fountain happened both times I ran it, and the stuff that came out looked like watery oil rather than oil with some water in it.  Next step:  drain the oil...

... which looks like water.  That's not good, and it's something I've never seen before.  Why on earth would anyone ever put water or coolant in an engine like that?

I've done head gaskets on cars before and I'm pretty familiar with the consequences of oil mixing with coolant.  It usually goes both ways (oil gets in the coolant, coolant gets in the oil, but the coolant looks brand new and the level is good.  When running there is no bubbling in the coolant overflow (usually a running engine will force gas and oil back into the coolant reservoir if there is a blown head gasket).  As amazing as this sounds, I think the idiot who owned this before me filled the engine with coolant instead of oil, but I really can't understand why.  It's either gross incompetence or he sold me a bike with a known blown engine, which is a pretty shitty thing to do.  Incompetent or nasty, not a great set of choices there.

Next up is actually putting oil in the engine and running it again.  I've got some used stuff out of the Tiger which is the right weight.  If it works, then the guy who owned this thing before me might be the dumbest human in history.  Once I've run the old synthetic out of the Tiger and confirmed everything works, I'll drain it and put some new stuff in.

My first sports bike has been a bit more baffling than the XS1100 (air cooled, nothing weird there other than the ownership) and the Concours sports tourer which had been through hell, but was owned by a guy who knew what he was doing.

The muppet who owned this bike before me will have me going top to bottom on it before I get it out on the road - I can't trust anything that was done to it.

Follow up:  the engine was full of gasoline because the petcock that portions fuel out of the gas tank had failed, causing the gasoline to run into the carbs, fill up the bowls and then dribble down the intake manifold into the cylinders, where it ran down into the engine.  This is evidently not uncommon on motorcycles because of the way they carry their fuel above the engine.  A new petcock, a carb rebuild and a couple of engine flushes and the 'Blade rides again.  Point to remember: check for leaking petcocks on older bikes!

Autumn Colours Motorcycle Photography

On bike photos courtesy of a Ricoh Theta V on a flexible tripod attached to the rear view mirror of my trusty Triumph Tiger 955i.  The route was from my home in Elora up through Beaver Valley to the shores of Georgian Bay before coming back through Duntroon and up the Noisy River out of Creemore before heading back down the Grand River home.  The interesting bits were tracing the Niagara Escarpment, the only vaguely interesting roads anywhere near me.

If you want a primer on how to take on-bike photos like this, you can find it here.  It has also been published on Adventure Motorcycle Rider here.

That time I got stuck behind a blockade of Polaris Slingshots on the Noisy River Road...

Google Photos Album here.

Thanksgiving Moments

Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada is early (winter is coming), but this one was pretty rideable.  The Honda is calling from a mechanical perspective, but that can wait until the Canadian motorcyclist's hibernation.

In the meantime, I'm getting the rides in where I can find them...



Some digital art...

... and some on-bike 360 photos...

 

 

Motorcycle Lift Table Instructions

A friend and colleague retired but kindly left his DIY motorcycle stand with me when he moved to the West Coast.  Here's the construction of it back in 2016:

HERE are the plans he worked from in PDF format.  Now that I've got the plans I can find a properly spec'd lift to use on it.  My old lift is leaky and over two decades old, so the replacement will work the motorcycle lift as well as the odd car tire change.

Currently it's home to the Honda Fireblade project:

The garage is a nice place to work (though small) for 10 months of the year, but during Ontario's deep freeze in January/February, as outdoor temperatures often dip to -30°C and beyond, the cold emanating, even through the rubber lined floor, makes it torturous.  Even with a propane heater running, working on the floor isn't any fun for my fifty year old bones.  The stand, even when lowered, has been nice to work on.  Now that I've got access to the specs, I can source the right kind of hydraulic lift and have everything at an even more ergonomic height.

1997 CBR900RR Parts, Cables and Hose Routing

Notes for next round of work on the Honda.  Doing it for myself so I can follow what I'm doing on the laptop in the garage, but might help out other '90s Honda Fireblade CBR900 restorers too.

Missing tank mounting hardware:
BOLT, FLANGE (6X40) (missing bolts for front of gas tank)
COLLAR C6.3, MOUNTING

Throttle cable running under the right side of the centre triple fork

Vacuum routing - but not particularly helpful - air vent tubes probably connect to bottom of air cleaner box...

Upper and lower throttle cables are clear in this - they are over the handlebars now (wrong) - and like a burk, I put them together backwards, so you have to throttle off to throttle on - remove carb, remove cables, reroute and confirm on this before reattaching.

I tried a replacement LED in the neutral light - no joy - try reversing it?  Light receiving voltage when in neutral.  Confirm that?  Trace that  neutral switch wire?  

Double check choke cable - seems good the way I had it, but bike's in a choke right now, so no movement of front wheel to check routing when the handlebars are turned.

https://www.bikebandit.com/oem-parts/1997-honda-cbr900rr/o/m143417#sch20267

https://www.cmsnl.com/honda-cbr900rr-fireblade-1997-v-canada_model2523/partslist/#.XbSsz-hKiHv

LINKS:

1997 Honda CBR900RR Service Manual

Very clear images on this one:  https://www.cyclechaos.com/images/9/97/Honda_CBR929RR_Service_Manual.pdf

Online Microfiche for parts:
https://www.hondapartsnation.com/oemparts/l/hon/50541057f870021c54bede5e/1997-cbr900rr-ac-parts

'96 Technical Review Document:
https://mototribu.com/constructeur/honda/1996/1000cbr/doc/revuetechnique_900rr.pdf


Sub Air Filter  Honda FILTER, SUB-AIR CLEANER Part # 17254-KAZ-000
https://www.amazon.ca/Honda-17254-KAZ-000-Air-Filter/dp/B00HPTLPEO
Looks to be a foam filter - might see if I can source an equivalent - take the plastic bit in an size a filter.
https://www.hondashadow.net/threads/sub-air-cleaner.300257/
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hondashadowacetourer/sub-air-cleaner-what-is-it-39-s-function-t11508.html
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/atlas-briggs-stratton-lawn-mower-foam-air-filter-0607024p.html#spc