Why a Buell M2 Cyclone

 

Recently, I decided it was time for another bike. I quite regularly check out the ads on Craigslist, and I weighed many different options. For a while, I almost had my mind made up that I would finance a new DR650. I thought about riding the fire roads around Ocala National Forest, and maybe one day even going on a long adventure up to the Rockies. I though about getting an old ran-when-parked bike that maybe only needed the carbs cleaned or had other minor issues I could easily fix. I came across several candidates, including an '85 Goldwing, a couple of CB900c's, and a GS800. I definitely kept my eye on 5-speed Sportsters and even well-priced Ironhead Sportsters in good shape. But I've wanted a Buell for a very long time. When I saw a '98 M2 Cyclone with 16k miles priced for what Buell Blasts are often priced at, I had to get it!

One might ask why I even need another bike. My old '88 Sportster has held up pretty well over the last three years. But there have been mechanical problems I've had to deal with - transmission issues, shifter lever issues, electrical issues, etc. I've been able to handle them just fine, but when my bike is down for repairs for several days or even several weeks, sharing the van with my wife is challenging. It's not just that I would rather be riding, but my wife has to take kids places, has medical appointments, grocery shopping, general errands, etc. Having a second bike not only gives me a spare bike to commute on, but also allows me to split the wear and tear of commuting between both bikes, which increases the time between break downs and required maintenance. My Sportster isn't getting any younger, and who knows when a catastrophic failure might occur.

One might wonder how a Buell could be a practical choice of motorcycle. They're no longer produced, and when they were, they were manufactured in limited quantities. But consider the engine is essentially just a hot-rodded Sportster 1200 engine. Almost every part in the engine or transmission can be replaced with a newly manufactured part, and there's quite a few used parts available. Other parts, like the brakes, wheels, etc. are not as easily replaceable, but I think I can manage. Also, both the engine and transmission should be easy to work on. No valve adjustments or coolant changes are needed. Any major mechanical repairs shouldn't be complicated.

This bike is a lot of fun! It has roughly double the horsepower of my old Sportster, and is about 60 lbs. lighter. At 70 mph, you can tell my old Sportster isn't too far from its limit, but the Cyclone can effortlessly handle highway speeds. So far, I haven't felt the need to push the bike to its limits, but it does accelerate quite nicely. I think it might be the most nimble bike I've ridden so far, which honestly isn't saying a lot - I haven't ridden that many different bikes. But it is quite nimble. I wish Central Florida had some canyons to carve!

The bike feels very reliable - like maybe I could ride it to California and back so long as I took enough pain medication to deal with the discomfort of the seat. It is actually more shakey at idle than my Sportster. This is probably do to the lighter fly wheels and because the frame has less mass to dampen the vibrations. But once the engine is at 3000 RPM, it runs quite smoothly. I love being able to put my bike in neutral from 1st gear at a stop every time, which is something I can't reliably do with my Sportster.

Time will tell whether I still like this bike in a year, but I'd bet money I will. In fact, I think I'll likely still be riding this bike many years from now.

Another Throttle Cable Replacement

Last week, I had yet another throttle cable breakage. Luckily, I've got two cables going to my carburetor, so I was able to get home. But I don't like riding with just one good throttle cable. I wasn't sure how long I could ride like that, and the good cable seemed to get a little too loose. That left me taking the van to work for a couple of days. 

With my first breakage a while back, I replaced the inner cable with 1/16 wire rope from Home Depot keeping the same cable housing. For this, I created a mold from pieces of aluminum flat stock for the carburetor end barrel fitting, and did what this guy did, more or less: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV3XLAG3jx8. Additionally, I soldered a small bead on the control end to act as a cable stop to fit inside the ferrule. 

Later on, the control end of the cable broke. I had trouble soldering on another bead, since my silver-soldering skills kinda suck, so I just welded a bead of RG45 on the end. This seemed to work quite well, but I didn't think about the lack of corrosion resistance. I think this may have lead to last week's cable break, which happened right below where I welded on the end of the cable. I bet I burned off the zinc coating from the wire rope right below the weld, allowing it to corrode.

Without enough length left for a repair, I replaced the inner cable with some more wire rope from Home Depot, but I did things a bit differently this time.

To start with, I decided that instead of trying to fool with another molded solder barrel fitting for the carburetor end, I decided to just use a piece of 1/4" rod. I was initially going to use steel, but I worried about rust and wear. Luckily, I found some 1/4" zinc rod at the local Tractor Supply store. Using Zinc should take care of corrosion, and I can use grease to deal with wear.

After grinding a small flat spot on the side of the rod, I used my drill press to drill a 1/16" hole through the rod. Then, I used a larger bit (can't remember the size, sorry), to drill roughly half way through to provide space for a cable stop. I then cut the rod to approximately the length I needed.

Next, I brazed a bead of bronze on the end of the cable. After feeding the cable through barrel fitting, I compared the size of the bronze bead to the opening. I ground it down until it was about the right diameter, and lightly tapped it into the opening with a hammer. Next, with the bead tightly in place, I ground it down until more-or-less flush with the surface of the barrel fitting.

The assembled carburetor end of the cable already looked nicer than the old cable with the molded solder barrel fitting, but the new barrel fitting needed to be trimmed down a bit. Grinding with the grinding wheel on my drill press seemed too slow, so I used my angle grinder to speed things along. I did, however, use the grinding wheel to clean up the edge a bit.

After confirming that I could hook up the cable to the carburetor, I moved on to the control end of the cable.

I knew from past experience that feeding the cable through the metal portion of the cable housing with it's 90 degree turn was difficult and often lead to the cable end fraying. To prevent that, I brazed the end of the cable a bit. I still had quite a bit of difficulty getting it through. I tried a few different tricks without success, but finally had luck by welding a copper wire to the bronze coating on the cable end. (I say welding here, since I joined copper to copper-based alloy). Feeding the copper wire through the metal part of the housing was easy, though I did have to grind down the sides of the brazed end a bit to pull the cable through.

Once I did that, I cut away the copper wire. For whatever reason, I was having trouble getting a nice bronze bead on the control end, so I trimmed the bronze section off, and welded a bead of RG45 to the end. I then brazed over that for corrosion resistance.

With minimal cleanup, this fit into the ferrule quite easily. I did do just a tad bit of grinding to shape the brazed-over bead flush with the surface of the ferrule. Then, it was a simple matter to install on the throttle control. After making a few adjustments, I took the bike for a test ride and could not find any problems.

Hopefully, this holds up better than the last cable. After looking back at the pictures, I am concerned by what looks to be some unprotected cable below the bronzed bead cable stop on the carburetor end. Hopefully, just keeping both ends of the cable properly greased will prevent any corrosion. Time will tell.

Just Scored Cheap Parts From an Auction!

So let me tell you about my experience with an auction advertised on Craigslist! It was very different from an Ebay auction. The post-auction was much less convenient, but on the flip side, there was much less competition. After it was all over, I spent just a little over $100 for a complete, almost mint condition 4 speed transmission for my '88 Sportster and a set of very-good-condition turn signals!



I habitually rummage through the motorcycle parts listings on Craigslist, and I ran across two different links to an auction closing in about a month. There was quite a variety of parts listed with considerably low starting bids - low enough that I was somewhat suspicious. Among the various items were headlights, gas tanks, tools, exhaust parts, and one mostly-complete motorcycle. These parts were being auctioned as a part of liquidating the assets of a motorcycle shop in Pompano, Florida.

I saw quite a few things I was interested in. I liked a few of the tanks - though the ones I liked weren't Sportster tanks, I thought I might could make them work. I saw a set of turn signals that looked nice. I plan on making some, but at an initial bid of $10, I thought they might be good to use in the short term. If they were nice OEM turn signals, I figured I could eventually sell them for much more. I saw speedometers and tachometers that looked interesting, but there was no indication of whether they worked.


One thing that really caught my attention was a "mint condition" four-speed transmission for a late-model Sportster. At a glance, I was certain it would work for my bike. Now I couldn't tell if it had a late '84-'86 gear ratio or a '87-'90 gear ratio, but that's ok. There's only two gears that actually differ between the two. For an initial bid price of $50 - about the low-end cost for a single gear - there was a complete transmission. With a few of the gears and the shifter forks in my transmission being beat up a bit, I'm sure a spare transmission will eventually come in handy.

I would periodically check to see if there were any bids on the parts. I would notice a bid here or there, but most of the parts had no bid at all. Maybe folks were just waiting till the end of the auction? Luckily, I saw no bids on the parts I wanted, but I knew that even with the extremely low initial bids, I could only afford a few things. And who knew whether they would be bid up dramatically on the day the auction closed?

So during the week leading up to the auction, I narrowed down the list of things I might bid on. I saw a couple of welders at a bid prices that almost amounted to theft - except who knows if they work? I decided that while a nicer tank would be good, there were more practical things to bid on. I decided to bid on the transmission and the set of turn signals. I figured that if I were outbid on the transmission - and I wouldn't go much beyond the initial $50 due to my low budget - I'd bid on some other things like the large rack with spools of electrical wire or maybe the heavy-duty looking bench vices.

So I followed a link to register as a bidder. This felt a little spooky. I had never heard of the auction site before, and had no idea whether to trust it. I did a little research to see if it was listed in relation to any scams, and decided to take a chance. I bravely entered my information and credit card number, and ... jumped through a few hoops, the details of which I don't remember ... and I was registered.

So I placed my bid on the transmission, and then had trouble finding the listings for the initial auction. "No problem", I thought! I went back to Craigslist to find the link and ..... and.... hmmmm, this site said I wasn't registered!!! WTF! So I registered again, and the site seemed unfamiliar. I felt like maybe I was a fool, but I then bid on the turn signals. Turns out that two different sites posted two different links to the same auction. That's kinda weird. So I ended up registering for both sites, and bid on each item on a different site.

So on the day of the auction, I checked and checked and NO ONE AT ALL bid on the transmission or turn signals! While I didn't see anything explicitly saying so, I got the impression that this was some sort of hybrid internet-live auction. Maybe there were bids on site? If these were on auction on Ebay, there's no way in hell I would be without competition. But sure enough, I got emails declaring me the winner for both the transmission and for the set of turn signals. I looked at the other listings, and so many very good items had no bids at all. I don't think I saw any listings with more than one bid.

So was this a scam? I got an email from yet another guy working for another business. He didn't seem to be affiliated with either of the two auction sites, and based on his name seemed to be the owner of his own business. Despite having provided credit card information, he emailed a form for me to fill out giving authorization to use my card as payment. He also said "for some reason you have 2 invoices." He had a very pretentious sounding name, which made me wonder even more if this was bogus.

But I did some research on him and his company. There was nothing negative about the guy. I got the impression that he specialized in auctions where businesses or estates are being liquidated. There was a YouTube clip with a segment of "60 Minutes" showing him conducting an auction of some crooked lawyers assets in that lawyer's former office. I guess he was actually conducting the auction and simply used the two sites as a means for allowing online bidding. Then the two sites posted the redundant listings on craigslist.

There was a lot of going back and forth with this guy regarding payment and shipping. I totally missed this, but after the auction I saw clearly in the information about the auction that neither the seller or auctioneer would be responsible for shipping, and that buyers would have to make their own arrangements. So it looked like I needed to take a day off for a road trip to get the items in the time available.

After my initial email exchange with him, he told me that he was going to ship the items as a favor. How cool! It still seemed kinda confusing. Through out our exchanges, his responses where quite brief, and I wondered if he actually read my emails close enough to know all that I said. And you know what - that totally makes sense. I got the impression that he was juggling arrangements with many different buyers. He was no doubt quite busy. Going ahead and shipping despite the original plan to have buyers make their own arrangements no doubt made him that much busier. All things considered, he was providing good service.

So he sent another form asking to either be sure my card info would clear or to please give authorization for another form of payment. Granted, I told him to wait until the last pickup day to run my card. I kinda bid knowing that my paycheck would be direct deposited before the deadline for payment. So maybe telling him to wait spooked him a bit.

Much of my concern about this being a scam would have been alleviated had PayPal been an option for payment. It seems to me that it would likely have been much simpler for him as well. But then again, I don't know much about these kinds of auctions. He might just not be tech savvy enough to setup PayPal payments, or maybe there are very good business reasons not to use PayPal for these kinds of auctions? It's hard to imagine what those reasons might be, but who knows?

So on the last day of the pickup window arrived, everything went to plan. He confirmed that he took everything to the UPS store, they sent me their invoices, and I paid them online. I got tracking numbers for both shipments..... both shipments? What? I asked for everything to be shipped as a single shipment! I paid about $40 for shipping in total. That's what I would have paid for gas to ride my bike down there to pick up the items myself!



Still, I know the guy was really busy. Everything to be shipped was probably grouped by invoice, and I had two. And I had to keep in mind that originally, the deal was for buyers to pick up the parts on their own or to make their own shipping arrangements. And while I kinda half-way looked forward to the ride, I also kinda worried about my 30 year old motorcycle breaking down on the side of the road.

I was very happy when on the very next day, the transmission and turn signals arrived. They were as good as I expected! I had nice turn signals with metal housings for less than the cost of plastic Chinese ones that one can find on Ebay.


The transmission wasn't quite mint, but very close to it. I could see just the slightest indication that it was once in a motorcycle. The part of the mainshaft that sticks out of the housing showed the surface rust you'd expect from a used transmission. The inner bearing race showed just the faintest indication that it took a few turns inside the mainshaft case roller bearing. If they had said that the gears themselves were brand new, I would maybe have believed them. It wasn't mint, but it was damn good, especially for the $50 plus fees, plus sales tax, plus shipping, etc. which was still only about $80. I bet it would have sold for at least a few hundred on Ebay. I doubt that if it were a never-installed, NOS transmission that it would be any more reliable.

So moral of the story - look for these kinds of auctions! They're not quite as convenient as an Ebay auction, but if you do your research on the folks conducting the auction and they seem to be legit, you can get some insane deals! You can not only get parts you need for your bike, but parts you can sell on Ebay for much more! Actually, I really wish I had enough to do just that!

New Muffler

A few months ago, I replaced my exhaust system (keeping the header pipes). But before I go too far into describing my new exhaust system, let me describe what I was replacing and why.

My old exhaust system was comprised of the header pipes that came with my bike, with the rear one being trimmed back a bit, a couple slip-on mufflers from a 2006 Sportster that I picked up on Craigslist for $20, a custom mount that I welded together using some scrap metal behind my shop, and a custom exhaust piece with an h-pipe crossover that I built myself from some cheap exhaust pipe from a local auto parts place. Additionally, I performed the "Gronk Mod" (more or less) on the mufflers. With the mufflers and crossover, the motor seems to run much more smoothly, and according to my "butt-dyno", my bike accelerated more quickly. I mainly wanted a decent sound that didn't beat the shit out of my ears, which I got, but the performance bump was nice!

However, there was a serious problem - the damn mufflers dragged the pavement in any hard right turn. This happened whenever I took my favorite turn on my way to work. The mufflers also scrapped really badly if leaving a parking lot downhill. I got to where I was kinda scared to take right turns without slowing down to a very not-fun speed.

The mufflers were right next together, with one right under the other. I liked this configuration, but I didn't have much room to move them up without interfering with my right saddle bag. I had the option of doing a more traditional Sportster muffler setup, but ended up deciding to just put the mufflers as close together as possible, move them back a bit, and tilt them up behind the saddle bag. I spent a whole weekend putting together a new mounting plate, and bought some square tubing to make a new mount. And then this happened:

I got gas on my way home from work, and turned right out of the parking lot. This parking lot exit has a fairly steep incline, and I could hear a horrible screech as the bottom muffler dragged. As I accelerated, I thought to myself "Damn, the bike sounds a whole lot louder!" I turned around to go the other way, and saw my damn mufflers laying on the road! They were too hot to touch, so I kicked them into the center lane. I was very close to home, so I could come back for them later.

So I went home and scarfed down some dinner. After about 15 min. or so, I figured the mufflers were plenty cool. I threw my backpack on the sissy bar, and went back for my mufflers - AND THEY WERE GONE!!! I hope whatever asshole took them burned the hell out of his fingers. With just the crossover, I still had some performance boost - wasn't expecting that - but my ears were still being assaulted with every ride. I'd like to actually still be able to hear in a couple of decades. And later, the crossover ended up off, since the mounted mufflers were mostly what held them in place.

So I had to decide what kind of exhaust system I wanted next. I knew damn well I wasn't going to spend several hundred dollars on a set of pipes. No judgement against those who do - I'm sure Vance and Hines makes very nice sounding pipes, but my budget is too tight. Besides, I didn't want to miss out on the fun of building my own exhaust system.

I decided to buy a 2" Thrush Glass Pack muffler. Why? Because they're damn cheap, and do the job well enough for my purposes. Sound is somewhat important, but for me, sound takes a huge back seat to function and cost effectiveness. I could have done without the extra length and bright red paint, but for $25, it's hard to complain.

To mount the muffler to the frame, I welded together a mount using some square tubing, a bit of flat stock, some mount rings made from old motorcycle drive chain. The rings fit perfectly around the muffler. Welding the chain was easy - I just used my torch to melt where the edges of the inner links overlapped the edges of the outer links. I then popped some rivets to use pins to mount the rings to the square tubing part of the mount. The mount holds the muffler farther back than the old pair of mufflers it replaced. It's also angled back. No part of the muffler is lower than the bottom exhaust header. Hopefully the pictures will explain better than my words.


The first piece of custom piping I made to join the muffler to the headers was a 2-into-1 fitting. I cut a single 1 3/4" pipe at an angle. I intended to simply then rotate one pipe around to where it formed a point, and tack it together. But I ended up damaging the edge of one side of the cut. I simply cut another piece to do the same thing. Next, I fit the pointed end of the joint into a 2" pipe that would fit into the opening of the muffler. I traced a circle around where the edge of the 2" pipe fit round the pointed fitting. I then cut the point off with my angle grinder. Of course, this didn't leave a perfectly circular cut, so I had to heat the edges of the cut with my torch and hammer it a bit to where it fit nicely with the 2" pipe. Then, I just welded it together.

So to complete the exhaust, I mounted the work I had so far to see what gaps needed to be filled. I would cut some pipe at whatever angle I thought I needed, see how it filled the gap, cut another pipe wedge to weld to it, and repeated. For the top header, once I got close to closing the gap, I used a 1 3/4" fitting to join the pie-cut exhaust section to the header - I want this to be easy to remove when needed. For the bottom header, I simply added enough pipe to the 2-into-1 fitting to attach to flex pipe, and simply filled the rest of the gap to the bottom header with flex pipe.


Sure, this isn't the prettiest exhaust you'll ever see. While it doesn't sound bad at all, it's definitely not the most bad-ass sounding exhaust you'll ever hear. But it does the fucking job without having cost very much. It clears the saddle bags, boosts performance over straight pipes, is sufficiently quiet, is easy to remove, doesn't scrape on turns, and seems to be sturdy as fuck. That's good enough for me.

Conquering My Transmission Woes!

Several weeks ago, I had my first major transmission failure. (I'm not counting knocking the shifter shaft loose almost 2 years ago.) While on my way to work, I accelerated from a traffic light. When I attempted to shift into 4th gear, I heard a noise that was much worse than the typical missed shift. I made another attempt and it was clear that I wasn't going to be able to get into 4th. The transmission was making bad noises in any gear, so I quickly pulled off onto the side of the road. I was pretty sure at least one gear must have broken.

I was feeling pretty good about my decision to get towing assistance through my AMA membership. I called the number, gave them my membership info, and they worked diligently to get me a tow. I was told it would be about an hour, but almost as soon as I got back from buying some Gatorade from a convenient store (it was HOT outside), the tow truck showed up. I asked what the tow would have cost me if I didn't have the towing assistance, and it was 3 times what my AMA membership cost me.

I ended up taking my wife's van to work, and as soon as I got home that evening, I pulled off the primary cover. Everything in the clutch assembly seemed to be good to go. No magnets had fallen from the inside of the clutch basket. No metal bits were on the bottom of the case. But when I rotated the input shaft, I could occasionally hear gear teeth bumping together like maybe a tooth was missing.


The next night I removed the gear set, and I found broken gear pieces in the bottom of the case. I slowly removed each part from the gear set, taking a photo with each step to use as a reference later to help know how to reassemble the gear set. I inspected each piece as I removed it, looking for not just broken teeth on gears, but also for wear on the forks, spacers, etc. The countershaft gear had a tooth missing, and the mainshaft gear for 2nd gear was missing a dog tooth.

I have a theory about what happened. The 2nd main shaft gear is splined onto the mainshaft, while the third mainshaft gear is unsplined and spins independently of the mainshaft. When shifting into third, the 2nd mainshaft gear slides right, and the dogs on the right side engage with the third gear causing the mainshaft to turn at the same speed as the 3rd mainshaft gear. When I shifted into third, I believe the dog tooth broke off and fell down to the bottom of the case, where the countershaft gear eventually made contact. There's not enough space between the bottom of the case and the countershaft gear for the broken piece to pass, and I think this is what caused a tooth to break off the countershaft gear. Perhaps one of the pieces of the broken gears got between the 2nd mainshaft gear and the clutch gear, preventing me from shifting into fourth.

So at this point I'm pretty happy about having a old Sportster. Granted, the gears in this Sportster didn't hold up, although Sportsters are known for having solid transmissions. I also have no idea how hard the previous owner was on this bike. Because it's an old Sportster, brand new gears are still being made for this bike. I might be wrong, but I don't think I could get brand new gears for a Japanese bike from the 80's. These new Sportster gears are made by Andrews, and are probably higher quality gears than what Harley produced.

There's also plenty of used gears available on Ebay. This gave me an interesting option to consider. The last of the Ironheads had essentially the same transmission as the 4 speed Evo Sportsters, but they had different gear ratios. If in addition to the 2nd mainshaft gear and countershaft gear I replaced the clutch gear using the older gear ratios for the clutch and countershaft gears, I'd have the same gear ratios as the later Ironheads and the '86 Evo Sportsters. The advantage to this is that I could then gear up the final drive with different sprockets while still having a respectfully low 1st gear. That way, I would have an engine speed of about 3400 RPM at 70 mph without having trouble taking off in 1st.

There was a forum post that discussed this option. I knew I'd have to get older gears or maybe newer non-Andrews gears. From what I hear, there are some quite respectable gears made in Taiwan. I went as far as discussing this with a seller who had the clutch gear I'd need. But then I ran across another post on the same forum that discussed how this option did not work out so well for one guy. You can read the discussion here: http://xlforum.net/vbportal/forums/archive/index.php/t-1539783.html

So I ended up buying two Andrews gears from JPCycles. It cost me about $140, which seems pretty fair. The 2nd mainshaft gear was shipped much more quickly. This makes sense, since that gear spec has been used since about 1957. No doubt quite a few of these were in stock. I had to wait a little bit for the countershaft gear, but considering these are for Sportsters from '87 through '90, it's quite understandable that these weren't immediately in stock.

Waiting on the gears to come in gave me plenty of time to clean the remnants of the old primary gasket from the primary cover and case. I got a shard of plastic with one straight edge, and ground it to an almost sharp edge for a scraper. I really didn't want to resort to using razor blades - no sense in cutting into the case. I soaked the gasket bits in some solvent - can't remember which - and diligently scraped away.

Putting everything back together went smoothly for the most part. I did notice some major wear on one of the forks that looked like it must have been from rubbing up against a piece of broken gear. I was initially horrified and disappointed that I didn't catch it before I ordered parts. But after cleaning it up with a file and seeing how it fit with the gear, I decided it was almost certainly not an issue. I had my photos to look at as well as the Harley repair manual. I had studied the transmission diagram quite a bit while waiting on the parts to come in.

Inserting the gear set into the case was fairly straight forward. I did have to try a bit to get it to slide all the way in, but it wasn't too big of a deal. Putting the primary, crankshaft sprocket, clutch assembly, etc. went smoothly. Nothing else worth mentioning happened for the rest of the assembly. After adding some Mobile 1 75w90, I took it for a spin. I didn't even need to tweak the clutch adjustment.

In addition to taking plenty of pics, there were other things I did to make things go smoothly. As I disassembled the bike, I put all the small pieces in zip lock bags. I had several of these bags with the parts and fasteners grouped in a fairly straight forward manner. I had no problems finding these parts when it was time to reassemble. I also did quite well without using special tools. When removing the gear set, I simply tapped the sprocket end of the mainshaft that sticks out the right side of the case with a nylon hammer. When I was putting the gears set back in, I used the same nylon hammer to tap it back close enough into place to use the trap door screws to finish the job. When it was time to tighten the nut on the crankshaft, I simply put a wedge-shaped piece of oak where the chain met the sprocket. When I tightened the sprocket nut, the teeth of the sprocket dug into the wood a bit and held it in place.

Using a wooden wedge to hold the crankshaft sprocket still

There are obvious things I probably should have done differently. I definitely should have ordered another shifter fork. They may be cheap enough where I might should have just replaced both. I should have ordered spacers, and I should have checked the clearances between the gears. I did manually turn the input shaft and shift from 1st to 4th and back to make sure nothing interfered, but checking proper spacing would have been better. For each gear I replace, I should have replaced the complementary gear, but with my tight budget, I don't feel too bad about that. I might should have replaced the bearings that are easy to replace. Without a shop press, I don't feel bad about not replacing the clutch gear, mainshaft, or countershaft bearings.

Since the repair, the bike shifts very smoothly, but it sometimes has trouble between 2nd and third gear. It never takes more than two attempts to get it into 3rd, though, and the trouble doesn't happen often. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fork shifter I should have replaced. Also, I can hear a noticeable clicking noise that reminds me of when you coast on a 10 speed bicycle. Could that be a bearing showing signs that it needs to be replaced?  I hope not. But if I have to pull the transmission out again any time soon, I'm confident I can fix whatever the problem is, so long as the parts do not cost too much.

Potting

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've replaced the voltage regulator (and by this, I mean the regulator/rectifier combo) on my Sportster. I would like to have simply tested each device within the regulator and replaced only the individual device (transistor, diode, etc.) rather than have to replace the entire regulator. What prevented me from doing that was the block of black epoxy the circuit was embedded in. This stuff is called potting, and it's commonly used in electronic circuits. On motorcycles, potted circuits can and often do include regulators, ignition systems, and engine control units. Understanding why potting is used and why potting can be a hindrance when doing repairs may help you decide whether to pot your own custom motorcycle circuits.

You might be wondering why circuits are potted to begin with. Perhaps manufacturers simply don't want you servicing your own circuits rather than buying parts from your local dealership. But there are actually good reasons to pot, especially for a circuit that is a part of a motorcycle. Motorcycles often vibrate a lot. And even with relatively smooth-running motorcycles, there's bumps and potholes on the road that can jar a circuit. Circuits have to deal with thermal stresses due to engine heat and weather. These mechanical and thermal stresses can damage solder joints, circuit board traces, component leads, and wiring. Surrounding a circuit in epoxy or other hard substance helps hold everything together.

That's not to say that manufacturers mind that potting gets in the way of customers doing their own circuit repair. And that's not just a matter of greed. Most people are not qualified to do their own circuit repair, and even those who know a bit about electronics can accidentally damage something. Suppose a customer has engine problems and they monkey around with an unpotted ECU damaging it in the process. They bring it in for repair and it's under warranty. How does the dealership know that the defective ECU was damaged by the customer. If the circuit is potted, it's not even a consideration.

So as someone who may want to do component level trouble shooting or repair of an ECU or regulator, this means doing so is going to be a huge pain in the ass. It's not impossible, though. You can do a google search to find several pages describing the removal process. This, of course, can cause further damage to the circuit.

As someone who may want to build your own regulator, ECU, or other circuit for your motorcycle, you need to consider whether the benefits of potting are worth the future hindrance to repair. While potting can get in the way of repair, it might mean that you don't have to repair as often if ever. Then again, being that you don't have the R&D resources of a large motorcycle manufacturer, it's likely you'll need to diagnose design flaws with your circuit. That's kinda hard to do with potting in the way. Perhaps potting might even be causing problems by trapping heat leading to overheating components in your circuit.

Perhaps you can simply pot with something that's not so easy to remove. Guitarists sometimes use beeswax to pot their guitar pickups. Parrafin wax might work quite well. Using silly putty might be worth a try. Granted silly putty isn't as rigid, but it may still provide as much mechanical support as you need.

So while potting might prevent you from repairing circuits from a manufacturer, it has a purpose and can still be useful for your own custom circuits. Choosing an easy to remove potting material can make repair easier. And if you choose not to pot, you might find that you simply didn't need it to begin with. In a worse case scenario, you might simply have to resolder a joint or repair a circuit board trace.

DIY Motorcycle Electronics

Testing my Arduino-based Turn Signal Controller

For quite a while now, I've been thinking about ways I can apply my knowledge about electronics and software to motorcycles.  I'm a bit of a diy sort of guy, and I'd rather make something than buy it if I can. Making rather than buying is a great way to be creative, and in some cases can also allow you to save money. Because I know a bit about electronics and enough about writing software to make a living at it, creating my own electronics is an excellent way for me to be creative and have fun. And because I love motorcycles, I'd like for some of my hobby electronics projects to be about motorcycles.

I actually have done one such application - an arduino-based LED turn signal controller. When I bought my motorcycle, it was missing the turn signals. I knew I wanted LED turn signals for the simple fact that they are more efficient and more durable than incandescent turn signals. But turn signals do not draw enough current for the flashers that make turn signals flash.

It seems that the typical solution to this problem is to use components called load equalizers. These put some resistance in parallel to the LED signals to shunt enough current for the flashers to function. This, of course, is silly. It completely takes away one of the advantages of LED signals and compromises the other. With the load equalizers, the same amount of demand is placed on the charging system and battery, and keeping the flashers means having a necessary component that is prone to wearing out.

The Turn Signal Controller

By using an Arduino to control the LED signals, I keep the low-current-draw advantage of LED lights, though there is some cost to running the Arduino. By using transistors and a few other components, the controller can provide more current to the LED signals than the Arduino digital outputs can provide on their own. I can programatically control the flash rate, flash pattern, etc. If I press both turn signal buttons simultaneously, I can flash the signals on both sides for hazard lights.

That project has worked out for me well so far, and I've been looking for other opportunities for more motorcycle electronic projects. A few have come to mind.

So one day I realized that I needed to replace my voltage regulator on my Sportster, or at least I thought I did. In retrospect, dirty ground connections may have been causing issues. In any case, I couldn't take the regulator apart to do any testing. When the whole damn regulator housing is filled with epoxy potting, that's not really an option.

The Electronics Inside the Housing

I didn't have time to engineer and build my own regulator. I needed to get my bike going quickly, since I use it to commute. I went ahead and paid the $50 for a new regulator. I did see that there were simple regulator designs posted, and it seems like something I could engineer on my own. By the time I need my next regulator, I would like to have a replacement already built, perhaps using the same housing as my old one.

Another project idea I've had is already partially built. I've got the electronics and software for an arduino-based speedometer already prototyped. It uses a hall effect sensor to signal the arduino controller when magnets pass by. The arduino then calculates the speed, and moves a servo that a speedometer needle will eventually be attached to. I'll post the details on that in a later post.

One really cool possibility to explore is throttle body injection for older carbureted motorcycles. Those who listen to the Cleveland Moto podcast may have heard them discussing this subject. There's definitely some DIY fuel injection projects already available, though most of them seem to focus on cars. The computing power necessary for a fuel injection system is getting to be damn cheap. For most motorcycles, a simple Arduino should be fine, but if not, there's many more powerful alternatives that are actually about as cheap.

One thing to consider for those thinking about rolling their own motorcycle electronics is that no hobbyist will ever have the time and money to do the research and development that any of the major motorcycle companies can do. But for the many applications, you won't need to. Just be mindful that your homemade electronics might not be as reliable as factory electronics, and be mindful of any safety concerns that may cause. Test thoroughly, and when possible, learn from the mistakes and successes of others. Plan to be able to revise your designs. Solve as many problems as possible before taking your custom electronics out on the road.

Don't be afraid to give it a try. So maybe you're no electronics guy and you don't know jack about writing software. Learn what you can and see what diy projects are already available. The worst you can do is fail. In fact, you will have failures. You'll learn from those. (Well, unless they're fatal failures. Just skip those if you can. 😜 ) Just keep at it, and have fun.