More on Earl's Bonnie
Well, it's done and delivered. I will make a few more posts to bring you all up to date.
As far as the steering damper is concerned, it seems to work perfectly. It's easy to adjust and really, really helps with the front end shake that comes with having a side car. I personally don't have a great deal of experience with side car "driving," but I know how it was before the damper and I know how it is with the damper... WAAAYYY better!
I can't say how it stacks up (pun intended) with the cylinder or top mount hydraulic type, having never experienced these for myself, but this friction one does work, and there is nothing hanging off the bike... just an attractive aluminum knob at the top yoke. Cost is less than others, too.
Earl's impression? "better than expected," and "never went 105 with a side car before."
A note to those of you who might be interested in the airbox mods... when you open the right side and the right side of the air filter, you have to add a gasket between the filter and box body... I used foam headliner material and glued it to the filter. I have a photo of it somewhere, but can't find it just now.
I'm going to go over the tuning process first, then the fitting of the fairing brackets and rough fit up, then painting and final assembly.
Tuning... here are photos of the set up.
First is the auxiliary tank installed... I use an inexpensive coolant overflow tank (@ 10 bucks as opposed to $65 for an "official" one). Next is the vacuum synchronizer in place and the Gunson's Color Tune. The Color Tune is a replacement "spark plug" that allows you to see the color of the ignition flame inside the cylinder as the motor runs. By checking the color of the flame - yellow= rich, blue=good, white=lean - at various rpm ranges, it gives you an idea of what jet and needle adjustments have to be made to get even accelleration and no flat spots. I make adjustments to one carburettor, then set up the other the same way. Then adjust the synch, and replace the balance tube. A balance tube attaches from one vacuum spigot to the other on the intake manifolds. This is something that was done on older twins... it still seems to add some torque over a non balance tubed carb set up. I don't know how it works with 270 cranks, however... anybody have some experience with this?
We installed stainless socket screws on the bowls and diaphragm covers when the carbs were off the bike. As you can see from the photos having these in place makes getting to the internals on the carbs way easier for tuning. Try removing and replacing a bowl with the stock Phillips head screws. Many swears ensue.
With the airbox mods, the carbs were adjusted from 126 mains and no shims to 135 mains and 2 shims, 2 1/2 turns on the air screws.
opcorn:
