Quote:
Originally Posted by RedCrowRides
Not ragging on you at all, but this is like the 3rd set of HellKat assembly photos that all show no front fender installed , is HellKat just not sending you guys front fenders or what?
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I can't speak for others, but the fitment of the front fender was so poor I did not feel comfortable putting it on without the assistance of a heat gun. The fender is on now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rangerscott
Paint those zinc bolts. Zinc doesnt last long getting dirty or being out in the weather.
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Noted. I don't trust most modern stainless fasteners for corrosion resistance either. I went zinc so I could get a higher shear rating.
Some progress towards where I was right after assembly. I could not find white Hellcat boomerangs, so I ordered some Honda boomerangs in white. No, they won't match perfectly. I rationalized it by saying it was step 1 in the eventuality of having actual Grom panels. As a temporary workaround, I applied a liberal coating of gelled cyoanoacrilate and held the boomerang in place for a few minutes.
I tried a clone VM22 on tie bike and it was not great. I didn't like the lack of choke control on the bars. The PZ25 clone on the bike is actually quite good! It is also jetted quite well for the thin air here. Stuck without paperwork (aka plate) I contemplated doing an oil change, but realized I did that 1.8 miles ago.
Instead, I took off the bodywork and started analyzing everything.
The plastic looks like it was made for a child's electric ride-on car, but thicker. If I elect to keep it, I expect I may try and reinforce it with some woven fiber sheet and epoxy on the back. Probably less expensive to just get Honda parts though.
From what I can tell, the axle bolts are made of some sort of super-cheese masquerading as metal. That might be an exaggeration, but they are easily scratched by mild steel. I have added the axles to my "hit list."
I considered removing the evap canister and hosing, but did not have a golf tee handy to block the intake from the old evap. May as well let it catch whatever until the ZS190 goes in.
Unlike most others' reports, my motor mount bolts were tight. And I mean tight. I got each one to move slightly, at which point I heard the 'click' of a very mild friction weld. I went over all the other bolts, and they were all actually tight with the exception of the choke cable. That was loose and floppy from factory. I noticed the RPMs slightly climbing when turning to full right lock so I made some adjustments at the throttle tube; solved.
One issue with my bike, is the idle adjustment screw. Currently the bike idles at about 2k. I started to back the idle off, and quickly found out the idle screw has no tension. I wager it's not very functional. I tightened it down a bit to avoid any potential air leaks.
It will take me some time to get used to a high-revving single cylinder. My past single cylinder experience was with an F650CS, and it tends to live under ~5k. Of course, the 4-cylinder Yam has almost no vibration whatsoever at any RPM. There's a certain buzz/vibration above 5000 I think I just need to get used to. Either that, or it's just the way the noise of the bike changes around that speed. Probably the latter.
While tightening everything, and applying Red-N-Tacky to moving parts, I got some more personal time with the exhaust. It is.... not particularly confidence-inspiring. Searching through oodles of facebook posts in a few different groups indicates that this exhaust might be good to go since the two-piece nature allows rotation of the midpipe section.
I actually quite like how quiet the bike is. It could be a little louder, but just a little. I'd like to not spend a fortune on the muffler, but cheap, quiet, and flowy tend not to go together. I am wondering if I got two perforated baffles, then bent both of them while sealing off the sides facing each other if that would create a hybrid dual baffle chamber. That sounds like a lot of work though, and I feel like saving my big work motivation for my old Yam. I'll probably just get a perforated through-baffle and then tightly wrap thick-gauge stainless pot scrubbers around it. Unsure what muffler I'll go with, but the fake carbon mufflers seem cheap enough on the 'bay.
Some research on the ZS190 has shown that the stator from the 125 should be a direct swap. I already knew the gear indicator would swap easily as well. This means it is a true plug-and-play engine swap. Stator and gear indicator are the only electronics (apart from the coil) that connect to the engine. I care a little less about the extra power and what really excites me is having a 5th gear. Without a sprocket upgrade, 1st gear on the stock Hellcat is useless. 2nd is short enough to start from a stop with ease.
I verified once more that the headlight bulb socket is electrically an H4/9003 and ordered some fleabay LED headlamps. I ordered a pair for a whopping $11. Worst case scenario, I am out the equivalent of about two dollar menu items these days. I don't think these little pitbike engines were ever meant to drive the electrical load we're pushing on them.
Speaking of electrical load, my research also drew me to the fixed timing curve of the CN CDI units. I read horror stories (and saw pictures) of the ZS190 having a touch of preignition on startup and snapping the starter chain. So there are two paths forward:
- hope for the best, and if something breaks replace the starter chain and the left side engine casing.
- Get a $50 CDI with decreased advance under 2k rpm.
I have a hunch which one will be less expensive in the long run. I ordered up the T-Bolt EZ Start CDI with 5-wire adapter.
Next up was an examination of the forks. The right fork leg is a solid 3mm proud of the triple tree. That probably explains why I suddenly lose confidence when releasing the handlebars. The hellcat is one squirrely feline out of the box. Well, at least compared to bikes with wheels 50% larger...
I'll need to wait on that particular fix until I can hang it underneath a ladder. I don't trust the anodizing on the forks to withstand my typical wood dowel/rubber mallet adjustment method.
I played with the headlight some more this evening. While it is weaker than my resistance to buying bike parts, the beam pattern is actually pretty decent. The hot spot is not quite on the cutoff, but closer than a lot of other Chinese headlights I have seen. What I really need though, is to fight the urge to retrofit a real projector into the housing. It would be very convenient to swap in say, A morimoto Mini h1.
Am I the only person who finds the stock DRL to be incredibly ugly? Like, seriously. There has to be a way to backlight just the blue plastics. I wonder if I could back the blue glowy bit with some EL wire and run the LE wire off the DRL socket.
Dunno. Thoughts, anyone?