Ital-dag 2013

On 18 August 2013 there was an event in Beusichem, The Netherlands called Ital-dag (or Ital-day in English). It was a one day event where owners and clubs gathered with all kinds of Italian motorcycles. There were some nice exotics and rare models on display. Below are some pictures to give an impression.  

Marco, from MarcoMoto.nl was very kindhearted to have my Hypermotard on display at his stand. It's for sale, so it can use some attention. 

Annnnnd.... it's done.

After several months of work the Hyper is finally done. From a poorly maintained and frankly neglected motor to a well running, rather sinister looking machine. The result is a bike that I really come to appreciate. I'm still not convinced by the overall appearance of a Hypermotard in general but it's handling and drivability compensates a lot. It very much likes to be chucked trough traffic and you tend to drive it like a regular bicycle. Except it has an engine... ... and this engine can't be ignored. At start-up it sounds as if a thunderstorm suddenly appeared somewhere in the distance. On the move the thunder seems to close in right behind you as the exhaust rumbles and thuds like nothing else. Combined with the rattle of the dry clutch the ride is very exuberant. But alas, it's time to let this beast go. The Hyper has to make room for something else, another project for next winter perhaps?

Project 2.0 M10

Following the CX500 Cafe and the Hypermotard this engine rebuilt is actually project number 3. The 2.0 in the title stands for the capacity in liters of the M10 engine we are building. We made some good progress on this project. The engine has been completely striped down and we're in the process of refurbishing parts and putting things back together. We've come to learn that the pistons we are using are called "piano top" pistons. Combined with the crank it should give a capacity of 2.0 liters with a higher compression. Because we are using different parts from different engines we will be opting for programmable injection. This will give the flexibility to the fueling we probably need. 

As proven with the battery box debacle sometimes things don't go according to plan when you do things "learning by doing". You see the bold in the picture below that hold the hubs of the crank in place?

This is what happens when you over-torque them:

One of the bolds snapped and left a part of the bold in the engine case. Luckily we were able to retract the part of the bold without any damage to the case. We found that I looked up the wrong torque setting in the Haynes manual. Instead of 190Nm the bolds had to be tightened at 60Nm. Oops... 

The ports of the cylinder head have been polished and we will grind the valves to give a nice airtight seal. 

Rollin' on Gunmetal (Grey).

After having seen a set of BMW wheels that have been powder coated in Gunmetal Grey (or Smoke Silver) I decided on this color for my Hypermotard wheels. It's a color you don't see very often on motorcycle wheels. But in my opinion the color suits them very well. The quality of the powder coat is top notch and should prove durable agains brake dust and other sorts of external influences. Combined with the black elements from the rest of the bike it's become a very moody looking motorcycle as you will see in an upcoming post.