SA Dealers News and opinions about topics in general

Hmmm.. nasty I know, the scoot in the background is a little Gomoto Buzz rocket (ok stop laughing) which I bought for my wife but ended up using to work and back for a while.

Behold! My ultra clean garage! Tralers rusty butt above.

Closes shot of how bad it had gotten, sigh.

Rusty bolts

Needed to get the lights off to get the rust sorted, but they had rusted too. Here is the one set, trailer is standing on it’s side btw.

More rusty bolts

The bolt closest is slightly less rusted because I attacked it with the wire brush in the hopes that the nut would come off more easily. Alas that failed so I had to remove the bolts by cutting them off.

Piccie taken so I don’t have to remember where the wires actually went

Same as above only for the other side

I decided that the reflective panel would look way better if it fitted inside the rear channel between the lights as opposed to being rivited on the outside. This meant it needed to be cut down slightly.

Cutting it fortunately allowed me to be rid of the ugliest part of the panel, as can be seen above. I cut it using a small angle grinder and a very thin cutting disk.

Amazing how quick it is to type, but how much time and effort went into getting the suface prepared for the black stuff you now see adorning my trailer. Liberal use of a large wire brush on my big angle grinder and a small hand wire brush for the small stuff meant the majority of the rust was removed.

I think it looks much better, especially with the reflective panel on the inside.

Side view cos I hade the time and an inclination to take useless photos, wheels I am hoping to remove this weekend, have the tires removed so that I can clean and de-rust the rims, so that next weekend I can put new tires on. (It REALLY needs new tires)

Herewith the RB10 metal primer I bought at the local Mica hardware store, apparently you can paint it over rusted surfaces so long as the rust is not flaking. Hope it works because there were a few spots I coud not reach! I guess time will tell.

All in all I hope to actually fetch the car (at least most of the pieces that will eventually make up the car) in April. Let’s hope I have made enpough progress by then!

Posted under Lucky 7

So with the Falcon sold and a big hole in my garage (where my bantam used to stand, sniff sniff) I now have space to work on my long term (as in more than 5 years) dream.

Isn’t she a beaut?! Pic from www.daxcars.com It’s a Dax Rush, based on the Lotus 7 designed by Colin Chapman many many years ago.

Am I going to buy one? Hell NO! I have bought a chassis and a few assorted bits a number of years back, but lack of space and moving twice meant that the car is still back in Barberton in my dads garage (it’s a BIG garage)

So the plan is now, to fit a tow hook to my Toyota Tazz (shame), clean up my grotty 3 bike trailer (very rusted), then travel down to Mpumalanga and fetch as much as I can fit on the trailer (which should be most of what I have.

Once I have it up here I can start on cleaning it up and getting to a rolling chassis (i.e. 4 wheels attached in the right places so I can push it around)

Due to my limited budget (errrm nothing? the bit of money that does not go to paying of my house or credit card?) this will not be the most way out or radical car ever.

I will be making use of the Ford Kent 1600 Crossflow motor that I got with the chassis, as well as the 4 speed gearbox. The idea is to make a track day car for weekend fun, so no interior, no lights nothing!

Here’s a few more pics again from daxcars.com click on the thumbnails for a bigger picture

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Front Right

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Rear

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Front

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Front Left

Posted under Lucky 7

Trouble Shooting Suspension Problems.

Adjustment locations: Forks

Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located near the top of the fork. Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located near the bottom of the fork. Spring preload adjustment (if applicable) is generally hex style and located at the top of the fork.

Lack of Rebound

Symptoms:

• Forks are plush, but increasing speed causes loss of control and traction

• The motorcycle wallows and tends to run wide exiting the turn causing fading traction and loss of control.

• When taking a corner a speed, you experience front-end chatter, loss of traction and control.

• Aggressive input at speed lessons control and chassis attitude suffers.

• Front end fails to recover after aggressive input over bumpy surfaces.

Solution: Insufficient rebound. Increase rebound “gradually” until control and traction are optimized and chatter is gone.

Too Much Rebound

Symptoms:

• Front end feels locked up resulting in harsh ride.

• Suspension tucks in and fails to return, giving a harsh ride. Typically after the first bump, the bike will skip over subsequent bumps and want to tuck the front.

• With acceleration, the front end will tank slap or shake violently due to lack of front wheel tire contact.

Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound “gradually” until control and traction are optimized.

Lack of Compression

Symptoms:

• Front-end dives severely, sometimes bottoming out over heavy bumps or during aggressive breaking.

• Front feels soft or vague similar to lack of rebound.

• When bottoming, a clunk is heard. This is due to reaching the bottom of fork travel.

Solution: Insufficient compression. Increase “gradually” until control and traction are optimized.

Too Much Compression

Symptom:

• Front end rides high through the corners, causing the bike to steer wide. It should maintain the pre-determined sag, which will allow the steering geometry to remain constant.

Solution: Decrease compression “gradually” until bike neither bottoms nor rides high.

Symptom:

• Front end chatters or shakes entering turns. This is due to incorrect oil height and/or too much low speed compression damping.

Solution: First, verify that oil height is correct. If correct, then decrease compression “gradually” until chattering and shaking ceases.

Symptom:

• Bumps and ripples are felt directly in the triple clamps and through the chassis. This causes the front wheel to bounce over bumps.

Solution: Decrease compression “gradually” until control is regained.

Symptom:

• Ride is generally hard, and gets even harder when braking or entering turns.

Solution: Decrease compression “gradually” until control is regained.

Adjustment Locations: Rear Shock

Rebound adjustment (if applicable) is located at the bottom of the shock. Compression adjustment (if applicable) is located on the reservoir. Spring prelude is located at the top of the shock.

Shock: Lack of Rebound

Symptoms:

• The ride will feel soft or vague and as speed increases, the rear end will want to wallow and/or weave over bumpy surfaces and traction suffers.

• Loss of traction will cause rear end to pogo or chatter due to shock returning too fast on exiting a corner.

Solution: Insufficient rebound – Increase rebound until wallowing and weaving disappears and control and traction are optimized.

Shock: Too Much Rebound

Symptoms:

• Ride is harsh, suspension control is limited and traction is lost.

• Rear end will pack in, forcing the bike wide in corners, due to rear squat. It will slow steering because front end is riding high.

• When rear end packs in, tires generally will overheat and will skip over bumps.

• When chopping throttle, rear end will tend to skip or hop on entries.

Solution: Too much rebound. Decrease rebound “gradually” until harsh ride is gone and traction is regained. Decrease rebound to keep rear end from packing.

Shock: Lack of Compression

Symptoms:

• The bike will not turn in entering a turn.

• With bottoming, control and traction are lost.

• With excessive rear end squat, when accelerating out of corners, the bike will tend to steer wide.

Solution: Insufficient compression. Increase compression “gradually until traction and control is optimized and/or excessive rear end squat is gone.

Shock: Too Much Compression

Symptoms:

• Ride is harsh, but not as bad as too much rebound. As speed increases, so does harshness.

• There is very little rear end squat. This will cause loss of traction/sliding. Tire will overheat.

• Rear end will want to kick when going over medium to large bumps.

Solution: Decrease compression until harshness is gone. Decrease compression until sliding stops and traction is regained.

Mark Thompson has spent the past 20 years racing motorcycles and managing Race teams and riders. He now runs the Trackbikes Website along with a number on Internet Ventures

Posted under Motorcycle news