Road Rocket 201

[Seabee]

Sorry Caretaker, I'm obviously better with a spanner than an computer, I will try harder in the future.

John, here's my attempt at resizing a huge photo file just for you, fingers crossed.
The bike belongs to Jon Munn of Classic Style, enjoy.

Seabee, it's a modified A65 rear brake pedal, about half the length of an A10 one.

Are you going to use custom foot pegs? If not, that brake pedal may be a problem with standard pegs...…….

[Beeza]

So continuing on with this one, unfortunately there is a lag in photos, so we'll get on to an advanced part of the dry build.
I  have had the exhaust system now built and fitted, (this is again Gene Thiessen inspired with the megaphones). These also have removable baffles, and "unfortunately" not chromed at this stage, as time was getting so short towards the start of the event.

Also there is the rear mud guard bracketry I fabricated, these are quite sturdy mounts I made, as that is where I shall be perched for a short while over a 4 mile stretch of salt.
There is also the bare bones seat, for occasional traversing, no its not that good at all.

All of this has been set as low as I can for wind efficiency.
The handle bars, although not the final design, are also Gene Thiessen inspired, and to be honest are quite perfect for the task at hand.

Then there is the oil tank of which I adapted the very early 1954 Road Rocket flip top cap, so as not to "lose it" through vibration. I also extended the back part of the oil tank for extra capacity, (no photo yet but stay posted).

If there is anything else not Road Rocket in the pic , please tell me and I shall answer.

The bike under the Sheik outfit on the right is a 58DBD (awaiting resto) can the people guess the other ones??DONT FORGET THERE IS ALSO THE COVERED UP ONE!!!

Sorry about the average picture quality (sneaky grin admin).

Cheers as always guys Thomas

[Rocket Racer]

Nice to see another '54 RR on the forum, I've got one in the queue as well. They are very rare, only 500 made. They did have a unique frame (weakness) that was a one year only feature. the upper engine mount is just welded on like the bottom one and they break the frames here. I know as I had a replica built of a BB32R and it broke there!  both frame tubes. Wouldn't like to do that on a land speed record bike!  The brazed lug 55 on frames don't have that issue, loads better spread. Some additional bracing plates to spread the load around that area if you're serious about speed.
Keep us posted. :)

[Beeza]

And continuing on with this one, the frame is now painted, as is a lot of other parts, I've done my own painting on this bike, as good quality paint is not needed at this stage, and there maybe additional changes as the bike progresses.
I also have the engine back and fitted up. The engine does not have any super mods so as to gain massive horsepower.

We have balanced the crank but not lightened it, so as to maintain constant inertia, not rapid acceleration and de acceleration, we're running on the salt.

We also found some Hi-comp forged pistons to use,  which are now running 'perfect seal' piston rings, complete with the 3 piece oil rings, which I normally run on my bikes.

We lightened the idler gear, and I've also bought another SRM oil pump for it (Jesus that must be 3 or 4 of those pumps now) please don't tell my wife.

The twin GP2s are on, with some billet manifolds that seem to work well, also, not seen is the single float bowl (type 504) mounted under the seat.

The rocker box is also on, all the rockers are lightened and polished, as is customary with number of my bikes now, and they are also fitted with the newer type adjusters and also some local made chrome molly push rods. Also not seen is my take on the "isolastic" rocker box top mount. This mod is with great thanks to so much input on that topic from this fantastic forum. THANKS.

The only other parts I can see that is on at this stage is the steering damper knob, of which I had 2 made for the Daytona, and I never thought I would use the other one. Also the bars are the final design, they probably don't look functional, but for me they are spot on for the task ahead.

 Me and my mate Tony also designed a logo for our team.

Hi RR, thanks for that Info, it really makes sense when you look back at my 54 Daytona frame with the gussets that were added by the competition department. I don't intend to 'punish' the frame/bike in a physical sense, and I have balanced the engine to run at 6500RPM and it will be over a short time only. And I don't intend to come over the ditch and take you on elbows out.
Although after all this corona shit is done, NZ is one place I would love to visit, and I would not be against loading up a record breaker and shipping it over to have a punt around some of your tracks, time will tell brother.

Stay well everyone Thomas.

[Joolstacho]

Ah well, you were doing a brilliant job ... up until the logo! 

[berger]

spotted the deliberate mistake , dynamo holes out of line,   joke

[Rocket Racer]

They are such a pretty bike! 
I like the idea of your running a full crank rather than a lightened one, is yours the post 58 or the transitional one... the transitional cranks are so super smooth but are not quite as quick out of corners as the latter cranks. Recall Eddie Dow mentioning 6800 being the base continuous red line with 7200 through the gears. with the TT ind 6 speed I now run to a 6500 red, but when I only had the stock 4 speed did see 7500 on the dial flat out in top which was when I was genuinely afraid (being between concrete walls and steel barriers up hill at Hampden Downs raceway) when the air temp hit a sweet spot before turn one. But I try not to do that regularly, I like my motor in one piece.
Hopefully you will get a chance to visit noo ziland one day and come visit 
Great to hear and see your progress.
Tim

[RDfella]

Looking at those pistons they must be 12:1 or more. Can't see that running on 'gas'.

[Rocket Racer]

Looking at those pistons they must be 12:1 or more. Can't see that running on 'gas'.

If 10.5 then will run on 100 octane above that alcohol. I've got some 14:1's +20's just dont have a bore that size presently

[Beeza]

I hope you are not getting too bored with this but it goes on.
I have basically finished this land speed bike now and it looks every bit as I wanted.

So firing the bike up was not so good at all. I have built a number of A10s now, and I know all the symptoms of bad running.  So its out with the magneto (un tested or rebuilt), and in with a fully rebuilt magneto, although this is also not really tested either, but I am enthusiastic, the bike runs OK, but NOT.
So out for testing and running, the bike is crap, I change the timing many times, and all bad, its running best at 34 degrees ADV, but still crap, pining/detonation.
So I decide to go with electronic ignition, via TriSpark here in OZ. This means a battery! Unfortunately the battery space is now housing a float bowl, (bugga).
Its all easy enough to bang out a battery box hey, but  this is so so tight in where it fits, that if you can master Rubik's cube you can possibly change this battery, good luck.

Back to testing, when I first fired the bike up, (starting at 33 degrees ADV) it was a huge improvement, running better and great up and down  our court.

Then for a real test on our "private" test track,again the results were not so good, "better" , but a long way from where we need to be right now..

We are about 8 weeks out from Speed week now(at that point in time) and not yet entered, I have a team of mates that is organising so many other components for this expedition/attempt at Lake Gairdner, and the time is getting slimmer every hour.
I make a pretty big call to ditch the GP2s and run Mikuni's instead.

I'm going to leave it here for today, but I will say I ordered the Mikunis from SRM as a 750 full kit.
At that point in time I was "out on a limb" no "on a wing an a prayer" or "hoping for a miracle" , wish me luck, I'm gonna need it guys.

RR, I'm a large journal crank, late model
Everyone, to even find a solid LG crank, good luck. I have looked at getting them made, but unfortunately I work to live, still.

RD, the pistons are 10.5-1forged @ 30 tho over (max for my class), I'm also running MAP "H" beam rods 1mm shorter than std I believe.
I'm also running high octane (GAS) as approved by DLRA, 105 octane GAS

Im still wishing erveryone the best, stay well. Thomas.

[RDfella]

Great job and wishing you the best of luck. Looking at last pic, strikes me the exhaust is longer than I'd have expected given the revs you want max power at. Camshaft timing (presumably you have a fairly wild cam for power at those revs - I'd want more than a 357) determines exhaust length too, and if you've got a wild cam with wrong exhaust length it'll never run right. Just my thoughts....

[Rocket Racer]

Echoing the great job motif! You're lucky being able to consider doing anything on the bike, we're in full lockdown, not even allowed to ride unless it was going to the supermarket for essentials. Roads here are empty and we're not allowed to use them.
However back to topic, with my 10TT9's, I found float location is critical, shifting them around makes a huge difference. while your levels might be right when stationery, under acceleration your heights will be low and under brakes high. Floats need to be (with TT's) as close to alongside carb as possible to reduce swill effect. For a chair corners then bugger up the fueling too  .
So carbs like mikunis and mk1 amals will solve that issue. People like Chris Vincent ran dual bowls (one as a swill pot) to better manage fueling.

the other one is whether those valanced rims will collect salt and run into imbalance issues. I vaguely recall this being mentioned in Burt Munro's biography by Tim Hanna - could be completely wrong and just imagining it.   

Very jealous as stuck working from home with all my prospective events cancelled. - can't complain I'm still working.
Keep up the posting... oh is there going to be any form of seat or do we call you the Aussie Rollie Free and expect some superman pics  .

[Beeza]

And on I go again, the package from SRM arrived about 3 weeks later. While I was waiting for the carbs to arrive I knew I had to find some manifolds for the job, we had already fitted Mikuni carbs to an A10 using some Norton inlet manifolds, they fit up pretty well spot on, as far as level goes. But air filter space is tight.
The fact that the porting is well off is not such a big issue. If you look at one of the photos you will see some creative porting, the fact that the push rod tunnel is so close to the ports has to be taken into consideration, also the best way for porting is to keep the ports as high as possible, so we arrived at what you see, ta da. If you look at the porting photo you can see a scribed mark as to where the Norton manifold matched up originally, the manifolds were filled to achieve what we ended up with.
We also found some better valve springs from a Mercedes to give us very even valve seat pressure, the one thing I can do is increase the inlet valves to 1.5” so if anyone can give me a lead on where to source these I would appreciate that. (I think I have time on my hands now).
Now I fit it all back together, reset the timing to a mere 33 degrees, fill up
with race gas and head out to the “private” test track.
The performance is fantastic and the whole bike feels stable, the bike as a whole has always felt really good, as A10s do, my only problem is that I have to stop this bike on our track, (I only have a max of 8-900 meters), and I’m still getting acceleration, when I have to sit up and pull on the mighty 7” front stopper, and awkwardly push the rear stopper hard. One of my last passes I ran it up to 5300RPM in 3rd, and still pulling quite well, before I have to throw the anchors.
I imagine the bike will run out to 6500RPM, but the ever lying mystery, will it do it in top gear?

At this stage we are 1.5 weeks from departure date and the bike feels as though I can at least run, I had also entered the event while the Mikunis were in transit, so we are all locked in.
We have a rental caravan booked,accomodation on the journey booked, pit shirts, tee shirts and caps all sorted. This event requires so much organising, even any spare parts, spill kits fire extinguishers, the list is pretty much endless.
I spend every spare minute ensuring we have every conceivable item organised.

Some small tidying up of the bike is planned for the weekend, and start to pack.

We’re at 6 days from departure at that stage and the virus is gaining momentum.

Cheers Thomas

[berger]

what happened. how did the bike go ,or not go?

[muskrat]

G'day berger.
Pretty sure the event was canned. Nothing now till at least 2021. https://www.dlra.org.au/news.htm
Cheers