What's in the AF1 Shop (Volume II)

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Well, it had to happen eventually, I was warned by the master of our internet ceremonies at the shop about a week back that the "Shop" thread had grown pretty much to the limits of the server and software used to to run the forum and a change was going to have to be made. Here it is, Volume II of who knows how many it will l end up being. I was going to go through the old thread and do some major cleaning but found out that would probably do more harm than good in terms of server to server speaking so as of today I will be locking down the old thread and it will remain a sticky in this forum but no more comments in the previous volume will be added to keep the thread alive suspended in space and time.

To get volume two off to an interesting start we will go with some classic shop stuff, some totally new R&D and some of the normal sorts of photos you guys have to suffer through to keep up with me, kittens and wicked weather, airplanes and the like. Perhaps the first couple of pics should not be shop related directly but rather attacked from an indirect angle. So this is the moment of "birth" shall we say...and I just happened to have some totally gross pictures of my kitty giving birth to a litter of six kittens on the last memory card stack I edited...perfect.

Since the first version of this thread was started almost exactly six years ago a plane pic or two will add perspective as well. You guys have seen over the last half decade that I have a deep and abiding passion for things that fly but I never figured I would be at the controls of my own plane, in the last six years as I have grown and I have saved and planned and finally was able to make the jump to "light speed", or in the case of a Cessna 150M about 108mph on a good day for true airspeed. The plane pics are from the day of delivery by a trusted forum member and a perfect example of how far this thread and forum have taken me in life.

There are definitely some interesting projects coming up this year and this thread will continue to be my picture depository and story vault that I use to host the rest of my online life. The single kitten pictured is today starting it's 5th week of life...and is way too cute! The lightning was from a strong storm that passed by me to the south a few miles from my house late last night...I am sure the neighbors wonder about the guy down the street that stands out in pouring rain all over the hood' with a big ass camera and tripod looking like he is trying to get hit by lightning...I am sure they wonder about a lot of things I do for that matter! I think this lightning shot is my best of the year so far, here is to hoping that is not the case but if it is the pic turned out pretty damn good. If you like it make sure to click on it and see it in non compressed format at 1200x800 pixels...and as usual if you see any pics you just have to have in full poster size resolution I am a whore that will sell anything for a price, I have to support my airplane habit somehow. Just PM requests to me for full resolution photos and I can send you a flash drive post payment with the 22.1MP RAW file for your favorite printing house. $25/each BTW, payable by paypal. If you need me to make you a desktop screensave we can come up with a much cheaper price for that and for gearhead related stuff they will be free for the most part.

[wrx_02]

So Ted yelled at you?

Is that Bob with you by the plane?

He just picked up a Tuono, he is a club member.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

This has been an interesting if not insanely frustrating project for the last few weeks. The owner bought the bike, a 2011 BMW S1000rr from an insurance auction for $5300 as a cosmetic total loss, it has come a long way from where it was when he got it. Before anyone rushes to judgement, the owner cringes at the thought of what he has done to the bike in terms of handling but, it has a mission, to run a sub 8.62 pass and take some money!

The pipe he chose I would not have and the dyno shows why very well, the Akrapovic full system absolutely kills the Brock's EVERYWHERE but on the very top where they are equal, in the very top of the over-rev the Brock's is slightly stronger, by like .5bhp in exchange for being 10 bhp down through the rest of the rev range. This BMW has the pipe from Brocks, full system of course, the ecu Unleashed re-flash, a PCV on top of that and a K&N filter in the stock airbox....the obvious 12" extension of the swingarm and the strap retainers on the fork are sure signs it is meant to be used for one thing, straight line go-fast. These bikes are so difficult to tune at higher rpm due to heat issues, they make a ton of power, like a "for real" 190-205 DJHP or about 162bhp on our dyno on pump fuel, it will be run on MR12 for a 5% gain above that! All the power equals a LOT of heat to shed, a dyno tuning session even using my new onboard wideband integrator still takes forever since you spend 5 minutes cooling down for every minute under load.

I just might get to take a pass or two down the strip on it myself on a coming Wednesday night test and tune session at San Antonio Raceway Park. If nothing else I have promised to take pics for the owner while the bike still looks rash free and before the motor lets go in that oh so typical dragbike fashion.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

You have good eyes sir. It is indeed Bob. The former owner of the plane was Bob but prior to that it was purchased new around 1974/1975 by a lady named Edna Gardner Whyte, one of the more famous early female pilots in the world. I just got her biography in today from Amazon. She started air racing in 1933 I think....not a typical 1920's-1930's lady at all!

[wrx_02]

Small world, didn't know you knew him. Wondering who else there is?

I will give him some crap next time I see him, prob next week at our meeting.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

So I mentioned a couple of weeks back that I had a rare failure on the dyno, a 900lb Yamaha Raider jumped off the dyno and attacked my while tuning...the strap buckle that is twisted to shit in the first couple of pics was the cause. I knew the straps had not failed because I had to cut them off the bike to get free of it...but it sure looks like the strap closer to me lost all it's tension rather quickly and that does nicely explain how I ended up beat and bruised for a few days.

Next up, a common source of frustration lately...supposedly dead simple jobs that turn into mind fuckers...like this 2007 GSXR 750. The owner brought it in with a PCV, Speedo healer (really needed, 15.5% off at 70mph real on speedo) and a Smart TRE (Timing retard eliminator)...but never really mentioned that it ran so badly it probably barely made it to the shop under its own power. Just needs to be tuned for the slip on...that is what the referring dealer told him. If your dealer tells you that your GSXR needs a complete re-tune because you added a slip-on, find another dealer.

The real problems were...exhaust valve servo completely fucked causing efi light, solution, remove and then remove Pin 30 from the black connector in the ECU, this eliminates the ecu's desire to see a functional servo attached to the system, next up was the most common of all Suzuki maladies, the removal of the clutch switch. You cannot do this on a GSXR or any other Suzuki or the ecu will run the neutral spark mapping in all gears because it assumes the clutch is pulled in all the time...do not remove clutch switch on a new V4 either, similar results. In the case of the GSXR you loose about 15 bhp up top and 1500rpm off rev limit...not good.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

So most of you know I have spent weeks building a wiring harness for a custom cruiser application using an Aprilia/Rotax V990. The worst part is I cannot share any pics that give away any real details until the bike gets a public unveil at Sturgis in the AMD competition for The World Championship of Custom Bike Building, well I guess i cannot give away any details of the bike but I decided I could share a bit of my personal disaster as long as the pics and edits were creative and meaningless to show anything other than extreme frustration. I had never build either wiring harness or an ignition system from scratch before...and of course was told by many people it would not work...but I stuck to my theory that it could indeed be made to work right, not as easily as I thought but in the end it did at least run right! Stay tuned to Discovery or History or whoever covers Sturgis Rallies these days? If it wins it will be first championship for my builder buddy I sponsored for this build, and it will also be the first non HD twin I know of to win...if it wins? If you miss the bike there then it will be in the Ohlins booth at SEMA after that.

These pics in no way can express the pain, sweat, frustration, tears, cuts, bruises and such involved in finishing the project, even if I finished it a week after the deadline I had in my head. One of the coolest side benefits of this project is that now Rafik owes me a favor or two and as most of you know I am pretty dead set on turbocharging something soon and will be needing some specialized parts built on the hot side....I think I know where to go now!

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Fire away, ideas or thoughts if you got them! Lets get this thread off to a good strong start, and maybe in 5 or six years I will have to look at building volume 3!

[JAndrewG]

Sure is strange to see an S&S carb on a Rotax engine. Kinda like the intake manifold though.

On the subject of planes, I just read this morning about three WWII planes being at our local little airport for the next couple of days. Gonna call my brother later and see if we can head over there today. They are literally 15 minutes from my house!

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2012/j...ional-airport/

[kenbike]

I have a set of hold down straps that look just like the ones that failed when the bike jumped off and they are total junk! try to find a pair that is heavy duty and made in the USA vs. the junk from China. I had on brake on my bike and it fell on the trailer causing $500 in damage before I could get stopped on my KLR and those things are cheap to buy parts for.

I really enjoy your stories and photo's, this is the first place I check out when online! Keep up the great work and I wish you the best of luck in deciding what your future holds.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

Thanks ken. As far as the straps go, well in typical fashion, if something breaks on me it gets way oversized. The bikes on the dyno are now secured to the deck using as many as 5 attachment points for strap, minimum "bursting/sheer" strength now is 15,000 pounds. I learned my lesson there. So in perhaps a small irony I am up early and headed over to the body's hop that does all our repair works, Cueva Customs. That damn Yamaha Raider is in the back of the truck with me. I replaced the rear wheel yesterday which I would like to point out was a complete whore of a job and today I get to drop it off for paint repair on the front forks which means stripped down the front end at the body shop. Then off to "normal" work for a day of watching weather come at us from the gulf instead of towards the gulf.

[kenbike]

That really sucks but you could have been hurt very badly so at least you are ok. It just seems times every thing that can go wrong does. Work has been tough the last few years and my old house has had one major issue after another. Spent the last 3 nights cleaning up downed limbs and 3 trees after straight line winds hit monday night. I keep it in perspective, in the last year one lady who was 52 died in 30 days after finding she had colon cancer and another gal 2 miles from my house ran her first marathon at 47 and found 2 days later she has cancer and is in chemo. An the worst is my next door neighbor fell over dead from a heart attack at 52, my age! So don't let shit going wrong ruin your day, my new out look is every day could be my last so I don't waste it on events I cannot control.

[Micah / AF1 Racing]

I am trying to keep a clear/straight head about life and it's ups and downs. Flying has been helping. I know I am a bit depressed at some level due to lack of interest in most aspects of life but there are the good and bad days. Ironically like inthe early days of riding bikes fast for me me the slow ass little Cessna can help your mental focus A LOT as you make the turn from base to final and start trying like hell to line up on a runway with the strong headwinds or crosswinds doing their best to keep you not only in the air but off the centerline of the runway. I was having to land with some minimal level of power-on the other night the head/crosswind was so strong. It was too fnnuy because actual wheels down touchdown speed was so slow. You could imagine a golf cart passing you on the runway, almost like hovering down to a stop, definitely fun. If all goes well tonight I will be back up in the air near the NB airport beating the shit out of the patterns and getting a lot more landings in, solo ride is very soon now. After crossing that bridge the hours will come pretty quick as the weather turns a bit in sixty days or so. Wearing cooling vests will not be required at least, and my range will allow for longer and longer excursions as I build hours.

Ed and I were speaking last night of a sort of feeling of impending doom or something that apparently has haunted us both for some time. We are getting ready to do some serious business stuff and make wills and such so that the company and others that you guys know and love can continue on should one of us at the top level cease to be for any reason. Having done some family planning in recent years it was sort of like that, definitely not an "upper" though, still there is a real sense of peace that comes with that shit towards the end and let's face it, motorcycles, fast cars, airplanes, storm chasing, guns, Mexico traveling, third world vacationing, willingness to try to eat anything at least once...hopefully something other than cancer kills me!

As for motorcycle related shit, it only takes one's mistake at a trackday or one strap or motor failure in the dyno cell and it is check out time. One scooter ride to the quicky mart you never come back from...not gonna obsess but I still say all these things beat cancer. When I almost put the plane into the ground last lesson letting my speed on short final get too slow I felt horrible for doing that "to my instructor" since she is young and has lots of living left to do, as far as I go I am not sure my pulse changed, it was just quick work to raise power, reduce carb heat, gain airspeed quickly in the 50 feet I had to work with and pull back on the controls and set a safe, climbing pitch.

I still have a lot of items left to scratch off my bucket list. Who knows where life goes from here, not I for sure. In the meantime I need to head back to the body shop where I seem to live most morning lately. Got a Yamaha to strip for paint, a Vespa to unload for paint, and hopefully a set v4 race glass to pick up from paint. Getting older = getting up earlier and earlier huh?

[jrflanne]

Man, I hear you. I am so tired of stuff. What I do for a living, my day to day life, just about everything. It is all becoming tedium. Like what am I going to learn today? Nothing. I will do today exactly what I did yesterday. I've done the same thing for a living that I had for the past 30 years, but at least it was "researchy" and new in the early days. Now I just feel like an overpriced technician. I did almost t-bone a bicyclist on my bike the other day when she ran a stop sign. I saw her and barely cared enough to touch the brakes. Anyway, I think it is time for me to go for a ride back home and get out of Texas for a while. The political climate here is borderline ridiculous, and I am so sick of people talking about it. Boo freaking hoo, I suppose.

If Mt. Rainier would erupt, I would go to WSU for my PhD in Volcanology in a heartbeat. With a 500,000 or so dead, funding would be a breeze. I don't figure this would be a tragedy because the knowledge is out there considering how dangerous it would be living on the drainage of an active volcano that has the eruptive potential that would make St. Helens look like an eruptive zit. But god will protect.

[wrx_02]

I understand what you mean Micah. Don't worry about what could happen, as long as you like what you are doing it doesn't matter how you go. You could spend your whole life working a thankless job, that makes lots of money and never do anything that you really want to do and something worse will get you. My father is a prime example. Worked his whole life, only to wind up the way it is. You can spend your whole life worrying and it doesn't mean a damn thing cause it will end how it ends.

My wife is out on business for the next 2 days and with my father surgery coming up I had a lot of thinking to do and a little whiskey to drink. Thinking about how he lived his life working a job he was ok with but wasn't what he really wanted to do. I am sure he would be a professional fisherman or car driver if he could but he never had the chance. He never got into it early enough and never focused on it enough. And here I am spending all the money I have on track days cause it is something that I enjoy and love. Why the fuck am I not racing? Don't wanna be 40 and decide I should had started 10 years ago and I would be pretty good. I know I am not going to win an novice races or end up in AMA but if I don't try I'll be pissed at my self for the rest of my life.