been doing a spot of reading and i realised something i wrote about tyre height when talking about the change in front end height due to the usds appearing to be shorter that was the right train of thought but a misunderstanding on my part thusly completely the wrong scale for measuring the changes.

so the tyre numbers 120/70/

120 is width and refers to section width, measured in mm's so 120mm wide right.

70 refers to height, I've always thought it followed suit and meant 70mm, however its actually a measurement of aspect ratio. in the case of the 120/70 it won't be all that far off of 70mm to be fair.

aspect ratio is a percentage of the nominal width, so the 70 represents 70% of 120 which = 84mm. not too far off to make visual assumptions to it meaning 70mm i reckon.

60% of 120 = 72mm

so the 120/70 is 12mm larger in sidewall than the 120/60.

this benefits me for sure.

i cant say why but another thought i had previously is that the height measurement referred to the tyre as a whole. what i mean by this is that i had thought that the 10mm+ i was gaining from the 70 would be distributed 2 ways, so 5mm contact with 5mm at the top opposing side which is really strange. I'm not sure what led me to think that as the height measurement reflects the rim to the top of the tyre singularly which has the opposite effect entirely doubling rather than halting. now whats funnier is that if it were to be distributed evenly the way i had it in my head, it would go four ways leaving a mere 2.5mm height gain haha eff' knows what i read to lead me to believe that.

so instead of gaining the 5mm i had thought in height... I'm gaining 12mm height. still its 7mm in my favour.

going to go back and drop this additionally into that previous post, just to keep information correct. hey i was wrong, i'll put my hands up rather than hide it.



also, electrical supplies have started arriving =D =D =D

hoping to have her on the road for wednesday, so that i can go finish the powder coating, going to rebuild the brakes prior to getting the new lines and bars, just need to get back on the road, missing the freedom far too much. it will be with no lights as theres a bit of a weird law here. all lights or no lights basically. and its just daytime riding so its alright. should look badass as well haha its happening guys, its happening! =D

 

The kwikasfaki ran no lights - an interesting concept for sure. Its funny how motor laws work, with all of your MOT stuff, its crazy to think you could possibly run with no lights but its perfectly legal.

And as for the tires - just remember about the profile of the tire to get the extra height in the same width, its more of a "v" as opposed to a "u". You want to match it to the rear.

At first I ran a 70 on my bike with the 200 rear stretched on a 7 in rim. So the front wanted to really fall into the corner and the rear didnt want to as much. It was a much happier bike with a 60 front.

Just food for thought.

 

yeah laws here are weird, its one extreme or the other yet... with lots of grey area to fill the black and whites with regard to bikes anyway. I'm likely wrong but i think the no light thing is potentially something to do with back when road racing events were held all over the uk. theres still road racing in Ireland and i think theres some part tarmac rally stages that use parts of public road down in Wales.

can't remember if i said before but, so long as its daytime and/or sufficient light in a built up area at night it is perfectly legal. however they will pull you because the police aren't likely to know this. they'll then bend you over for a loud exhaust and whatever they feel like throwing at you when you know the laws better than them haha

as for tyre height the higher the tyre the more contact patch it has in the corners which is a plus, granted thats being countered by the lesser turn in speed but thats countered by changing ride height to start with. only reason i went 70 was to make up a bit of lost height, as far as I'm concerned thats a win, my concerns have mellowed out in that regard but i still want to knock out the maths to document the changes in geometry (because I'm sad like that )

thats a good point about the change of shape the extra height brings, its not something i had considered at all. it appears to be more of a rounded tyre than a 'v'd one, as profile itself can change massively model to model but should i need to compensate the rear is well passed the point of ''1mm tread across the central 75%'' legal here, squared off to hell, so it needs done anyway.

on the 'v' note I've always found it peculiar that front tyres wear to a 'v' shape when you would expect them to wear similar to a rear and square off. its not something i can say i know all that much about but id risk an assumption at it being to do with the fact the power is going through the back wheel. isn't relevant just thought it was a strange one haha

was doing a spot of reading on one of the fireblade forums about the early 16'' front wheels, the 17'' conversions and 65 height tyres. can't remember which wheel turned out to be all round better but the 65 tyre took preference for finding a happy medium for profile. yep i do far too much irrelevant reading.

for the record the no lights situation will only be short term, 2 weeks tops and not likely even a 100miles. just draws far too much attention and its inconvenient for getting home before its dark haha

 

Last of the wiring supplies just turned up, going to have to do a massive inventory check for 100 odd items haha. then check everything else i already and start plotting up a wiring diagram.

the hours of research and ordering stuff that has went into this is ridiculous, 20 hours in the last week easily. there will be a bit of a write up on why I've made this terrible life decision instead of just replacing the one wire at fault... in retrospect, i overcomplicate things. but it will be worth it for sure! =D =D =D

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tonights little bit of progress, finished sanding the last hanger down to 1500 grit.

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close up, went back into it by hand just to see how smooth it was. very smooth, and ready for polishing.



and the finished article, excuse the smears and lighting. managed to catch the heel plate with the chuck scratching it, so had to resend and polish it about 4 or 5 times over... its like the drill knew it was the last piece and just felt like messing me around haha but yeah got there. it will be going on the bike like this so i can go to the powder coating setup on wednesday hopefully.

another update, i thought i had access to the tool for doing the icm but apparently its too big. gutted, ill have to order one over the weekend, should be here early in the week though.

 

yeah, I've kind of already pretty much dialled my plans in but not quite to the extent of calculating loads as its kind of already predetermined by the old loom, mostly its fused to 10amp so I'm sticking to that. anyway the link is to an extremely thorough brake down of electrical systems and how to deal with custom wiring. mostly things i was already well aware of but its certainly worth the read.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1-...xYbzhSN1E/view

 

That's an awesome link! Thanks for that.

 

has to be the most thorough breakdown I've come across, really impressed by it.

 

done a couple of bits and pieces today, made some important notes, sketched out the icm map, got used to the tools.



^^ this is an important one, leaving it here so i don't lose it haha the colour positioning of the icm on the new colours. (N) = None. i.e. blank space.



icm block. higher wires.



icm block lower wires.



began grouping the wires, have done all the main stuff, can't do many of the other blocks until I've made cuts into the main stuff so i can get the remaining wire for doubles and whatnot, i.e ground, that links into pretty much everything.



getting to grips with the crimps, found it quite difficult to stop them bannana'ing when using ratchet crimp tools, they tend to distort out of their straight shape slightly. its to do with the pressure being used on them, just realised there is an adjustment screw on them to help counter the distortion.



I've used heat shrink quite a few times but never to finish off a crimp, quite like how much it tidies it. theres going to be a fair bit of overkill going on with the rebuild but thats kind of the point.



rough icm map, just for me to work from. its going to be an identical setup in terms of the wiring diagram (with exception to the headlight) just a few alterations in colour, think its 8 changes off the top of my head.



excuse the lazy workmanship haha just playing around, the stuff is quite difficult to work with on awkward shapes. fly net / mesh vinyl. just playing with an idea, possibly doing the headlight as well. on the plus side with the brake light, it will sit flush with the fairing so i will only have to do the rear face of the light in the wrap. if i find it to dull the light down to much it will be coming off, led brake lights aren't all that great most of the time without the interference.



i reckon its quite smart, not a fan of clear lenses, but this is the only thing i could get my hands on and the mesh helps stealth that down. not going to know how bright it actually is until its out on the road and checked out during the daytime.



integrated indicators, here a fussy mot'er would fail you for incorrect spacing between the brake light and indicators. but thats a 'fussy' one. may or may not use this feature. thinking about maybe running a small led strip at the rear of the undertail or something discreet and to that effect.

just a couple of small bits and pieces today but its going to help me out over the weekend. like pages and pages of notes and prep work. going to have to get the tail mocked onto the bike again just to see where I'm going to get away with putting a plate or box to stash the electrics and also the battery. possibly going to do away with the stock overflow bottle and use the space for the battery but I've yet to see what i have to work with in person.

think I'm going to get away with a slim box or tray under the riders seat without obscuring the open space through the frame, i can leave the battery in its box for now but it will need to be hidden at some point, i fancy keeping as much under seat storage room under the cowl/passenger seat as its handy as hell, so the battery won't be going up there. also the plan is to keep the battery as forward as possible so theres no unnecessary weight over the rear end and if i can get it hidden low (where heats not going to be an issue, that would be a bonus.

 

I like it.