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L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:30 am
by kawizard
Good morning all,

Just thought I’d post something on here, it’s been a long time!
I finished my H2 restoration a fair while back and it’s now safely tucked away in the man-cave.
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With the lockdown in force, my NC30 restoration has halted just before I can finish it...
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so I’ve started assembling an L2 track bike from spare parts I acquired over the years.
I had a spare engine and I acquired a cheap frame some years ago - it had no V5 or reg with it and a dent in the side. I managed to get the dent out, then got on to Yodi who did a HPI check from the frame number. This meant the project was worth pursuing with this frame...

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:43 am
by kawizard
So this is the collection of parts ready for me to start the project...
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In the absence of powder coating I’ve decided to rattle an the frame and swingarm with some silver wheel paint. This horrified me a bit but it’s come out nicely but it’s not very durable as you can imagine... it’s the best I can do at the moment! I fitted new swingarm bearings and a spare shock for my GSXR1000 K2 which fitted just about.
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Since this point I’ve got the front end and the exhaust on. The rear wheel is in along with the subframe. I’ll turn my attention to the electrics and the engine now and I get more bits off eBay.
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Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:48 am
by kawizard
I managed to acquire some manky Beet rearsets...
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but after an afternoon in the garden these have cleaned up nicely!
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Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:07 pm
by kawizard
The engine is cleaned up now, just some degreaser and a paint brush with a bit of copper wire brushing for the bad areas...
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The sump plug had been crossthreaded by the last owner of the engine.. so I just replaced it with a spare sump and new gasket and I’ll sort out the old one later. This at least allowed me to inspect the internals a little and everything looked okay up there. I need to make some blanking plates for the oil cooler ports...
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I have two sets of carbs, one set it in bits so I’ll get them cleaned and rebuilt over this week, I’d like to keep the other set assembled as spares.
My overall plan is to get this thing running and built then just develop the bike over time, making it as light as possible with the power increased.
And by the way, a bitsa is a great way to addd another bike to the garage under the Mrs’ radar.

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 7:05 pm
by banner001
:excited

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 10:31 am
by kawizard
So last night I started cleaning the carbs up, the jets were in a right state so I’m not surprised someone flogged them!
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I stripped these years ago with the intention of rebuilding them and never got round to it. But after reassembly of all the clean bits I was happy that the carbs were good to go... however... when I put the choke slider back on I discovered that all the choke plungers were jammed.
With a soaking of WD40 I managed to free them all up this morning but damaged one of the plungers in the process - found a second hand one in good nick on eBay for £9 so happy days.

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 7:28 pm
by MRLZXR400
H2 looks fantastic and I’ve always had a soft spot for the NC30.
Great work.
Mark

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2020 10:22 pm
by kawizard
Thanks Mark!
See you have a L9 and a 748 I see, what a garage. The 748 though... that’s my dream bike right there. What colour is it? I will own one some day!
Jack

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2020 7:32 am
by MRLZXR400
Hi Jack,
Yes it’s an early 1996 748 in red with only 7,000 miles on her, stunning condition, spent most of its life in someone’s front room.
It’s quite a special bike because at that time Ducati was owned by Cagiva and when they first started production of the 916 and 748 there was a fire in the Ducati factory in Bologna.
They were determined to launch the new bike they moved production temporarily to the Cagiva factory in Varese and built the bikes by hand until they’d sorted out the problems in Bologna.
Those bikes have the Cagiva elephant logo on the tank filler and embossed in to the Brembo wheels.
Mine is one of those, it’s no better a bike than the others but it makes for an interesting bit of history,

Are you yellow or red?

Mark

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2020 11:16 am
by kawizard
Oh wow proper interesting one then! My old mans mate has the 748R, if it was mine it would be wrapped in cotton wool but he commutes on it! Costs him a fortune! I have to say I always think Ducati’s should be red but 748 in yellow for me!

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:24 am
by MRLZXR400
OMG, there are soooooo many reasons why I couldn’t commute on my 748.
To be absolutely honest, I love the Ducati to bits but if I had to keep one bike it would be the ZXR400 every time.

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Fri May 01, 2020 8:14 am
by MRLZXR400
.....no, it would be the Street Triple.
But then again....

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 11:31 am
by kawizard
My family kindly posted me the back brake for my Honda, with this I managed to change the clutch and I finally got it finished so that’s out the way at least! Now I’m back onto the Kawasaki and a whole bunch of parts have arrived after my post-wages EBay spree. I’ve finally got a radiator, hoses and wiring loom and they looked in great condition at first glance. I’ll be cleaning up the parts today - but I had a peak inside the rad cap this morning and it’s loaded with funky orange gunge... so that’s the next challenge

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 10:54 am
by kawizard
Thought I’d stick an update on here.
Got the rad cleaned and had to change my thermostat (jammed)... it’s a pain that you have to buy the whole unit and the oring isn’t replaceable.
I’ve rebuilt the old knackered set of carbs I had, this was tough... the choke plungers were all seized and these carbs had been dropped, cracking the cyl1 throttle body and diaphragm cap. I swapped out the body for a good used One and changed the cap for the rebuild.
I had some Delkevic headers lying around so I’ve bolted them on for now with the standard end can. I’ve got standard hoses for the coolant and I’ve made some oil cooler blanking plates from 8mm ally plate (I also made two gaskets from gasket paper with a scalpel and a hole punch).
My dad donated a spare battery which was lucky and after repairing the fuel tap she fires up like a beaut. Carbs need balancing though!
I’ve sourced a cheap set of race fairings and also some KTech fork springs off eBay.
I got a box of bits for a steal at £20 which included a new Taubaki RPRO chain And sprocket cover. I’ve also gone for a pipercross air filter - they look really trick and nicely packaged.
So pending tasks are carb balance, rebuild of the brakes, Fork rebuild, bodywork repairs/paint and I’m going to swap out my Gixxer shocker for a serviced standard unit with an updated spring (or I might just plunge for a Nitron).

Re: L2 Track Bitsa

Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2021 10:56 am
by kawizard
Also... I’m looking at the new Tyga race exhaust system now online... anyone got one of these?