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The Bug Bandit Blog

Our bikes from 2003. They've been tuned up & retired from road riding to spend a life on the race track. Hopefully you'll pick up some tips to help with your mantenance or tuning project. Any questions: then ask away. I'll try to answer if I'm not busy. Alot of things have to be your own journey of discovery: I can't give you set-by-step instructions.

Update On The Bandits

Both of them have been de-registered for track use only.

I've done porting on them as per the Monza Blog: similar deal but slightly different specs which yielded significant results.

The Budgie has 1mm more compression than mine because the head is skimmed.  It ran the 6-hour & mine didn't which might be the reason why it has a clacky sound that's possibly top end bearing.  I'll be investigating that in coming days.  I noticed the noise during either one of the track nights or testing when backing off throttle & holding at 1/3 position.....but of recent I can hear it even at idle.  Got a new bearing waiting.  They're only 10mm gudgeon pin, btw.

Today, I've seen some end to a long-standing problem of getting the adjustable clutch sorted.  Turns out the Bandits have a 110mm bell which is very incompatible with a 107mm clutch which resulted in lots of revs, but no go.....too much slip.  The same set-up worked well with the Monza because it's lesser powered 50cc, but I'll have to get a 107mm bell for the Monza, too, to make it slip & bite when I want it to.

Anyways, I removed the old oem clutch which had 2K springs on it, removed the bell, & fitted the adjustable with a nice new Malossi 107mm bell.  I must say that it does look well made.  There would be some bedding-in to do with this, & I only did a few runs, today, to check its potential.   The Track Night at Willowbank Sat Aug 30th will work out good for bedding-in.....the thing not to do is to sit there revving away letting the clutch bite a little: playing with it.....it's tempting to hear that lovely 2-stroke sound revving away, but that'd just burn up the new bell.  I rather think that letting the engine warm on idle, & then just take off.....the initial amount of slip & heat generated will soon cool with the vented gearbox cover.  A few laps & the same can be done again to test take-off.  I'd be thinking by the end of the night they should be bedded-in good & proper, & some adjustment of the clutch may be necessary to give a good revving take-off as it should be biting better by the end of the night.

The clutch is a PMTuning adjstable.

 

 

 

I reckon on keeping with the blue springs as the Bandits produce quite a lot of low down torque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What else I've done to the the Purple Bandit is to lower the bike.

I dropped the forks out by loosening the clamp at the crown.
A "blind internal circlip" retains an O-ringed plug at the top of the fork.
The circlip is just a spring wire thing.
It was a major PITA to get out as the plug had to be pushed in (the shocky's spring was keeping it out) to expose the spring ring which had to be coaxed out with a knife to get behind it, & further prised out with small screw drivers.

I then could pour out the oil & give the works a good flushing, & then replaced with medium strength fork oil.

The spring was chopped about an inch.

Re-assembly:-
The plug that had to be pushed in to expose the wire internal circlip: I ground the top shoulder off the plug so that the clip would be permanently exposed, & thus in turn, I could fit a regular circlip making it a piece of cake to do next time.

The fork was buttressed against a shoulder in the crown to prevent the fork from sliding up further into the crown in case of going over an overly harsh bump or loose crown clamp.
I ground off the shoulder in the crown so that I could further lower the fork by about 1.5inches.

I put a spot of weld on the fork shaft to act as a stopper.
The forks were re-assembled with Loctite bearing lock on the shaft & mating surfaces of the crown clamp.

The setting of the fork was determined with track testing together with a lowered rear-end as my aim was to lower the whole of the bike, but to try to improve overall cornering with a steeper steering angle & lowered centre of gravity.

I had some scraping in the front wheel arch which has since been gutted, & now acts as an air scoop to feed the carbi & cool the motor.

There is a minor issue with exhaust scraping, but the confidence from it cornering like it's on rails means I can counter balance.

I'm still working on the rear-end. The single & very short shocky isn't really beefy enough to keep the rear end stable.
My budget doesn't allow me to go out & buy the best shocky for the job which would work out to be up to $300.
I find that even on the hardest spring setting because there's no damper adjustment then it pogos out of corners.
To counter this I've had to power out of corners smoothly & try to keep my weight well forward.
I've got "an alternative shocky" that might be the fix, but still have some modifications to do to it, yet.

The front-end is how I like it......a bit harsh on the worst bump of Ipswich Kart Track, but I know where the wheels are & what they're doing.

I'm also on my way to lowering the bars which should improve the race posture greatly.

I'll take some detailed pics of them when I've cleaned them up a bit......they look a bit scruffy from being trailered about & raced on.

Rob  Geeked

Comments

 

K-star said:

Well, Rob now firstly just letting you know how grateful I am to have experienced your lightning bandits especially the gorgeous Budgie of Zoom. But hopefully if we get to race again, I'll be "hopefully" pitting my Jives against your bandits..... You better star trembling but not with fear but excitement 'cause it's gonna rock....

August 16, 2008 8:31 PM
 

rpmorrell said:

"If we get to race again" ????

Of course we will.  :)

Just not exactly sure when at the moment.

I look forward to seeing how your bore-out job works out.  Can compare it to the Monza to see how we're respectively doing.

August 16, 2008 9:34 PM

About rpmorrell

Me & Mrs (Shelley) race our SMC-built Bug Bandits as well as riding them on the roads. It's equipped with:- Gianelli chrome pipe. Carbon Reeds. Malossi 70cc Kit. Vented gearbox case. Malossi variator. OEM Bando belt. Yellow contra spring. Pod filter with 125jet which is taped up about 80% for road riding to help guard against leaning out on cold wet mornings here in the Sunny Coast Hinterland....it's not a bad thing to have the bike tamed down for the road, too! :)

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