[Eldert]

just about done with my RT restoration . bought the bike in 1986 or 87 in Chino Ca
this is how it looked then

 

[Eldert]

and this is how it looks now

 

[Kalyx]

That's a very nice RT! I'm assuming you've made some changes inside too!

 

[Eldert]

sure did . engine is a valve springer now . welded up the combustion chamber and re angled the valves
to make room for bigger ones . put a 10 mm sparkplug higher up . engine is 490 cc now 78 mm stroke and 89.5 mm bore . had new inputshafts and 2nd and 3rd gears made up for the gearbox . primary gears are straight cut with a 1.83 ratio to speed up the gearbox so there is less load on the gears and dogs .

 

[Duccout]

Great work!

 

[duc96cr]

Very nice !

 

[flynbulldog]

Wow that is some extensive reworking, who did the fab work?

 

[Eldert]

most of the work i did myself exept for the gearbox stuff . did a lot of mods to the frame to .
a RT swingarm is very short and only good for popping wheelies .
i made the swingarm 2 inches longer . but then i had a huge gap between the cross brace
and the rearwheel . had a curved piece of tubing bend and had that welded in with a plate on top and
on the bottom .

 

[Eldert]

the rearhub is not the strongest and the bearings can come loose to .
found a Yamaha SR 250 hub

and fitted that . looks more like a motocross item .
rear axle was 17 mm so i had to machine the slots in the swingarm bigger .
sprocket carrier needed some machining to .

 

[Eldert]

the fronthub is 160 mm and dont have much stopping power . its a 160 cc Monza Junior item
took a 180 mm double side Grimeca hub as fitted to late model Scramblers and laced that to
the 21 inch rim . fork sliders are late model Scrambler to

 

[Eldert]

did a dry build first so without painting the frame . took the bike for a spin around the block
but i did not like the way it steered and turned in .
took the bike to a guy who does frame building and modifications . he cut of the headstock
and welded it on 3 degrees steeper . next problem the fueltank did not fit anymore due to the
reangled headstock that sat back a little more . luckely the tank was aluminum and very easy
to modify . the tank btw was made in India . a couple of years ago a Indian guy was asking for
sample tanks on this forum and i send him a RT sample tank .

 

[flynbulldog]

Fantastic! you should write up a full build on this bike. I'm sure we'd all love to read about it and see the pictures. It keeps me going to read about other builds when I'm about to chuck mine in the can because nothing ever seems to go right the first time. You do fine work !

I'd particularly love to see some pictures and detail of that head work

 

[Eldert]

here a pic of the combustion chamber

 

[Eldert]

and here the valve spring side . valves are blanks with 7 mm valve stems for Kawasaki fours . retainer is R/D for a Honda RFVC
single . manifold i made another one out of 3 pieces aluminum .

 

[Kalyx]

Looks good. Is the coil spring conversion worth the effort? I've been toying with changing the hairsprings in my 250(for no real good reason).

 

[Eldert]

depends on what conversion your using . the R/D setup for Ducati singles is a little to stiff .
i use R/D stuff to but with retainers for valves with a 7 mm stem and their
weaker spring nr 1010 .

Eldert

 

[Duccout]

What does R/D stand for?

 

[Eldert]

beats me but here is the link www.rdvalvespring.com

Eldert

 

[Macdesmo]

did a dry build first so without painting the frame . took the bike for a spin around the block
but i did not like the way it steered and turned in .
took the bike to a guy who does frame building and modifications . he cut of the headstock
and welded it on 3 degrees steeper . next problem the fueltank did not fit anymore due to the
reangled headstock that sat back a little more . luckely the tank was aluminum and very easy
to modify . the tank btw was made in India . a couple of years ago a Indian guy was asking for
sample tanks on this forum and i send him a RT sample tank . View attachment 977854

I remember the Indians asking for tanks. I always wondered what their replicas were like and how accurate they were made. I have been looking at R100 tanks but they are charging too much. Cheers
Ian

 

[flynbulldog]

I didnt have anything to send him at the time - too bad, I could send them a Mach 1 tank now. I also remember I wasnt too keen on those guys at the time either. I was very skeptical