charlie_pank

What I'd really like is a blackbird with a honda badge on the nose. Edited by - charlie_pank on 21 Jun 2004 15:50:51

The Caterham 7 Fireblade Invalid Carriage - wicked !

Sorry for the spate of O/T subjects recently, my mind is working on overdrive! With all the hoops you have to jump through in order to pass SVA - like putting covers on bolts etc..., has anyone looked at the possiblity of registering the car as a bike? Am I right in thinking that a vehicle under 400kgs can be classed as a bike anyway? The reason I'm wondering is that I can't believe that motorbikes have to go through an equally rigorous type-approval or SVA, given the number of sticky-out bits that could kill a lovely fluffy little kitten playing with its ball of string in the middle of an otherwise safe road and lack of seatbelts etc... does anyone know if my assumption about this is correct?

Anyone remember the Diesel Westfield - aka "The Wiesel"? Perhaps it could be turned into the "vegetarian Wiesel" 😬

Of course for the average Mundaneo-type car I think ABS is a good idea, but then again you might as well be driving via a soggy-sponge interface, given the amount of feedback you get. I really enjoy the fact that you can feel exactly what the 7 is doing and I think that contributes to the fact that ABS really would be overkill, it's simply not necessary because you know as soon as you lock up. I am of course assuming that the driver knows what to do about it. I'm really glad Caterham and other small car manufacturers can get out of this beurocratic rubbish. -edited to say: Paul, yes you're right there are panic situations and different people react in different ways. In my experience if you slam the brakes on in a real emergency situation, time tends to move quite slowly anyway, and you in fact have quite a lot of 'time' to think, notice what's going on and react appropriately. Whether or not you do so is a different matter. Perhaps if you do not think yourself capable of cadence braking then some driver training is in order? We should not forget that ABS is not the answer to all accidents, there is still a stopping distance, and if you are inside it, it doesn't matter whether you have ABS, or can cadence brake you will still hit the object you were trying to avoid. Also, one should not assume that in the panic situation where you were "very glad of ABS" that you would have hit the (other vehicle/tree/fluffy kitten/Jocasta on Twinkletoes) had you been in the 7, I would argue (as above) that the driver feedback is so different in the 7 that you probably would have cadence braked (broke?) anyway, and, given the low weight of the car you probably would have stopped in 1/2 the distance. Edited by - charlie_pank on 21 Jun 2004 08:56:06

Sorry to all offended. I have a tendency to come across far to agressively when it wasn't meant at all. It was Sunday morning, I hadn't had any coffee, etc... the sentiment was meant, but the tone was unecessarily harsh, I hope it's not too late apologise. Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN

Nigelriches and Bare, can you read? Why don't you have another look at the subject? Anyway... What my research has told me so far is that you can either run on raw chip-fat/veg oil or you can run on "bio-diesel" which has been refined to let it flow properly. If you choose to run on bio-diesel, then you can just stick it in your tank and off you go; if you run on raw chip-fat/veg oil you need to warm up the oil before it gets to the pump and injectors so that it's not too viscous. The conversion kits that you buy do not heat up the whole tank, the heater warms the veg oil as it goes through the fuel lines, so that by the time it reaches the important components it is thin enough to be used without any problems. This all seems to make sense to me... then again if you can't even read a topic title correctly, I'm not sure I should be taking advice from you on how to avoid destroying my engine... 😬 Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN

Cheers Paul, I'll keep you posted. I pick it up on Monday or Tuesday. I think that I have to contact the council to get hold of the Customs and Excise officer in the area. They will tell me how much tax I have to pay on veg oil, then I will be able to decide whether it's financially viable or not. According to the site I mentioned in my first post, the "lubrosity" (surely that's not a word) of veg oil is very good compared to diesel oil, so unless you have a Lucas fuel pump, you'll be ok. (Don't ask me what's special about the Lucas pump...) I also stumbled across a really interesting site that explained that Mr. Diesel originally designed his engine to run on peanut oil. He died under mysterious circumstances while trying to sell his technology to the British navy. Shortly afterwards the petrol companies started offering extremely cheap "Diesel-oil" that could be used in these peanut-powered engines. If I manage to get our new runaround working on veg-oil, then we will have gone full circle! Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN

I've just put a deposit down on our new shopping car, a '95 Pug 306Xtdt. I chose a diesel because I think we may do quite a few miles in it, and also I am interested in the prospect of running it on veg-oil (paying the appropriate tax of course!). I've found this site, offering a kit: here and I understand that all it really does is warm up the oil so that it's thin enough to run through the pump and injectors etc... There's also a switch and a small tank installed. This means that you can start on normal diesel in the small tank when everything's cold, then switch over to the veg oil in the main tank when the oil-heater has warmed up. The only other thing to mention is that 2 mins before you arrive at your destination you are supposed to switch back to the diesel tank so that the next time you start you're doing it on diesel not veg oil. Does anyone have any experience of doing this, it all sounds very exciting and I want to make sure I'm aware of the downsides too before getting involved... Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN

Cheers battered, that's good to know. Yes all my limbs are still articulated. TBH at the time the Duke was one of only a few options open to me - given my inside leg measurements and lack of experience. With a few 1000 miles riding behind me now, I am more confident with the weight and width of taller IL4 bikes, but at the time I wasn't and the Duke was the easiest thing I found to handle. The real trouble will be when it comes to choosing the next one, I really like the power delivery of the twin, and don't like the revvy nature of the IL4s. Perhaps it will be a b*w *eek* BTW can I still go down the court route if I bought it second hand, but still under warranty at the time of purchase? Edited by - charlie_pank on 16 Jun 2004 14:57:51

Took bike in to check a noise I didn't like, turns out it has a likely big-end bearing failure. It's an '02 bike and if I'm lucky is just inside (2yr) warranty (need to get home to check) if I'm unlucky then it's just outside warranty . If the latter is the case, do I have any recourse for compensation as this is surely a manufacturer's fault (been regularly serviced, not abused, done 8000 miles), or am I going to have to foot the bill...? Do we have any warranty experts here? Edited by - charlie_pank on 16 Jun 2004 14:22:45

I have an FIA switch and used to have MEMs and use the IACV, I'm sure it made those noises at both startup and shutdown. It's the IACV calibrating itself. You can unbolt it from the inlet manifold and watch the piston moving if you think it's not working properly. HTH C

ISTR (not that I've done it) that you can check the injector by simply pulling it out and letting it squirt into a jar - I think there's some info on this in the haynes manual... C

Wouldn't touch those tyres even with yours mate! Had them on the Academy car I bought 2 years ago, horrible horrible things they're WAY too hard for a 7 and have totally binary grip properties --> forward... forward... forward... BACKWARDS. Unless you're in the Academy yourself and have to run with them, get rid and get some yoko AO21Rs at the very least - George Polley Motorsport are the place to get them. Edited by - charlie_pank on 11 Jun 2004 17:19:00

the "rotational problem" that I had at a very wet knockhill, during a downshift was also whilst I was heel and toeing. My point is that I wasn't revving enough, even though I was executing the right technique. Just applying the right technique doesn't preclude you from having the problem I suggested. Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN

*cough** splutter - well it wasn't that! Took it down to the dealers this morning (head hung in shame at not being able to fix it myself). They reckon that the throttle bodys need balancing. - so nothing to do with the ignition then! So they're taking it next tuesday to sort it out. Funny thing was the bloke said "also need should have a look at what that noise is", "what noise" says I. So he goes and gets the keys for his monster (exactly the same model as mine), starts it up, and it sounds so much quieter and smoother and without the high pitched whine from the clutch casing. (I'd never heard another one running so had no idea they should sound like that!). Hopefully when I get it back next Thursday it will be like a new bike! I'm a bit cheesed off that by implicatoin, the place that sold it to me in Feb probably hadn't done the full service they claimed, but hey ho, there was no way for me to tell. These people in Edinburgh seem friendly enough so far, they even told me a few weeks ago that all they would do for an 9k service is change the oil and filter and advised me not to bring it to them 'cos I'd be better of doing it myself. I'm also encouraged by the fact that I've had a chat with the guy who will be working on it, and seen that he has exactly the same bike as me... fingers crossed...

2 thoughts: 1. Having done my first wet trackday a couple of weeks ago, I found that the only time I spun was when I downshifted and didn't bring the engine speed up enough before releasing the clutch, could it be possible that you're revving very high at the point you start braking, and the lift-off is inducing oversteer? 2. Corner weights, I found on the same wet trackday that when I had a passenger in the car my front right wheel would lock up under long before all the others, but was absolutely fine when in the car by myself, might you be suffering from something similar? Do you know if one/both of the rears is/are locking up?

Are there no instructions/piccys in the Caterham online build manual?

Hi Steve, think you might be right, I'll go and lurk in a gloomy garage and try and have a look! Charlie'n'Kermit The plan is: There is no plan S5EVN

Where is Ammo when you need him?

😬Is the crank position sensor heat-sensitive? Did you replace any of the wiring to the sensor as well? In my case I suspect that it's the resistance of the HT lead at the high temperatures that's causing the problem, I was curious to know if you thought your problem was a resistance/temperature one too.

FW, it doesn't really matter as it never gets used anyway. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of mine, but I'm sure someone who does will be along soon with some of theirs.

I'm hoping it's not a sensor failure as I won't be able to diagnose that myself. Just out of interest, how do you know it was heat-related?

Be careful that you don't tw*t yourself in the face with it when it finally does come out. You might be able to encourage the bush to come out a little better with a flathead screwdriver to help the rubber lugs that hold it in the dash to compress...

I've got a problem with my (V-twin) bike when it's hot (oil temp 130 deg. C). If you blip the throttle from idle then it takes a second to respond, and in about 60% of cases, it stalls. It also often backfires into the airbox. If you increase the revs gently from idle it's fine. I've done a couple of experiments: 1. Remove HT lead from cylinder 1 Result: Same problem but more pronounced 2. Remove HT lead from cylinder 2 Result: Same problem exactly 3. Swap over spark plugs Result: Haven't had a chance to test yet. Extra info: The engine is fuel injected so no carbs to fiddle with. It is aircooled and due to the configuration of it, cylinder 2 runs hotter than cylinder 1. Given all the above info, and the fact that the HT lead for cyl. 2 is close to the cooling fins of the head of cyl. 2 and pretty much out of the airflow (HT Lead for 1 is in the airflow, as is the head.) I think that when the HT lead for 2 gets really hot, it doesn't carry the current very well and so the cylinder is not always firing. Can anyone help me to confirm whether or not my diagnosis is correct? Edited to add - the ignition is fully electronic with 1 coil per HT lead. After I've tried it with the swapped plugs, if I still have a problem, I'll swap the coils over. It there a good way to check that the coil and HT lead are working properly? Thanks C Edited by - charlie_pank on 4 Jun 2004 08:48:11 Edited by - charlie_pank on 4 Jun 2004 09:03:33