Friday Night Bikers

[ahch0ng]

hello guys, saw this thread link on pandora's sig.

 

i have no whatsoever connect with planet motors..haha

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Lol @ahch0ng is the most famous name for all phantom riders.

 

Must intro you to him. Ah Chong, meet... Ah Chong!

 

 

 

--

 

Now, there are such thing as kopitiam engineering articles.

 

http://fridaybikers.yolasite.com/keg-articles.php

 

Ah pek bikes are so fun.

Edited April 11, 2011 by Pandora's Kitten :3

[alan_see]

Hi i'm interested to join your all ...outings Pls inform me went there is outing

My Hp: 97697879 Alan.

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Top secret communiques have been sent detailing the location and time of the next meetup.

 

Did I miss out anyone?

[lemont97]

Top secret communiques have been sent detailing the location and time of the next meetup.

 

Did I miss out anyone?

 

hmm.. Saw u this morning at the exit of PIE just opposite TPY hub..

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Lol! Like that also can. Not fair, I was clearing left before escaping the horrors of PIE lol.

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Wow, incredible turnout and guest performances last night.

 

We had a church of horsepower going and fervent Ducati worship, all in time for Good Friday!

 

A dozen pics here..

 

 

"Riders Before the Storm"

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5310/5623252730_3714fba2dc_z.jpg

 

"Symphony of Internal Combustion"

 

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5182/5622711399_c82b13bb86_z.jpg

[Shunpo]

Duke.. drool .. lol

 

On the journey back kinda hor lan =X Once go back it's immediate K.O on the bed. And now .. half an hour time before setting off for work.

Hope I can maintain for one more day before my off day is here

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Looks like I'll have something like Shunpo's windshield very soon, if I can figure out how to mount it - next is good mechanical mount for the new camera, which is a bit too heavy to be happy with cable ties as you can see with this example.

[tanchoonheong]

try this

 

 

Looks like I'll have something like Shunpo's windshield very soon' date=' if I can figure out how to mount it - next is good mechanical mount for the new camera, which is a bit too heavy to be happy with cable ties as you can see with this example.

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Wah, power! Lanesplitting against traffic. I should go to Taiwan for holiday to witness the traffic mayhem!

 

I've seen some Army scrambler guys (or.. ex army more likely) just strap the camera onto the side of their helmets. Not sure what kind of strap it is but I'll worry about the camera flying off.

 

It's possible to go to JB and get a camera bracket permanently fitted onto the helmet but I'd be leery of what it does to the helmet's safety shell.

 

And...

 

Below is the new top box for my Phantom. Yes, its wooden

Edited April 17, 2011 by Pandora's Kitten :3

[Isopropyl]

kopitiam engineers. i am tuning my spark 135 for better FC. the leaner(more air) it is the better right? of course there is a limit to which too much air can cause damage.

 

the original setting is 1 and 5/8 turn of the Air/Fuel screw. at yamahaT135 forums, recommendation is 2 and 1/2 turns. i only trying 2turns now.

 

only problem i trying to solve now is how to get a tachometer to adjust the idle speed 1300-1500rpm. now i only depend on sounding similar to original sound.

[tankee1981]

This Thursday's session will take place at a Kopitiam (where else? =p) in Sengkang from 10pm onwards. The only reason the good people of FnB chose a Thursday night is due to the next day being Good Friday!

 

Thursday night's session, we will be exploring (as there are some rather recent developments) a northern part of SG and Pandora's Kitten will take us on a special trip down to city area...personally i am looking forward to this portion as i have not taken this trip myself.

 

This evening we have explored some rural roads but we agreed that it will be best left for another day. So stay tuned!

 

Those who are interested please do PM me your contact numbers and earliest time you can reach SK.

 

Thanks and See Ya!

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

kopitiam engineers. i am tuning my spark 135 for better FC. the leaner(more air) it is the better right? of course there is a limit to which too much air can cause damage.

 

the original setting is 1 and 5/8 turn of the Air/Fuel screw. at yamahaT135 forums, recommendation is 2 and 1/2 turns. i only trying 2turns now.

 

only problem i trying to solve now is how to get a tachometer to adjust the idle speed 1300-1500rpm. now i only depend on sounding similar to original sound.

 

Leaning the F/A mixture for better economy will only work if

 

a) The machine is used for very light duty work

b) Your engine has better than normal cooling (used on very cold nights, not stock cooling system etc)

 

I experimented with 46km/l settings on the Phantom mid 2010 but realised soon enough that it was not a practical setting. Loafing around at 70kph at low throttle settings got me that "impossible" figure for a couple of months but once I had to hit practical highway speeds the lean settings caused the engine (air cooled here) to exceed its heat capacity very fast. In other words, lean conditions will degrade performance and/or increase engine temperature to the detriment of longevity.

 

Basic fuel economy tuning tips

 

1) Disciplined riding. Do not gun the throttle, build the revs in a controlled fashion up to the optimal torque band and change gears to keep in that optimal range. Use momentum, drafting, etc etc to overtake, plan ahead to minimise energy loss (from braking, evasive action, etc)

2) Sprocket size optimisation. Most bikes in the market today have very short gearing for greater acceleration. For the majority of my highway commutes I dislike the stock gearing as I run out of gears really fast and don't have an overdrive to reduce cruise RPMs with. Since I spend most of the time at 100+kph, not playing traffic light grand prix, I don't care for zero to hundred times because like aforesaid in 1), rider skill determines average speed and quick arrival times, not acceleration.

3) Don't overdo it. I had a bone stock Yamaha 125Z that gets 39km/l due to clever tuning. Others get 25km/l because they are either badly tuned or have been modified with "racing" parts... which are useless in actual street conditions as, once again, rider skill is a greater performance gain than some overpriced little piece of metal.

 

Now, the rest of the kopitiam fuel efficiency experiences, just for fun:

 

The 4 or so Phantom riders in the kopitiam group here started off with lean or "balanced" carb settings. They work great idle, nice smooth sound. When the engines are stressed the engine loses power as the mixture leans out and carburetted systems, unlike EFI, do not enrich the F/A mixture on acceleration. The result is very poor torque and the main jet (wide open throtte / WOT) has to be used to get the bike to highway speeds.

 

These rather popular "default" settings result in fuel efficiency of 25-35km/l for the Phantom 200 possibly due to the above issue - WOT needs to be employed to literally, get anywhere.

 

Now comes the oxymoron - to save fuel, we make the bikes run on very rich settings. Some of us know a bit of kopitiam engineering secrets to cram a bit more air and fuel into the cylinder per stroke by playing with restrictions in the intake and exhaust and creatively manipulating intake air pressure.

 

Now, the bikes don't run lean when the hammer goes down because we sort of pre-enriched them to respond very well to hard riding. They are optimised to cruise at 100kph as the optimal torque range has now shifted lower. I have a smaller back sprocket to make use of the greater low end torque, at no cost to acceleration as bigger torque and lower gearing means changing gears to keep up with traffic is optional. Stock TA200 "runs out of gears" at 70kph and most riders wish for a nonexistant seventh gear. So the smaller "highway" rear sprocket with greater low end torque solves the problem. Acts like a proper cruiser now, instead of having to exceed 8,000 RPM to overtake...

 

The pre-enrichment does cause the low RPM idling to get unstable if done in a shop environment, so we schedule real-world road tests, convoying with regular stops in deserted regions of Singapore to find the sweet spot for each bike and rider - responsive with a linear powerband, powerful and efficient, but perfectly stable at idle.

 

There is an easier way to explain why rich settings will save fuel. Let's take a look at a basic piston engined aircraft engine management procedure.

 

Takeoff power - set mixture rich

Cruising at high altitude - set mixture lean

 

On take off the engine is operating at a relatively high ambient air pressure. Maximum effort is needed to get the aircraft off the ground and to cruise altitude with full fuel and cargo. Put more fuel into the engine (which is running at full power) for greater cooling using the incoming fuel-air charge.

 

Likewise for aircooled bikes in a tropical environment, the engine is forever on "takeoff" mode since 2B bikes have to be ridden hard to hit typical safe commuting speeds today.

 

For an aircraft at high altitude it does not require as much power to maintain speed (due to level flight and reduced air resistance at higher altitudes). Ambient air pressure is also very low and the high airspeed makes the cooling systems function at a greater efficiency. The throttle is relatively low and a leaner mixture can be used to save fuel/

 

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero of WW2 fame piloted by the elite of the Japanese Navy have impressive range thanks to a very lightweight aircraft, disciplined high altitude cruise and extremely lean mixture settings. Many years later Mitsubishi pioneers the use of GDI - gasoline direct injection and the use of extremely lean mixture settings on car engines in the interests of efficiency. But these are specially designed lean-burn engines and are able to survive the higher engine temperatures associated with running with as high as 26:1 air-fuel ratio (typical carburetted engines use a ratio of 13-14:1).

 

The Phantom is able to survive extremely high engine temperatures but most riders don't know how to manage engine temperature the old school way, because this bike has no engine temperature gauge (only the 150cc has a temperature display). So the only sign of their "stock" settings giving trouble is when the mineral engine oil (used for money saving reasons) starts foaming up when the bike cruises at 110kph from Changi to Tuas, engine overheats and pow, block or piston failure. Of note here of course is the very short gearing of the Phantom coupled to the single cylinder engine - very high piston velocity at highway revs.

 

Kopitiam engineered Phantoms use synthetic oil for this reason - a certain brand of German synthetic oil solves the oil consumption issue common with old bikes like these and does tolerate lean burn experiments very well.

 

Once we nailed down these common reliability issues, we moved on to stage two of our tuning experiments - improving the stock intake and exhaust systems to improve throttle response and increasing the rate of waste heat discharge (i.e., making the engines run cooler). A cooler engine of course, gives higher efficiency.

 

I started off with the small back sprocket to reduce cruise RPMs, followed by water-based intercooling of the fuel air charge, then realised aluminum foil exhaust wrap really works to reduce the engine temps quite dramatically, with less complexity than the water injection setup. $1.05 of foil is much more effective than the "real" fibreglass or titanium wraps, but the reason for which a kopitiam secret...

 

... to be continued in the next episode of Kopitiam Engineering

 

--

 

Today @tankee1981 and I went on a recon mission to some very unlikely fun places that no one but us thought to explore! Had a brief taste of off-roading on the Phantom (surprisingly good at it), and barely escaped the unlit wilderness before the rapidly setting sun.

 

Some pics..

Edited April 17, 2011 by Pandora's Kitten :3

[Shunpo]

Will be out of scene for Thursday event. Work is draining me too much. To hell with work life balance. Some industries just doesn't give you that =X

 

At the meantime, await for my new ride. Bulletproof CG. A new breakthrough in my bike knowledge. At least for moi. Bwahaha.

 

Should it be red white again ? Or some other new exotic color scheme?

 

Brain juice donations greatly appreciated!

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Something veteran yet bulletproof should be eyecatching in a very discreet way. No flaming orange with HKS decals, but something with old world charm like this:

 

http://classic-motorbikes.net/images/gallery/honda-cd185.jpg

[CSV]

hey kenny, need ideas give me a ring or pm. pandora has my number.

 

i got good ideas floating around, or just brain storming.

 

cafe racer ftw.

[CSV]

btw, if anyone who is stalking this thread is wondering wtf is kopitiam engineering or just wanna hang out. give us a pm here, or visit our website.

 

fridaybikers.yolasite.com

 

a brief note, we do a bit of kork talking before setting off, so if you one of those guys who prefer riding and riding only, this might be not for you.

 

we also emphasize on safety of riding, so we don't go 100kph on small roads, overtaking everything and anything.

 

if you are still interested to know what kopitiam engineering can do for you and your bike, come for a visit on one of our convoy.

 

i'll personally show you how fast and powerful a phantom can be, tuned by our very smart resident engineer.

 

some say he eats 2 stroke sportsbike for breakfast, and he farts out 2t.

 

all we know is, he's called Pandora's Kitten.

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

We do have to break the ice before riding just so we know everyone's personality. One cup of coffee enough to get proper convoy coordination

 

The kind of "meet up just to ride" activity requires people to know each other's bikes and individual styles well. Neo is working on getting the instant cruise to nowhere thing going and we did a dry run yesterday (Sunday). Went offroading on Phantoms too - who say cannot! Watch how people ride offroad on youtube then try for real

[tankee1981]

Finally, got my exhaust pipe changed! Now for the wraps!

 

OT, While waiting for the work to be done i discovered this nice stall of Beef Kway Teow in the kopitiam directly opposite Ah Chong's place. Interested parties can go try but i think they only open until late afternoon.

[Shunpo]

Gratz haha. Where you get that from ? Scrapeyard hunting ?

 

Want to go scrapyard get all kinds of crap to see if I can diy and mod it into something new xD

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

Beef kway teow and scrapyard sounds propely kopitiam.

 

Scrapyard may be hard to gain access to, by what some people have told me. Definitely needs kopitiam diplomacy ;-)

 

For tonight's meeting location, contact @tankee1981

 

Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

[tankee1981]

Shunpo: No scrapyard hunting...just a heads-up from CSV and a little help from Ah Chong...now i have a shiny exhaust pipe!

 

So far, nobody PM me yet.

[Pandoras Kitten 3]

That means more pizza slices per person!

 

Sent from my GT-P1000 using Tapatalk

[tankee1981]

Good Ride!