Bottom end

Bottom end

Bottom end

The last week has been a fun one for me, I got the opportunity to have Steve Stasiefski stay at my home. Steve is the former factory mechanic for Brad Lackey (Kawasaki 1979-1980 Suzuki 1981-1982) and Herbert Schimtz (Maico 1978). It was fun to hear him talk about the GP's back in the day with Brad and Herbert and all the GP riders. I was telling Steve about the 83 cr480 that I was building with the 82 four speed motor, He told me that Brads RN500 was the only Suzuki factory bike that ran a four speed all the other RN500's was five speeds, Brad liked the four speed with alot of bottom end like the old Maico 490's of the day. Steve was telling me of a company that he has rework the head with some trick dome that will bring out the bottom end and pull like a 490 Maico, so I give Steve a top end that was stock with no porting, the top end that I was going to use was ported and he would like me to see what the head work will do with out the porting. I ask him if he would put the bottom end together for me and after two stake diners he sayed yes and I will tell you what a eye opener it was to watch him the attention to detail is crazy, he deburs every thing and just checks every part, On the clutch he liked the 82 basket but liked the 83 hub and presser plate with the 83 plates, so he drilled the center hub for more oil (check photos) he must have spent three hours just on the clutch, sanding, drilling. One more thing he did was on the seal spacer on the clutch side he put some yamaha bond 4 on the side that fit on the crank side so you don't have a leak around the spacer. I hope to have updates of the top end in the next week. You can contact Steve Stasiefski @ Maico Meister 925-786-3263 or email him @ stachef@aol.com

Tank

I worked on the tank today with some foam sanding pads that I get from the auto body shop that work good on the plastic, It will mold to the curves of the tank better than the paper disk and with out burning the plastic after that I buff it out with a paint polisher at 1000 rpm and some very fine wax, If you run it more than 1000 rpm you can burn the plastic. Also the foam pads I get are from 180 grit to 2000 grit.

This is some before and after photos of the wheels.

The wheels are done

I got the wheels back today and I have to say they look great. I had a friend build the wheels for me because if I was to do it it would look like it was built for a clown act in the circus. I had Kenny Watkins build the wheels he has built a lot of wheels for me over the years and he is also a Race tech shock and fork tech, I have had him build five or six old RM and CR shocks for me with great results. E Mail him at kwatkins497@yahoo.com

New brake stay

I had a new rear brake stay made it looks good and will be very strong.