83 ride report

[joedrum]

well finaly i went for a test ride .....it was kinda cold and overcast but the 83 with the 79 1000 cams was smooth as can be and you had to realy be in the wrong gear to get it to lug.....

it seem to have the perfect low end torque and ran up to the red line without looosing anything noticable to me .....

with the airbox mod i did it was quite roaring when got into it ......

the timing was retarted quite a bit to adjust to the cam and while going through the rpm i felt no flat spot anywhere

i was quite pleased with everything about its running and cant discount anything....so putting in 79 1000 cams in a 83 1100 is not a bad mod at all ....it dose run like the mongruel did even stronger i think ....as much as i had to change the timing it is a completly different acting bike with great lugging power ...

this bike will pull a trailor with ease i think ....even with the hills and such where i live


on the bad side ....this bike handles like crap ...this bike was old hacks and he had a wreck so this is a rebuild to some extent ....it handles bad at slow speed and is just not nimble.....my 82 handles great and feels like its light as a feather ...the 83 has to be force into every move ....way to stressful for a long touring bike ....i know its not in the forks or steering stem bearing and all ....i didnt ride it much after putting it back together cause of the running problems the motor had but i didnt like the way it rode then either .....it sure didnt fix itself while i modified the motor and such..

anyway im realy happy with the results of the test ride ....lots of power down low and a strong pull to the top with no flat spots that will pull a trailer with ease .....now if i can get it to ride like my 82 this would be sweet road bike...... :Egyptian: :Egyptian: :mrgreen: :Egyptian: :Egyptian:

 

[slabghost]

Did you check front end rake? Maybe a different triple clamp will cure it?

 

[joedrum]

all of that was changed ....its getting to the point that it must be slighly bent with no obvious signs of it at all ...i mean the 82 rode with no effort at all with the same package.....i just cant beleave the difference ......

 

[slabghost]

I know you changed the whole front. But I think it is possible the lower frame tubes are slightly bent from impact changing the rake. Possibly changing the top triple clamp can restore proper rake.

 

[joedrum]

hmmm the lower frame tubes are indented a little on both sides where the crash bars hook up .....it must be off enough to do all this .....i went for another ride just to check out the motor running side ....this bike is a nice running smoothie with lots of torque down low ....with all the specs ive come up with the 79 1000 cams have the same lift as the 75-77 cams but the open time is shorter than even the 1200 cams .....there open time is slightly longer and the lift shorter on the 1200cams so its hard to figure all that means except these cams are the low end torque cams .....and i can diffinitly feel the better low end torque and power and the 1100 carbs even make this better and the extra 100cc adds to the package of the 79 cams

im going to try and figure out if the frame is wrenched ....it seems that maybe the frame on this bike will be chop and cut street rat bike of somekind ...im going to try and wrap my head around the fact that changing the frame out is the easest way to go :rant: :rant: :crying: :cheeky: :smilie_happy: :hihihi: :ahem: :mrgreen:

 

[dan filipi]

Hey Joe, check the rear axle squareness also, that could affect the handling for sure.
Could be someone stuck the spacers is wrong, tire running crooked, swingarm play off the top of my head.

 

[joedrum]

well that someone would have to be me ....i actualy had it running with nothing but frame attached to the motor ....i wish it was setup like the mongruel is ...i can adjust the tracking on it and did it everytime i pyt tires on it ...if i could do that i could get it to ride nice i think ....you got me thinking but i will have to look at the swingarm setup to see if i can figure a way to adjust it ...

im going to have to go to a parking lot somewhere and pop a chalkline and roll it down it to see what way it tracking that might tell me witch way it needs to go to ride better ...... :mrgreen:

 

[dan filipi]

im going to have to go to a parking lot somewhere and pop a chalkline and roll it down it to see what way it tracking that might tell me witch way it needs to go to ride better ...... :mrgreen:

I've been thinking to do something like that on mine, it doesn't handle like it should, a lot like you say having to push it into turns.
I read somewhere about laying a long line of flour down on asphalt then riding over it in a straight line.
Never tried it but sounds like a good idea.

 

[joedrum]

went for another ride and relized that the biggest problem with 83 handling is my torn up elbow :smilie_happy: dumb huh :shock: on the smarter side this is exactly what i hope for and then some ....theres no problem at parking lot speed of any kind smooth as silk ....and when you take off it gose and is smooth thoughout the rpm zone to red line ...it roars like mad with airbox mod i did ....ithink the mix of the 79 cams and the much better 1100 carbs and the extra 100cc is a great match for and 83 1100 with its gearing .....going strong in three gears breaks all speed limits.....and its nice to have the torque where you still have the guts to use it ...that was the fun part ......

so the conclusion is the handling will get a whole lot better when my elbow gets better ....and i will keep fixing things that are subpar from the wreck like the turn signals ....fairing and bag cracks and other small stuff

dan i cant wait to see how your bike is going to do when you get it set up for riding and hope you feel like i do ...it sould be a lot alike i would think :mrgreen:

 

[joedrum]

im pretty much couldnt be any happier ....this bike makes me understand where the mongruel was at .....it always jump on the case of every bike challenge that came its way because it had it stuff right off the bat ....and was snappy ....but the way honda had them set up for ammission crap it just kiiled them...it took a lot of blind modifying after market parts clean carbs pure breathing open exhast down 4" pipe and retuning to get it to flex its muscle and it did ....im not saying it was a rocket by any means ....but in the cruiser world harley and goldwings and such it could hang with them all nicely....

the 83 has even better low speed response than the mongruel ....and its all in the carbs and the 2 stage ignition advance system ....ive never had an oldwing run this good and smooth down low in speed the mongruel was lurchie and snappy from lack of accelerator pump....the 83 is smooth as silk but instantly puts it out with a twist of the wrist....the exhast is queit cause the airbox roars louder with complete hack job on the box that exposes the whole filter ....i dont want to push the bike to hard cause im just not comforable with it yet as it runs so hard it kinda scary ...when a bike runs this well you want to know that everything else is as good but it was a fun ride to church and back today before it started raining after i got home ....

i realy need to get new tires for it ...as it still has the tires it had when it was wrecked ....and i realy need to go through the front end again in a more precise way than i have so far .....but as it stands this is a cross country bike bike for sure with loads of hidden muscle to bring to the table with a twist of the wrist

what a pleasent outcome to this bike from a wreck condition ...took me awhile and lot of discustion here between us all promted me in choosing the 79 cams as a mod to try thanks everyone ..... :yahoo: arty: :yahoo: :rocks: :good: :music: :Egyptian: :Egyptian: :Egyptian: :Egyptian: :ahem: :mrgreen:

 

[mcgovern61]

Nice job Joe!! :clapping: :hi: :yahoo:

 

[slabghost]

It's great to read such a glowing report! I hope I'm at least half as successful with my mods. Btw your rain has arrived here. :head bang:

 

[skiri251]

Wow. I need all the low end torque I can get.
83 and 79 cam
what about 82 engine?

Dan is doing that mod?

 

[joedrum]

i would think with the side car rig ....the 82 is probably be the perfect bike and the 79 cam will bring a lot of supper slow speed parking lot performance....and with a twist it takes off now ..... the 79 cams have the shortest open time with a lift that is as tall as the 75-77 1000 cams ....the 1200 cam has the next shortess open time but not as much lift it will be interesting to see how this turns out for dan ......but i think either cam is going to bring low end torque to the table ....i do have to say the my 83 is running great ...the carbs are good the timing was change witch also is a mod that has to be done ...i also did a airbox mod not manditory but i did it....

i am totaly happy with the outcome skiri ...... :mrgreen: but i dont have many miles on it yet and cant wait to get more saddle time in ..... :mrgreen:

 

[slabghost]

I have an 80 and an 81 and both will be getting cam changes. Still waiting on Dan's report on the 1200 cams.

 

[joedrum]

went for ride today 2 up with the wife ...she was commited right off how well it was runnuing ...it was sunny but very windy so we stayed low in speed and diffensive of the wind .....so lots of incline and curves and down grades and curves and in fifth gear the bike easyly pull from 2000 rpm zone with no motor bitching at all smooth as silk only on a couple of inclines did it need to shift down ...no haing to build the torque up at all just lazy throutle control ...nice tugging power from it ....anyway it was fun and the first sane ride for the yr :yahoo: :yes: :Egyptian: :Egyptian: :mrgreen:

 

[mcgovern61]

Great news Joe.....and Pat liked it too! :yahoo:

 

[dan filipi]

I wonder how your 1100 with 78-79 cams stacks up against my 1100 with 1200 cams.

Just got back from a short ride, pulls nice in low rpm.

Vroom, Vroom!

 

[joedrum]

dan i would think that that the two mods would be close ....its only a guess and probably hard to see whitch one would be best .....and how you look at it ....the mongruel would pull good but the 1000 carbs are not smooth enough to even when clean to run down low without backtalking and in a low hard tug just one hesitation or burp from the motor and your done the tug over ......its downshift time .....i my area that can happen in a hard turn during steep incline and not much fun on the nerves ....it reminds me of one of the farm tactors i used made by white farm machinery ..it had the same diesil as the sherman tank of ww2 had ...it was so well set up that under full throutle it ran at 2200 rpm ....under a load about 1900rpm ...from there if it started to pull down it just got meaner the lugging power was different than all other tractors i had ever dealt with ....if it pulled down to 1600rpm you better start getting whatever you were doing out of the ground now it was fixing to tear somting up bigtime and it wasnt going to be the tractor ....its a lot of work putting a 25ft disc back together....hence its nickname the mighty whitety....it tore up everthing that ever hooked to it......anyway i like the way the 83 hung in there in a hard tug....

yea chas the milage in the garage pic dosnt look like much ...nice looking cocpit chas ...mine dosnt have that middle gauge set in the faring ...i guess mine was realy the strip down modle.... :mrgreen:

 

[skiri251]

Sounds attractive more and more.
What else needed other than the cams?

I guess it's interesting to dyno test before and after, although I don't know any shops to do that around here.