Possible 300cc conversion

Sheik Yerbouti · Post by **Sheik Yerbouti** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 6:58 am

Thats some great work there Scott, good to have ya on our side.

My old man reckons he's relocated ring pegs before as well, it doesn;t sound that difficult. You must have a pretty friendly bike shop there to go searching for matching pistons.

ScottaKR · Post by **ScottaKR** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 7:47 am

Sheik Yerbouti wrote:Thats some great work there Scott, good to have ya on our side.

My old man reckons he's relocated ring pegs before as well, it doesn;t sound that difficult. You must have a pretty friendly bike shop there to go searching for matching pistons.

Well, today I found out the delivery price for the piston, and I've gotta say I was shocked as hell!!
$10

from N.Z.!!!!! $\:D/$ $\:D/$
Should have it in a week or so hopefully.

The guy at the bike shop is great. It was the first time I've been in there, and when I said I ride a KR250, he imediately new I meant the Tandem Twin. Most people assume I mean a KR1 (if they even know that much) and actually try to correct me.

I dare say I'll be doing a bit of business with him if yesterdays experience is anything to go by.

On a side note, I've now got a new headlight ready, and a pair of mounting brackets on the way for doing a naked conversion to my KR. Will still have to make a few other small brackets for mounting CDI's etc as well as a small tinted screen to hide/protect the back of the standard instrument cluster. Hopefully it'll come out the way I imagine it, but you never know. [-o< [-o<

Sheik Yerbouti · Post by **Sheik Yerbouti** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:36 am

awesome, keep us posted on the bits you've used and pics of course. =D>

The naked tandem I saw somewhere on this site looks really tidy, good way to update the looks of the old girl.

If you come up with some good bracketry ideas/designs, sling us a pic and we can knock some up out of billet ally. That is if you don't mind me pinching all your clever ideas to put on my bike ......

I've got no taste at all when it comes to that sort of thing

ScottaKR · Post by **ScottaKR** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:14 pm

Sheik Yerbouti wrote:awesome, keep us posted on the bits you've used and pics of course. =D>

The naked tandem I saw somewhere on this site looks really tidy, good way to update the looks of the old girl.

If you come up with some good bracketry ideas/designs, sling us a pic and we can knock some up out of billet ally. That is if you don't mind me pinching all your clever ideas to put on my bike ......
I've got no taste at all when it comes to that sort of thing

Yeah, the one you saw is Tono's, and that was the inspiration for me doing this conversion. Mines not going to be quite the same as his (can't get the same parts he used over here), but hopefully I can get the same sort of effect.

The idea of billet bits is very cool. I'll put in an order for a set of rear-sets.

[-o< Billet gear lever arm would be good too as the one I trimed for mine (was already damaged) has chewed it's splines, so had to make a much less appealing part from an old RZ item.

As for pinching my ideas, I woudn't stress about it too much considering I'm pinching the idea from Tono to begin with.

StrokerBoy · Post by **StrokerBoy** » Mon Nov 10, 2008 1:28 pm

ScottaKR wrote:Yeah, the one you saw is Tono's, and that was the inspiration for me doing this conversion. Mines not going to be quite the same as his (can't get the same parts he used over here), but hopefully I can get the same sort of effect.

The idea of billet bits is very cool. I'll put in an order for a set of rear-sets. [-o< Billet gear lever arm would be good too as the one I trimed for mine (was already damaged) has chewed it's splines, so had to make a much less appealing part from an old RZ item.

As for pinching my ideas, I woudn't stress about it too much considering I'm pinching the idea from Tono to begin with.

I was worried you were trying to offload your KR in favour of those horrible parallel-twin things so it's good to hear you're still doing the KR250N idea. Tono will be happy to hear he's inspired you.

Gear-lever linkage is a good idea. There's not much space round the shaft so it's tricky trying to adapt non-standard footrests to fit. A splined bracket that moves the linkage outside the frame would be very useful.

Sheik Yerbouti · Post by **Sheik Yerbouti** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 6:46 am

Gear-lever linkage is a good idea. There's not much space round the shaft so it's tricky trying to adapt non-standard footrests to fit. A splined bracket that moves the linkage outside the frame would be very useful.

Not sure what you mean,

sketch what you reckon and post it up, I can get measurements off my bike and see what I can come up with. Pretty keen to see what can be done with these bikes, I'm just getting in to it.

ScottaKR · Post by **ScottaKR** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:02 am

StrokerBoy wrote: I was worried you were trying to offload your KR in favour of those horrible parallel-twin things so it's good to hear you're still doing the KR250N idea. Tono will be happy to hear he's inspired you.

Gear-lever linkage is a good idea. There's not much space round the shaft so it's tricky trying to adapt non-standard footrests to fit. A splined bracket that moves the linkage outside the frame would be very useful.

Well I was going to sell it off to make way for the KR1, but circumstances conspired against the idea, so I'll be keeping it for at least a few more years. And even if I do sell off this one, I still have enough for another build.

Sheik Yerbouti wrote:Not sure what you mean, sketch what you reckon and post it up, I can get measurements off my bike and see what I can come up with. Pretty keen to see what can be done with these bikes, I'm just getting in to it.

I've added a couple of pics to my "show me yours" post here. viewtopic.php?p=13963#13963
As you can see from the closeup of the linkage, I've taken a standard gear lever, cut it down somewhat, and mounted it pointing upward instead of rearward. The only problem with this setup is the clamping bolt hangs down and causes a massive amount of annoyance when fitting it because it hits the frame.
If you could make something like that, but with the clamping bolt at the front (as it would be normally), I could get rid of the ugly thing I bodged up when that one stripped it's splines.

Sheik Yerbouti · Post by **Sheik Yerbouti** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:18 am

Dude, are you riding on the pillion pegs

NO worries, I'll ave a look at the bike tomorrow and see if we can make it happen...

StrokerBoy · Post by **StrokerBoy** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:02 am

Sheik Yerbouti wrote:
Gear-lever linkage is a good idea. There's not much space round the shaft so it's tricky trying to adapt non-standard footrests to fit. A splined bracket that moves the linkage outside the frame would be very useful.
Not sure what you mean, sketch what you reckon and post it up, I can get measurements off my bike and see what I can come up with. Pretty keen to see what can be done with these bikes, I'm just getting in to it.

Yeah, I didn't explain it very well...

The gearlever shaft is kinda tucked away behind the frame rail, so the standard lever has to bend right out to clear the frame. This is fine with the standard pegs but makes it difficult to get rearsets off another bike to fit, 'cos the linkages are usually 'flat'. Some of the old Japanese aftermarket KR rearsets have very crude linkages to overcome this, but I think there must be a neater solution.

ScottaKR · Post by **ScottaKR** » Tue Nov 11, 2008 9:46 am

Sheik Yerbouti wrote:Dude, are you riding on the pillion pegs

Nah, they're ones off an MC21 NSR250 (I couldn't stand the sight of the origional KR pegs! :-& ). They're a little shorter then standard (had been ground down with bitumen

), but came up nice enough after smoothing and polishing.
A full rear-set kit like in the pics Tim posted up would be great, but that's a heck of a lot of work, and means you also have to re-engineer the rear brake linkage too.

Just started looking into an Acewell 3967 digital dash as an option for the naked conversion. Looks like it would fit nicely on the top yoke

, and seems to have all the functions required. I might have to start saveing.

ScottaKR · Post by **ScottaKR** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:41 pm

Quick update:
RG150 piston is on the way from NZ as I type, so should see it next week sometime.
Have taken the vernier calipers to an old (standard) Tandem piston and given the specs to the guy at the bike shop. Fingers crossed on that one [-o< [-o<
Got the brackets for the naked headlight, so been playing around with that a bit. I'll post some pics of the progress in "Show me yours" in the next day or 2 hopefully (after I give it a bit of a clean that is

). Have pretty much decided that the Acewell digital dash is the way to go, so should be ordering one as soon as I pin-point the exact model I need (I think it's the 3963).

alanw · Post by **alanw** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:59 pm

Scott, I think Acewell is a good choice, but I'm not a fan of the idiot light surround. You could save a bit money, buy the std dash without the surround & use LED's / resisters they're dirt cheap. & look more bussines
like........Then again you might like the Acewell surround & think mine looks wank..... Hey ho, Alan......... Ps can't remember the model but I think ????? one/some of the Acwells cannot display temp & another function at the same time... It's one or the other. Worth checking ???.

JanBros · Post by **JanBros** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:24 pm

alanw wrote:Ps can't remember the model but I think ????? one/some of the Acwells cannot display temp & another function at the same time... It's one or the other. Worth checking ???.

temp and fuel gauge I believe.

ScottaKR · Post by **ScottaKR** » Sat Nov 15, 2008 11:41 pm

alanw wrote:Scott, I think Acewell is a good choice, but I'm not a fan of the idiot light surround. You could save a bit money, buy the std dash without the surround & use LED's / resisters they're dirt cheap. & look more bussineslike........Then again you might like the Acewell surround & think mine looks wank..... Hey ho, Alan.........

I can't remember seeing (or find pics of) your setup, but will always consider something if it'll save me some coin. I've looked at the ones without the surrounds (heaps cheaper), but the extra hassle of setting up stand-alone idiot lights had put me off considering I'd still have to label each light clearly to keep it legal. I'd still like to see what you (and others) have done in regards to this.

alanw wrote:Ps can't remember the model but I think ????? one/some of the Acwells cannot display temp & another function at the same time... It's one or the other. Worth checking ???.

Always worth checking these things. The ones I'm looking at all display the fuel and temp up the RHS of the screen.

ScottaKR · Post by **ScottaKR** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:39 am

Well, the piston turned up today.
It may take a little bit more work than I first thought, but I think it could work.

Side by side.

The ring pins are only about 2mm closer together on the RG pistons, but I'm pretty sure they'll be fine as there is plenty of room either side of the rear transfer port.

I joined them together with the gudgeon pin.

As you can see, the gudgeon pin is set about 2mm higher in the RG piston. The skirt is also about 3mm longer (measued from the gudgeon pin) and there is no cut-out for the rear transfer port.
The dome shape looks pretty much right.

The biggest problem I can think of is the pin hieght, as shaving 2mm off the base will most likely give the same issues as found with the KR1 when fitting the TZ pistons. On the other hand, if you take the 2mm off the top of the barrel, that effectively raises the ports by that amount (which would be a little over the top). Perhaps 1mm off each would be OK?

Any ideas peple?