Tr1ke build in Suffolk by complete newbie

[r1ckbuilder]

Hi Erik,

They're chrome around the lens's but then the body is a gun metal grey.  I got them through RTR. 

Cheers,

[4sfed]

Rick,
Dude thanks, you are a life saver I cut that ugly part under the column off in about 2 seconds after your post. I was affraid if I cut the bottom off it might break the steering shaft lose inside the column(plastic bushings and all). Thanks again for the up-close pic of the wings. Now I know how I'll do mine. Spent my day trimming the hood(bonnet) for radiator and clearance for suspention.

2 means of theft deterent? I live in the wild west of the United States where you can buy a pistol with a drivers licence, and the only limit for ammo is the GVW of your truck. Trust me nobody will try to steal my toy. There is more at stake hear than just getting caught stealing. There is even a machine gun store, that's not even a joke. 

Thanks again,
Derrick

[erik]

Dec 31, 2014 14:06:01 GMT r1ckbuilder said:

Hi Erik,

They're chrome around the lens's but then the body is a gun metal grey.  I got them through RTR. 

Cheers,

They look pretty cool! I haven't seen them in the RTR shop tough. Not sure if they have them in LHD as well. I may do a similar job with a rattle can and get them local.

Where are your DRL lights? Are those in the fender indicators?

grtz!
Erik

[r1ckbuilder]

Hi Eric,

This is the link to the RTR shop for the headlights -

www.roadtrackrace.co.uk/acatalog/info_RTRPHOTON1.html

On the fenders, the DRL's are the LED strip at the front and the indicators are mounted on the top.

Cheers,

[erik]

Yes I have seen those lights, but they aren't chrome/grey. Not sure if they are LHD or RHD too... Might be in need for the extra bracket which others do provide with the lights so need to browse some more.

Found the DRL on page7 pretty neat!

[r1ckbuilder]

Afternoon all,

So one of my winter projects was to upgrade the clutch cable. I hadn't had any specific issues with the old one (yet) but you know when you get the feeling of big foot pressure, strong clutch springs and little cable in-between, it probably ain't going to turn out well and I didn't fancy being stuck in the middle of nowhere, not being able to get 1st gear.

Went with Slugshot's suggestion of the Cable-tec light weight control cable.  Don't think I'll get any worries now.  Just had to make a mounting bracket at each end.

Had the back wheel up and the clutch works a treat.  Just waiting for some decent weather now.

[slugshot]

They are a bit expensive for what is just a cable but should last for ever providing there's no tight bends.

Agreed re the weather, It can't come soon enough.

[r1ckbuilder]

Evening one and all,

Sun came out yesterday and the roads dried off, so needing little excuse, I donned the leather jacket and went out for drive to check the new clutch cable and brake pads.  Clutch cable was rock solid and the pads, a 100% better than the old ones (cheers Nigel, Mintex 1144's are the future).  An action Cam is on the buy list for the next couple of months.

Had a wide boy in his Focus up me backside coming out of my village.  I was in second going about 30, so I pressed the go button and what seemed like a second later I was dong mid 60's and the Focus was a memory (and very small in the rear view mirrors).  Sweet!     Roll on the spring.

Was wondering what others use for coolant?  I use some distilled water with some water wetter at the movement which seems fine.  Most of the R1 forums I had a look a seem to go with this but there's so many options, wondered what the more experienced had discovered?

Cheers,

[slugshot]

Very interesting that you liked the 1144 pads, your old must have been contaminated or faulty as the std black ebc pads stop mine fine, did you de grease the rotors before you fitted them ?

As for distilled water and water wetter, why use the wetter unless of course you're borderline overheating.

I use Rock oil's Kool, its a pre mixed coolant thats good for all year round, there's lots of brands out there thats pre mixed, I'm not sure if your choice has any anti freeze ability.

[Deleted]

I used Pink Bluecol in mine, never had any overheating issues due to coolant. Only leaking silicone pipes.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using proboards

[r1ckbuilder]

Thanks guys,

I gave the disks a thorough clean when I tried to recover the performance of the old pads. They were getting better but I was getting impatient so thought I'd try some replacements.

On the coolant front, it seemed everyone was going on about water wetter so I went with it. The temp behaves itself so I better be sure it's not me just looking for an excuse to buy something for the sake of it. Although admittedly I've not done any long trips yet. I didn't consider any antifreeze properties as I'm a lucky boy with a insulated garage and I've never seen the temperature fall below 4 degrees.

[Deleted]

The anti freeze isn't just for the weather, it helps prevent rust and corrosion, just running a vehicle with water is not enough no matter how many products you add to it, I would suggest draining the system and replacing with a good mix of anti-freeze.

[erik]

Water is used on steam machines
The low boiling temp of water could make this quite risky for our use. The coolant will reach up to 105C. Steam is a bad heat dissipator. Like Nick said, use professional coolant. the supplyer is able to look up the correct coolant for your engine.

br,
Erik

[r1ckbuilder]

Thanks all,

I will get some pre mixed coolant. When I was investigating what was best there were so many opinions about certain additives causing wear to components like the water pump etc, etc, I got a headache.  Should have asked the forum in the first place,

Cheers,

[Deleted]

The amount of time any additive or coolant will take to wear away components will be sooooo long, I bet you have sold the vehicle before then, I never add additives to coolant, just no need to at all. I ran an R1 TR1KE, with standard cooling fan, the fan maintained the temp if it ran hot, you can go over board and replace the radiator with an aluminium core new one and fit two fans, but there really is no need to. The main issue I had was sealing the hoses to stop air lock in the system, once I fitted the rear header tank, it solved that issue, the other issue I had was silicone hoses, I found them to be rubbish and replaced them with rubber ones, never had any issues from there onwards. Plenty people use silicone hoses without hitch, but on my TR1KE, they were terrible.