I need help adding electrics to a tt500!

[aaron]

Hi, I'm starting up a project bike based on a tt500 motor.  I have a complete bike, but will be making my own frame, subframe, bodywork etc.  suspension/wheels/brakes are all from a '99 ZX-6R.  (overkill, I know - but the price was right)

before I disassemble the tt, I plan on getting a few things sorted - primarily the electrics.  my bike will be roadgoing, so I need headlights, signals, instruments, taillights... etc.

I'm no good with electrics, but I'm wading through "the motorcycle electric techbook" and I'm also taking an electronic theory course.  feel free to dumb down any responses, because I've got no real world knowledge here.....

back on topic:

I guess the easy route is to take an xt system and bolt on what's missing from my bike.  my problem is that I'd prefer a 12V system so I can bolt on more modern accessories.  I know the SR has 12V but how many parts do I need to pull out of the generating system to adapt the SR bits?  will just a different regulator/rectifier and battery do the job? 

I'm planning on led turnsignals, led/bulb combination taillight (an odd looking design I've drawn up) and a headlight from a modern sportbike (haven't settled on one yet - sportclassic or monster are fighting it out with gsxr or busa lights)

please help me here - the electrics frighten me!  I have less fear when I think about supercharging it than adding lights...

[MrFluffy]

Im taking the same route on a xt supermoto Im building, but I haven't got any definate answers so dont take this as gospel as itll all work flawlessly and theres no hidden gotchas. I asked the same question a bit ago...
Im hunting for the 12v generator complete with pickup coil etc and reg/rectifier. The later SR500 had a pulsar coil on the generator, so as long as you get all that you should be ok to remove the atu etc you have now  (the advance is done electronically), youll also want the igniter and the ignition coil too, as the igniter will want to see a certain load on it from the coil or they get upset and overheat. You'll probally want the loom too, unless you fancy making your own from scratch to suit.
From looking at fiches etc it looks do-able and Im not at all afraid of electrics or electronics for that matter too, but the final word is going to be better from someone the other side of the job...
When I can find the SR parts at the right price Ill press on, until they turn up I am just rigging up the stock parts for now to get it running and will swap them out later. I know a way to mod the stock xt generator to give me 12v albeit with crap current output for the meantime.

Are you thinking of putting a blower on a XT? I drew the line at putting one on mine, kept that madness to my GS project which is wearing a SC11 toyota roots style blower and homebrew fuel injection. I did weaken and get a 94mm piston (600cc) and a 38mm delorto, it'd have been rude not to

[MrFluffy]

Ack, I should add that I want to go to electronic ignition too! If you just want the higher output generator, you can probally get away with just the genny baseplate + rotor, and the reg/rectifier too...

[aaron]

thanks for the input!  yep, I'm seriously looking at blowing it - the aisin AMR300 looks perfect but is hard to come by in canada.  another idea is to buy a bigger blower and shorten it.  (mill off a few inches from the rotors and re-case it)  this seems like it might be a headache, but I haven't looked too hard for info.  Going this route would let me use a lysholm twin-screw blower, though...

the purpose behind this bike is to be my buisness card/resume - so I'm hoping to make this bike look lame...
 http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/11/23/goldammer-cycle-works-wins-with-trouble/

(no, I don't really expect to outdo this bike, but I do hope to ride my beast by the goldammer shop to get his thoughts on it!)

also, if you haven't seen it already, here's a link to a blown tt - http://www.dragbikenz.com/racers_pages/steve_green.htm
looks like it's slower than a stock bike though...
 
here's a question for ya - 600cc?  how tough is that thing to start?  is this a commercially available kit?

-aaron

Are you thinking of putting a blower on a XT? I drew the line at putting one on mine, kept that madness to my GS project which is wearing a SC11 toyota roots style blower and homebrew fuel injection. I did weaken and get a 94mm piston (600cc) and a 38mm delorto, it'd have been rude not to

[MrFluffy]

Ill let you know when I start it but I did wimp out and refit the valve lifter this time, I served a apprenticeship with british thumpers in my youth in preparation and I weigh a good 120kgs, removed the valve lifter on my sp400, just nudge it up to compression and lunge
Yes, its a kit I believe wiseco do the 94mm pistons now, but this one came from VD Classics (a thumper specialist shop in france) complete with matching liner etc via the magic of ebay.
A 15 isnt so bad for a xt is it? The supercharger on that bike is the same one I am using on my gs (SC12 doh, not a 11), it gives a displacement of 1200cc per rev, so I imagine its a fair bit underdriven rather than stuffing 2.4L into one 500cc pot (my engine is 860cc at the moment and Im driving at 1:1.5 engine/charger), and possibly he's lost some efficiency as a result. Plus theyre well known for causing intake charge heating above 12psi, so if he's asking for a lot of boost, he's probally being limited by detonation caused by that...
Have you seen the little clutches the SC12 comes with? theyre electromagnetically actuated, the same as on a aircon unit. If your worried about starting, maybe you could bypass the supercharger and flick a switch to turn the blower on madmax style (although madmax was faked, they used a electric motor to spin the gilmer for the effect). The toyota mr2 ecu turns the charger off during steady cruising to save fuel...
What you going to do about a cam? You want a soft cam with very little overlap in a blown motor or the supercharger just blows the charge through the motor during overlap, I imagine most aftermarket cam grinds for the XT would be anything but...

[aaron]

I read it as 15.49 without the supercharger, 16.28 with....

I'm not sure about the cam yet, I'll likely start with stock and go from there.  I'm partway through A. G. Bell's forced induction performance tuning - It goes into the requirements of camshaft profiles for blown engines, but I've shelved it until this quarter is over - I've got enough tech reading to do already!  I've also got a book by joe halle about blowing motorcycles specifically, but haven't even opened it yet...

I had a thought about roots blowers on a thumper recently though - If the air is delivered in pulses, something that delivers the desired volume per revolution could be geared at half speed so the "pulse" coincides with the intake cycle.  If that's the case, the mini blower (M45) would be good for a moderate power gain at 750cc of air per revolution. 

[Jez F]

There was an article in Motocycle Mechanics mag back in the 80's on how to convert 6 volt electrics to 12 volts, tried it on the XT motor that I had at the time and according to the bloke who I sold it to, it worked. I've still got the mag but it's buried in a box in the depths of the garage so it may take a while before I can dig it out.
cheers Jez