Can 1983 Honda VT-500 Meet the Vetter Challenge?

[ldjessee00]

Are you going to make the Ohio Vetter event?

[redyaris]

Yes I plan to ride to the Ohio event with Allen and Vic. We plan to meet in Cheyenne and ride to Ohio together. I cleaned the carbs yesterday and the engine seems to be running OK I will take it for a road test in the next week or so.

[ldjessee00]

Looking nice, will you have the front fairing on?

[redyaris]

The front fairing should be on next week, I will post photos when its on. After the front fairing is on all that is left is the lights and some wirering. I will need to take it on some shack down runs before going to Ohio, and then there is always small debugging issues... I have 2 trips planed; one at about 400 km the other about 600 km. then it's off to Ohio.

[redyaris]

I have had the VT500 out for a 20 mile road test and things are looking good although there is still work to be done. I will take it for a 120 mile road test next week. At present I am still working on the internal air flow in the fairing to insure that I have enough air flow for the radiator. One of the pictures shows the headlight mount the other shows how big the area of the lower opening really is. I will be reducing this from the outside in so that more of the air goes around the outside of the front fairing, and the air that does get into the fairing is put to good use.

[redyaris]

Did first real road test today and the results are promising, I can stay in 6th gear at highway speed [70 -80 mph] into headwinds and hills. crosswinds cause very little roll or yaw, passing trucks is not a problem in cross wind.
In the rain my hands and feet stay dry, its so nice to have the foam back rest that the wind pushes my upper body against. I have a few more details to finish which should get better mpg and cooler runing temperatures, It is running in the high end of the normal range and the fan does not come on.
I have added some pictures. I was talking to the priviouse owner of the bike and he said that he had been stoped by the cops and told that he was doing 138km/h and the speedo was reading 110 km/h. I also noticed that I was passing most other vehicals at 110 km/h and that suggested that I was going over 125 km/h! that is about a 10mph error at 70 mph...

[ldjessee00]

Sounds great!

Now, when are you going to start mass production?

[jkv357]

Originally Posted by redyaris

Did first real road test today and the results are promising, I can stay in 6th gear at highway speed [70 -80 mph] into headwinds and hills. crosswinds cause very little roll or yaw, passing trucks is not a problem in cross wind.
In the rain my hands and feet stay dry, its so nice to have the foam back rest that the wind pushes my upper body against. I have a few more details to finish which should get better mpg and and cooler runing temperatures, It is running in the high end of the normal range and the fan does not come on.

You might want to add some defectors to keep the air from hitting your chest. If it's pushing against your chest it's creating drag and not flowing around you.


Jay

[redyaris]

ldjessee00
there is still detail work to be done, and as far as mass production goes it may take some time to get there...

jkv357
that is one of the details to be figured out, so far I have only one idea to try to see if it does enough; which is a peace of slit hose pushed onto the windscreen trailing edge. If that is not enough then i may have to figure out some other form.

[redyaris]

Did some road testing and found that the engine ran hotter than I thought was too high to be good, although it was still in the operating range. So I cut an opening into the front fairing under the head light, this droped the operating temp to bellow the midle of the normal range. I also fabricated some ducting to direct the air toward the radiator. Tomorrow I will retest the new setup.
I have added some pictures