Nik Hill

Update on the steeds.

Red Magic has the new aero handlebars and power jet carburettor on. Photos show comparison for handlebars... looks racey. 

While trying to get Red Magic running the throttle cable snapped, which is weird, but it was easily fixed using the inner from a mountain bike gear cable. We eventually got Red Magic running and it wasn’t old gas, it’s a worn out piston and rings. We even tried the “Hail Mary, never fail solution”, and Nulon failed us for the first time ever. Eventually, we swapped Blue Magic’s piston and cylinder on to Red Magic and it fired right up. To confirm the piston and rings were the issue we also swapped Red Magic’s on to Blue Magic and it would not run at all, even with a bit of “Nulon assistance”. So new piston and rings for Red Magic are on order.  

Also saw that Blue Magic’s piston has suffered multiple soft seizures, probably on the last Cancer Society ride before I put the cylinder head temp gauge on it and adjusted the jetting up massively to keep it cool during long periods at wide open throttle. So we have another piston and set of rings on order for Blue Magic as well. The good news is the cylinders generally shrug off the seizures and in most instances they just need a bit of a hone to refresh them.

On a related note, I’m becoming quite the pro at manufacturing base gaskets (they’re needed most times you swap a cylinder over). Now only takes me about three minutes to cut one out of gasket paper, used to be 15 minutes. Smashed out a reasonable stock of them this morning. 

Parts should arrive this week so should have both bikes running by Friday, which allows time to fit the 100km/h gears next weekend. They’re going to be epic… Hopefully I’ll be able to fit the new speedo/tachos before D-Day so we know how fast we’re going without having to use GPS on our phones. Current speedos only go up to 60km/h, that will not do.

I’ve exceeded the $250 target for fundraising and have raised $283. “It’s a kind of Magic” is 5th in the team stakes at $333. So another big thank you to all that have donated to the Cancer Society cause.

Now an update on the state of the steeds. 

Blue Magic has a bit of carbon build up on the piston and spark plug, but this is just because I’ve been running the same jetting around town as I did for the 660km ride to Napier and back. Consider it like the heat shield that process the shuttle during re-entry. It’s doing the same for the piston and using the compression ratio, which means more power. Chances are it’ll burn off in the first few kms at wide open throttle up the motorway during the ride.

Red Magic is still being a bit stubborn and refusing to start. We pulled it apart and found a few chunks of piston dispersed around the engine (see photos). We cleared them out, checked compression, spark and fuel were all good. It’s almost catch, but not quite so we and now think the starting issue is just old gas, which we’ll aim to confirm this weekend. New power jet carb has been set up the same as Blue Magic. Low profile handlebars will go on this weekend for better aerodynamics. Fingers crossed the old gas is causing the starting issue. 

Gear up kits and new digital speedo/tachos will be fitted to both bikes once Red Magic the is running. We’re cutting it fine in terms of time, but I remember once swapping the forks on a bike and then leaving for a track day 300kms away five minutes later so it’s all relative.

Oh and we’re doing this two weeks post surgery to get rid of a gall stone, which isn’t quite ideal. Not supposed to lift heavy things. Lucky the Street Magics are only 75kg.