Japan Meets Britain

[teazer]

Hi teazer,

Not to start a discussion into deep, but when a inlet port is polished, the mixture easily condensates on a mirror finish, making a cold start worse. And on top of that, it doesn't have any advantage over a grid 400 surface.

Jensen

Absolutely agree with you there and had a similar conversation somewhere else a while ago. The expression "port and polish" is used around here and my guess is that some people will actually polish the ports and others mean that it will have a smooth sanded finish.

If Mr Ladd is good, I'd expect he knows better than to polish the ports to a mirror finish - let's hope so.

As for a cam, I like Megacycle road and track cams but I have never tried it on teh street. It should work well, but will tend to lose some bottom end. With a 350 kit, that should be less of an issue though.

[Vince Lupo]

Hi teazer,

Not to start a discussion into deep, but when a inlet port is polished, the mixture easily condensates on a mirror finish, making a cold start worse. And on top of that, it doesn't have any advantage over a grid 400 surface.

Jensen

If Mr Ladd is good, I'd expect he knows better than to polish the ports to a mirror finish - let's hope so.

As for a cam, I like Megacycle road and track cams but I have never tried it on teh street. It should work well, but will tend to lose some bottom end. With a 350 kit, that should be less of an issue though.

I will be sure to go over all of this with Mr. Ladd prior to his commencing the work -- hopefully Mr. Ladd has been in business for 50 years because he is good and listens to his customers -- we'll see!

As far as the cam goes, would I be better off just sticking with the stock cam?

[Vince Lupo]

So I just picked up the head and cylinders from John, and he found the source of the kickstart moving on its own in 2nd gear. Seems that the shaft is wearing again on the kickstart side, and he said that if we simply replace the shaft and bushings, it's going to do it again in 10,000 miles (which for me would be about 3 years). It appears that oil doesn't seem to make it down to that end of the shaft, so we're kicking around (pardon the pun!) the idea of him either custom-machining a new shaft, or doing the 5 speed transmission conversion. Of course, the Nova transmission is over $2000, so I don't know. Any idea how it compares to the Phil Denton 5 speed? That one's over $2600!

The one good thing is that after having put about 15,000 miles on the rebuild (which was done about 3-4 years ago), all the other components in the engine look really good -- no wear to the cams etc, and everything else looks clean.

So if I did in fact go ahead with the 5 speed, then I'd have a CB77 with a 350 kit, ported and polished head, 5 speed transmission, Amal 26mm carbs, TOGA mufflers...hmm, starting to sound more like a Read Titan!

[Vince Lupo]

Just sent the cylinders off to Bore-Tech yesterday, and will likely have them back within about a month.

And, I just came back from dropping the head off to Ladd's Porting. I spoke with Mr. Ladd himself, and went over everything with him (particularly what you guys suggested). He was in full agreement, and let's just also say that Mr. Ladd is the right man for the job....he definitely knows what he's doing, and there was nothing about the CB77 head that surprised him. So the head is in very safe hands!

So the only other piece of the puzzle is the 5 speed transmission. I've already corresponded with Gerry Cain and the folks at Nova, and hopefully that will come through next month.

[jensen]

Hi Vince,

I remember your criticism on the bomber, something like a bike not in balance, vibrations etc.
Expect some extra vibration when putting on a 350 kit, beware to keep the bike in balance.

Jensen

[Vince Lupo]

I might have a solution to that situation, and it's about 10 minutes away from me:
http://www.houseofbalance.com

[Vince Lupo]

So I'm doing my research on the 5 speed transmissions and am pretty well ready to pull the trigger, but then I discover the Phil Denton 5 speed transmission. This one claims to not require any modification at all, whereas the Nova transmission requires a bit of filing here and there to fit. Anyone know the difference between these two 5 speed transmissions?

Everything else is coming along -- I spoke with Bill at Bore-Tech, and the piston kit/cylinder boring should be done within about 10 days. I also picked up a set of high-zoot valve springs, and everything else is pretty well waiting on the transmission for things to start cooking. Just need to decide between the Nova and the Phil Denton!