Misc: Everything Else Air Fuel Gauge 02 Sensor Lambda Sensor

Cyborg

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Well if the knob next door was riding a Gold Star, or an old Ariel, it would be music to my ears..... plus there is a remote possibility, (even with my shortcomings) I could carry on a semi intelligent conversation with him. For some strange reason, he has to let his unbaffled Harley run for what seems like forever every time he returns home. He has overdosed on the Koolaid and wouldn’t have a clue what a Gold Star or Ariel was. Cue that West Park video.....
 

Magnetoman

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For some strange reason, he has to let his unbaffled Harley run for what seems like forever every time he returns home.
A few years ago we were on a several day ride through the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico. One morning all of us were blasted awake in the motel at 7am by the sound of what turned out to be a Ducati with non-stock exhaust. A group of Ducati fans had trailered their bikes to the start of the mountain roads, ridden to the top, and were preparing to ride back down to the trailer that morning. One jerk had his bike on a rear stand "warming it up," as he said in answer to the question "what the f*** are you doing!", while he was putting on his Carl Fogerty replica leathers. The motel was an old fashioned one built with a courtyard in the center so the sound was shared by everyone. Two in our group were construction workers, either one of whom could have beaten the four Ducati riders to a pulp, and for a while I thought that was going to happen,
 

Mike 40M

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Many thanks for all this information. I've read this thread a couple of times, trying to understand most of it.
Anyhow, I fitted an AFR meter to my little Honda classic racer. Tested it on track this weekend. At idle about 12. At racing speeds (between 8000 and 11500 revs) staying between 12.5 and 13. It seems to me that even such a simple setup gives some useful information. Am I correct?
Though the ambient temperature was 5 centigrade ( 40F ). I'll have to wait until May to test at more decent temperatures.
 

Magnetoman

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It seems to me that even such a simple setup gives some useful information. Am I correct?
Yes, as long as the sensor is located far enough upstream from the end of the pipe, it is that simple.

Your post reminds me I'm a little behind in my plans to continue my tests. Shortly after my last post my attention was diverted by riding in the annual Irish Rally, and shortly after I returned a 6 ft. x 12 ft. enclosed trailer entered my life which most of my "garage time" has been spent modifying ever since.

Making a long story short, when I rode on the Cannonball a year ago I made detailed notes of the rigs the other teams used for support, and how they were configured, and decided a suitably-customized 6'x12' trailer would be optimum for my use. After half-heartedly looking for one for the past year, in early September a used trailer appeared on Craigslist at an attractive price and I bought it. Phase I was to get it modified to haul two (three in a pinch) bikes, which I completed a few days ago. Future Phases will be to install a toolbox that I already have, fabricate a bespoke workbench, add LED lighting, etc., which will be an ongoing part-time effort in the months to come.
ETrack_installation02.jpg

Anyway, there's a direct relationship of the above to air/fuel mixtures. A limitation I've faced is only being able to make jetting runs in a suburban area within about three miles of home. The trailer will let me quickly load a bike, tools, jets, and laptop and haul the lot to a more suitable location out of town where I can make longer runs over more varied terrain, download and analyze the data, rejet the bike, and make additional runs. In other words, the trailer is an essential accessory to my A/F instrumentation.
 

Mike 40M

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Thanks, I'm now a bit more confident in continuing my tests.
As we now have 4 classic racers, I recently had to add a trailer after the racevan. Though only 10ft long, it seems to work well. One problem is where to load everything in the trailer to get the right balance. Too much weight forward gives to much load on the hitch. Too much weight in the rear gives awful wobbling at speed.
 

Magnetoman

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Though only 10ft long, it seems to work well. One problem is where to load everything in the trailer to get the right balance. Too much weight forward gives to much load on the hitch. Too much weight in the rear gives awful wobbling at speed.
For my needs I decided 10 ft. would be too cramped, and 14 ft. would be roomier but harder to maneuver and park, so the Goldilocks length for me was 12 ft.

The rule of thumb is you want ~10-15% of the trailer's weight on the hitch. In my case, since the axle is behind the center of the trailer, I measured that weight to be ~160 lbs., which is roughly 10% of the weight of the empty trailer. If I tie down both bikes at the front of the E-tracks it will put their center of weight directly over the axle, increasing the overall weight by ~800 lbs. but in a "neutral" position. The toolbox and workbench will add weight on the hitch (that I'll measure) which, once I know that measurement, I'll be able to offset by loading the clothes, supplies, spares, etc. either at the front or back of the trailer as appropriate to reach the 10-15% goal.
 

Magnetoman

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Returning to AFR measurements, after having set the jetting of my Competition and Catalina Gold Stars using my Innovate-based instrumentation package, this week I had the first opportunity to measure their fuel consumption. I rode the Competition through 9 miles of stop-and-go city traffic and then another ~30 miles up a twisty road at a reasonably sporty pace to the top of an 8000-ft. mountain, while a visitor followed on the Catalina. We swapped bikes at the top and rode back down, stopping at a filling station after having covered 72 miles.

Remarkably, the Competition got 69 mpg (83 miles/UK gallon -- since you're leaving the EU I won't bother converting to liters since you'll never have to use that Continental unit again after next week...) and the Catalina got 79 mpg (95 mpUKg). For comparison, an "eco-friendly" Toyota Prius is rated at 50 mpg for combined city/highway driving.

For ~60-year old motorcycles with not-new Amal carburetors to achieve 40-60% better mileage than a modern, eco-friendly sedan is remarkable. This shows that when you use an AFR meter to properly adjust carburetors for performance, you get eco-friendly as a bonus. Your motorcycle, your wallet, and the environment will thank you so using an AFR meter is a win-win-win situation.
 

Cyborg

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Certainly a lot more than I would have expected. BTW, did you venture down that observer effect rabbit hole? Not that it matters (at least not to normal folk) in the grand scheme of things if the bike is behaving and getting that kind of mileage....
 

Magnetoman

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did you venture down that observer effect rabbit hole?
I haven't yet, but will. I have the probe suitably modified but as a result of the friend coming to town I removed all the instrumentation from the Catalina before I could make those measurements. It will go back on sometime in the future, but modifying the trailer continues to suck up most of my garage time for now. But, thanks to the time I've been spending on it I've made a lot of progress.
 
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