Project 44 - 400/YZF Hybrid SHE STARTED TODAY!!!!!!

[yamaha_george]

Some one looking for some of my stickers? I got a lot of them on hand.

And I thought I was being subtle LOL

[China_Racer_1]

about 4" by 4"

The Chinese characters say Pu Lung or in English "Grand Dragon"

how much?????? am I supposed to charge money for these things?

I will give 4 to whoever wants them if the pay for the envelope/shipping....... $52.38. J/K ha ha ha

I can find out what postage is but its not much.

I got about 500 of these things left from a show I did in Indianapolis year before last.

If you want some send me a PM with you address

FYI I tried to include at least two with each set of rear sets I sold. I think I stuffed 4 in each box. Might have missed a few people though. If anyone wants some from the rear set sales let me know.

[China_Racer_1]

Oh yea a bit of an update on tehUPS fiasco.

My engine was in one box. The head and carbs and misc parts in an other box.

So they setteld the claim for the first box for 1500 USD. Waiting on the second claim for Box #2. total claim was for 2200 usd.

With this money I cna get the head fxed and get the engine shipped with basically no cash out of my pocket. Hope UPS follows through rather quickly though.

[ragedigital]

That's some good news. It would be nice to hear that thing fired up before year's end!

[haunter]

That's some good news. It would be nice to hear that thing fired up before year's end!

yeah thats great news!

[fadlan12]

great looking work. Is that sticker/translation in mandarin?

[China_Racer_1]

great looking work. Is that sticker/translation in mandarin?

Yes Mandarin is the common language here. Not sure of I spelled the 'Pu Lung 'right my Chinese writting skills are pretty poor. I can speak it but writing and reading it is a bit ruff.

I don't think God intended 40+ year olds to learn Chinese. Could lead to a stroke I bet... too muchbrain strain ha ha.

[yamaha_george]

great looking work. Is that sticker/translation in mandarin?

Yes Mandarin is the common language here. Not sure of I spelled the 'Pu Lung 'right my Chinese writting skills are pretty poor. I can speak it but writing and reading it is a bit ruff.

I don't think God intended 40+ year olds to learn Chinese. Could lead to a stroke I bet... too muchbrain strain ha ha.

Steve,
it really depends on what meaning you put on "Grand Dragon" in english it gives the impression of some large magestic mythical creature. Unfortunately in Chinese it is a little more complex you could mean an immense man hidden in the crowds .
or a vast mythycal beast, or even a violent & destructive man standing out in a crowd


DRAGON

GRAND / SUPERIOR

GRAND / MAGNIFICENT

GRAND IMMENSE

[China_Racer_1]

great looking work. Is that sticker/translation in mandarin?

Yes Mandarin is the common language here. Not sure of I spelled the 'Pu Lung 'right my Chinese writting skills are pretty poor. I can speak it but writing and reading it is a bit ruff.

I don't think God intended 40+ year olds to learn Chinese. Could lead to a stroke I bet... too muchbrain strain ha ha.

Steve,
it really depends on what meaning you put on "Grand Dragon" in english it gives the impression of some large magestic mythical creature. Unfortunately in Chinese it is a little more complex you could mean an immense man hidden in the crowds .
or a vast mythycal beast, or even a violent & destructive man standing out in a crowd

Proffesor George,
Or it could mean plain old GRAD DRAGON with no meaning what so ever other than in Chinese sounded like my last name a little "La PLUME" take the "Pu Lung" and the "Plume " part of my name and now couple that witha dragon tatoo I have and I Now I got a compnany name and the Tatoo is my company logo.

No meaning at all. Just a name.

If I have to pick a meaning. I would have to go with the "violent man standing out in the crowd" ha ha J. K.

Funny I have never had any Chinese even approach me with this issue of name meaning. Dragons are always equated with a grand being from what I can see over here. Never saw a negative issue with one.

[yamaha_george]

Proffesor George,
Or it could mean plain old GRAD DRAGON with no meaning what so ever other than in Chinese sounded like my last name a little "La PLUME" take the "Pu Lung" and the "Plume " part of my name and now couple that witha dragon tatoo I have and I Now I got a compnany name and the Tatoo is my company logo.

No meaning at all. Just a name.

If I have to pick a meaning. I would have to go with the "violent man standing out in the crowd" ha ha J. K.

Funny I have never had any Chinese even approach me with this issue of name meaning. Dragons are always equated with a grand being from what I can see over here. Never saw a negative issue with one.

Steve,
Well that makes life simpler as only us westerners can, I remember discussing the shades of meaning by altering a pictogram just slightly & getting told off for getting the stroke order wrong by my fist wife Sui Lin when she attempted to educate her hairy barbarian husband.

By the way have you changed your web site URL as it now comes up 404 ?

[China_Racer_1]

George, Ha yes simplicity works.

Honestly though the Character in my Company name is the third choice Grand /Magnificent.

web address is http://www.gdgparts.com

UPDATE: October 7th 2008

I went to the shop today and spent abotu 4 hours on teh bike.
1st I tried the 1994 TZ bodywork..just one more time jsut to confirm it woudl nto work.

2nd I tried the lowers with the TZ Upper......hmmmm maybe I can do something with this.

End result was I graphted on the TZ upper to the FZR-400 3EN lower. I say I did but I taped it all together and got it in place.

Tomorrow I go back to do a bit of Fiberglass work to get it squared up.

I figured the TZ upper was what I was looking for. It has a more modern aero dynamic look to it, it stays in the Yamaha family so it was realatively easy to hack up and fit and best of all it was free. had a few sets left over from my TZR which were colelcting dust. Now they have a purpose in life once again.

I got a few pics and will post them tomorrow.

[China_Racer_1]

Ok, So like Iwas saying I had to really mickey Mouse the body work around to make it work.

I hacked part of the stock (FZR400 3EN model) lowers off. But I kept the piece in case I need to put it back.

I then took the top part of a TZ set of skins and hacked on it a bit.

The TZR looked like this in its prime (So you can see the body style - the bikes - not hers!) But on these fairings the left half goes half way down the bike. While the right side connects up at the top.



This is a side by side of the TZR upper on the left and the FZR on the right.
Should look a lot better with the more aero dynamic looking fornt end.



So I had to put the upper and lower together then cut out the area I wanted as a whole.

I then marked up and cut them into the moutned 400 fairings.

Here are the results. Note: I obtained a bit of fiberglass and resin to fix these up and get them ready for painting.






I plan to sand them down myself and get them just the way I want them.

I might be able to convince a shop next door to me to make a few sets for cheap for me if I pay for the mold. But that has yet to begin the talking stage.

Oh and I stopped by Johns today and gave him the chain for the sprockets so he can get going now. He promised me I would have it for the 21st of this month. We will see. Either way it means I ride it on the road here illegally to dial it in. I am fine with that.

Paint shceme will be laid out by me right on the skins themselves so my painter has No doubt or question what goes where and what color is what. He will airbrush on the spnsors name and I decided to allow him to paint a few stripes on the carbon to highlight it but very minimal. Just high lights and a few accents.

Maybe somehting like this.



I will go to the shop when he paints this and help out with the Carbon fiber look alike paint job we will try, as well.

Just a final note: Obtaining the resin and fiberglass for this project was about imposible. I had to go to a fiberglass factory that makes lowering kits and lliterally beg for them to sell me product at a super inflated price.

I got 2 meters square of fiber and 2 liters of resin with some hardner. Hardly enough for what I want to do so I need to plan it out well and stick to my plan. Total cost was 120 RMB so about 20 usd. That was too much for a local price and I sent my Chinese worker to get it so they would not see a westerner and jack the price up.
They just don't want to deal with small fries like me. ha ha

[China_Racer_1]

So Iworked for the past few days on getting the fairings put together.

I started with the full lower and a TZ upper.

I ended cutting up the upper to the point that it fit ont the lower right below the stock slots in the side.

Resulting in a smooth side panel now with no blinker holes no stupid sloted openings that do little.



I like the look and I ended up witha bit of a retro look via the 1995 TZ upper and I was able to keep the very bottom of the lowers to fit around the side covers.

This meant a lot of saved time trying to cut them in.

After all this drys up I will sand her down and finish her off and prep for painting. We will base coat black, put on a window screen and lightly spray a gun metal grey on the top over the screen to see how close to a carbon fiber look I can get. A few coats of clear and hopefully it will look close enough to pass at a glance.

I did a quick down and dirty mock up of the paint scheme. Did not have the right colored yellow but you get the idea. The black will be a carbon fiber look if we can get it right.

[China_Racer_1]

Update: Wednesday Oct 15 2008

I got the body work up to the shop where John assisted me in making some cool threaded studs that screw into the original mounting holes on the frame and are the right length to keep the fairing away from the frame and engine.

I did a test ft of the fairing that I hacked, slashed and altered and the SOB fit right up. I was speechless. The only thing that needs to be done at this point is to fixt the front fairign stay.

I plan to hack up the original light bracket/fairign stay and make it as simple as need be to keep the risers where they needs to be.

I have the added support of a tube that will run straight out the front to the nose of the fairing. Being a race upper this was already there so I just need to weld on the tube and thread tap the end to accept a moutning bolt.

Right now I will just have to take a few days to sand the thing down now that I know it fits.

I will get some pics of the thing sanded down before we try the carbon look alike effect. Right now the painter will do some testing with black and a few shades of grey to get the look we want to match the OYA Carbon sponsored parts.

On the lighter side of teh news I got a new contract buildign pizza ovens so my financial future is loooking secure for next race season and I also picked up a sponsor for both the 4 race series at the F-1 track in Zhu Hai (South of China - top speed 172/MPH or 285/Kph give or take) and the Shanghai Festval of speed's three races.

So seven event schedueld. The Pan Delta race series in Juhai is F.I.M. rules and will be for points, trophies and cash. Shanghai is just trophy and cash but its mostly exebition I feel than a bonified series. Still its all we have here. If we were to go by points I would be in Second or third place for sure as most of the racers have not been to all the events so I move up by default.

[China_Racer_1]

I got the bike from John, who was working on the rear wheel, and took a few hours to do a final fit before I hack up the body a bit more then sand down and paint.

I will add frame sliders somewhere on the bike as well.

But today just fitting up parts.

One thing I had John machine out was a cap to go over the stem on the R-1 tripples. I need to make them look like the fork tune caps a bit and add some angle for tightening it up.

I also got an old light weight aluminum upper fairing bracket from my TZR/TZ hybrid and fit it in to see whats up.

I think I can use it and will work on it over the next few days as time allows. I added a tube from the bracket to the back side of the fairings nose area which allowed me to hack off a lot of the stock parts, and tubes of the headlight basket.

Sorry about the bad quality it was the camera on my i phone