Last pic of the carb tucked away behind the engine panel.

Pics of my rear disc kit.
I bought this when I was in Manila last. I contacted a modifier on facebook.
J2Cab. Search for him. He has got the kit using a Honda Sonic rear disc, machined down hub (sonic?) rear caliper sub assembly in a Honda box, complete with part number and KTM (same as Luc's) name cast into the bracket.
I havn't seen the end result as I am still at work and my bike was worked on a shop (in Binh Thanh, possibly Hiens? and delivered to my home, along with the custom painted Vespa for my wife)
Comments from the 2 mechanics who rode the bikes to my home was the Vespa is really really really slow.... Nothing but smiles from riding my bike hahah

Since we are talking about mufflers, I've also included pics of a Yoshi TRC muffler I opened up.
This muffler was damaged when my wife "borrowed" (ie stole) my scooter to go do some errands, then got hit by a drunk rider on his 50cc Honda chaly/monkey bike resulting is the damage to the carbon u can see.

I decided to open it up and re-skin it in SS.

Note the inner "tube" with fine mesh covering it, Now the holes on the inside of the muffler are much larger, This means that there is some 5 layers of material surrounding the exiting exhaust gas.
1) Perforated steel sheet, rolled into a tube (look inside the muffler in pic #3)
2) steel wool type soft material
3) fine mesh enclosing the steel wool. I had to be careful as there were many steel pieces exposed. Didn't want to get splinters (pic 4,5)
4) Fiberglass matting (the black is carbon from the exhaust where it was broken pic 4,5,6)
5) Carbon or in this case Stainless outer skin. (pic7)

Not noob....but: not only a R15 wheel would cost much more than some - actually simple - machining and one alloy part, one would anyway have to add the cost of the disc, the caliper and it's support, the master cylinder, the modification of the brake pedal.... and on top of that it would not fit the tyre!

Me, I have seen your bike, gnak gnak gnak!!! Looks real GREAT, mate!

Looking forward for some other runs together, when I shall have my new camshaft, and with now the Arrow muffler w/o db killer: big improvement , but the bike still struggles to go past 8.000 rpm...!!???!?!

Still have to play with jetting, maybe even cone air filter (right after having just spend 40 USD on the K&N for FZ16...!), then maybe change my Mikuni CV carb for a direct action one= another couple hundred bucks (the real ones, for US!).....but pretty confused about that: our most beloved Hary was recommending - as you know! - a 28mm. Mikuni-Sudco, Joel was fitting the same size at a time, but now goes for a 33mm, Josh was saying 28mm. Sudco at first but also says the 33 Keihin is OK (full 5mm. jumps, bang!) ....seems nobody's sure of what to say!

That is the problem with tuning: you can never be sure, you just experiment, fail or success: the trial and error cycle! In the meantime, it costs you money, you get frustrated by wrong promises, you wait (and wait....and wait....!), and in the end you may/ may not get what you expected....!!!

You have pretty much summed it up Luc, We are paving the way, Paying for people to learn (In Saigon)
Usually we reap the benefits of what the people before us have sown but in our case we are the pathfinders/explorers/adventurers
But its ok, Its only money
If we had a dream/cub/wave/RGV/exciter then no problems, plenty of parts for these bikes and much of the development is already done. Checkbook racing is what I'd call it, Our bikes on the other hand.....

I had asked Josh for a bigger carb. He wasn't too sure about it but I kept asking him for a bigger carb. After the silver Dylan was getting built up and run in with the 35mm carb Josh finally relented and said ok.
His biggest concern was air velocity.
In the end we spent all day and the next trying to tune it to work but to no avail. The smallest jet was still over fueling.
Next size down was 33mm.
He lent me one 33mm carb from one of his race bikes while a new one was ordered.

It took a full day to get it tuned to what it was like when we had our ride together. The only problem was the slide not closing when the throttle was released.
According to the mechanics the new carb has not got that problem.

Regarding your bike struggling to go past 8K is may be airflow related?
Even with the Arrow with no DB killer your bike still doesn't like revving past 8k?
Is there any spark breakdown? engine missfires?
I didn't notice anything when I rode it but there was a loss of urgency after 6500 I noticed (I only went to 8500RPM)
Perhaps the engine has run out of puff? Then again u have ported the head, intake and bigger valves over stock.

Your CV carb has a vacuum operated slide, Is it fully opening? Is the diaphram punctured?
Can your engine get enough air from your box airfilter? I know if there is a little restriction in the tiny intake the engine will not rev.
When I bought my FZS the mech was doing the final presales checks, he put the tool kit infront of the intake, not under the seat, He couldn't get it to rev past 4k.

Perhaps the new CDI will help it to rev.
Just remember what J2Cab (philippines modifier/tuner) told me about HID and aftermarket CDI's. Hopefully it won't happen.

Modifications and legalities for FZ

Hey people. I was wondering if anyone could help me out with the performance mods for FZ16. I read somewhere that you can legally upgrade your exhaust to an FFE without making the insurance or the RTO papers invalid.
And also help needed to find good mod shops and aftermarket parts in Pune.

Luc's amazing rear disc writeup



Here is the link to Luc's writeup on converting to a rear disc complete with fantastic hand drawn illustrations!

Thread Approved and Merged

Revs like hell up into the red line in the lower gears, that's not what I mean, but it feels like it should get more grunt past 8k rpm. in the higher gears, but gets a bit lazy instead!

The carb works fine (although it certainly still needs some more fine tuning, but cannot find needles!) but I suspect the air filter very much, yes! Even if the K&N is (a little) better than the (clean!) stock paper filter, the bike is better....without any!

As we were saying: experiment, experiment, and experiment again!!!

The fact that a CDI may be original or an aftermarket one does not seem to makes much difference to me, unless the aftermarket one does not have a shut down in case of low voltage, which the stock one has. I do not remember precisely what this guy told you (please refresh old failing memory!), but understand that both the electronics in the CDI and the ballast for the HID will not like low voltage.
I shall fit a bigger lead battery anyway, but not a Li-ion or Li-phosphate: I don't see the point since they do not have a bigger capacity....at least that is what Josh told me...but he was obviously pretty lost on this matter: he only said "they don't work the same" - what does that mean????

I've got the link related to my battery posted below.
Batteries - Ballistic Performance Components


Taken from their FAQ.
How do you compare lithium amp/hour and cold cranking amp ratings to traditional lead acid ratings?


This is what Josh meant when they don't work the same. With a traditional lead acid once its flat its flat, these can recover and be cranked again, recover and crank etc. there is a youtube clip of a ballistics battery starting a HD in the cold. the battery generates heat internally to allow it to stay warm.

I've put in your order of the CDI with Wing Yap and will be collecting it on 8/9.

Seems that this thread on the "Global Indian motorcycle forum" is becoming a private discussion between you and I....two of the (apparently) very few non Indians there!

Well: I just hope that our discussions and the information they contain would be of some use to those wishing to improve the performance of their bike.

What I would not really share with you, though, is the choice of this Lithium-phosphate battery....and the reply to the FAQs that you posted is definitely comforting my opinion. Effectively, and like nearly always, these replies are written by technico-commercial people....very clever in making people think their stuff is great while they are actually being delivered an awful lot of BS! Based on true facts, of course! This reply to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs: nobody ever asked any of these questions, but that is part of the BS), is effectively the epitome of it, which is not surprising when you know it comes from USA who are the great world masters of this sport!

In this reply, they purposely confuse people between the various characteristics of these accumulators of energy, in a chemical form, that are Lead-acid, Li-ion, Li-phosphate, etc... batteries. They intentionally mix power and quantity of energy. They even purely lie when saying that lead-acid manufacturers have been using Amp/ hour as a measure of cranking capability: Ah. is Quantity of energy (Q= I*sigma t.). "Cranking" power is [Voltage * Maximal permissible (or possible) Amperage (P=U*I)].

The basic characteristics of batteries are:
- Capacity, which is the quantity of energy that can be stored (and the quantity that can be delivered, which is different), normally measured in Coulomb or in Joules, but usually in Ah. for batteries.
- Voltage, which depend on the number of cells, the voltage given by these cells depending of their nature.
- Maximal permissible amperage (both on charge and discharge). This essentially depends on the internal resistance of the battery, which varies with different factors.

To these are other characteristics like re-generation capability after excessive drain, or (but how important is is unless racing) weight for the same capacity/ maximum output, etc...

This last characteristic is what is exploited in a misleading way by who wrote these FAQs. It starts in a condescending manner by the "heavy chunk of lead under your seat" (products page) "that was designed in the mid-1,800s". Aren't these batteries for wheeled vehicles, and wasn't the wheel invented well before the 1,800s! So what???
But then they go to the weight/ maximum wattage performance. OK: will concede the fact....but what does it have to do with our concerns??? These Li-phosphate can deliver a lot of cranking power, but also did the lead battery under your seat: didn't it start your engine? So what???

What we really care for is how much quantity of energy (in Coulomb, in Joules, Ah. or whatever...) our battery is capable of providing, being basically a "shock absorber" between the demand (lights, horn, starter motor, ignition, etc...) and the supply from the alternator (depending basically on the revs, of the voltage regulator settings, or the internal resistance of the battery, which also depends of its charge condition: becomes higher when fully charged, or very cold, etc, etc... ). In this, these EVO batteries do NOT perform better than lead ones, weight being equal! They have lower internal resistance than than already low resistance lead-acid ones, allowing smaller batteries to crank bigger engines (but not for long!!!), they may function better at very low temperatures (in Vietnam???), but mind it: they are irremediably dead if drained too low (below 9 Volts and something, they say), while a lead-acid one will simply have lost some of it's lifetime.

Where you are wrong, my dear, is when you say that when a lead battery is flat, its flat! Wrong! Let it rest a bit and it will be able to you some extra juice. A li-ion, phosphate, Cd-Ni, or else: for these, yes!: there is NO recovery. The recovery you mention is for cold start (below 0 deg. F.= -18C.), where the internal resistance of these Li-phosphate batteries at low temperature will allow them to get some power by the heat that the amperage will generate after the first starting trial, allowing them to cold start this big Harley twin like in the video.

As they rightly say: they are designed to be starter batteries. Maybe start once or twice and die after !

Well one Indian is paying rapt attention to this thread

Lots to learn here. Nothing to contribute

So please continue with the tech talk!

Believe me there are many more.

me too bro:-)

And so's me!

Really interesting reading all the stuff, dont have really anything to contribute though.

Its great to see there are others who are watching this thread,
Please feel free to contribute or ask questions. If anyone here can answer it then it will be great.

Personally i did notice this battery I have, though it is majorly overkill as it is more suited for 500-1000cc engines is that it really spins the starter over vs the old lead acid even when fully charged.
Nothing more frustrating than a battery that dies after a few cranks
I also have to leave it for a month when I go to work, Yes I can disconnect the lead acid battery and reconnect it but even so I much prefer to just turn it on, push the starter and there you go. I guess I have bought "reliability" at a premium over the lead acid battery. I also don't have to worry about the terminals getting a build up, acid fumes, acid leaking out the overflow hose etc.

My stock lead acid battery was not holding its charge anymore, Overnight it would loose its charge. I had to kick start it (sometimes 3 kicks, Will I need to overhaul my engine? ) This was a battery in my bike which will turn 1yr old next month.

I have to agree with you, Yanks (or Seppos as we call them in Australia, Rhyming slang "Septic Tank" rhymes with Yank hense the shortened term Seppo, as we tend to put a 'O' on the end of shortened words. ie Milko for the milkman, Bottleo for the alcohol bottle shop) do like to market themselves up, Some BS other half truths and some knowns hidden between the lines.

End of the day, my battery was dead, I had been planning to change out my battery when it died with a Lithium type, Josh has some nice batteries that will work after I've been away at work for 1month and have a nice sliding scale warranty. Just have to see if it works in VN because as we know warranty in VN is another "unknown"

I've been away for over 2weeks now, My bike was dropped off at my house around 1week or so ago, It will be interesting to see how the battery (and bike) performs.

Must go, picking up a CDI for someone