My New Best Friend

I just spent two weeks on the road (work related), so I was pretty eager to get my hands dirty and dig into my motor. The prelude to my [work] day was a shopping spree to the local hardware stores. I needed a 29mm socket to pop off the clutch nut, but things went a little differently. Home Depot didn't have squat for their single socket selection. I did happen to find 16oz rubber mallets for under $5. That wasn't on my shopping list, but it made me happy, so I bought it. I later went to Lowes for the socket- they didn't have the 29mm, but they had a 30. I thought I'd take a chance that it still might fit, so I bought it. Silly me. What'd you know...it didn't fit. Oh, well...nothing a quick trip to Sears can't fix.

I spent some time splitting the "new" case. Man! am I glad I bought that new rubber mallet! That made easy and quick work of getting the two halves apart! It's the best five bucks I've spent in a long time. The case came apart fine, but the tranmission was a bitch to get out. The sealant was really tough to break apart and I didn't want to whomp on the shafts too hard. With a little patience and a piece of wood, everything turned out good.

Next came the old motor. I pulled off the heads and it was looking grim. There was so much carbon buildup in the domes of the head and all over the crowns of the pistons it was ridiculous. I hammered on the cylinders with my new mallet and yanked them off. I was a little surprised to see that I had two different types of pistons! The left side did not look like it had the holes typical of an RD400. I'm pretty sure it's a piston for an RD350. What kind of yahoo owned this bike before me? No wonder the bike was always a little hard to tune. I'm glad I'm doing a complete teardown, so I can build it up the right way. I got the pistons and bearings off, now it's time to take out the clutch.

I did happen to make it out to Sears and they did have the 29mm socket that I needed. This time, I brought the nut in with me, so I could make absolutely sure I wouldn't need to do any returns, since Sears now has a very strict return policy.

Zero Factory No More

While traveling on business this past week, I happened to be in Torrance, California. I have read so much about Oshima and the incredible pipes he creates for RD400's at his shop, Zero Factory. I found his phone number and address on the Internet and called his shop. No one picked up- there was a generic phone message, so I left a generic message. I went hunting for his shop. What I found was a Japanese auto parts place. I asked the guy what happened to Zero Factory. Apparently, Oshima couldn't didn't want to deal with the high rent, so he went looking for another place for his business. That was two and a half years ago. Bummer.

I called the phone number again, leaving a detailed message this time, just in case Oshima actually gets the messages. To my surprise, he called me back. He told me that he never found another place to set up his shop. I asked him if he's still doing work anyway, like out of his garage or something. He told me no and he wasn't willing to make me a set of pipes. Oh, well, looks like I might be going with Spec 2.