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Timmahh

Bajastafarian Madnes
PLUS member
Messages
3,371
Location
Michigan
found one at one of the LHS' around my place. Got it out the door for a great price. less than i could buy it online for, even after discounts and free shipping.


stil have to do some of the mods. i already swapped the front forks around. need to open the rear wheel and get at the gyro, and do the few tweeks back there.

so ill be spending the rest of the evening reading and looking and inspecting to get this thang setups and ready to go.

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what kind of surprised me is this 2.4 Tatic radio is running of off 4 AAs. thought it would of taken 8.

off to read and wrench.
 
I'm getting one as soon as i get my tax return back..i need to learn more about lipos.
 
ya they (lipos) are a bit different from the NiCd and NiMh days of yore. lol
like moving from a hand crank calculator to the CERN Project. lol or can feel like that.

just buy a good balance charger and decent brand lipos. the rest can be easlily learned.
 
just got done removing the weights. Man that rear wheeel asembly is HEAVY. even with the weights, screws and rings out, its still heafty. may have to see about trimming a bit of weight off that gyro. i can see a way to help it go on a diet, and still have the ability to use the weights, and keep then locked in with the rings.

their are 20 holes so we have 4 options for wieghts
0
2 (180* apart
4 (90* apart
5 (72* apart

if i can dump aroud 1/4 the weight of just the stock gyro, i think it could be much more customizable as far as weighting the gyro. but wont know for sure if its still too much (or if it ever was too much) afer i get a few runs on it.

also swapped the front shocks around so the wheel is in front as should be. its really hard to beleive they purposly assemble them withe wheel trailing. seems like a Major shopping cart effect that way, but this way will be much more stable, though maybe a bit more to handle well.

hoping for a 1st run maiden tomorrow at some point.
 
i had a TT Raptor 30. was able to get hovering. but that in itself was a trick. decided to sell it off before i turned it into a parts vehicle. lol

should be going out later today for a run. want to go thru the shocks and get them setup first.
 
these bikes are much easier to drive than the on road versions. I swapped to bikes from helis years ago. with the dirt bike I handed the controller to pretty much anyone since it's easy to drive.

I took the weights out for street driving and such but found in loose stuff it really helped having them in there. Modifier on rc groups has just made a new cnc gyro that with the weights is as light as the stock one without weights. I was going to be a initial tester but after running at the track with loose dirt I put the weights back in.

you'll enjoy it. I can't wait for the parts to come available to fix mine now. it's like drug withdrawal. It is my fav toy and I can't use it... a steering stabilizer shock is next for mods... wanna see shopping cart, take it in loose stuff LOL
 
i see they have the stabilizers in at tower for just under 10.00. waiting for the shocks, swing arm and top front mount, and hubs to become available.

i ll have to hit up John and see what hes cooking up and get one from him to beta test then. lol i was looking at the gyro and after winding it up a few times, with and without the weights, it still felt like it could lose some heft.

going to get the CF top frame parts to lower the cog a bit as well.
back to some reading and wrenching. will post progress with pics/report later.
 
well it started snowing out so i decided to continue with some of the mods today.

Trailer Trash Trixie decided she would help work on the bike as the driver is still all split up over being bought from the hobby shop
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That Trixie is shuch white trash.

heres Trix and I getting to the stock gyro setup
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took it apart in groups so to speak. Removed all the weights, weight retention rings and the 4 bolts. still quite heavy i think.
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Blurb: after getting it back together, I tried it out just by holding it, spinning up the gyro and moving the bike around by hand. I did this before also. their is a noticable differance in the gyro effect. but its not HUGE. my first thoght after tring it with the weights out, was this things giong to be almost too heavy still, unless the terrain is really fluffy. So last night around 3am when it was done, i thought, hmm Need to get ahold of John and see if he can make up a light weight one, or mod the stock one around the top to shead some weight off.

low and behold, i come in this afternoon for a looksee, and find that John (Pilot John) has just posted a thread on a new lightened gyro for those interested in a lighter setup. WAY TO GO John. thats what I call Being on the Ball. lol
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1186827
Cant wait to try this bad boy out.

i cleaned out the inside and out side of the rear wheel, and got rid of the mess that was their in the form of hella amounts of oil.
when putting it back together, i used just a smidge of grease on the tri gear setup.
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barely enough to say their is any there. may end up being a mess, but thought i may help, we ll see i guess.

Man she is SUCH a flirt, even when wrenching. Gotta love a HUSSY.
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ya shes pure trailer trash alright!
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form others posts, i decided to tape the rear tire to help stop any balloning that may occur. again, not sure if this will help or hurt. i guess we ll see on this also
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She said she thought she say an oil leak. but i think its just the voyer in here. She does love being the center of attention.
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On to the rear mono shock.

i understand its not too bad, but not the greatest. i hear alot of people using a Revo shock. and some use the integy revo shock. I HATE Integy and WILL NOT SUPPORT THEM. its the last time you ll see their crap parts mentioned in my thread, and i wont use them period.

So with that said and out of the way, i looked at some immediate options. don't have much on hand, but have a couple pieces that i think may be the saving grace for the stock setup. I see DTX has a harder rear spring i ll probably "Spring for" when the upgraded forks are availalbe. (BTW< if anyone has a set of forks, front knuckles, front support and the rear swing arm available here stateside they want to get rid of, im interested. PM me your thoughts.)

so i found this lil shock body diaphram. i think these are left over from my tmass days (before i knew how crappy intecrap was).
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so i opened up the top cap, and checked it over. not to bad, pretty much full, and seemingly ok, so i cleaned up the diaphram and installed it. perfect setup. it filled up the shock body, with no air in it at all, and i put the cap back on and snugged it up pretty well. couldnt really feel any differance, but im sure it will help with the leaky caps people have experienced.
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i reinstalled the rear shock, and once together, it still felt somewhat Soft for rear suspension. so a bit more looking around. this time i came up with an Axial Shock spacer. the thick one. its about 2 to 2.5 times thicker than the stock DTX spring spacer. It was quite a female dog to get installed, but it went. after i had it in, the rear suspension felt more stiff, but a bit more responsive. the airless shock body made a pretty noticable differance. still has good dampening, but firm and steady rebound.
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On to the front shocks.
did what a few of you guys did.
i also hated that clunking noise as the internal shock limiters hit the topand bottom shock caps. seen where Dave used some foam. so a bit more looking around and i found this pipe insulation i have. its the open cell foam. so i cut a few pieces of it into a couple small balls of foam, 4 to be exact. then while assembling the front shocks i added the to the top and bottom of the internal springs. only clunk now is the one you get when the front shocks fully extend. I also used some grease here to provide a bit of dampening until the upgraded hydro shocks are available.

removed them one at a time
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open cell pipe foam used for noise dampeners
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foam ball installed at one end
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dip other end of spring into grease and smear it around the spring from top to bottom. i may of got just a bit too much grease on this one.
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insert back into shock body.
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add 2nd foam ball, then cap it up
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repeat on other side



couple pics showing suspension travel limits.
Full extension
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full compression
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with my hand in there, it kind of gives you a fell for the size of the bike.

another issue is the rear tire hitting the pipe. so instead of grinding on the pipe, i decided to go another route. so some more looking around.
found 2 small spacers from some other old shocks, and one rubber servo grommet. here is that result


first mount
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pic showing gap between tire and pipe.
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i then backed out the screws just a smidge more to this point and gap.
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i know it doesn't look much different, but it has a decent gap between the tire and pipe now. the travel now goes full to the back cross bar. will be adding a couple more rear mods as well. the support wire and a rear fender skid so the tire isnt bottoming out agains the cross bar under the rear fender. these will be later tonight i think.

last thing i got to so far was loosing the 2 body screws, and applying some strategicly located velcro pieces. I had this stuff that was precut in 1 in squares that i used. very good adheasive and strong hook n loop adheasiveness also.

i ll let the pics to the rest of the talking
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(I added one more piece of velcro to the top front of the faux pipe to offer a bit more strength to holding the body on).
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a pick up test
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a 2nd pick up test
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and a finale pick up test
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Body Secure? CHECK!
 
ok, after a bit more looking around, and a little time bending, i think i have a winner. the wire is from a box of plane push rods i have around. very very strong stuff, couldnt cut it wth 6 inch dykes, had to break out the dremel. slipped into my small table vice and proceded to get to bending. im not overly concerned about a wheely bar as im planning on not doing alot of tail draggin. lol but at some point later, i may do one as a super motard and will need a wheely wheel then.

for now, its just zipped onto the chassis. to check fit and see how it seems to do. but i think iti ll be fine. so all thats left after some testing is to perma mount it using some mountable collars of some sort.

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done for the day. got my lipos charged up today also. should be a good run tomorrow.
 
Thanks for all the photos and how too's. They make the wait much easier knowing your doing all the hard work. By the way, does Trailer Trash Trixie (3T) have a Friend? :phone:
You better get out the video camera for the voyage.....
 
watch the bottom of the shock too. I had to put a different retaining clip in as mine popped out first time I even moved the shock. it was too small. I just had an old I believe associated one in the misc drawer.

I'd like to see an electric gyro option now.
 
ok, i ll keep an eye on it. i have a couple TC4 shocks here i think they are. about the samme size as the stocker, but i didnt check them. i may now. if it works better than the stock shock, i may turn the stocker into a steering dampener.

im not sure that electric is the way to go for a gyro. seems they would be to sensitive to the abuse a dirt bike would see. for onroad/motard they may work better. but then currently the onroads done use any gyro. so......

I think John lightweight gyro is going to work pretty decently. i also just implanted an idea for him to stew on.

but it wont take long to know how much gyro effect is needed for each use.
i see the ARx guys are seeing some issues with the electic gyro atm. we ll see what the deal is as time goes by i think.

T
 
Parts

I can't find parts on the Pegasus Hobby page---but Pacific Coast Hobbies has a BUNCH of Duratrax parts listed for the bike!!! Go to pacificcoasthobbies.com--then on road elecric and motorcycles-- you'll find lot's of parts for these babies.
FYI
Tim
 
cool, thanx, i have them and Omni in ebay. both have what tower has for upgrades, but no one has the good stuff yet (alloy).
 
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