CSC Blog

We had a lot of fun riding up and down Azusa Canyon today introducing folks to the new CSC RX3, and giving some folks who had not yet signed up a chance to see and ride the bike.   Great times, folks…with just a few photos to share from today’s grand adventure…

Our good buddy Bruce (one of the guys who rides a CSC-250 P-51 Mustang painted to match his Harley) even showed up in his brand new Morgan 3-wheeler!

Good times, the strong Santa Ana winds up in the mountains notwithstanding!  We’ll do this again soon, so keep an eye on the blog if you want to ride with us!

Steve and I will be at the plant by 9:00 this Saturday, and we’ll have a pot of coffee going if you want to stop by, see us, and test ride one of the new CSC Cyclones.

I was in the plant this afternoon and I spotted this desert camo CSC-150.   It’s one of the war zone motorcycles I mentioned a while back, and Steve is dealing.   I think this color combo is one of the prettiest motorcycles we’ve ever made, and if I wasn’t already riding my Baja Blaster, this would be the one I’d be riding!   It’s a beautiful bike and you have to call for the price (and our number is 909 445 0900).

Those .50 cal ammo cans, black wheels, and fork gators really work on the Military Series bikes.

We’ve got a bunch of folks who are stopping by for a spin on the Cyclone, but we’ve always got room for more.   We hope we see you tomorrow!

The kids have moved out.  Actually, they moved out quite a while ago.   Getting them to take the stuff they left behind…that’s another story.   Susie and I are going through one of the (now) extra bedrooms and making boxes of their stuff for them to take home on the next visit.  Actually, it’s boxes of their stuff that I’ll sneak into their cars on their next visit.

Anyway, while going through the debris and detritus left in the young ‘uns closets I came across some old photos.   A couple caught my eye…one was a close-up of my old CBX Honda’s engine.  You saw that a couple of blogs down.   This next one is another shot of the same CBX.   Those old film cameras that I shot with in those days did a nice job, and the photo brought back memories of one my more memorable motorcycles.

The mighty Six…my old 1982 Honda CBX

I bought the CBX in 1992 (when it was already 10 years old), but the bike only had 4500 miles on it and it was in pristine condition.  The price was $4500, perfectly matching the mileage.  Everything was stock, and everything was in perfect shape (other than the tires, which were cracking with age).

I must have gone back to Bert’s four times drooling over that bike, and when I finally made up my mind to buy it and went back for a fifth time, it was gone.  Sold.  I’d lost my opportunity.  Ah, well, I could bounce around for a while longer on my Harley.

Bert’s was a magnet, though, and lots of times after work I’d stop there just to look at the motorcycles.   The place was like an art gallery to me.   I just liked to look.

So, you can imagine my surprise a month or two later when I stopped in again and the CBX was back on the floor.    The bike had been sold to a Japanese collector, I was told, and the deal fell through.

Opportunity didn’t need to knock twice for me.   I bought it on the spot.

The CBX was an amazing motorcycle. 1050cc. Six cylinders. Six carbs. 24 valves. Double overhead cams. Actually, it was quadruple overhead cams. The cylinder head was so long each cam was split in two, and the two halves were coupled in the middle by what are called Oldham couplers.

The CBX didn’t have much bottom end, but once the engine got going, the thing was amazing. And the sound! Wow! It sounded like a Formula 1 race car. I read somewhere that the Japanese engineers actually spent time on a US aircraft carrier listening to fighter jets take off, and their objective was to make the CBX sound like that. When the conditions were right, I convinced myself I could hear the F-14 in my CBX.

The bike was fun, and it drew the looks wherever I rode it. Honda only made the CBX for 4 years (1979 through 1982). They were expensive to manufacture (it seemed like every fastener was a custom design) and they didn’t sell all that well. But it was an awesome display of technology. I’m a mechanical engineer, and the design spoke to me.

I never had any regrets with that old CBX.  I rode it hard for the next 10 years, and other than dropping it a couple of times in 0-mph mishaps (see the blog below on dropped bikes), it served me well.   I rode it all over and it never missed a beat.   When I first bought it, I could walk into any Honda dealer and buy parts for it (even though it was 10 years old).   10 years later (when the bike was 20 years old), that wasn’t the case any more, and that scared me a bit.   The CBX was years ahead of its time and it was complicated.  I realized that if something on that bike broke and I couldn’t find parts, I’d have a $4500 paperweight.

In those days, I was on a CBX Internet mailing list.   I put a note on the CBX mailing list advising folks that I wanted to sell the bike, and it sold that day.  I got a fair price for it, and the mighty Six was gone.   No regrets, folks…I had lots of fun and it was time to move on.

The bottom line first:   We are delaying shipment of the CSC Cyclones from Zongshen from 25 January to 9 February.   I know this is a disappointment to you (it is to us, too), but it is unavoidable.    The problem is a western US port work stoppage.   Everything coming by ship across the Pacific is being held up at sea at all of our ports, with Long Beach (our port of entry) having the worst problems.

There’s a labor action between the west coast dockworkers (the International Longshore and Warehouse Union) and their employers (the ports) that is preventing the ships from being unloaded.   We’ve looked into bringing the ships into other ports, but the problem affects the entire western US.  Rather than have the ships simply sit at sea (as many are doing right now), we’ve discussed this with Zongshen and our new ship date is 9 February.  We’re hopeful the labor issues will be resolved by then.

I wish this wasn’t happening, but it is.   We’ve been watching this closely and we wanted to let you know what we are doing.

Folks, we’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

Hey, you!  Yeah, I’m talking to you!

Wanna ride the Cyclone this Saturday?   Steve and yours truly will be at the plant from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., and if you want to ride the hottest thing on two wheels to come down the trail in a long time, this Saturday is your opportunity!

Give us a call at 909 445 0900, and we’ll get your name on the test ride roster!    We’re located at 1331 W. Foothill Boulevard, Azusa, California 91702.

…and we’re not surprised at all.    We’re not conceited, we just know that the Cyclone is one of the best motorcycles ever made.   And the good folks over at Women Riders Now agree with us!   Check out their article by clicking here!

Thanks, Genevieve!

Last Thursday was an interesting day for me.   Charles Fleming, one of the top reporters for the Los Angeles Times and the guy who does their motorcycle stories, visited with us and rode the Cyclone with me in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Charles, making notes up in the San Gabriel Mountains after riding the CSC Cyclone

It was a grand morning, but to be perfectly honest, I was a bit off my game.  The weather was beautiful and the air was crisp, but I just wasn’t as alert as I felt I needed to be while I was out riding with Charles.   There wasn’t anything I could put my finger on, but I just wasn’t as with it as I like to be.   I could tell I wasn’t sharp.  We rode about 20 miles and I made it back to the plant just fine, but…

Well, before I go there, let me share with you something I posted on the Motofoto.cc site a long time ago…

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Dropped Bikes

I wrote this for a friend who dropped a very expensive motorcycle while putting it on the sidestand.  He was really upset with himself and I thought he might enjoy hearing about the times I dropped my bikes.  I stopped writing after the fifth or sixth memory because I was laughing so hard I thought I might hurt myself….

So, here goes….

Drop Number 1 – Impromptu Stargazing  

My friend Louie V and I were wrapping up a hard 500-mile day through Arizona back in the 1990s.  I know what you are thinking….500 miles is not that much for a solid day’s riding, but it was brutally hot in the way that only Arizona can be in the summertime.  I was on my CBX and Lou was on his Gold Wing.  We stopped for gas and Louis filled up first.  While I was filling up the CBX, Lou rode over to the air hose to top off his tires.  I filled my tank, fired up the CBX, and rode over to Lou, paralleling the sidewalk.  

I put my kickstand down and started to lean the CBX over.  

The next thing I knew I was staring at the stars.  I had no idea what happened for a few seconds, and then I realized:  Rats!  I had fallen off my motorcycle, and I was laying on my back looking up at the night sky.  The first thought that went through my mind was:  “Did anyone see me do this?”  I hadn’t even been drinking!  How could that have happened?  

Well, what happened was this:  When I extended the sidestand, it hit the curb before it fully extended, and it didn’t go over center.  When I leaned the CBX over, it just kept on going.  

Total damage?   One turn signal lens cover, one scratched fairing (still got that scratch), and lots of lost pride.  

Drop Number 2 – Lock-to-Lock Finally Means Something to Me

This time, I was easing into my own driveway on my 2-week-old Suzuki TL1000S.  Gorgeous bike.  Bright red.  A real rocketship.   As I made the sharp turn into the driveway, I turned the forks to keep my balance.  Lock-to-lock turning on the Suzuki is waaaay less than any motorcycle I had ever ridden.  

The bottom line?  I couldn’t turn the bars far enough to keep my balance at low speed.  

The results?  BAM!  Suddenly, the TL and I were both on our sides in my own driveway!  The first thought that went through my mind was “Did anyone see me do this?”   

Total damage?   One scratched fairing and lots of lost pride.  Lots and lots of lost pride.

Drop Number 3 – Them Darn Sidestands Again

A couple of weeks after Drop Number 2, I was letting my now 4-week-old, slightly-scratched TL1000S warm up in the driveway.  The bike was on its sidestand, facing south.  Just past my garage door, the driveway slopes down ever so slightly.  Really slightly.  I mean, hardly any slope at all.  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw the Suzuki move forward a bit.  Nah, I thought, it’s gotta be an optical illusion.  

Two seconds later:  BAM!  The Suzuki was on its side!  

Wow, I thought, this thing sure likes laying down in my driveway.  

My next thought:  “Did anyone see me do this?”  

The results?  I couldn’t tell.  The fairing was scratched, but maybe it was the same scratch from 2 weeks ago.  No lost pride this time, but lots of cussing about Suzuki engineering and lousy sidestands.

Drop Number 4 – Dismounting As An Olympic Event

This time I was winding out my 4-month old TL1000S on the road from my brother-in-law’s place.  Wowee, I thought, this thing is fast.  I must have hit 80 miles an hour when I realized I gotta slow down.   That Suzuki slipper clutch works great, I thought…. just keep downshifting and it’s almost like an ABS  system on the rear wheel.  Hmmh, that curve is coming up awful fast.  Maybe I’ll just give it a touch of front brake.  

Uh oh, I thought as I unloaded the rear wheel when I got on the front brake.  That corner is really coming up fast now, and the back end is fishtailing all over the place.  I almost had that sucker stopped when the front wheel just touched the curb.  Down we both went, again.  I executed a precision somersault as I departed controlled flight and rolled up into a sitting position.   

The first thought that went through my mind was “Did anyone see me?”    This time, the answer was yes.  There was a lady in a station wagon, who stopped and asked “Are you okay?”  

“Yeah, lady, I did that on purpose.”  I didn’t know what else to say.

The results?  I couldn’t tell.  Maybe it was just the same scratched fairing.  Again, lots and lots of lost pride.  No injuries, though.  My lucky day.

Drop Number 5  –  The Prize Winner  

This time I was changing the front tire on the CBX in my garage.  I put the bike on the center stand and removed the front wheel.  Bikes with center stands are great, I thought.   Once I had the front wheel off I started thinking about the replacement tire.  I used Bridgestone Spitfires on that bike and they were great.  I decided I would get the raised white letter Spitfire tire this time.  That would really look cool. 

Well, I thought, if I do that I have to get the back tire to match.  So, I thought, I might as well take the back wheel off, too.  I’ll just get them both changed at the same time.  This is the point at which things took a decided turn for the worse.  And, I’ll admit to having already had a few beers…

What could I have possibly been thinking?  Well, I was still thinking about how cool raised white letter tires would look on my pearl white CBX, and I started to remove the rear wheel.  The rear axle bolt was on really tight, though.  I decided I needed to get a bigger  wrench, you know, more leverage, that sort of thing.  I thought I might as well get another beer while I was up, too.  I grabbed another beer, got the longer wrench, found the leverage I was looking for…and…..and…

Uh, oh, the CBX started to roll forward off the center stand, and, whoa, there was no front wheel there….funny how everything seemed to be happening in slow motion at that point.

The moral of this one?   If you’re gonna screw up, screw up big time.  Why just drop a bike when can find a way to drop it so that it falls over into your wife’s new Acura RL?  

The bottom line?   One dinged up Acura, one thoroughly upset wife, one busted and cracked CBX oil pan (an item no longer made by Honda), oil all over the garage floor, and the certain knowledge that while center stands are good, they are not that good….

So, if you’ve ever dropped your bike, don’t feel too bad.  It happens to all of us. 

Sometimes more than once.

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So, that last story…the one about the CBX that I thought was the prize winner, the mother-of-all-dropped-bikes stories?

Well, it turns out the dropped CBX episode held the record for a few years, but I guess records were meant to be broken.   You can guess where this is going.   When Charles and I returned to the plant, I parked the Cyclone next to my Subaru, and at that point, the parking lot slopes down ever so slightly.

I had parked the Cyclone in that very same spot before with no problem, but that was then, and this was now.   I put the side stand down, and the next thing I knew, both yours truly and the yellow Cyclone were leaning against the Subaru.   Whoa!  What the hey?

Yep, I dropped the Cyclone.  I wasn’t alert, or I wasn’t paying attention, or maybe it was just time for me to drop a bike again.   And I thought the time I dropped the CBX into my wife’s new car 17 years ago was the prize winner.   Nope, if you want to get the brass ring, drop your bike in front of an LA Times reporter who’s there to do a story on your company and the motorcycle.   Wow.

The Cyclone fared pretty well…all it had was a broken clutch lever, and that would have been okay had the bike and I not fallen into the Subie.   The Subie?  Well, it didn’t do so well.   It needs a new front fender.  Any yours truly?   Serious damage to my pride, folks, but other than that I’m okay.

Ride safe, keep the shiny side up, and don’t drop your bike (but if you do, try not to do it in front of a reporter)!

A quick weekend road trip with Susie…1200 miles in 36 hours from here to Bisbee and back, in a roundabout sort of a rolling trip.   I had originally planned to take the Cyclone on this trip, but I came back from China with a wicked flu and I didn’t want to tempt fate with a long distance motorcycle ride in what could be questionable weather.   It was a good decision on many levels…it got down to 33 degrees the night we were in Bisbee, and the Corvette is a dynamite way to cover major miles in style.     Okay, so…on to the photos!

We rolled into Bisbee at about 8:00 p.m. on Friday, and after checking in to the Grand Bisbee Hotel (with real room keys, no less!), they pointed us to the Café Roka a few doors down.   It was awesome!

I was up early the next morning to grab a shot of the Lavender Pit, the area’s scenic open pit copper mine…

This was my third visit to Bisbee, and it was everything I remembered and more.   I first blew through Bisbee in ’92 on my old Softail (it was new back then) with my good buddy Dick Scott.   Dick and I both rode Harleys in those days, and we had some grand adventures together.

Bisbee is a cool little Arizona town, and the ride into it is awesome….

The town is motorcycle friendly, and it’s likely that this will be one of our CSC adventure tours within the next year.  All of the old hotels looked very cool, and every one had a bike or three parked out front…

We stayed at the Grand Bisbee Hotel.   It was fun.  It was the real old West, like I remembered from all the old movies and TV shows I watched as a kid.  The Grand Bisbee had a real saloon downstairs.   I woke up in the middle of the night and I was certain I could hear a piano playing “Buffalo Gal” but Susie told me I had been dreaming.

Bisbee is kind of an old hippy town.   Lots of cool folks and lots of guys my age with pony tails.   I remember George Carlin used to do a comedy routine about old guys with pony tails.   It was funny stuff.   Anyway, Susie and I were riding around town when I spotted this door.   I stopped the car, the owner was just leaving the building, and I asked if I could photograph the door.   His answer, of course, was yes…

Another cool photo…the counterculture is alive and well in Bisbee, and when I spotted this RV, I knew I needed a photo.   I sent it to my good buddy Robbie (he and I used to work together at Alfa, an RV manufacturer).   Robbie’s immediate comment was that we’d have to offer a 10-year warranty if we put this puppy into production…

And another photo op…a KLR done up in a military motif.    I like it.   I’m thinking about the Cyclone in a similar scheme.   Hmmm….

And that’s about it, folks.   One last shot blowing out of Bisbee on Arizona Highway 80, where we pulled over for a beauty shot of the mighty Z-06 against an Arizona sky…

The Vette is a nice touring car.   I’ve owned it for almost 12 years now and it’s still an exciting ride.  I imagine it’s what the Italians had in mind when they coined the term “Grand Touring” (or, as they would say, “Gran Turismo”).    The Z-06 is a bit noisy (Chevy removed most of the sound insulation to keep the weight down and the car’s gigondo tires make a lot of road noise), but it’s a comfortable ride.   We were doing 75 to 79 mph on cruise control for most of the trip, and even at those speeds, the Chevy averaged 25.3 mpg overall for the entire trip.    Good times.

That’s it for now.   More stuff on the Cyclone coming up, folks, so stay tuned!

You might remember a blog from 2011 when we sold 18 CSC-150 motorcycles to a dealer in Lebanon.   If you follow world affairs, you know things in the Middle East have not been good.   And because of the political situation over there, these bikes never made it to the showroom floor.   Literally…they’ve never been offered for sale.   I imagine it’s tough to sell motorcycles when the bullets and bombs are flying.

Well, we’ve got those bikes back.   They’re brand new 2011 motorcycles, and as you know if you’ve been following CSC, the only difference from year to year has been the paint themes.   Folks, we’re dealing on these, and if you want to get a brand new CSC-150, these are going to sell out quickly.   Two are gone already just from folks who called when I mentioned that we would be offering a good deal without any of the specifics.   Other than that brief mention on the blog, this is the first time we’re publicizing these bikes.   We have a variety of colors, including several Military Series motorcycles that are drop dead gorgeous.   The desert camo paint theme, in particular, really works for me.

Another cool deal…we’ve got a very rare Bobber in Satin Blue with $700 wire wheels, the performance exhaust pipe, and of course, the Bobber package.   This is a consignment bike with a scant 40 miles on the clock!

There’s no time like the present, folks, so give us a call at 909 445 0900.   You won’t see another deal like this!

The topic today is how to adjust your CSC Cyclone’s valves, but before we dive into the details, a bit of background is in order.   We’ll start with a discussion of the CSC Cyclone’s engine, then we’ll talk about what valve adjustment is and why it is necessary, and then we’ll cover how to do the adjustment on the Cyclone.

We used our EPA test mule bike for this adjustment because it had about 8,000 miles on it, and we wanted to get a feel for where the valve gaps were after accumulating that kind of mileage.  It’s also the bike to which we applied our camo theme (just in case you were wondering about the paint job).

Your CSC Cyclone has a high performance, single overhead cam, 4-valve engine.   There are two exhaust valves and two intake valves. The reason the engine has four valves is that it provides for more flow through the engine, which is another way of saying the engine makes more power than it would if it only had two valves.

Cyclone valve train

The Cyclone has a single camshaft with two lobes, and two rocker arms.  One rocker arm actuates both intake valves; the other rocker arm actuates both exhaust valves.   The cam’s lobes are what actuate the rocker arms.  As the cam lobe lifts the rocker arm, the rocker arm pivots on its shaft.   The rocker arm has one arm that follows the cam lobe up and down, and two arms that actuate its two valves.We want the engine to open the intake valves to admit the fuel/air mixture, and we want the engine to open the exhaust valves to expel the exhaust.   When the engine is at the top of its compression stroke, we want all of the valves closed.   That’s because we want to compress the fuel air mixture, ignite it, and then allow the resulting high combustion pressures to drive the piston down.   If any leakage occurs around any of the valves while this is occurring, the engine will lose power and it could “burn” a valve if the combusting fuel/air mix escapes around the valve while it is still burning.

When engineers design an engine, they want it to do the above, but they have to account for the thermal expansion that occurs as engine temperature increases during normal operation.  In order to compensate for this thermal expansion, the engineers design in a gap in the cam lobe/rocker arm/valve train.   As the engine warms, this gap approaches zero, and everything works the way it is supposed to.

You might be wondering at this point why the engineers can’t just build in a gap and then leave everything alone.   The problem with that is that the valves close against a seat every time they go up and down.   Think of the large diameter of the actual valve, and the cylinder head port against which it forms a seat.  Here’s the problem:  As the valve pounds against the seat zillions of times as the engine runs, very small amounts of deformation occur in both the valve and the valve seat.   It’s microscopic, but it grows over time as the engine runs.

As the wear described above increases, it has the effect of reducing the valve gap (i.e., the clearance built into the valve train to account for the thermal expansion as the engine warms up).   What happens is that as this wear occurs, the valve actually moves higher into the cylinder head and the valve gap decreases.   If this wear goes beyond acceptable limits without adjusting the valves, the valve gap grows smaller and smaller.  Ultimately, this wear will result in the valve being held off the seat when combustion occurs.   This is bad, because when this condition exists, hot burning gases escape around the valve sealing area.  Ultimately, these burning gases will destroy the valve and the seat.   That’s what happens when we “burn a valve.”

If the above sounds really bad, relax.  We avoid it by adjusting the valves.  All we are really doing is keeping the gap in the valve train within an acceptable range over the life of an engine.  As the valve and the valve seat wear, we keep everything adjusted so that when the engine is at operating temperature we still form a good seal around the valve seat.   That’s the whole idea behind this valve adjustment business.

Different engines use different approaches for adjusting the valves.   Your Cyclone engine uses the best approach for easy maintenance and high performance:  It uses a threaded adjustor shaft with a lock nut to set and lock the valve gap.   These adjustors are located in the ends of the rocker arms that interface directly with the valve stem.   You can see these in the sketch above, and in the photos we’ll be showing you shortly.

So, with all that theory behind us, let’s consider what we’re going to do here:

1. We want to gain access to the valve rocker arms and their adjustment screws.
2. We want the engine to be at a point in its rotation such that the rocker arm is on the cam’s base circle.  This means the cam is not actuating the rocker arm.   We want the engine to have the piston at (or very near) top dead center, which means the valves should be closed (which is another way of saying the rocker arm is on the cam’s base circle).
3. With the engine in this position, we want to loosen the threaded adjustor lock nuts, we want to set the valve gaps to the specified gap of 0.04mm to 0.06mm, and we want to tighten the lock nuts to lock the threaded adjustors at this gap.
4. When we’ve completed the above, we want to put everything back together.

Got that?   Okay, here we go….

Most of the work in adjusting the valves is associated with just getting access to the adjustors.   The adjustment operation (once we have access) takes only a few minutes.

When you adjust the valves, you have to start with a cold engine.  Dead cold.   Let your Cyclone cool down completely.    Don’t cheat on this part.   I always let the bike not run for a day.   If it’s even a bit warm from running, your adjustment will be wrong, and all of your work will be for nothing.  Let your Cyclone cool down completely.

Remove the rear seat with the key lock, the front seat with its two 8mm bolts, all of the bodywork around the fuel tanks, and the fuel tank.  Like I said above, this is the bulk of the labor.  It works a lot better if you’ve run the fuel tank down (so it won’t be as heavy).   Make sure you don’t spill any fuel, and make sure you put the fuel tank in a location where there are no ignition sources.   And make sure you don’t scratch any of the body work.    This may seem like a lot of work, but it’s pretty common on modern motorcycles, and after you’ve done this the first time, you’ll find that this all comes off in about 15 or 20 minutes.

Use the key to unlock the rear seat

Remove the rear seat

With the rear seat off you can next remove the forward potion of the seat

Remove the forward part of the seat

The body work around the tank comes off

The tank also has to be removed to gain access to the valves

All of the body panels around the tank have to be removed, both on the right side…

…and the left.

The next step is to unbolt the Cyclone’s twin radiators.  You don’t have to disconnect the hoses or remove the radiators; you just want the radiators to be loose so that you’ll have access to the valve covers on top of the cylinder head.

Unbolt the radiators but leave them in place…don’t disconnect the hoses

After you’ve done the above actions, remove the access port on the left side of the engine crankcase.  It comes off with a  10mm Allen wrench, and inside of it, you’ll see another Allen receptacle.   This is connected directly to the crankshaft, and it’s what we’ll use  to manually rotate the engine.

The crankshaft access port

Next, remove the view cap on the left front of the engine crankcase, just forward of the port described above.

This is the view port for viewing the stator cover…more on this later

The next step is to remove the spark plug wire and then the spark plug.

Pull the wire off of the spark plug

Remove the spark plug

Finally, remove the intake and exhaust valve covers.   Each cover is secured with two 8mm bolts.    Note that the covers are not interchangeable.

The valve covers are secured with two 8mm bolts

The rear valve cover is removed with a ratchet and an extension; the front valve cover is removed without the ratchet extension

The intake valve cover and the exhaust valve cover are not interchangeable

What we’ve been working to get to…the valves

You know, when I got to this point on the Cyclone, I was pretty impressed.  The casting and machining quality on these engines is very, very high.   This is a quality product.

Once the bike is “opened up” for valve adjustment, the next step is to position the piston at top dead center.   With the motorcycle in neutral, insert a 10mm Allen wrench through the crankcase port and turn the crankshaft until the alternator scribe line is aligned with the index register in the viewing port, as shown below.

Finding the scribe line on the alternator cover may be a bit challenging, as you have to get down low enough to see it.   Wear safety glasses when you do this; you don’t want to get oil spitting into your eye!   It’s further complicated by the fact that even though you’ve removed the sparkplug, the sparkplug hole into the combustion chamber is tiny and it’s difficult for the air to escape when you turn the crankshaft.  You’ll still feel a little compression as you rotate the crankshaft.  Don’t worry; it’s a normal occurrence on the Cyclone engine.

The alternator scribe line doesn’t have to be exactly in the center of the viewing port.   What we are really interested in accomplishing with this action is to get the rocker arms on the cam profiles’ base circle (that is, off the lobes).   We want this so that the valves are closed (they’re not being held open).   We want the valves closed when we adjust the gap.

Once we have positioned the engine as described above, we can insert a feeler gage between the valve and the threaded adjustor.   This gap should be 0.04mm to 0.06mm.   If the 0.06mm leaf slides in too easily, the valve gap is too large.   That can result in noisy valves (valve tap).  If the 0.04mm shim does not slide into this gap, the valve gap is too tight.  Ride around like that too long and you’ll burn a valve (as described earlier).

The shim goes right where you see it in this photo

Personally, a little bit of valve tap noise is okay with me (“tappy valves are happy valves”), because it tells me the valves are fully closing.  If there’s too much gap, though, the valves may not be lifting far enough off the seat when it is supposed to, and power will be reduced.   But a little bit of noise is okay, as long as the power is there.

The valves are adjusted by loosening the lock nut on each threaded adjustor (like a lot of nuts and bolts on the Cyclone, the lock nut is an 8mm).   Back the threaded adjustor out a bit with a flat blade screwdriver (see the photo below), insert the 0.06mm shim, and then screw in the adjustor until it’s just snug against the shim.   You want there to be just a bit of drag on the shim when you slide it in and out.  It’s the kind of thing you get a feel for after you’ve done it a couple of times.

When the adjustor is where you want it to be, tighten the lock nut.   Then check the gap with the shim again.   Sometimes I’ll have to do this two or three times to get the gap to be where I want it after tightening the lock nut.  It’s all part of the process.   Take your time and get it right.

Loosening the lock nut and adusting the threaded adjustor to get the required valve gap

You need to do the same adjustment (and set each valve at the same gap) for all four of the Cyclone’s valves.  When I think I’m done, I crank the engine through a couple of revolutions by hand, and check the valve gap again.  It’s usually right where I want it, but if it’s not, I’ll repeat the above process until it is.

What you’ve just accomplished can set you back a thousand bucks or more on some motorcycles when you take them to the dealer to have the valves adjusted.   You’ll probably take two or three hours to do this job the first time you do it, but after you’ve done it a couple of times, you’ll get it down to under an hour.

Folks, that’s it.    All you need to do now is put everything back together, and get out and ride!