Got the Staton kit with Mitsu 43TLE built!

Okay folks....stayed up late last night and got my kit installed. I worked a little bit more today to start "project cammo" with good results so far. I stopped on the way home last night and bought what I think will be perfect bags for the bike. I made a bracket myself to position the bag where it will cover the entire street side (in the US, anyway! Haha!) of the engine and most of the drive chain. You can see looking at the photo of the back of the bag it just has 2 hooks that it hangs from the 1/2" threaded rod that I used. I'm going to do more work to secure the bottom of the bag better. I posted a LOT of photos below. Ride impressions? Wow! Fun! Faster than I thought. I think cruising at 25 or possibly 30 is about it for me. No need to go faster, although I'm sure my bike will go faster. I got it up to 31 mph (see speedo photo) and it had a LOT left and it's not broken in yet. The bike will fly if you want it to. The next part of my project will be making a bracket on the curb (right) side of the bike that will allow the right side bag to mount AND protect the engine in the event that the bike tips over. I'm very pleased with my build results so far. I cruised around the neighborhood a bit, and ran up to the gas station and bought a gallon of milk to test my bag out - worked great! The owner of the gas station came out to check out the bike. Pretty cool stuff. Check out the photos below.....my new seat, pedals, and bar-end mirror will come in on Monday which will spruce up the look and the ride. OH, and as far as the Mitsu being a quiet engine, it IS....NICE! Not annoying at all. I would venture to guess that people driving with their windows up probably won't even hear it.

Warner


Here's the 15 photos that I took!

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB9.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB8.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB7.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB6.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB5.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB4.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB3.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB2.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB15.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB14.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB13.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB12.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB11.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB10.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB.jpg



Warner
 
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Nice ride Warner. It looks quick.

Thanks! Here's some more progress pictures....I fabricated a frame for the right side so I could put the other pannier on. I left enough space between it and the engine to allow it to cool properly. I may work on a quieter muffler setup (like Beast has). The beautiful part about my bracket is that it will protect the engine in the event the bike falls over. How do I know this? Not a half hour after I finished the bracket, my daughter (8 yo) somehow tipped the bike over. Between the pannier and the bracket, the engine was not TOUCHED. WOW...talk about timing! Anyway, here's the pics:

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB16.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB17.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB18.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB19.jpg

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/dd265/warners_photos/MAB20.jpg

Warner
 
Awesome setup! So did you get your local law changed or are the side bags there for that reason?
Also I see a gel seat in your near future!
 
Awesome setup! So did you get your local law changed or are the side bags there for that reason?
Also I see a gel seat in your near future!

Yep, the gel suspension seat will arrive tomorrow...with my new pedals and bar end mirror. The bags ARE partially there for stealth....but also to make the bike more usable. Now what the heck am I going to PUT in them? Hahaha....

Warner
 
Nicely done. Great stealth job.

Thanks. Operation "stealth" is far from completed though. I want to quiet the engine down to almost nothing.....

Warner



PS - Engine must be breaking in just a bit....hit 33mph today. And it SOUNDS quieter and smoother, too...
 
These Japanese motors are built pecisely enough that I don't think they need much of a break-in period. Like a Master Mechaninc told me (WARNING: Politically incorrect phrase coming up.) "Ride it like ya' stole it!"
Regarding quieting the engine down: A lot of people have tried. There are several threads on the subject. I'd be interested if you get it done.
 
These Japanese motors are built pecisely enough that I don't think they need much of a break-in period. Like a Master Mechaninc told me (WARNING: Politically incorrect phrase coming up.) "Ride it like ya' stole it!"
Regarding quieting the engine down: A lot of people have tried. There are several threads on the subject. I'd be interested if you get it done.

I don't have any doubts that I can quiet it down. I have a friend who's into big dollar R/C airplanes (the kind they used to fly via GPS over to England from the US!) and he's got some ideas. I've also heard from the user who goes by Beast775 who says his mitsu is so quiet now that if can hardly be heard. Here's what he told me he's done:

"I used silicon tubing 650 degree, with a copper 180 degree turn down, clamped on the exhaust exit. Then put a velo solex muffler in a saddle bag and run a small hose to the frame. Its on this site somewhere, there's videos and everything here. I cant find it.
You can't even hear my bike now, unless I go wide open at startup. I have a modified exhaust with two mufflers in sync. I stood beside 2 cops at a walk way on the sidewalk and it was running and they didn't even look I was standing 3 ft from them."

So I'm hopeful! I will keep you all posted, of course!

Warner
 
Your bike looks great, and you did a good job on your bag rack.
After putting the kit together and building your rack, do you think the "inside" mounted engine kit would have been difficult?
Also, which wheel did you order?
Thanks,
Randy
 
Your bike looks great, and you did a good job on your bag rack.
After putting the kit together and building your rack, do you think the "inside" mounted engine kit would have been difficult?
Also, which wheel did you order?
Thanks,
Randy

Randy, thanks for the complements. I'm NOT done with my build...have some additional plans in store! I'm getting some help from a friend of mine who's heavily into the big RC Airplanes who is going to design a better exhaust/muffler for me to hopefully make it almost completely silent. I MAY end up using my right side bag to contain the exhaust/muffler....we'll see. I'm also planning on doing more cammo from the rear-view....I have some ideas that I'll show later (if they work! Haha!)

As far as the installation of the inside drive...I have NO idea....I don't know what is different about it. ??? The regular kit was tricky enough with the instructions provided, and would have been quite difficult had it not been for all the photos they have on their site of other people's bikes. Looking at it NOW, I could do another one real easily....but the first time it takes a bit to figure out what wants to happen. The wheel I ordered was the 48 spoke Ryno Lite - with the rim width of 1" since I am using the smaller tires. The wheel all laced up with the hub and ready to go was around $75 or so....pretty reasonable I thought, and it was plug-n-play essentially.

Good luck!

Warner
 
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