Hi Everyone,
Because of the cold weather I had to halt my tesing of the new Ambassador at 321 miles. The motor is getting stronger as I add milage. I spent the first 50 miles at 30 MPH and lower [mostly between 20 and 25], changed the oil, checked all the bolts & nuts [opps, lost one], replaced the missing rear fender bolt and used a little loc-tite to avoid future problems. The next 50 miles found me raising the bar slightly and
added most of the miles at speeds ranging from 25 MPH to 30 MPH, with an few short bursts up to 35 MPH. Changed the oil again at 100 miles, checked all the bolts, and checked the head bolt torque settings [easy to do on the Ambassador because of the space around the motor], all was well, so on with the test. Between 100 and 200 miles I spent a lot of time around 35 MPH, with a few runs to 40 MPH.
Changed the oil at 200 miles, checked all the bolts, all OK. 200 to 300 miles found several bursts to 40 MPH, but mostly rode at speeds around 37 MPH. Changed oil again at 300 miles, checked bolts, head
bolt torque settings, and removed front brake caliper for inspection and noticed the front brake cable "rubbing" the fender slightly. After a closer look, I determined that I hadn't completely centered
the front fender during assembly, and re-formed [cool words to replace "pushed" the fender bracket] the front fender brace to allow clearance between the cable & fender. I also added a black plastic tie around the lower fork tube and the cable to pull the cable a little more away from the fender, just to be sure it has more clearance than needed. At 300 miles the motor was showing major increases in power, and I found it necessary to see if it would climb to 45 MPH [it did], and then rode the final 30 miles between 35 and 40 MPH. I found it too cold for any more testing so I did a little research by removing the spark plug [looked slightly black, may need to drop the needle jet], removing the side cover, and looked over the
lifters [mushroom type], and the camshaft, all still looked new. I removed the lifters and drilled the centers deeper to lighten them up. I put everthing back together, and re-set the lifter clearance, my way .006" intake, and .008" exhaust. Next I removed the automatic clutch and noticed approx 70% of the shoes are touching the hub, so I used my Dremel grinder and removed the glazed area on each shoe to
cause even more to contact the hub [approx. 5 minutes invested on clutch work]. So far the bike is better than I expected, being a completely new edition I really though there would be a lot of "teething" issues, but was happy with Whizzer's new ride. The bike is a blast to ride with its lower seat height [5" lower] & longer frame [16.5" longer], and also weighs about 54 lbs more. The larger wheels, tires, and
weight make it ride much smoother. And I will tell everyone, the disc brakes will STOP right now, not later, I mean now!
Will post another update after I put more miles on the Ambassador.
Have fun,
Quenton
