Toronto AMA Supercross, kayaks, and rally cars

Last weekend, John and I went to Toronto to see the 2012 Supercross races at Skydome. My 9 yr-old daughter seems to have caught the motorcycle bug from me, and she begged to come along, too. Off we went for a weekend road trip.

On the way to Toronto, we stopped for a look at 

GP Bikes in Oshawa.

The race was held at the Skydome 

(called Rogers Centre now)

Stayed at the fancy, schmancy Royal York Hotel, 

just a block away from the Skydome.

Supercross girls

This resulted in a spectacular crash. 

See YouTube video below:

On the way home, we stopped to visit John's cousin.

He owns a factory where they manufacture canoes and kayaks, 

and more recently, an outdoor lounge chair. This guy is also a very 

serious rally racer. You can't swing a cat by the tail without 

hitting a rally car: he's got dozens of cars.

He also has an interesting antique telephone

made by Northern Electric.Yes, it still works.

Early '60's International with 1982 Chevy Blazer drive train

One of many, many rally cars. Most are built on the 

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution platform.

An old European Ford Escort from the early '70's

... it's getting an engine transplant

Cosworth 4-banger being dropped into the old Escort

1968? Porche 911 undergoing some restoration work

This rally car was previously owned by some famous racer

 (can't remember the name)

European Ford Escort with a very powerful Cosworth engine.

The mould-ovens

This is one seriously quick car: a real sleeper.

I got to drive it. Extremely rare, it was originally sold on the

Japanese market, then brought to the UK and driven on the road

by some famous UK rally racer, and finally, Ian bought it and 

imported it to Canada. Extremely powerful, and very high-tech for a 1996.

Right-hand drive, too. Way fun to drive.

This is John driving the tricked out Mitsubishi Evolution IV

This guy had more Mitsubishi Evolutions than you could shake a stick at.

A very tricked-out Subaru

Hundred of Kayaks

Kayaks ready to go

The mould for the "Most Comfortable Chair"

Kayak and/or canoe moulds

http://www.themostcomfortablechair.com/

Had a very nice lunch at this bistro style restaurant.

It's quite an upscale spot for a small, rural town.

My passenger was tired 

FMF Q4 muffler packing, and pipe polishing

I had been thinking the FMF Q4 muffler on the WR was perhaps a wee bit louder than it should be lately. At idle, it's fine. Rev it up a little in the driveway, and it's not so bad either. But accelerate hard and wind the engine up to the rev-limiter, and the sound carries for a mile.

I suspected the muffler packing may be starting to fall apart. The previous owner installed the FMF muffler and PowerBomb header, and hadn't repacked it at all --- although he really didn't put many miles on it (a thousand miles, tops). Anyway, I figured it was probably time for a re-pack.  Just under $16 including taxes at a local bike shop scored me an FMF4-stroke muffler packing kit. Just a 15" x 18" piece of 1" thick fiberglass.

The stainless steel of the pipe was looking a little stained. Odd how that happens, isn't it?  Since the exhaust system was already off the bike, I decided I would add some elbow grease and make the whole thing look shiny.

FMF PowerBomb header pipe was looking a little cruddy: 

Dirty, rusty, pitted, and discoloured.

The packing that faces up when the muffler is mounted 

on the bike was in very good condition.

But the part that faces the underside was a mess.

Nasty hole blown through. That's where the noise was coming from.

This is the FMF spark arrester screen insert tip. 

I made a slight modification to make it a little quieter. 

Five minutes using tin snips and channel lock pliers.

I stole the idea from someone else 

The opening at the front side of the spark arrestor is now 

partially obstructed. Reduced air flow, should drop the sound level 

a decibel or two, and hopefully won't affect performance too negatively. 

This is what the core looks like when it's naked.

Here's the new fibreglass wrap. 

I used wire to hold it in place.

Look at the shine on that header pipe! Using #00 and #0000 steel wool, 

and also a medium coarse 3M scotchbrite sanding pad, and I went to work. 

I also used a cream polish called BlueMagic Metal Polish --

squeezed a bit onto the steel wool. Followed it up with a buffing wheel

mounted on my high speed 8" bench grinder.  All together, it took a couple 

of hours for the polishing/buffing, and it will probably turn a bronze/brown 

colour after a few rides -- but it looks nice for now. 

There seemed to be plenty of room for the outer muffler sleeve 

as it fits over the inner core -- even after wrapping the new fibreglass.

So, I bought some fireproof $20 kevlar sleeves used for welding. Cut the 

elastic ends off, and wrapped it around the fibreglass. I used only one, 

and saved the other one for the next re-pack. It probably won't serve 

any real purpose, but it takes up some of the excess space inside the 

muffler and it supposedly withstands temps to 500 degrees F.

Some high temp silicone around the lip as it goes back together. 

All ready to go back on the bike. I will let it sit overnight to ensure 

the silicone cures properly.

FWIW, this is the polishing cream I used. The tube of Autosol I had for the pipe on the DR650 was all gone, and the store I went to didn't seem to have any. So, on a whim, I bought this stuff for $8. I'm impressed and will choose this over Autosol the next time. Worked very well.

back on the bike

Here's a before & after video.  It doesn't really sound too 

different for the camera in the driveway, but it's definitely 

quieter while riding (with the engine under load).