10/15/08 Well, this could be the end of the line for the 748 after more than 9 years in my stable. SDS took their time getting around to diagnosing it but finally they did take the oil filter off and found pieces of bearing in it. So the engine has to come apart to even find out the extent of damage and since they wouldn't even guess at the cost of repairs before knowing what's damaged (understandable but still a best case/worst case estimate would have been helpful), I just decided to pick it up and deal with it myself. Of course I have neither the time nor the mental energy for that, too many other and more important things going on. That was the reason for taking it to SDS in the first place.

So, $102 and a month later, Jared picked it up for me. He restores vintage bikes as a business/hobby so he will take it apart over the winter and fix the motor. He may buy the bike from me later or I may just pay him for the work when it's done and keep it as a track warrior. Either way, the 748 is in limbo now. We've been looking at 848s for a while, as well as a smaller bike for M. So we might go that route next year. For now the riding season is pretty much over anyway so no need to rush any decisions. We'll see what makes the most sense down the line.

03/26/09 The Duck keeps showing up in all the other pictures because it's been sitting dejected in the corner of the shop. And then there's the fact that we're doing a car and BIKE trackday at ORP on April 16. Soo... well, it might be a bit late in the game and I don't know if we'll get it done in time with everything else happening but while waiting for vendors to deliver various parts we might as well try. So we're at least putting an effort into getting the 748 back up and running in the next three weeks.

With all the miscellaneous parts removed and the engine ready to come out, it is clear just how elegant the design is. It truly is an inspiration and worth tinkering with just for that alone.

03/27/09 Still waiting for parts for other projects so might as well do more on this one. The engine is now out and the rest of the bike looks almost like a bicycle without it.

With the heads removed the problem is obvious and no surprise. The rod on the horizontal cylinder is loose on the crank. Meaning the bearing is shot. Which is exactly what it sounded like.

The shot above shows the primary power takeoff and the substantial reduction ratio that goes along with it. Interesting. Taking it apart this far was the easy part. Going further will require consulting a sevice manual, just to be safe. We'll pick one up tomorrow. After the case comes apart we'll see just how much damage took place. Hopefully the crank and rod themselves are OK. If so then there's a chance the bike will be whole again for the trackday. If not - most likely it'll have to wait till later. It's worth a shot.

04/07/09 Jared dug into the 748 motor today to see what the damage is. Seems one of the rods tried to spin its bearing halves into one. Neat trick.

The crank has a couple scores on it which means it'll have to be machined or replaced. The rest of the stuff seems OK but there will probably be a list of things to replace.