Chapter 11 - Gauges, Part 1
Since a big aim of this build is to get a whole lot of performance out of a 50cc single-speed, and I'm no master tuner, really it means the goal is for me to learn by doing. My day job involves instrumentation, testing, and data processing/analysis (on freight railcars), and it's something I've always been drawn to, so definitely applying it to this build. At this point in my 2-stroke tuning knowledge, I can usually get a carb in the ballpark to make decent power and not blow up. The only failure I've had was due to a damn clamp-mount VM18 constantly breaking its neck on my Peugeot (creating massive air leak, but enough flow through the carb to still keep it running! Snapped the crank at like 12k RPM due to seizing). That said, I have tons of room for improvement, and getting numbers helps me progress with my understanding of things.
So, this bike will have a Trail Tech Vapor (wheel speed, engine speed, coolant temp), EGT, and wideband O2. I know the wideband is not always going to give a real view of the situation, but it should be a sort-of-useful device while I'm on the pipe, at least. Eventually I hope to build a very simple brake dyno (perhaps literally with a brake assembly from a car or something), but in the meantime I can get some power numbers from the accelerometer and/or GPS in a GoPro. More on that later.
To start, I needed a place to mount the gauges. I'm using clip-ons, so the four threaded holes on the fork's top plate come in handy here. The Vapor was pretty easy:
