A beautiful result Mike! Man that thing looks great. Every bike you build is better than the last. Congratulations my friend. Lou

Kurse of the Kokusan, and before it was the Bosch; the Ducati ignition gremlins:

I had a longer and more interesting discussion, and then I lost it to one false move on the keyboard! So, here is a shorter version (some of you will be happy about that) of the culprit to my starting/running/jetting ills --- a cracked ignition pickup. Thing is, they still read as OK using a multimeter. And I do not know when this happened. No matter what I did with the carbs or timing, it did not help. But, once I replaced this bugger all was good.

MikeV





Nice play on the word “pickup” Lou. No, a bad pickup.

Good pick up Mike! Lou

It has annoyed me that the ignition is boiled in oil ever since the last of the singles.

Graeme

I finally got this to its maiden track day, and thought it reasonable to report how it went. Great!

I have never really ridden a Pantah fast, and thought this would feel really old-fashioned --- it did not. Everything worked, and the only change was to increase main jet sizes to 175 H and 185 V. It easily pulled 9,000 RPM and that is where I chose to stop for a first ride. Not a drop from the oil lines was lost. Really surprised that the suspension (35mm Marz Mag forks and Marz shocks) was actually good, and that a 12mm Brembo Goldline brake master, 05 Goldlines, and some of Carlo's 260mm rotors could work so well (almost raised the rear tire when someone slowed unexpectedly on the main straight). It really was a fun day. A friend took a few photos, but none on the track, so....





The guy with the hair is Brian Catterson; once a contributor to Cycle World and then editor of Motorcyclist. He raced and won on an Alazurra around 1987. So he was interested.

Good Morning Mike...
So the bike goes as good as it looks, and right out of the box? Not surprising. It is after all practically a factory clone, and those bikes did very well on the track. You didn't mention where you were riding, any places on the track where the bike really shined, or if you made any wanna-be punters look foolish on newer machines. Great bike and still one of my favorites.
Best Regards...
Flattop

Hello flattop. It was at PIR, Portland, Oregon, a nice flat track with the basic straights and turns, nothing fancy. It accelerated strong for an old-tech 650cc, turned easily, and kept lines well through turns. The small brake parts worked fine. But it did get caught by a lot of bikes at the end of the long straight. I was really there just to test it out, and was pleasantly surprised. MikeV

Very nice mike. Beautiful and clean build, you gotta be proud of that. Boucher.

I'm enjoying looking back on some of the Forum builds. Great job Mike. Man I'm glad the Forum is back! Lou

Sorry for time delay but anyway after 35years as Pantah owner time is not important.....!

.......So, kokusan ignition? good news....... the most important and great modification and first time for me.
Can you specify please , from which moto is or what type Kokusan is as try to find out in market.
Some close clear fotos on this item and its cable connections will be greatful.