anybody have a tai chi review???

looking for some feedback on the sendai tai chi... anybody ready to do a review yet.....

patience grasshopper.......when I do break mine in ( hopefully this weekend), I wont be able to tell you much except that it will be faster than my Lucky 7 cag, and much better built. Someone needs to compare one against the water cooled c-1's, so that leaves me out.

Just a quick one,

Before I ran the bike, I went thru it and changed the crap
bolts for hi tensile ones. I then pulled the motor out to
check out the guts. Rumour has it that the cranks are way
out. So I went back to the shop I got the bike from, and
showed him the issues with the crank. With out a question
he gave me a water cooled crank. (Cool). So now I'm
picking up some C3 bearings to help the bottom end.
You will need to have a good look at the cases and barrel
if your familiar with matching the cases and barrel transfers.
They need to be tided up. There's allot of potential, but I
will let you know after the weekend, (testing & tuning).

Stay tuned

Cheers

One more thing,

The water cooled engine uses 6202 bearings for the crank,
the air cooled version uses 6203 bearings. This means the
inside hole for the crank is the same as the water cooled.
Thats why the water cooled crank fit. Dimensionaly the same.
The 6203 has a larger outside diameter.

Cheers

So what was wrong with your crank? And what did you say to sendai to get a new one? Is this a tough swap?

The crank bearing had excessive play up & down and about
2mm of movement side to side. The crank in mine looks
to have been cast then machined. The new water cooled
crank was nice and tidy. No obvious blemishes and good
tolerances. There have been a few warranty claims in
regards to crank shaft failure in the air cooled version.
Simply, it could be a bad batch of cranks. That's the
reason I decided to have a squiz at the crank. Once I
showed him the problem, he didn't have a problem
replacing it. I also said its better to have a look and
check, than to find out when its spinning above 13000
rpm and it fails, then he would have been up for a new
motor. Thank god he knows about bike engines.
There's nothing worse than someone selling bikes and
then tells you it will be OK. Then I would be in his
face saying (I TOLD YOU SO).

Cheers

I could not have said it better myself, thank god some people have the sense to buy the bike from a shop that knows what they are doing and supports you in case of a problem and not the typical Auto Zone or Pepboys.

hopefully the manufacturer is aware & will correct the crank problem on the next batch, thanks for the heads up.. look forward to hearing about the performance from it and a side by side comparison from someone with a c1...

anything new on these?

Just finished putting the motor back together yesterday
and back in the bike, its Saturday and raining .

Its supposed to be sunny & fine on Sunday so I should
have results then.

Cheers

Sunday was a top day at the track, sunny & warm.
There had to be 50+ riders.

After replacing the crank and putting C3 crank bearings
in, the motor fired up with no problem. The engine spins
up just like the water cooled. When its on the track flying
buy, you cant tell its a air cooled motor. The clutch is the
only draw back, it defiantly has to be upgraded. I called
Tom at DC minimoto and ordered a zocchi clutch upgrade
kit. Cant wait to get it. Most people who saw the bike on
first impressions wanted to know if its a water cooled bike.
The triple clamps look awesome and everyone who saw
them, wanted them for there water cooled. Clip ons are a
2 piece set-up. They are allot better to set-up and adjust.
The front brake disk is larger and looks the goods. One
thing to consider is to combine the front and rear brakes
onto one lever. My son races this bike and prefers to have
this set-up. First you acquire a front brake lever assembly
from a water cooled bike that has twin front brakes. Then
remove the left rear and right front brake levers. Mount
the water cooled front brake lever asm on the left clip-on.
Then re-assemble the brake cables thru the new brake
asm. First putting the front brake cable on the upper cable
mounting hole. Then the rear cable on the lower cable
mounting hole. Adjust the brakes to have more front brake
pressure and a little less on the rear. Approx 70% front
and 30% rear. This will give maximum braking on one
lever. The bike pulls up quick when setting your speed for
the corner. This leaves your throttle hand to stay on the
gas. The engine has as much potential as the water cooled.
The transfers are identical to the water cooled engine. If
you gave this motor to a competent 2 stoke tuner it would
give a water cooled bike a run for its money. As noted in
another post about the exhaust, there are only 2 mounting
points for the pipe. The first point is where the pipe joins
the header, and the 2nd is the muffler hanger. The 2
springs that hold the pipe to the header are weaker the
water cooled. So I used a heater hose clamp to hold
the pipes together. It seams to be working just fine after
some track use. The muffler has also been reinforced with
2 strips of strip stock welded to the pipe and muffler
back plate. This is a nice piece of mind to know that your
muffler will stay on longer. The water cooled versions have
been known to loose there muffler due to excessive
vibration. The rear wheel adjustments are a new set-up.
They are a little more fiddly to deal with than I care for.
But once set, they hold the rear wheel firmly when set.
For some reason the bike came with inner tubes, they
where one of the first things to go. I put proper valves
stems in and ran them tubeless. (Less Weight).


Likes
* Ease of maintenance.
* No radiator to worry about leaking.
* Ease of Clip-on adjustment.
* The top triple clamp doesn't rub against the front fuel
tank area like the water cooled does.
* Sounds as tho your running a water cooled.

Dislikes
* The fairings are just as much of a pain to remove
for maintenance as the water cooled version.

Things to check
* Crank - for excessive tolerance issues.
Replace with a water cooled crank.
* All nuts and bolts - replace with hi-tensile and loctite.
* Rear wheel spacers need to have a washer added
between the spacer and rear swing arm. For some
reason they used a thin wall tube that can chew its way
into the rear swing arm adjustment.

Over all this is an awesome bike. A good buy for the right
price. Just go thru it like you would if you got a new cag.

Cheers

NIce review, I wonder if Sendai over here is aware of the crank problem, they offer a 6 month warranty. I assume the power is similar to the WC bike if the transfers are identical and so is the bottom end so it looks like a good bike with fewer problems with the only drawback being that once modified the fins may not dissipate enough heat from the extra power.

The motor is still holding strong, (knock on wood). three race meetings on. I have upgraded to a badazz carb &
fiberglass reeds about 4 weeks ago. Thanks Chris .
My boy has been undefeated. Others have been having ring
failures during the race. I get asked "what have you done?" I reply, "drill the piston". Then I show them how it needs
to be done.

Engine upgrades to date:
* Drilled Piston
* 17mm badazz carb
* fiberglass reeds
* C3 crank bearings
* water cooled crank
* zocchi 2 shoe clutch

What I would like to know is, does anyone know if there are
chrome molly rings or chrome faced rings available?
I going to have one of my spare barrels replated properly.

Thank you in advance.

hay, just wondering where in aust you got your bike from??

thanks for the great review,
jamie

If you realy want one, pm me. I know someone in melbourne that has about
30 of them. They are not advertising, but I will orginise for you to talk direct.
That way there is no misunderstanding of what you are getting and how much.


Cheers