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I took a couple of nice photo's of the Jaguar after a short 5 mile ride this evening. And I also thought I would write about my first impressions of the bike now that it is almost completed. First question everyone asks is "how fast will it go?" I also admit that was one of my own questions at the beginning, After some riding time and evaluation, you begin to realize that top speed on a bicycle is not the real objective, and although I have heard they are capable of reaching speeds up to 40 mph, I have only had mine up to 30 mph, down hill. I would not want to ride this bike this fast or faster for very long periods of time, the pedals and handle bars vibrate once you get past 25 mph, and 20 mph is the most comfortable speed at the moment. I plan to add some heavy metal rods ( I hear 3/4 is the right size ) into the handle bars to isolate the vibration. Not sure what I can do about the vibrations in the pedals?
I am very pleased with the front hub I bought and used, the drum brake helps stop the bike nicely. The Cat Eye speedometer is nice, works well so far, my laid back seat post works ok, I could improve it at some point in the future although I am not sure how yet. It moves the seat back as much as possible but its still not back as far as I would like it, I have seen some custom made ones that looked good. I got the pannier bags on the rear, they work good and fasten to the trek bike rack well.
There are several aftermarket mufflers available, The muffler that came with stock works ok, the stock gasket did shoot out in pieces within the first mile, I was able to cut a GM EGR gasket to fit, and it works good but not perfectly, there is a copper gasket that is said to work good for about $5, I have yet to order it. There are 2 different style exhaust systems, one that goes up and then back like something you would see on an Enduro motorcycle. The other one goes down and back under the crank in the center, so far I think I prefer the enduro style, but I have yet to order one.
To date I am still running 16:1 for my fuel ratio for engine break in, after a couple of tanks I will switch to 32:1 and I hope to see a performance increase at that point, at 150 MPG it will be quite some time before I can find out.
I am very pleased with the front hub I bought and used, the drum brake helps stop the bike nicely. The Cat Eye speedometer is nice, works well so far, my laid back seat post works ok, I could improve it at some point in the future although I am not sure how yet. It moves the seat back as much as possible but its still not back as far as I would like it, I have seen some custom made ones that looked good. I got the pannier bags on the rear, they work good and fasten to the trek bike rack well.
There are several aftermarket mufflers available, The muffler that came with stock works ok, the stock gasket did shoot out in pieces within the first mile, I was able to cut a GM EGR gasket to fit, and it works good but not perfectly, there is a copper gasket that is said to work good for about $5, I have yet to order it. There are 2 different style exhaust systems, one that goes up and then back like something you would see on an Enduro motorcycle. The other one goes down and back under the crank in the center, so far I think I prefer the enduro style, but I have yet to order one.
To date I am still running 16:1 for my fuel ratio for engine break in, after a couple of tanks I will switch to 32:1 and I hope to see a performance increase at that point, at 150 MPG it will be quite some time before I can find out.
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