On 12/9/2021 at 8:45 PM, nerdsforprez said:

But about the color cost.  Are you sure it doesn't cost TLG more?   Paint costs money.  And has been shown before, elements can actually have different weights based only on their color.  Plus, a metallic shade seems to add something else.  In all other aspects of manufacturing, paint varies in quality, and differs in mass, quality and cost.  Yes, perhaps not basic black and LBG, but I am discussing the colors seen in the front shocks.  

Except for printed parts, Lego (and all plastic parts in general) are not painted, but produced from coloured plastic. The price difference is virtually none. Only some exotic colours like metallic are more expensive.

1 hour ago, Mikdun said:

Only some exotic colours like metallic are more expensive.

Metallic colors are actually painted. If you grab a screwdriver and scratch the part, you’ll see it’s not solid metallic silver or gold. At least, that’s how they’re made now.

@LvdH, thanks for clarification. I actually do not have any metalic part.

Ok, its ordered and on its way but having downloaded the instructions (and comparing the real bike and model in the instructions opening pages) the angle of the windscreen is far too extreme and the clutter above the front mudguard is excessive IMHO

 

 

18 hours ago, LvdH said:

Metallic colors are actually painted. If you grab a screwdriver and scratch the part, you’ll see it’s not solid metallic silver or gold. At least, that’s how they’re made now.

Most bright metallic plastic finishes are metallised in a vacuum process and are plated rather than sprayed.. 

Edited January 12, 20223 yr by williamyzfr1

On 12/9/2021 at 3:00 PM, Milan said:

I find it odd that the gearbox has neutral gear (N) in the place between the second and third gear.

Usually, it should be between first and second gear (1-N-2-3-4-5...)
So, you shift the gearbox on this model like this:
...1-2-N-3-N-2-1-2-N-3-N-2-1...

I had finished bags 1 & 2 and I noticed something: pulling the chain, no matter which gear I was in, the pistons were moving. Initially I thought I did something wrong, so I went back a lot of steps (a pain !) to re-check my gearbox.

Turns out nothing was wrong: due to friction and the engine pistons being a very light load, pulling the chain was making the pistons move even in neutral.

I confirmed applying some load (with my finger) on the gear that drives the crankshaft: in 3 of the gears pulling the chain definitely moved that gear, while in one (neutral) it didn't.

But for me the neutral gear is not between two other gears, it's the top one : i.e. pushing the selector up as many times as possible.

I can visually confirm that as the two 6100931 (Technic Driving Ring 3L) are not engaging any of their 2x 6000930 and 1x 6224999 (Gear 16 Tooth with Clutch on Both Sides, Gear 20 Tooth Double Bevel with Clutch on Both Sides).

If I'm not wrong, for me the order of gears is N v 3 v 2 v 1 ^ ^ 2 ^ 3 ^ N v ... (where v means push selector down, ^ push selector up). It doesn't make more sense of what Milan has.

I guess I messed up the relative phase between the 6227330 (Changeover Rotary Catch) and the beam that limits the rotation of the gear selector.

I have now modified it to have the slightly more meaningful N ^ 1 ^ 2 ^ 3 v 2 v 1 v N ^ N ^ 2 ^ 1 ^ 3 v 1 v 2 v N ... still not like a real bike gearbox, but a bit more reasonable than having neutral between 3rd and 2nd  :)

But I'm a bit lost as that Milan seems to have a different order

Ratios between crankshaft turns : chain pinion turns seems to be: 1:1 (1st gear), 12:16 (2nd), 12:20 (3rd).

EDIT: some of the above was wrong, striked out.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 9, 20223 yr by HornetMaX

1 hour ago, HornetMaX said:

Turns out nothing was wrong

With this set, it is really important to have all the gears in the gearbox spinning freely.
Regarding different shift patterns, there have been different results with people building this, yes. Also some reported jamming.

Thx Milan.

In fact I wrote some wrong stuff above (now striked out).

Still trying to think about it, I thought I understood how the whole gearbox works (visually inspecting it I tried to compute the ratios) but after manually checking the ratios (counting turns or feeling how hard is to move the engine pulling the chain) I'm no longer sure about that :)

Would be nice to have something reasonable (e.g. N ^ 1 ^ 2 ^ 3) if perfection (1 ^ N ^ 2 ^ 3) cannot be achieved.

OK, I triple checked all this before proceeding with the other bags.

I'm fairly confident my one now goes N ^ 2 ^ 1 ^ 3 v 1 v 2 v N ^ ...

So it's the same order as Milan (pheew !) but setup so that neutral is all way down. Marginally better, but it still sucks. Fixing this to get a nicer thing (N ^ 1 ^ 2 ^ 3 or even better 1 ^ N ^ 2 ^ 3) is way above my pay-grade and my capabilities.

Overall ratios and feeling (how hard it feels to pull the chain in the different gears) now make sense with respect to my understanding of how the gearbox works. I was thrown off by the fact the 16 red gear does not mesh into the 12 black gear !

Gonna call it a day and move to bag # 3. After having put everything back together :)

Over in this thread, towards the bottom, someone has suggested a simple fix for the shift order. I haven't looked into it, but maybe it's something you could try:

 

Damn you 2GodBDGlory ! Now I will have to monitor that "MODs and Improvements" thread. I fear the same hell I went through for the big Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

The solution by jfb9301 that you linked works perfectly (1 v N v 2 v 3 ^ 2 ^ N ^ 1) and is really trivial, just a bush/gear swap, no extra pieces.

It's so perfect it should be an errata more than an improvement or mod.

Thanks Milan, you did an awesome review to the set.

Where can I find you on flickr? I would like to see the max res photos you wrote on the review.

Keep the good work!

Dear Sir ,

Do you have a better picture of instructions 320 till 325 ? I just can't see how to connect the part mentioned there.

Thanks in advance.

Henk Barkhof.