GPZ1000RX

Yes is the simple answer. But it really should be ballraced first, and as soon as funds allow get an ESC.

As a lad in the sixties I spent two weeks paper round money on a solder gun, with the intention of building brass and piano wire slot car chassis with it. TOTALLY useless, due to the lack of thermal inertia in the thing, by the time you had enough heat in the joint to flow solder, the whole component was so hot that a solder joint elsewhere was busy melting! Don't try to use it to solder battery packs, the busbar and cell can absorb heat faster than a solder gun can supply it, until the whole cell is cooked, and by then the cell could be destroyed. You may have a similar prob with heavy duty cable and stuff too, I wouldn't want one near those connection posts on an ESC either (expensive fry up!!!) I'm with Willy all the way on this one, be careful, it would be easy to do some real damage with a solder gun.

Maybe I have, maybe I haven't. Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. I couldn't possibly comment until you show me the video and the reading on the lazer gun officer. Really!! I didn't think my old bike could go THAT fast!

Think what could be lost, broken or dented if he had 4 or 5 times the power to play with!!!!!!!!!!![:0]

Your best bet is probably the Schumaker universal body post set, not pretty, but pretty effective. Try Apex models, they advertise in the mags.

The top spec ADT fire alarm charger drops the 27.6V (24V nominal)charge voltage by 0.90V per Deg C above 20C, they do cost about £400 tho!

You could well be right Biggus, I'll try it again to refresh my memory next time I go out to play. I've always used Futaba/Futaba myself tho.

I'm still reading Willy, it's all good stuff, I've even added it to my favourites list! Are we really only arguing over a few hundreths of a volt?

Strange you should mention that Willy, I've just done another check after a night on charge. Current 0.2A Batt voltage 13.73V Psu output voltage (off load) 13.80V Under these conditions it will use some electrolite if left for months, all "open" lead acid batts need top ups and all batteries have a limited sevice life. It being a "high cyclic" leisure battery, it's not necessary to leave it on charge. It gets discharged at the track, it gives my psu some serious excersise recharging it for a few hrs and then about a day of gentle trickle charging. Followed by an overnight top up the night before the next meeting. I've never had to top up this battery or it's predeccesor and that one lasted 6 years before wearing out, both have always been charged with the same psu. I'll have a look at your suggested sites and let you now what I think. (no surprise there then:-) )

Try BEFORE you buy some are not quite as equal as others! Do a range check before trusting a prized model (or anyones safety!) to an unknown combination. You do this with the transmitter antenna fully down and a helper holding the model up off the ground, operate all the controls, while slowly backing away, you should be able to get 25 to 30 metres away before your helper signals that the Tx has lost contact with the Rx. If much less than this then there is a problem.

I've done that myself, bought an Optimate charger/maintainer for my Kawasaki GPZ1000RX battery a few years ago, it works very well and has a few nice protection, analysis and deep recovery features, but I'm certain that 99+% of the time its just sat there being a nice smooth, regulated 13.8V 0.5A PSU :-) Cost me £40 and I still had to buy a new bike battery last week. Life's a beach, so drive a crawler on the dunes!!!

In order to supply some repeatable data for the 12V lead acid battery/ psu debate I'm in the middle of an experiment:-) I've got, My 4 year old, 85AH leisure battery, which hasn't been used since last charged about a month ago. My Maplin 13.8V 10A series regulated psu My trusty Fluke 77 Digital Multimeter Checked the psu output off load (13.79V) and battery (12.45V) electrolite OK Connected the batt and psu together with meter in series and reading Amps current started at 4.75A at 60 secs current was below 2A at 120 secs current below 1A wthin 15 mins current steady at about 0.3A and batt terminal voltage 13.47V steady. The conclusion is that there is no way that using this method of charging can do any harm at all to the battery. You can leave it connected like this all year, 0.3A will do nothing untoward to a battery of this size, it may need an electrolite top up every few months but that's all. Try it for yourself, Willy, I'm sure you must have the psu and meter, if you are worried about the psu output, find the voltage adjust pot and turn it down 1/2 a volt. Let us know your results. I'm still certain that, if anything, a regulated psu is a better charger for 12V batts than the standard auto shop offerings because the smooth, regulated output allows a fit battery to regulate its own charge current, as demonstrated by my readings above. The standard "raw" DC from an ordinary car charger prevents this self regulation effect and is much more likely to overcharge the battery (boil it dry) if not carefully timed or the charger "sized" to suit. This is why "car" chargers are likely to destroy "bike" batteries, bike batteries are about 1/4 the capacity of car ones. Why am I bothering with all this? Well I'm off sick from my 20 year "career" in the alarm industry and I'm starting to get bored!!! PLUS if another Tamiya kit appears in the near future my wife might just carry out her threat to kick me and my hobbies out!!!!

Sorry to disaggree with you Willy but you most definately can use a regulated power supply to charge a 12V lead acid, thats exactly what keeps the batteries charged in nearly every fire and intruder alarm system in the world. Most regulated 12V supplies are in fact set to 13.8V because this is the correct "trickle charge" voltage for a 12V lead acid (battery charge spec for "dryfit" batteries is actually 2.3V/cell, max ripple 30mV/cell) If a psu that meets this spec is connected to a 12V lead acid then the battery itself regulates the charge current, which falls away to virtually nothing when the battery is fully charged. It will NOT "boil away the electrolite" In fact, a regulated 13.8V psu makes a much better charger than the standard auto shop offerings because of this ability to allow the battery to regulate it's own charge rate. You can pretty much leave a 12V lead acid permanently connected to a 13.8 psu, just like in thousands of alarm installations! Jimmy, on the original subject, Maplin do the necessary for £35, page512 part no RP08J max current 6A, or, for much more grunt RP09K max15A £80

I learnt something new about LRP speedos today guys, cheers :-)

If your car has plastic or solid metal bearings which you have to fit as you do the kit build (like Tamiya kits do) then all you need to do is get the sizes out of the instructions or measure the actual bearings. You need Outside diameter Inside diameter & Width all in mm. These things tend to be in standard sizes. Most good model car shops will be happy to sell 4 off size A 3 off size B 6 off size C etc etc. cost £1.50 to £2.50 each

The short answer is, no you can't use your full sze car battery charger to run your nicad charger. At least not unless it's far more sophisticated than most! If your "leisure" battery is the usual size (60AH+) then it should be capable of charging around 10 3000mAH packs and still have plenty left from one overnight charge. You may have a worn out leisure battery or perhaps the charger you use to charge that is faulty. Check all the above first, but you can buy a suitable "switch mode power supply" from places like Maplin for around £60 or less. A 13.8V 10A one would be fine. It can be used to power your Nimh charger and to charge a 12V lead acid too! I'll see if I can be more specific for you tomorrow.

If the protection on your ESC is cutting in then the usual reason is that the motor is over due for some maintenance, especially a comm skim, or as Willy says a brush may be sticking. A strip down and inspection is the first step.

The easy way to a good result is to keep it simple colourwise, one bright colour carefully applied is best. Then get creative with stickers on the outside.

Servos break at the worst possible time for the same reason that you stapler runs out at the worst possible time, because you are using them!!! There is no good time, thats life, no one said it was fair :-)

Glad to hear that you are enjoying it mate. Bear in mind all thats been said, and go easy with the big power mods. Your first mod has to be ballraces all round, if you can fit them, this will make the car more free running and will make the transmission better able to handle any future extra "go". Then fit an good ESC, these are much better than the MSC that the kits come with. Finally go for a 27T 24degree stock motor, the Trinity you mentioned should be good, or perhaps a Trinity P2K. I think the green machine may be less suitable tho, because it's a revver (I think) Whatever motor you end up with, the first two mods are very desirable first.

A 27T stock motor is a very different animal to the 27T silver can motor that comes with most kits. Stock is a very popular racing class and the motors are built to international regulations in order to limit cost. A lot of racing clubs only allow stock motors to be used. The result is that the manufacturers spend a lot of R & D time on maximising the speed of these motors. They cost about £27 UK from most shops, ask for a torquey one rather than a revvy one. They really do go loads better than the kit motor, they look good and flash too!

I think someone has misread Jimbobs question. He asked if a 55T motor got really hot, not did a 5T motor get really hot! The reply is technically correct, a 5T motor will get very very hot and probably melt things. A 55T motor will run very cool indeed and make lots of low down pulling power (torque) but not many revs. A 5T will rev like crazy but won't make much low down torque.

No question about this one at all, a good 24degree torquey 27T stock is the way to go. The 27T stock is the answer to a beginners prayer, much faster than the kit motor, no urgent need to change anything else to suit (in a Tamiya!), just loads more GO. Are you reading this Jimbob :-)

Only one way to find out for sure! But first, ask yourself, if something does break, can you get spare parts, how long will it take and how much will they cost? Try a 27T 24degree stock first, they are a lot faster than the silver "can" motors. If that's OK try a 19T stock next. Both of the above motors will be good for your next car, you really are pushing your luck with this one tho! Good luck, let us know how you get on.

I see what you guys are saying but, too an extent, you both agree with with me that the TT needs hop ups to take the power. If you have to spend the money do do that then it was probably better to buy a better spec model to start with, if you can afford it. My most recent racing was electric F1 and I used the Tamiya f101/2/3 series cars, cheap, simple fast and fun. But to set them up/tune them meant buying an ever increasing range of Tamiya hop ups ranging from £2 to £80 in price. the result is that I have an F103 with only a small handfull of it's original parts left! and it's certainly cost well over £300!!! it's a beaut. but theres a rub...... My most recent race car is the Corally F1 graphite which cost far more than a basic F103 but about half the final cost of my fully hopped up 103. However it is totally ready to go with any wind motor and fully adjustable out of the box, NO expensive hop ups required!!!! On the recomended set up I was 1 1/2 laps faster than with the 103 at the first meeting with plenty more to come. The point is that if you want speed there is no substitute for buying something designed for it from the start, it is almost always cheaper in the long run and a better performer along the way too! Budget cars have limitations that are best respected. I enjoy my less expensive Tamiyas as RC semi scale cars with minimum mods (bearings and ESC usually) To go racing again a Surikan replica would be wonderful but many others go as well for far less cash. Jimbobs car is the classic example of where not to start if you want to end up fast! The budget Tamiyas are far better but far from ideal if speed is your goal. The only logical reason for not spending the cash up front is if a "lad" is the user, lads tend to wreck everything no matter how expensive so the cheaper the better in this case! The TT & TL are ideal for this (their target market) Sadly Jimbobs car will probably prove to be too cheap.