Building a vintage track bike

[one_civic]

There are actually quite a few track days open to vintage classes at Shannonville and I do plan on racing in the VRRA possibly next year. You have to first complete and pass a racing school training class with both on track time and in classroom time. They do not simply let any yahoo on the track. The bike would be built according to period 3 middleweight rules regarding the bike build and what is allowed.

What other rules are you guys referring to? i.e. minimum points, bike restrictions... etc.?

[Bones]

One-civic, i don't see anything in the VRRA rules that say you need to have a change guard. Is this the language that you are referencing? "The top portion of the chain/belt on the primary drive, and the portion of the chain/belt on the rearhalf of the clutch, must have an adequate protection guard."

[tas850g]

I'm no suspension guru so I would speak with one to get their feedback on your expected setup. I know on my track SV the front and rear ride height is very important along with fork and shock valving. Maybe speak with Richdesmond here on the forum as he knows his ****.

[one_civic]

yeah, I've got a couple of people who I can talk to locally. I just found out the previous owner shortened the katana front end as well by milling some material off the rebound cylinder of the front forks.

Think maybe I should try and source some different front forks, thing is I just fabricated some front brake caliper brackets so I can use kawasaki twin pot brake calipers on the gsxr 310mm rotors so I need to use non leading front axle forks off either a gs850g or a gs1000e that use the same caliper bracket holes as the katana one, plus I can get rid of the anti dive at the same time.

[one_civic]

Well, after much consideration I'm going to build this as a vintage track bike and maybe race it after some track time,

first things first, here are the pivot bolt sleeves and spacer my friend made for me, the needle roller bearing bushing sleeve is the same inside diameter as the stock 750 pivot bolt and is made out of 4140, while the middle spacer is made out of 1020,

just waiting on some alls balls steering stem conversion bearings for the katana front end and new swing arm bearings from suzuki

[gs45082]

Sub'd

Subscribed.......... If you need a regular length 1100 swingarm I'm got a few of them, including one that has all the tabs taken off in prep for the track.

@azr: PM me if you'd like to part with one of those swingers. I've been mulling that upgrade a while.

[one_civic]

So I'm in Toronto to marshal for csbk this weekend and I would like to know which rear hubs are interchangeable with the older GSXR 3.5' wide 18' rim? Will the bandit 600 or 1200 rear hubs fit? I need a little more clearance if I remember correctly to centre the rim to the left. I have a friend who can machine the rear hub to help align the sprocket, so not too worried about that part

[jeffgs]

Brought rear tire forward several times on a motocross bike and turn in was way more immediate, you can set up for a corner with full brake lock, but I would get head shake and braking chop and acceleration chop caused the swing arm to kick. You can manage the head shake by increasing slack angle by dropping the fork tubes if you can. I personally hated it, it was just to try and help with some mid corner drifting. So right back to my normal settings.

If you have the room to raise the triple tree on the fork leg you may want to try it and if not then go to the longer swing arm and then drop the triple tree back to stock and go in increments of 2mm until you find what you are looking for. Also slowing the compression and raising rebound slightly will help with initial turn in but won't necessarily help with a mid corner push. I am not sure if there are forks that will let you do that. On my motocross bikes they have the SSS forks and I actually do not play with the clickers, I use fork oil height adjustments and adjust the fork tubes in the trees.

On my GS450 I can adjust the rears with a collar for preload but after servicing the front fork I am still raising the fork oil height to keep the fork higher in the stroke. If I keep the bike I might have to just switch them out as they still pogo on expansion joints and hinge mid corner.

[one_civic]

Thanks jeffgs, the front forks have already been shortened, I just need to get the rear wheel centred and take her for a track day shakedown.

So has anyone used the older 3.5" wide, 18" GSXR rims and which rear hub have you used? I understand 17"s will give me more tire choices but I would like to use the 18"s for now

[one_civic]

[one_civic]

[mmattockx]

Thanks jeffgs, the front forks have already been shortened, I just need to get the rear wheel centred and take her for a track day shakedown.

So has anyone used the older 3.5" wide, 18" GSXR rims and which rear hub have you used? I understand 17"s will give me more tire choices but I would like to use the 18"s for now

I'm not understanding what you are referring to by the "rear hub" on a cast wheel? If you mean the cush drive then the OEM one should be fine. You should be able to center the wheel by machining new spacers as required.

Your pics are linking back to this thread, not wherever it is the pics are hosted.


Mark

[one_civic]

I'm on my I phone ne in Toronto and guess I'm having problems uploading pics from photobucket, the rear sprocket carrier and inner spacer are right up against the left side of the 1100 swing arm, I need a narrower rear sprocket carrier that will fit inside the 18" rear rim and give me more clearance to move the rim to the left, their are no spacers on the left side of the rim, I guess I'll have to wait to get home to take some pics so you can see what I'm talking about

[mmattockx]

I'm on my I phone ne in Toronto and guess I'm having problems uploading pics from photobucket, the rear sprocket carrier and inner spacer are right up against the left side of the 1100 swing arm, I need a narrower rear sprocket carrier that will fit inside the 18" rear rim and give me more clearance to move the rim to the left, their are no spacers on the left side of the rim, I guess I'll have to wait to get home to take some pics so you can see what I'm talking about

I understand what you are talking about now. Is this with the wheel centered on the front wheel? Not all swing arms are symmetrical so be sure you have it right. How does the rear sprocket line up with the front?


Mark

[GregT]

I'm on my I phone ne in Toronto and guess I'm having problems uploading pics from photobucket, the rear sprocket carrier and inner spacer are right up against the left side of the 1100 swing arm, I need a narrower rear sprocket carrier that will fit inside the 18" rear rim and give me more clearance to move the rim to the left, their are no spacers on the left side of the rim, I guess I'll have to wait to get home to take some pics so you can see what I'm talking about

On our 1000 with 17's I machined about 10mm off the sprocket face of the cush drive to get sprocket alignment. That was with a 5mm spacer behind the 520 front sprocket.
Lasted about 3 seasons till the power and rider enthusiasm got a bit much then it pulled the sprocket carrier apart, LOL...Sideways corner exits and long wheelies didn't help.
I then made up a center for the cush drive in, I think 6300 alloy. It carries the bearing and the outer piece with the cush paddles pilots onto the sprocket bolts which hold it all together. Sorry, bike's not here and i don't have a pic.
Suzuki 5 paddle cush drives come in various widths - don't know which is narrowest but the 550 triple 2 stroke is by far the widest in case anyone needs a wide one...