Barry Sheene Oceanic Challenge

[gs58]

I spent the last weekend of October racing at the BSOC. This meeting was held at the Hampton Downs race track, which is just south of Auckland, New Zealand. There are two BSOC meetings each year - one in March at the Eastern Creek facility in Sydney, Australia, and the October meeting in New Zealand.

About 60 Australians came over for this meeting, and it was great to be competing against some different riders and machinery. All up there were about 280 entries in three categories - Classic (pre 1976), Post Classic (pre 1989) and Sidecars. There were also many different classes in these categories.

I am the current host to the GS Resources mascot (Stator) so I took the opportunity to get some photos of the bikes with him on board. More about Stator can be found at http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=210943

Because this is a GS website I focused on the GS and GSX racers and a few GSXRs.

This is my bike. It was my first outing after a serious crash in January (six months off work!) and during the rebuild I made a few changes that I've been thinking about over the years. Things like more frame bracing, new engine mount, complete new front braking system, GS1100GKZ forks, completely rewired the bike and relocated the ignition system. I was very pleased with the results.

 

[gs58]

And some more

And some more

This is a Harris frame. I think that I have some better pictures somewhere which I'll post when I find them.

A good old 550.

 

[steve murdoch]

Never thought i would be jealous of a stuffed bear.
Congrats on getting back on your race bike after such a big crash.
I can imagine the Aus. vs. N.Z. rivalry was all done in good taste? haha

 

[gs58]

Yeah, the Aussie/Kiwi thing adds another dimension. Members of the visiting team are paired with a local racer (in the same class) who has done a similar lap time in qualifying, and they race each other as well as everyone else on the track. I'm not positive how the scoring works, but think that the winner of the two gets two points, and the loser of the two gets one point for each race they are in. At the end of the meeting the points are tallied for all those representing their country and this year the Kiwis won for the third consecutive time. On some of the bikes you will see a Kiwi or a Kangaroo - these are the bikes that are representing Australia or New Zealand.

As far as the accident goes, I work for a pretty good employer who likes to see us out doing stuff, so they are fairly supportive. I've told him that one more "good"crash and I'll retire from racing.

More bikes.
This is one impressive race bike. I've been told that so far it has cost over $100,000 and they are spending another $40,000 to take it to the Isle of Man. the rider is Cameron Donald who has had some success there in the past. Great to see the people with money spending it on bikes. More pictures to follow.

 

[gs58]

And some more

And some more

This bike unfortunately split it's crankcases on the start line and dumped oil from there right around to turn 2. It's a very well presented bike.

This is the TR750 that Robbie Phillis rode. Basically it is a Water Bucket (Water Buffalo, Kettle) engine with a lot of porting. It went extremely well.

Another of the TR750. I guess the front is raised to assist with the thermosyphon cooling.

 

[gs58]

Some of the bikes that were on display

Some of the bikes that were on display

This bike was built around 1981 and has a monocoque aluminium chassis. It was hand built by Steve Roberts and raced by a few well known New Zealand racers here and in Australia. The engine is a GS1000 8 valver. The front end is from a RG500.

The photos don't really show the air intake system which was unusual at the time. Forced air induction was not allowed so vents in the fairing leading to the carburettors were outlawed, but when building the bike they found that there was a high pressure area behind the rider so they made some holes and ducted the air back towards the hand formed aluminium airbox.

I've read some discussions about the effectiveness of drilling "dimples" and holes in the head in order to cause more air turbulance and surface area in hot areas. This engine had much of the crankcases done as well.

 

[gs58]

This is the next generation which was built a couple of years after the aluminium bike. It is believed that this is the first carbon fibre motorcycle ever built and raced. It too was built by Steve Roberts and is known as the "Plastic Fantastic". It was raced in New Zealand, Australia, the Isle of Man, and at the Briitish F1 championship meetings. It is powered by a GSX1100 engine which performed well but in the end could not match the performance and back up of the factory bikes.

It still gets ridden occassionally for demonstration laps and is a treasured part of NZ racing history

 

[GregT]

The two Roberts bikes - the alloy monocoque and the plastic fantastic - are i think owned by jellywrestler, a member here.
He also has a Roberts built chopper - GS1000 with an alloy monocoque chassis.
Steve Roberts is still around but mainly doing cars these days I understand.

 

[gs58]

Greg, if jellywrestler is also known as Spyda, then he does own the "Plastic Fantastic" but not the alloy bike. He has recently bought the chopper which I saw briefly a month or two ago. It is the only bike I have ever seen with square exhaust pipes.

 

[GregT]

That's him. From comments made on other forums i thought he had both.

I understand he's offered to bring more than one Roberts bike south to the big CAMS feature meeting next year.

I hear there's a box load of register bikes coming to that plus classic sidecars...haven't heard if any posties are coming yet, but i can offer assistance and accomodation....

 

[gs58]

That's him. From comments made on other forums i thought he had both.

I understand he's offered to bring more than one Roberts bike south to the big CAMS feature meeting next year.

I hear there's a box load of register bikes coming to that plus classic sidecars...haven't heard if any posties are coming yet, but i can offer assistance and accomodation....

I hope that he gets them there for the meeting Greg. They worth a good look over, and I see something new everytime I get close.

I see that the Post Classic TT and GP are being held as part of the National rounds. One at a North Island event, and the other at the South. Ruapuna and Taupo meetings I think.

 

[GregT]

I hope that he gets them there for the meeting Greg. They worth a good look over, and I see something new everytime I get close.

I see that the Post Classic TT and GP are being held as part of the National rounds. One at a North Island event, and the other at the South. Ruapuna and Taupo meetings I think.

Yes, but it's an all in post classic race...pre72 up to pre89. Not nice on ruapuna. 8 laps i think which means too much lapped traffic and VERY high speed differentials. That was one of the main things which kept people away from the Lady Wigram revival this year even though they'd shortened the races. Last year it was pre63's doing around 100mph being passed at the end of the 'chute by pre89's doing around 160mph...Scared me watching. Only needed one guy to change line...

 

[gs58]

Yeah, been there and bounced off a rider I was lapping on the second lap of the race! It was a real shame as he hasn't raced since. There needs to be a place for the slower bikes or else we will never see them again.

I think that the rules stipulate that there will be a cut off of 125%? of the fastest lap time if safety is an issue. Does that mean that the fastest bike will be lapping the slowest after four laps?

 

[GregT]

Yeah, been there and bounced off a rider I was lapping on the second lap of the race! It was a real shame as he hasn't raced since. There needs to be a place for the slower bikes or else we will never see them again.

I think that the rules stipulate that there will be a cut off of 125%? of the fastest lap time if safety is an issue. Does that mean that the fastest bike will be lapping the slowest after four laps?

If they allow all the pre72's to start I'd say lapping after lap 3...
i saw that provision - but it also says that the non qualifiers will go to another race of suitable speed...nothing on the programme I can see so the non qualifiers will go home...and the entry fee is VERY steep.
I've already told Billington there's trouble coming. Even the F3 pre89's are so much quicker than most of the pre82's at that track. Our GS which is probably the quickest or 2nd quickest pre 82 in the SI can only stay with the FZR1000's for 2 laps then the tyres go away...they don't have more HP but the extra 1 inch of rim width really tells on Ruapuna. Kev's a better rider than most of the pre89 guys too but theres very little he can do.

At the moment I think we're probably giving it a miss.

 

[gs58]

This bike was also on display at the BSOC. It is a TZ750 that was raced by Dr Roger Freeth. Roger was a rather tall chap so he had a frame built that allowed his knees to tuck inside the fairings and give him the same aerodynamic advantage that everyone else was enjoying. Being a doctor of physics, he also enjoyed playing with mechanical things to get the most out of them. The bike only "raced" once in this configuration. I say "raced" because he took it out for practice and was subsequently protested. Although the design of the bike was within the rules the race officials ruled that when the bike was leaned over in the corners, the wings were a hazard to the other riders, so it didn't actually contest a race looking like this. Roger's mechanic claimed that if all the time that was spent designing and fabricating the wings was spent on the engine they would have had much more success.

Originally the rear wing support strut was connected directly to the swingarm. It would have been interesting to see some evidence of the success or failure of Roger's efforts.

 

[gs58]

There were also a few street bikes on display.

 

[gs58]

Don't see too many of these anymore.

 

[steve murdoch]

Some spectacular bikes, thanks for the pics.
There is a guy near me with a Kenny Roberts Yammie. Would like to get my mitts on it.

 

[gs58]

Bikes with heritage will increase invalue and are always sought after. The older bikes are relatively easy to maintain, but I wonder how the new bikes will last with their electronics etc.

 

[russr33]

Greg, if jellywrestler is also known as Spyda, then he does own the "Plastic Fantastic" but not the alloy bike. He has recently bought the chopper which I saw briefly a month or two ago. It is the only bike I have ever seen with square exhaust pipes.

If you guys have a pic of the chopper anywhere I would love to see it. Some beautiful bikes pictured here; makes me want to build a race bike.