new GS racer

[patrino]

Good ideas, everyone, thank you thank you!

I've been thinking over this a bit, I've got a few plans of attack:

1. Increase front and rear preload to raise the ride height (and hopefully add some ground clearance). I'll grab some baseline sag numbers this weekend and see what I can do to raise her up. If it was in the budget I'd have Works extend the shocks 1/2" and get some longer fork tubes from Forking by Frank, but unfortunately there's no money for it (especially after spending $400 in tires that won't work.)
2. Make or have made a new ignition cover (turns out I was grounding it too, which is worse than the pipe because there's no flex to it.) What kind of ignition are you running, GregT? I need to pull my cover and see how flat I can get the cover. Any photos you could please send?
3. Hammer some flats to the pipe. This one's a maybe at this point, we'll see. The pipe's coming off anyway so that I can change the oil, so I'll do some experimenting once it's off. I'm going to see if someone around might be willing to fabricate a new mid-pipe. My A1 go-to pipe guy (Will Jones, with Poor Bastard Cycle Works) moved to Atlanta earlier this year so I'll need to ask around.

Once I'm at the track I can also start messing with the compression damping, that'll be a trial-and-error process. Joe Signs was there this weekend, he reported a lot of squat coming out of turn nine onto the straight. I zip-tied my shocks and forks and I'm using nearly all the travel.

Kevin, I've been racing in Middleweight GP (new class), 450 Superbike, Middleweight Classic Superbike, and 650 GP Twins. Yes, mostly SVs in nearly all of those, the grids are great this year. I was able to turn a couple 1:20s after I got the tire issue sorted out, mostly 1:21s and 1:22s before then. My goal is to be in the teens by the end of the May weekend, so still work to do. I was running out of gearing once I got the tire sorted out so dropping a tooth in the back will help.

Steve, YES on the fun factor!! At the end of the day I'm really just trading a lot of money for a cheap plastic trophy, so it had better be fun!!!!

 

[GregT]

Our ignition is a Dyna 2000 - running inverted. The pickups are inboard of the mounting plate and the crank end rotor has been shortened to suit.
The ignition pickups are uni- directional magnetic switches so work perfectly inverted.Can't do it with a Dyna S though as you must retain the advance mechanism.
The only things coming past the end of the cases are the ignition backplate screws, so a flat plate cover, counterbored for the screw heads works well.

From what you say, I'd suspect you may have slightly too soft springs for your weight. Our front end setup is peculiar to the rider, progressive springs with enough preload it has only about 25mm sag with the rider aboard, Most of our tracks here are short and tight and he likes to trail brake deep, turn it early (backing it in often) and gas it up hard...with this setup the front pops up quickly and it weight transfers very well...ie wheelies while laying darkies...

 

[CivilRock]

... he likes to trail brake deep, turn it early (backing it in often) and gas it up hard...with this setup the front pops up quickly and it weight transfers very well...ie wheelies while laying darkies...

I like the way you talk.

 

[Charlie G]

likes to trail brake deep, turn it early (backing it in often) and gas it up hard...with this setup the front pops up quickly and it weight transfers very well...ie wheelies while laying darkies...

It sounds a bit poetic to me

 

[GregT]

It sounds a bit poetic to me

The guys he's done it in front of wax positively lyrical....after they've realised he's in control of what he's doing. He's scared a few though.
I've had at least one chief Marshal come and see me and ask if I can tone him down a bit. i just say he knows what he's doing and hasn't fallen off yet....

An old friend of mine had a ride on the GS and came back saying it was set up as a hooligan's machine. Too easy to wheelie in his opinion. Suits our street circuits very well though.

 

[sharpy]

An old friend of mine had a ride on the GS and came back saying it was set up as a hooligan's machine. Too easy to wheelie in his opinion. Suits our street circuits very well though.

They are a wheelie machine. At the Swan series in the early 80's and before rules came in gs1000 where the bike to have in the lunch time wheelie contest. Same year Dennis Neil did a whole lap of Surfers Paradise track on the rear wheel using the XL500 with the 23" front wheel. Shame the year i entered one other on a XT500 won as he was doing better wheelies than i was on my TT500 but i was 2 up. I even got the thumbs up from Jeff Sayle as he rode past on his TZ750 just before the straight and took off in the distance on the rear wheel.

 

[patrino]

Took some sag measurements last night, I was at ~30mm front and rear. Added some preload to both ends and am not at 20mm front and rear.

Big T found a spare points cover for me so I'm going to cut a chamfer in it today and fit a plate to cover the hole. A friend of mine who TIG welds has offered to weld the two pieces together for me, hopefully that'll help.

I'm working on tracking down a new Pirelli rear tire now. Hopefully the new Pirelli works as well as the old one.

 

[CivilRock]

I need to come out and see that machine. 1:20 is stinking fast on any bike let alone a 30 yr old bike.

Hero's work right here. Very impressive.

Kevin.

 

[patrino]

Big thanks to Big T for selling me a spare ignition cover!

Bridge City Cycles let me use their mill this afternoon; I cut a chamfer into the cover, next step is to cut a plate to weld over it. That's the plan for tomorrow. Hopefully between the chamfer and the added preload front and rear I'll stop grounding out on the RH side.

I welded up the seat pan welds that failed, too, and put Jenni's cover back on the seat. It's tougher than it was, hopefully it'll hold up.

 

[Charlie G]

Next time you race, how about a picture of you and the bike in the pits. We like pics.

cg

 

[patrino]

Will do. In the meanwhile, action shot link from JME Photography:

http://www.jmephotography.org/Motor...99535_d3qGn5#!i=3190562215&k=NGvX5Bn&lb=1&s=L

 

[steve murdoch]

Cool photo of you and your "skunkish" bike.

 

[patrino]

Another good weekend.

Sunday was wet but I collected a couple points, and am currently sitting in 2nd in 450 Superbike. Still a lot of races ahead though. This photo is our Sanford and Son rig getting ready to head back to the shop. The puddle on the right hand of the photo kept growing with the rain, by the end of the day we had to move our EZ-Up canopy a couple yards away from where we started in the morning.

Saturday was hot and dry, I got down into the teens and even turned a couple 1:18s. I'm still dragging stuff on both sides, mostly the pipe. The added preload and the chamfer we put in the ignition cover seems to have helped somewhat, the bike didn't touch down on the ignition cover this round. Oil consumption has leveled off, barring a catastrophic failure it's something I can live with for the rest of the season.

Joe Pethoud from Vicious Cycles gave me a used Pirelli Rosso Corsa for testing. It worked great, so I'm going to buy a Pirelli SuperCorsa and run that (Joe Signs says it's even better than the Rosso Corsa).

That said, unless folks have suggestions I'm going to shell out some money for longer fork tubes. I think that'll be the biggest bang for the buck as far as ground clearance goes.

Next race in one month!

 

[CivilRock]

Thanks for the race report Patrick. I was thinking of you while I was working in the yard and I could hear the hail and thunder coming Sunday. Amazing amounts of rain came so quickly.

1:18 is fast for PIR. That's awesome. You're doing hero's work out there.

Thanks for the race report.

-Kevin

 

[patrino]

Photos starting to trickle in - thanks to Bob Edwards for this one.

I just popped out of the draft here in front of Peter on his SV650. He outbroke me into turn one, I was trying to reel him back in when the red flag came out.

 

[Charlie G]

That's what I wanted to see. Thanks.

cg

 

[patrino]

I'm not on Facebook but a couple of the friends I race with are.

Here's two short (1 minute) clips of the lap the photo below is from. First one is a rear-facing view, next one is a forward-facing camera. Same section of track, different perspectives.

I tried to put them directly in this forum but couldn't.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152505083204136&set=vb.725959135&type=2&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202590359293566&set=vb.1034281983&type=2&theater

 

[CivilRock]

Bummer. Link says I don't have permission to view the videos. I must not be FB friends with whoever posted the vids. Maybe your competition can post them on youtube?

I'd love to see some footage.

I bet you'd pick up 10-15mph on the straight with an upper fairing. I know it goes against the era, the bike styling, and maybe the rules? But there's something valuable in winning a battle. Cool pic!!! I can't believe your keeping up with SV racebikes. I was able to get into the 15's on my SV with a stock motor.

-Kevin

 

[GregT]

In our experience here in NZ, SV's are not quick in a straight line but stop a LOT better....A good GS1000 will murder SV's in a straight line.

 

[CivilRock]

Just made friends with the right people and watched the vids. Excellent stuff. I enjoyed hearing the sounds of the SV on the track - so familiar. But I'd really like to hear that GS all revved up and pi$$ed off. Good stuff Patrick.

-Kevin