1977 gs 750, track days

[moderntechnician]

Of I forgot! Yes I raced a CB900F for a while; we had to race it in Open Class because Super Bike was set to a 750cc limit. It was a giant killer, my buddy wanted to sandwich a CB1100 engine into it but it was already a bored and stroked 750 and it was about perfect as was, so I convinced him to let it be. (They are best when left unfaired and the fork is braced...)

 

[Old Colt]

Hey any one remember BOTT?

Ohh yah! I am a Ducati guy too, the old bevel ones of that day.
We were trying to get a thumper class going with Florida Grand Prix Assn at the time too. Couldn't get enough interest with all the small singles already running. Syd's had a dozen at the track it seems. No one went for big singles there.

 

[npntransistor]

well

well

I understand she is an old girl. my intent was to get involved with vintage motorcycle racing. the local race classes that i talked to incoruged me to come out for a track day and then talk about the school. i told them all of my intrest in the vintage world and the equipment i would be running. he said no problamo can do. i understand that the bike isnt going to set any land speed records, but i think racing among other bikes of the same time would be awsome, i have pushed the bike harder on the street then i probably should have, and am very comfortable with its limits and mine. Idont exspect to set any records but go out, be safe, and have fun.

 

[moderntechnician]

Old Colt

I raced a Desmo 450 single, but could not possibly afford a Ducatti twin of that era!!! (With riders like Mike Hailwood and later Mamola they ended up not needing me! Being wildly satirical, here! Even HD had Springsteen for Battle of the Twins. Isn't that three to draw to!!!?)

I only got to test drive a Darmah and Pantah, in heaven for a few minutes but then back to reality. Even now you have to retro-fit Yamaha stuff for them... Loved them with a passion though! And they got even better! (I have a line on a Scrambler that I am dying to make into a project!!!) I could probably afford a Monza replica, but in my mind I'd like to see it look like this attached picture of the legendary racer. Be difficult to simulate the twin plug heads though, but that might even be fun trying. (I have an '83 GPz 1100 that has been converted from injectors to carbs that has two plugs per cylinder, runs better on race fuel but we didn't go nuts on the compression. I am ashamed to say it sits degrading behind the little house. Long story.)

I did ok on the R100S in BOTT, but not as well as the first Superbike campaigns. The handwriting was on the wall though and they were bound and determined to make Superbike a works race. (They'd send Spencer to Phoenix for the small races!)

The two strokes and Box stock 550's were all that was left for us really, and we flogged those bikes!

I wanted to race the Triumph in BOTT but never got up the nerve to race prep her. (Who could treat Bonny that way in 1982 any way?)

Thanks for letting me ramble!

 

[Old Colt]

82 was my last year of racing. I had injured my back in a diving incident off a 3 meter board and was a bit afraid of taking a tumble. I was also moving back to Conn and as nice as the old Bryer Motorsport track was I old went out to do laps. I actually did more laps with my Ducati than my Suzukis after that.

The twinplug heads are no problem, the second plug sets right in front of the shaft.
You have a fair amount of Ducati activity down your way. Tom Rolland and a few others are quite busy down there. Mostly twins.
I had an R100RS Motorsport before my Ducati. Even though I work subcontract for the nations largest BMW motorcycle dealer I still prefer Ducs.
The closest I can get to that pic will be with my X6 Suzi. Defiantly no thump from it.

I bought two antique aircraft down in Tuscon many years ago, a 1929 Waco taper wing and a 39 Spartan Executive. Flew the Spartan home. Fun job at the time.

 

[Headphase]

I hate these track day threads....

'cause I start thinkin' and lookin' at ebay and findin' cheap track/race bikes....
Ready to go stuff, not so expensive and I have a trailer and I have leathers and gear and I've always wanted to race a road bike and, and, and, and...

Ahhhh....:-k

And I'm 52 and don't bounce like I use to....

Arrgghh

AMEN!
I get the same ideas, every autumn winter. I'm 50 next month (how did that happen?) and I swing between feeling capable of anything and feeling like an old has been)
Few years ago I went and did enduro (hare and hounds), that was a right laugh, but I fancy taking a gs onto a track, what really holds me back is the thought of maybe being a mobile chicane.

 

[moderntechnician]

Old Colt

Ducatis = one of the few cases where Phoenix is a much better Resource, enough said.

Ah, I know New Hampshire International in Loudon! I used to live in Colchester (& Uncasville) before the war. After getting wounded I got some basket leave and the folks back home treated me like I was a total monster while my Cousin Richard who split for Canada (and apparently left behind the practice of bathing,) was treated like a conquering hero.

Any way my close buddy Mr. Congdon who owned Congdon Farms Dairy let me work in exchange for a BSA Goldstar, which to me was the greatest adventure in the history of the universe!!! I got it at twelve and went tear-assing around Connecticut and Massachusetts until I literally ran the tank dry. (The dairy farmers all knew Mr. Congdon and no matter where I’d end up they’d always come and pick me and the bike up and drop me back at Congdon Farms!) The cops all got to know me and back then they were all Irish (one side of my family) or French (The other side) so I ALWAYS got out of a ticket or a lecture! That couldn’t happen today. I was a good kid though (alter boy) and hours at the dairy were really LONG, so they turned the other cheek!

I’d make Loudon (or Connecticut Dragway) every now and then and either try and get in on a truck that was pitting or make a gift of a bottle of Canadian Club to gain entry. I think they got a charge out of watching me trying to start that mule kicking Goldstar!

(You know now a days when they go riding motorcycles over a train track, they don’t have to stop and go back for a headlight or a bolt or two!!! Now that just CAN’T be right!!! It’s like that Telephone thing, it’ll never catch on!)

You are suggesting I cut a sparkplug and JB weld it in place aren’t you! (I like you!)

Yum an X6! I always loved the T20’s, that 250 Ducati was a single and handled the 250 Suzi’s!

I studied Aerospace here at the University of Arizona most of the old gang work at Garret or Hamilton Aviation and volunteer at Pima Aerospace restoring the old aircraft. I live right up the street from the bone yards! (Name an Infantryman that doesn’t fall in love with Aircraft!)

<Ramble Alert>
I pass old RB57’s that are parked at the Civilian scrap yard on Wilmot daily. During the war they’d start the mostly black RB57s with black powder charges and they wouldn’t tell the Marines doing extra duty at Đ? Nẵng anything about it. So late night, black ops, dark figures hovering over the aircraft in it’s sand bag revetment, then the report from the Canberra’s engine nacelle with a flash and smoking explosion, you’d kind’a have to forgive an uninformed Marine Lance Corporal for thinking sabotage and hosing the area with 5.56mm ball ammo, and then um .45 Caliber ball ammo! Right! Cummon, there was a war going on! (Don’t let any one kid you, those AF boys can really move when they have too!)

Nobody got a scratch, but they were going to charge the guy with the cost of the Canberra! In the end they took pity on him! Whew, I sure am glad that wasn’t me! Ahem...
<OK end of Ramble Alert>

Love the Waco Bi-plane!!! They paid you for flying that cross country huh!

OK, I’m shutting up now!

 

[Old Colt]

That read has put a smile on my face. Yah the world has changed. Nam was not a good thing, but then not as severe on the world as this Bushwacker era.
Pima was a nice visit, but seeing Connis lined up for the chopper has left big tears in my eyes. That kind of dates when I was last there.
Casa Grande was a nice get together.

The old days in Connecticut, I needed to get some top speed testing in a car, we are talking 160+. The police were the ones suggesting which roads to use. Those days are gone.

 

[80GS1000]

My previous comments were cautionary based on the fact that I've seen far too many guys show up to trackdays on their beloved street bikes and then wad it up in some corner and leave dejected and heartbroken. Case in point - a guy at a trackday I attended had a trick 80s era Moto Guzzi which he managed to lowside after tucking the front in a corner at around 60 MPH. When the bike hit the gravel trap, it flipped several times before coming to rest, tweaking the frame and denting his tank. As you can imagine, the guy was ****ed with a capital P. Parts for that bike are likely hard to come by the same way they are for a GS. A wise racer once told me to never take a bike to the track that you aren't prepared to take home in boxes. Sh!t happens, especially when you're riding at a pace far faster than you could sanely ride on the street. A prepped trackbike avoids this scenario as your street bike is safe at home in the garage.

The trackday environment is many times more demanding on the bike than the street as you're running the bike at or near its performance limits for extended periods of time. If you do decide to take your GS to the track, get the best brake pads, suspension components, and tires you can afford. Now would be a good time to get some stainless braided lines if you don't have them already. Go over the bike carefully with a torque wrench and a bottle of blue loctite where appropriate. You don't want to find out that some important pinch bolt isn't torqued correctly or has come loose while knee-down at 100+ MPH. Set your tire pressures a few pounds lower than you'd ride on the street (talk to trackside tire vendors for appropriate values) and check them before every track session. Add a bit of slack to your chain as you'll be using a lot more suspension travel than you use on the street. If you feel the rear tire start to step out when on the gas coming out of a corner, DO NOT chop the throttle as you'll likely highside. Back off the throttle just a touch and the rear will most likely step back in line with the front or you'll lowside, both of which are better than hitting the ejection seat.

 

[Sandy]

My previous comments were cautionary based on the fact that I've seen far too many guys show up to trackdays on their beloved street bikes and then wad it up in some corner and leave dejected and heartbroken.

Exactly, don't take anything out on a track whether it be track days or full on racing that you're not prepared to have wadded up and turned to a pile of scrap. Especially with a slower bike that can't keep pace. If you're going to use the 750 just mod the suspension first and get used to riding it. Getting around the track is all about changing speed and direction and the brakes and cornering abilities far out weigh anything that's going happen with the throttle whether you mod the engine or not. Decent tires, some good shocks/springs, update the brake pads and figure out how to get it around the track.

 

[first timer]

Sandy and 80GS both have great advise here, I just got done doing a track day on a vintage honda triffecpa loaned me, it was great fun. He has the right idea about vintage bikes on the track, buy something cheap that you don't care about prep it as best you can like mentioned above and have fun on it. One thing I learned taking my 550 to the track one time and then was reminded last weekend when one of the guys i was riding with had a stock gs1000. Rear sets are a must! You will be leaning alot farther over then on the street. You will need to fab some sort of rear sets up. Before going to the track check your lean angles and make sure no hard parts will be scraping. I found my exhaust megaphone on the 550 would drag while leaned over and the shocks compressed.

 

[jabberjoe87]

i have a 77 gs 750. i have some cheap pods a vance and hines four to 1 and i said screw the jet kit and instead put 110 mains in left the pilots, and adjusted the needle up a clip. A paper came with the pipes and said to put 115 main jet and a 17.5 pilot and adjust the clip up one notch. My bike ran really rich when i had the baffles and everything in the pipe, i did some adjustments to the baffle, put teh pods on, adjusted the air screw off idle mixture screw thingy and this made everything fairly gravey. There is with out a doubt a power difference. and saved a ton of money without buying a jet kit, jets themselves are two bucks a peice

 

[moderntechnician]

To Old Colt

Are you talking about the big Lockheed Constellation and Super Constellations? Oh I loved them! I have been onboard Kennedy’s Constellation here at Pima; they had one of his rockers aboard.

If you did mean the Constellations here is a link to a neat site that shows the Avra Valley job here in Southern AZ.

http://www.air-and-space.com/Lockheed%20Super%20Constellation%20survivors.htm

And how about a video link to the Arthur Godfrey’s flight aboard a Super Constellation?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCL7FglFapY

Yeah they cut up pretty much all of the Phantoms and F-111’s, they are now chopping up F-14 and F-16’s which really hurts as well. The dedicated ground support aircraft (A-10’s) are holding on by the skin of their teeth but the A-7’s are history, a clear case of our military planners having no idea how to solve the need for close support aircraft during wartime. A big hole in our tactics that might herald in problems in the future (the loss of a Carrier to an Iranian attack would be perceived as a major loss, but the current Aircraft available for the Combat Air Patrol have a very short time on station and even then have to refuel immediately and often.) Oh, well why listen to an old infantryman?

Did I mention that my first jump was from a DC-3 (C-47)?

Yeah, I used to get a lot of Police Officer requests to ride the BSA and would more often than not get stopped in order to listen to stories about Matchless or Vincent adventures. Made the ride really worthwhile! Police really were different in those days and higher ups didn’t stand on their necks. (Can you guess what I do for a living?)

Really, they paid you to fly that Bi Plane across country???

Quote:That read has put a smile on my face. Yah the world has changed. Nam was not a good thing, but then not as severe on the world as this Bushwacker era.

Well suffice it to say that I respectfully disagree.

Glad I brought a smile!

(And that brings up the matter in reference to certain Al Qaeda propagandists’ derogatory references to our President Elect made today WED19NOV2008; in my family we were and are taught to respect our President even if we disagree with their politics! It is too bad you weren’t brought up better and judging by how you Al Qaeda represent your people it really is a shame you weren’t brought up better!!!)

 

[npntransistor]

Well, tire, brake, and suspension upgrades sound good. Anyone have any info on good brands to be looking at? it needs new pipes so ill just go with the stock looking Macs. ill just leave the engine well alone right now. as far as tires iv read a lot of good things about Avons. I have some Avon street tires on it now and love them so I imagine there race tires are suitable. I plan to get a bigger GS next spring and making it into a touring bike, so this will be my play toy. I understand the risks to the bike (and myself) but nothing lasts forever. not saying I should go beat the snot out of it, but one day it will come to and end. I know how i would like to die. .

 

[triffecpa]

. as far as tires iv read a lot of good things about Avons. I have some Avon street tires on it now and love them so I imagine there race tires are suitable. .

The only Race Compound bias ply tires available come from either Avon or Dunlop. Both make only an 18" rear tire. Dunlop makes only an 18" front. Avon does 18" and 19" race fronts.

I've used Pirelli Sport Demons (street compound) and they work pretty decently. If you've got a smaller bike, I have had good luck with street compound Avons.

Sort of depends upon your riding style and how you apply throttle, but I'm usually fine with a street compound rear tire. On a heavier bike I prefer at least a race compound up front.

Tracy