Track Stories 08

[RacingJake]

I sent them some artwork over the weekend and they said it came across fine. I hope I do not offend any of our service members with it. Has a military sort of theme like the flag bike but my computer art skills stink and was limited to using an old version of Sketch to get a DXF file they could read.

24 years in the Air Force Mark and I don't think you'll have any problems...... Flag Bike was awesome.

 

[lecroy]

24 years in the Air Force Mark and I don't think you'll have any problems...... Flag Bike was awesome.

Thank you for your service and compliment. The drawing is right up your alley.

Spent an hour with the company that has the laser. Laser etching is not all its cracked up to be. The problem is the lack of driving software. I used AutoSketch version 2.1 from 1995. I tried to do some free hand curves but their system couldn't support them. Then there was no way for me to fill a pattern and have it work with their software. There is also no way to define a line width, so any line I drew was the laser beam width, which is nothing. I had them cut the pattern into some scrap metal and it looks like crap with the line width. They are now taking my drawing and hand editing it to get the lines wider, each line is actually two with a fill between. Crazy.

Best thing to do, send them a picture of what you want done and have them trace it by hand with their tools.


This is just what it needs.....
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ZEX-...trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQitemZ380013957476
Not!!!! Wonder if there are a lot of kids that ride around just shooting the purge.... Expensive and funny.

 

[DreamRyder]

Results from my first time back out since the wipe out on May 31st...

My whole routine is out of whack however with how I have to reach my whole hand forward to grasp the lever with my good fingers..

First couple passes sucked cuz I was soft off the line thinking I wanted to take it easy incase I couldn't get my hand back on the grip quick enough to be ready to shift... therefore with the new clutch setup I could NOT shift because my rpms were too low... also the first set of gloves I was trying to wear didn't give me enough stretch to reach the lever where I needed to be to have my thumb in the position to hit the shift button ..

so a few adjustsments - Nem's gloves, choked up on the grip a bit more at the line to allow me to reach the shifter button (this made it REAL hard for me to pull in the lever the way I needed to cuz I could not use my middle finger to help grasp the lever), Launch at the higher RPMs and go wide open right off the line ...

after all that I went from a 9.6 to the 8.6 ...

Here were my runs in order:

1st pass:
15 sec ET
couldn't shift the first two times I tried so I backed out and just cruzed down the track..

2nd pass:
60' - 1.967
330 - 4.473
1/8 - 6.447 @ 125mph
1000 - 8.149
1/4 - 9.605 @ 154mph


3rd pass:
60' - 1.928
330 - 4.388
1/8 - 6.306 @ 128mph
1000 - 7.966
1/4 - 9.396 @ 156mph
(after this pass Nem checked my clutch pack... feeling like I had trashed them with my two majorly slow launches and inability to shift... sure enough they were FRIED! the fibers were shreaded literally... that was it.. it was WIDE OPEN or not at all)


4th pass:
60' - 1.517
330 - 3.747
1/8 - 5.610 @ 131mph
1000 - 7.247
1/4 - 8.661 @ 158mph


5th pass:
60' - 1.464
330 - 3.696
1/8 - 5.562 @ 131mph
1000 - 7.199
1/4 - 8.613 @ 158mph


6th pass:
60' - 1.512
330 - 3.730
1/8 - 5.567 @ 134mph
1000 - 7.142
1/4 - 8.485 @ 167mph


7th pass:
60' - 1.484
330 - 3.672
1/8 - 5.510 @ 134mph
1000 - 7.077
1/4 - 8.406 @ 168mph


As for boost levels:
Passes 1 - 5 were all just off the Gate 8#
Pass 6 we put 2 # in 3rd and 5# in 4th
Pass 7 we put 4# in 3rd and 7# in 4th

I still have a ways to go to get my sixty's back down where they use to be low 1.4's - At the end of the night Nem tells me my suspension looked too soft at the launch and was absorbing too much of my slingshot motion... but failed to tell me earlier in the evening so we could adjust for that WHILE at the track LOL.. he tells me instead I told you that yesterday I felt it was too soft in the garage.

My reply was I wanted it soft as a starting point and from there we adjust... but I guess he failed to remember the "adjust from there" part

Traction was nice! I def wanted to push it more as I got more comfortable with the new routine of my clutch lever motion.. just ran out of time....

burnouts I'm still not comfortable with because of the extra reach I have to do, makes it hard to have a nice quick release while standing ...

My battery also died on me just before the last pass... Jason and Nem had to push start the bike so I could make my last pass.. the track guys were nice enough to give us that extra time to do so and the ZX14 fella lining up next to me came over to help them push it as well...


All in All it was a great evening and I feel comfortable in saying I'M BACK!


E.

 

[rosco15]

Well for the first round last week I was at the back of the line. Up comes an old turbo KZ that had just arrived. I had never seen it before. I start taking a good look at this thing and start praying I don't get lined up against him. The rear tire looks like it's got about 30lbs of air in it. The motor is covered in fresh oil. The disk brakes are totally covered in surface rust. As far as I could tell the body was not fastened to the frame. They kept messing around with the bike and I was later told they were trying to super glue a hole in the gas tank closed to stop a fuel leak.

I mean the thing looked scary and darned if I didn't get lined up against him first round. Lucky for me it wouldn't make any boost so I was no where near him as he went down the track. I'm guessing he came so late that tech never took a look at the bike.

I ended up going out in the third round due to a missed shift. I knew I shouldn't have tightened the chain.

 

[lecroy]

Hey Ryan, that was me showing up for a surprize visit... I put the KZ body on so you wouldn't suspect it was me.

Dang E, I guess I don't need to be spending time on the junker bike after all. Very happy to hear your back on the bike again. We are not running in the Northern Nationals this year. I may go up to watch and hang out.



Rule #1 on laser etching, never etch on plane jane aluminum. It doesn't show up very well.

I have no idea why Koenig used the F16 name for the chassis but it seemed like a good reason to put a Fighting Falcon on it. Sorry for the poor drawing Jake. Does not do the real machine justice.


/n
/n
/n

Turns out Star used a standard thread size so I picked up a couple of fittings for it. Bit larger line than I used on the flag bike.
/n

 

[lecroy]

Oh yea, 4 picture limit.... This is how things are looking in the belly.
/n

 

[DreamRyder]

LOL - you kill me... I'm comin for ya hun... just you wait... it may take me a bit to get back to where I was but I'm on my way ;o)

Here's the videos of the last few passes...

it looks so slow motion heehehee.. also it appears I reverted back to my old habit of pullin my feet to the front pegs rather than the drag.. which I never thought would be possilbe with how close they were to the seat rails now after all the modding done.

E.

8.66 run

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/...tion=view&current=2008July31Grove8_66run3.flv

8.61 run

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/...tion=view&current=2008july30grove8_61run4.flv

8.48 run

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/...tion=view&current=2008July31Grove8_48run5.flv

8.40 run

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/...tion=view&current=2008July31Grove8_40run6.flv

 

[rosco15]

It's official. Something is wrong with the tranny. No shifting on 2 runs tonight. a year and a half flawless and now we're broken. Gonna pull out the shift shaft and forks tomorrow. Hoping I don't have to split the cases, but we'll see.

http://media.putfile.com/Ryan-and-Tom/

 

[RacingJake]

Hope it's not the dogs, maybe you'll get lucky and find a bad return spring or shifting drum mech stuff.

One thing I notice with the 750 ratio is that the tranny never missed a shift ?? Maybe since it's turning slower engagement is easier. But since I'm back to the 1100 now they do happen.

I've never bend a shift fork and from the looks of them they can take a beating.

Good Luck

 

[rosco15]

I pulled the forks and found one damaged. R+D said the damage to the shift fork comes from damage to the dogs. Replacing the fork may fix the problem for about 20 passes, but then the missed shifts would come back. I pulled the motor and dropped the bottom of the cases. Shipped the tranny out to them for a pro cut this time and repair. I hope to only miss a week. Time to get out the street bike.

 

[lecroy]

E, I can only hope that the junk bike is ready when we meet on the battle field. Vids look clean. Nice and soft on the launch. I have a bunch of vids from Prostar of the shoot out bikes. Now that is some scary stuff to watch. I think they are my favorite next to T/F to watch. Then comes the funny bikes.....

Too bad about the shift problems. I assume you are not running an auto shift (not auto trans, don't see any shoes.) with the bumps in the track. I have had/seen so many problems with shifting I am amazed when they work at all...

A few thing I have seen that have caused shift problems but were not the dogs....

Sprocket sensor loose and slid under the shift arm.
Shift arm pin key moved to hit frame and bound.
Slop in arm/cylinder enough that there was not enough travel.
Had to add a small accumulator before the air solenoid.
Seals shot in Bimba.
Air line poped out.
Shift drum adjustment screw not set right.


All of this was very easy to find.... My favorite all time one was when my friends changed from FBG to OEM plates, just to try them. No logger to see what was happening. I pulled my hair out looking at everything from the wiring to the switches, auto and relays. After I had changed pretty much everything, I finally convinced them that the plates were slipping too much between shifts and would not drop the RPM low enough to reset the auto. No way to prove it without the logger, but we changed the plates back and it has been flawless since.

Speak of the devil, we pulled the tranny out of blackey to see what was going on. We broke the chain at the start of the season and have had a growing problem ever since.
Sent it off to Paul and I guess his responce was, Do you want me to just toss this thing into the trash? There was nothing good on it left. KZ trannys don't like to run mid 8's I guess. We shipped down a good GPZ core and just got it back the other day. Should be ready for T&T next Wed. A stock GPZ makes the Suzuki GS tranny look like it was made for a wind-up toy.


I got Evil's DVD the other day. It brought back some great memories from when I was a kid. Only 30 minutes long. Would love to see what these X-game guys would do with a 700cc 1000 lb motorcycle that made maybe 60HP....

 

[lecroy]

R+D said the damage to the shift fork comes from damage to the dogs. Shipped the tranny out to them for a pro cut this time and repair.

You must have just beat me to the post.... Was the tranny stock? Lastest a long time.

Pro-cut is nice but does remove a lot of material. That one Paul / Kevin did for me has held up very nice. I checked it over the winter and there seems to be little to no wear so far. IMO, any time your taking out material, its not a good thing. If you can shift without the procut for that long of time, why not keep it this way?

Did you send them everything? If the dogs are rounded the rods may be bent too. Lot of force when they try to push apart. Simple check while they have it.

If you are running all stock, something you may want to consider having done. When Paul did that tranny for my stock GS, they hard welded up the dogs then cut them back down. Their claim is that the dogs are stronger than stock after this process. That bike runs in the 11's on a good day and I have not put the tranny in yet so I can't tell you if there are problems in doing this or not. But, I trust Paul's work.

 

[rosco15]

Mark at R+D said the race cut is better for a street bike while the pro cut is better for a race bike. He ssuggested about 70 milli seconds kill time for a race cut and 50 milli seconds for a pro cut. I had it set at 56. he thinks this may be part of why the dogs got damaged. He suggested going to a pro cut may help with the longevity of the trans. Another words I could keep the kill time the same and not tear up the dogs.

That tranny was the same one I've been running for years. No billet gears it just gets touched up every year or so. I sent the forks, shafts, everything. I also sent a stock tranny for parts.

Are you running a pro cut?

 

[lecroy]

Mark at R+D said the race cut is better for a street bike while the pro cut is better for a race bike. He ssuggested about 70 milli seconds kill time for a race cut and 50 milli seconds for a pro cut. I had it set at 56. he thinks this may be part of why the dogs got damaged. He suggested going to a pro cut may help with the longevity of the trans. Another words I could keep the kill time the same and not tear up the dogs.
Are you running a pro cut?

I would not fully agree with him. I would NEVER put a pro cut on a street bike because of the backlash. I ride mine in the pits with no problems but the constant hammering of a street bike would do it in. I had asked Paul about decreases the kill time when going from a race cut to a pro cut and he said no. I think the problem is that there is not normally a way to change the kill time based on the shift. 2-3 Auto would be the ticket.

Yes, I am running pro cut with a billet shaft, 2nd and 3rd.

 

[Baatfam]

As long as your getting it rebuilt...why not go with a 1-2-3 auto?

I love mine...

 

[rosco15]

I dont like the idea of not being able to get off the gas without doing damage. In the good air when the bike runs in the low 9.30's it does plant the tire down pretty hard on the 1-2 shift. An auto on that first shift would be nice. Plus wasn't there something about not being able to ride an auto trans around. I need to be able to ride it back to the pits.

 

[lecroy]

This is a closeup of the an kids auto after we pulled it. You can see the reverse cuts in the dogs to help push the gears apart. This is the problem, you get off the gas and there is enough force to bend things...

I know people that do ride them in the pits but I had talked to Paul about it at one time and he was pretty much against it. Suppose if you had a 1-2 you could just ride it in 2nd and be safe.

 

[lecroy]

This is the last pro-cut that Paul did for the junker bike. This is the same tranny that is in the flag bike except the shaft is a different brand.

You can see how every other dog is removed along with every other slot. A lot of backlash slop if you put it on a street bike.

I would just stay with what you have. It's worked good for you. Not sure why they would need to touch the dogs once a year though.

 

[Baatfam]

I dont like the idea of not being able to get off the gas without doing damage. In the good air when the bike runs in the low 9.30's it does plant the tire down pretty hard on the 1-2 shift. An auto on that first shift would be nice. Plus wasn't there something about not being able to ride an auto trans around. I need to be able to ride it back to the pits.

That's really just a "might happen" thing....I've back off in second more than once, when things went a little screwy, without a problem.
I think the secret is not to slam the throttle shut...

Worst case, you bend the shift forks...easy enough to pop in a new set...

Later,

 

[lecroy]

Worst case? I figured worst case was in the middle of a race, you bend a rod and then rather than pull out to fixx it, you keep pushing the bike and now have major damage to the dogs... Pull the motor, split the cases and $500 later (seems like its always $500) you have the tranny back, ready to do it all over again.. LOL.

You coming to the bike race Bob?