Sportbike Illiterate please help!

[Jd Powell]

As most of my bikes have been old and I haven't gotten any sport bikes yet. I am confused as to some terminology. Anyone care to explain to me:

SRAD?

Slingshot?(I have heard this used to define bikes, frames, and motors.)

[8trackmind]

As most of my bikes have been old and I haven't gotten any sport bikes yet. I am confused as to some terminology. Anyone care to explain to me:

SRAD?

Slingshot?(I have heard this used to define bikes, frames, and motors.)

SRAD = Suzuki Ram Air Direct

"Slingshot" was a nickname for the semi flat side carburetor's .

[Roostabunny]

As most of my bikes have been old and I haven't gotten any sport bikes yet. I am confused as to some terminology. Anyone care to explain to me:

SRAD?

Slingshot?(I have heard this used to define bikes, frames, and motors.)

I did a little Googling and came up with the following...

SRAD is Suzuki Ram Air Direct

Slingshot (if I'm right about the bike and vintage you're looking at) refers to the carbs on second gen Gixxers - '89-'93.

Sounds like you're looking at GSX-R's, one of the proudest descendants of our humble muscle bikes to be sure.

I found this link and this one that had good model histories and facts on the GSX-r. The older ones are future classics, so it's a good bet in my book.

[Jd Powell]

Thanks guys that answered my questions. BTW Roostabunny, where abouts in Phx are ya? Your the third G model owner I know of just in this city.

[Roostabunny]

Thanks guys that answered my questions. BTW Roostabunny, where abouts in Phx are ya? Your the third G model owner I know of just in this city.

I'm in the Arrowhead area - Union Hills and the 101.

BTW, I found this unverified explanation of Slingshot carbs on a Katana forum.

"The term slingshot refers to a special bore/stroke Suzuki used on some of their 750 engines for a short period of time (88-'91.5 I believe). Rather than their typical bore x stroke of 70mm x 48.7mm, the slingshot engines use a 73mm x 44.7mm, effectively making all the reciprocal components lighter (small diameter piston, valves, etc) and upped the redline, but at the expense of mid-range torque.

This kind of bore/stroke change requires a serious change in carbs due to the change in breathing for the stroke/bore size. In conjunction with this, Suzuki also worked with Mikuni to deliver effectively the first rear-mounted ram-air system & supporting carbs; the system worked by slamming inbound air via tubes into the airbox, where it turned 180 degress (aka the sling-shot effect) and was crammed down into a set of semi-flat-slide mikuni carbs (the slingshot carbs). These carbs also vent into the airbox rather than to the outside world, to limit the changes in pressure fluxuations (eliminating a source of a flatspot in the RPM range that plagued earlier carbs due to air turmoil at the vent tubes -- and the reason the modern Kats have their vent tubes routed over the airbox to the area next to the airfilter intake).

The solution worked, with stock GSX750R's running 11.32 seconds @118mph in the quarter, running quicker than the Kat 1100 to 60 mph, and having almost identical roll-on speeds at the Kat 1100. Top speeds for bone-stock were approximately 132 mph, very respectible for the time for a street bike."

Link -

http://www.katriders.com/vb/showthread.php?t=61307

[Roostabunny]

Oh, and this link...

http://oldskoolsuzuki.info/patrick/articles/bst38ss/bst38ss.htm