Track Stories 08

[rosco15]

Had to buy a house with a bigger driveway to fit the new trailer?

Thats the real reason. That and the 3 car garage with trailer pad on the side. I lied and told my wife we needed the new house for better schools, more space for the kids, you know.

[lecroy]

Yea Sunday is almost here!!! We are running four bikes. I plan to run the old GS in street so I can still pit. You know the old saying that a light buld is brightest just before is blows out, well that's my GS. She ran quicker last time than it has ran in a long time and it's not because I was on a diet.

Had to lay some new glass in the junker bike's body to stablize it. It had some cracks in the gelcoat in the tail and near a couple of the zeus fasteners and needed to be ground down. Finished stripping the paint and filled some of the holes and nicks. Plan to prime and paint it this Monday along with repairing the flag bike. It's going to be a long day.

[FJman]

I don't see her saying anything, and I wasn't there, but DreamRyder had a mishap at the track on her busa. Had a minor wheelie, got it down, had a large wheelie, came down crossed up, and ended up highsiding. Wasn't moving real fast, wasn't too far out of the hole, but put scuffs on the bike and did quite a number on her leathers. Other than some bumps and bruising, the only injury that I know of is that she broke a finger pretty decently.

Saw her 2 weeks later at Byron and she was all taped up but seemed to be in good spirits. Glad that's all that happened.

[lecroy]

Sounds like she is doing fine. I was hoping they would be at Martin this weekend.

The race was a major bust. I knew before we went that there was a little cell coming through around noon. It made it around 1:00. And what do they do, they cancel the race. Damm this is getting old. They were talking about it taking till 4 to dry it. Rain was short lived and we had beautiful weather home. Roads were dry. Many of the racers were upset that had drove 150+ miles to get there. I doubt they will have any bike races next year. The price of gas is too high to have them play these sort of games. They pulled the same sht last year and the numbers have really fallen off.

On the + side, I got to finally try the lockup on the GS. The bike was very lazy coming out. Still went red, but instead of .1 under, it was 0.0081 under. I need to take a little more out. I plan to take it again next weekend and try my luck with the cars.

[kingofvenus]

Used to race against cars in the early '90s. Only made a final once and lost in a .002 breakout after going SIX rounds to get there. Was really happy when they created a bike class. Would drive down the 90 mi. to Great Lakes only to have them yank the plug way too early.

[lecroy]

What a nice day we had here. The sun was out but not too hot.

I spent the day with the painter up at the shop. We were able to finish up the repairs on the flag bike. I feel much better now and vow never ever to run a drag bike without silicone on the master link again!!!

We made some good progress on the eagle bike as well. Pictures don't do it justice.

[lecroy]

We changed the look from my sketch and removed the stars from the flag. This is what it looks like. So far all the parts are made in the USA for this bike. My toaster died the other day. You think I could find any toasters made in the United States? So I get this China made POS and it won't lift the damm toast high enough to take it out. I reach down to grab the first ones and burned my fingers on the outside frame. Of course it has more computing power than we put a man on the moon with but can't lift the toast....

Oh yea, here are the feathers.

[RacingJake]

Looking good Mark

Took on a Buell Blast during T&T so I gave him a head start like 4 seconds. Light turned green but I just sat there (RT was 4.41) until he was close to the 330 mark then I let it rip. I thought he had me but I caught him at the line and beat him by .0261

We both got a kick out of it so next Friday he going to bring out his HD Low Rider and I'll run my Sportster. Should be alot of fun, forward controls matchup.

On the sad side the engine started making a funny sound so I pull the clutch cover and saw alot of brass/copper so it looks like the crank coming out. Makes two now, maybe I can make one good one out of both ??? Anyhow I'm sort of happy cause the 750 ratio was a PITA tuning wise so the 1166 build going back in with the 1100 ratio gearing :-)

[lecroy]

Good to see your still with us Jake. I was starting to think something bad happened with the N2O. Too bad about the crank, but at least it's still together! I like the guys picks of the motor after running a helical gear. I think how many passes I ran with the helical gear and got away with it. Luck I guess, well that and slow short times...

330 foot lead? That is funny!!!! Way to hunt him down with that almost 30 year old bike!!

Finally I dusted off the flag bike and headed to the track tonight. I turned the boost down to 4PSI because I did not want to get bucked off if the ignition acted up. It shifted and ran pretty good other than a bog off the line and it looks like it spun a couple of times down track. Only ran a 9.9. So I added a little more to it and the bike could hardly make it down the track. Injecting way too much fuel. Dang, this is rare for me. Ran an 11 second pass. LOL.

The data logger shows it running along at 4PSI then it jumps to 120PSI!!! You know that aint right, so I look at the sensor and the terminal inside the sensor broke off. No way to fix it at the track and may need a new one. After inspecting everything else, I set the wastegate to where I last ran it, maybe 9 PSI. Bike ran pretty good. Cut a 0.009 or something and ran a low 9. Got to the end of the track and the tranny was locked up. Could not shift. Get back to the trailer and suck the data out of it. The output shaft speed dies about mid track. Look down and the ring sensor came loose and slid into the shift arm. I love working out stupid problems.

Fixed that and decided to put the bike into the 8's before going home. Track was poor. All my short times were about 0.010 off running 1.3s. It had been rained on twice already, the sun had been down for a few hours, dew had set in and the humidity was crap. No, problem, just add a half turn to the wastegate. Bike again ran pretty good. Went red by -.010 or so with the higher boost. Bike sounded good and ran in the 150s and high 8.

Then the rain hit hard. I get everything loaded and go to turn on the lights, no trailer lights. Sht, not like I live a mile down the road and its 11:30. Digging out the fuses and checking the connectors. Climb under the car and found my extension harness was so rusty that one pin was gone! Just a little nub left. Rain is coming in sheets and it's dripping under the car and going in my ear.....

I think I am back to where I was now with the setup and just need to fix the sensor and take it up on a race day when we have some traction and turn it up. At least the ignition seems to be working now.

[RacingJake]

Rain is good for dirt bike riding not drag racing :-)

Found one of my problems



and I'm going to use these to poke a few holes in my MTC pistons. I've had it with MTC going back to Wiseco. One shot from the 500 should take care of them

[rapidray]

Rain is good for dirt bike riding not drag racing :-)

Found one of my problems



and I'm going to use these to poke a few holes in my MTC pistons. I've had it with MTC going back to Wiseco. One shot from the 500 should take care of them

Jake, MTCs are junk, Wisecos are ANCHORS, & I can get you a deal on CUSTOM made CPs to whatever specs you want them! I guarantee you will be happy with them! Let me know or call me. Ray.

[RacingJake]

Thanks Ray I'll keep that in mind.

Going back with my 13-1 1166cc Wiseco's that I ran for years with no problems.

My "Anchors" are just alot better than my "Junks" :-)

This leaves me with one backup crank now
If I blow my last two cranks I'll be putting a Bandit engine in my GS.

[rosco15]

Man this is making me nervous. There has been alot of guys breaking things at the track and it seems like alot of guys on the board having the same problems.

Mark that paint is something else. That painter has some talent. I'm going to need a repaint next year. I had the body leaned up in the trailer and the wind blew it over. Right onto the diamond plate. What are you going to do, but add some stickers.

I went to the Friday night qualifying at Norwalk. Water coming up from the track so they shut down at 3:30 and finally called it at 9:30. Beautiful blue sky sunny day. They did run the first round of bike qualifying before pulling the plug.

On a side not I noticed the pro stock guys are very secretive about their stuff. I went by steve Johnsons pit. They had the bike out with no body work. So I took a picture of it with the video camera. Right away 2 crew guys came out and covered the bike up. One asked me if I took a picture or got a picture something like that. I told him yes I did that I was interested in the differences between steves bike and my own. He chatted with me real friendly and nothing more was said about the picture. When I looked around I noticed that all the other pro stock bikes were in trailers or buried in the pits where you couldn't really get a good look at them. Most of them had covers on them also. Seems to me in years past they weren't so secretive.

Our points race rained out Saturday. Feels like we've rained out more races than we've run.

[RacingJake]

I filed a slot on bothsides were the oil returns back down to the crank area if your using a stock head. The 750 head doesn't drain at the rear. So I'm going to tap the drains that I had to plug on the exhaust side and run a tube to the back side to provide more return oil back to the crank/rod area just like a stock head would.

[RacingJake]

You can see where it was wearing on the small end #3 rod.
The big end of rod still spins on the crank and you can't tell that the bearing is hurt but you can see what looks like a roller pin is loose in there.
Me thinks the wrist pin broke first causing excess side load on the bigend cause the bearing to fail??

I need to call around and see if a welded crank can be torn back apart ???



Here what it should look like #2 rod