racebike progression

[dplb]

wow slicks on the old girl, so im guessing its the rear giving the trouble, tried adjusting rebound and comp on the shock(hoping its adjustable). maybe even ride height, more height at the back will allow more weight transfer on transition from mid corner to accelerating out of bend..just an idea

[slinger]

That's a great vid Alex. Just wait till you get that thing jetted right I think/hope your be out front leaving them for dust lol.

Glyn

[alexanderdraper]

sooooooooooo,
since my last update in this thread ive done two major things.
a new elka rear shock built specifically for me and R6 internals fitted into my fzr600 forks. the fork spring ended up being a bit soft but i rode the last couple rounds with it anyhow and worked worlds better then previous. the rear is brilliant. i think its a big upgrade from the penski that was in there!

like silver said. its cold and snowy now and i'm bored.

so I've went ahead and tore the whole thing apart.
making a couple minor frame fixes/changes

I pulled the entire motor apart and it'll be getting
-fresh transmission bearings and seals,
-likely outer crank bearings and seals,
-fresh top-end,
-new V-Force4reeds,
-32mm VM mikuni's (up from 30's),
-velocity stacks,
I am seriously looking for 70+HP
-battery eliminator,
-solid engine mounts, i was advised against this due to concerns with breaking the mounts but i noticed that the engine was moving around and sitting cocked in the frame. I'm sure i can make them in such away that im not gunna have any broken mounts. but time will tell.
-thinking of banshee 1st and 6th gears.

any ideas would be welcome.

pics to come soon as i know how we all love part-porn

[This old RZ]

Im not familiar with the banshee gear ratios...Im assuming you want a shorter 1st gear...for holeshot starts? not a taller"longer" gear,as your not going to see 1st after the start. Im also guessing 6th is shorter to tighten up the gear spacing and keep it in your desired sweet spot?

The motor mounts? well who knows,Most RZs raced havent really had a issue worth fixing/reengineering ..but if you think it might help you...nothing ventured nothing gained.

The battery eliminator? again why fix it if it aint broke and risk reliability...but then there is a weight savings and handling improvement to be gained if done correctly and it doesnt upset the balance.

The only suggestions I have are,weight reduction where possible..in the correct places..its free to a point..
Lightest wheel tire combo possible,lightest rotor options for your application..then axles Ti. Ti wherever possible on the wheels, maybe even ditch the 520 chain and go race specific chain non o ring etc..... even more lightweight.

Check into ceramic bearings

Then the engine...get rid of anything internally grear drive/oil pump etc.. that may rob $$$ and if your feeling crazy..look into "superpolishing" all the engine/trans internals,I have no idea what the costs are,it wasnt cheap a few years ago but maybe the costs have come down now that more people other than factory race teams"yoshimura" etc are not the only ones utilizing the speed trick.
Just fun suggestions for someone elses bike and wallet

[alexanderdraper]

im actually looking for slightly taller 1st and 6th gears.

I have no issue with bogging when the flag drops. I do seem to run out of revs though. so the just slightly taller first gear might help.

the taller 6th will just give me a bit more top speed down the straight without sacrificing acceleration in the lower gears like changing sprocket gearing will.

that might be fixing a problem that isn't that big a deal.



i prehaps just need to put new rubber mounts back in cuz the engine was totally sitting cockeyed. but i'm solid mounting it. i think it might even stiffen things up too.


the battery eliminator is to save a couple pounds and to give me the room to have the velocity stacks i already bought. i could relocate the battery but why not just be rid of it!


wheel weight loss is a good idea. but expensive! i dont have the budget for Ti anything. hahaha

my front wheel does seem to have a bit too much rolling resistance. i think the fix there will be full-floating rivets to get the pads to slide back and not contact the disks. those effers are expensive though!

no transmission polishing. hahah way out of budget.

[This old RZ]

Yea I know what you mean by the little things Ti getting expensive..I was lucky enough to purchase my suspension kits,front and back,already completed with Ti everything...must have cost the guy a small fortune,alot of it is still in the bags it was shipped to him in. Some Yoyodyne and some from Metric Specialties ,I also bought a Ti bolt set from a guy in Canada a grab bag of Ti/Alum bolts and hardware and a box full of Pro Bolt misc everything! the guy was at the time building ,or used to build slick RG/RZ customs...its been 10 years,,got all of it for $150.00. The front end and back end conversions I aquired for $1700.00 If I remember correctly ..still not cheap .

I like the idea of the R6 internals into FZ forks,honestly there is no real need for USD etc.. for a killer track /race bike. These bikes are fully capable when set up right of pretty good lap times,with your average non proffessional racer. Sure a USD setup correctly done 100% right would be a neat trick with the right pilot,along with a equal rear assembly with modern sticky compound radials. Alot of the vintage racers seem to be doing this conversion latley of swapping modern internals into vintage forks...its a pretty neat trick and you keep the lightweight OEM front end to boot!

[alexanderdraper]

nice score! care to make a donation?

I love having things that have a vintage look with modern tech.
and in my club we are required to keep the vintage look.

I think that some guys throw on a modern USD fork and think it'll be magic. but these things really need to be setup properly. This is why I had a well known (in my area) suspension tech get mine set up. Though it still need some adjustments.

[alexanderdraper]

here are a couple pics of things going on the ole rz 350 racer.
Velovity stacks on the 32mm vm's





and a billet water pump impeller



ohlins steering damper that was on it last year and in need of a rebuild


new ignition bits! thinking this might free up a little power.....:)


here is what the engine looks like at the moment. after checking the squish with a bit of solder in the cylinder the head still needs to come off and have half a mm machined off.
that ugly side-case is just on there for the time being. i have another one I'm working on to replace it.

[silverstrom]

Interesting valve set up Alex. One servo into a splitter to both cylinders?

[alexanderdraper]

ok,
so i got a request for some details on the mods i made to my frame.
not all of these can be used for more stock projects without a bunch of extra work.

I started out by taking everything off the frame that i wasn't going to need. i removed the sub-frame too as it was smashed from a crash.
then had it blasted to have a nice blank pallet.



in the mean time i mocked stuff up on stock frame with plastic tubing cuz chromoly is bloody expensive.

[alexanderdraper]

so i think the front X is one of the more important additions to stiffen things up!

[alexanderdraper]

so i noticed that the side member could come down a bit and still let the engine out. i moved it down about an inch replacing it in the process.
i added a few more bits to try and tie that whole head section together.

[alexanderdraper]

i dunno if anyone else noticed that that cross-member was in the perfect spot to get in the way of carb cables/caps. so i went ahead and removed it and placed a new one a couple inches up and added an X. that X will likely make it a pain in the ass to get the stock electric parts in.

[alexanderdraper]

I made a point to have the gussets meet at the same points on the frame. its important to have that continuation around the frame.

here at the bottom I took out the torque arms and moved the frame mount points under then engine so it bolts directly to the frame.
and added corner gussets. i really think this will work nicely to tie the engine down and stiffen things up. i just hope the vibrations aren't too bad.

[alexanderdraper]

Interesting valve set up Alex. One servo into a splitter to both cylinders?

thats a slinger solution to the misalignment of the valves.
he actually made up a nice little piece that bolts right to the servo that allows 2 sets of cables to hook right up.

it works a charm!

ill post a closer pic later