Topic: good italian weekend for (some) sohcers

[turboguzzi]

First race of the season and we have three Italian forum members competing for glory.

Cesare (zaiser) had a great race and pace on his 650/740, setting excellent times in practice and finishing third in the very hot 750 class. He's standing on the right in his leathers, happy as a clam!
First place was for Leardini, who already won last year's championship on his 550/720 sohc, so two sohcs on the podium, holding off plenty of super light 750 Ducati pantahs.

Riccardo (livefast_dieold) had a less good result.... his CB750 based bike was quite a handful on this tight track. He was catching up on me in the race but crashed with a high side. Luckily he was not hurt but saw him a bit low in spirits afterwards.... so your encouragement is welcome.  I think he realizes now that he needs to build a lighter 500 based bike...

Myself, after two years of work brought my new TZ/XTZ supermono to Friday’s free practice and, at 125 kg/75hp it's a hoot to ride. After three laps on a totally new bike i was already on doing half decent times but had water coming out of the  over flow tank. Upon check, turned out that i had also oil overflow in the catch tank! luckily didn’t drip on my rear tire... so no race for the SM.. (Simon, you will surely have something to say about this ). Drove 1,5 hours back home, and took the good old GPZ 810 for Saturday’s qualifying.
Didn’t even check the bike over after last year and turned out that i was running out of brake pads! Had a less performing set of pads that i mounted in a hurry but bike was so underbraked now that for the first time in my years of racing got severe arm pump. Second qualifier managed to do a mid pack time but for race day, my right forearm was totally cramped. Hard to describe how nasty it is to ride like that, couldn’t even open full throttle some of the time. It didn’t help that on first lap, my friend Carlo high sided in front of me, had to avoid his bike and also lost quite a bit of concentration. Nevertheless, managed to salvage a third place in the open class. I am the tall one standing on the right again, and yes, i bet i loose a few seconds a lap to those two compact jockeys just on bad aerodynamics and weight (I wish...). 

Looks like the three of us will have some fun together this year

[johno]

Sounds like an awesome weekend Turbo, still walking and talkin and a trophy tossed in for the effort, well done mate.

[bwaller]

Great opener TG, congratulations. What a way to start.

Now to figure out the big single!

[livefast_dieold]

Well, it was a quite fine weekend after all. I've definitely improved my driving skills, I got to know the bike better and also got to look at her from an unusual view point (while airborne at 1,5 m height).

Also I've lost my track virginity, as it was my very first crash on the track. Now my leather suit has those super sexy marks that I will use to make umbrella girls fall in love with me ("see this scratches here babe? got them at Varano in 2015. They wanted to take me out of the track by ambulance, but I told them to f**k off as I headed to the bar for  whisky").

Attached the end result of the weekend.

These are the following option:

1. get the bike in shape and race it again. I'll need some advice on how to improve handling (a lot of advice)
2. take the good parts off and start racing my cb500 cafe racer (even if I would prefer to use on the open road, at least for this year)
3. claim the bike to be a Post-Futurist sculpture,then proceed to sell it for millions of euro to a wealthy collector

[Stev-o]

Congrats guys!  What track were you at? Autodromo Riccardo Paletti in Parma??

[simon#42]

yossef see the error of your ways ! this was bound to happen when you take a perfectly good tz and stick an over tuned ditch pump engine in it .

joking aside well done to all , moving tomorrow and no internet for a month or so .... look forward to seeing how you are doing when i get back , keep up the good work

[turboguzzi]

Congrats guys!  What track were you at? Autodromo Riccardo Paletti in Parma??

yep, it's near, about 20 miles west of parma.
Varano de Melegari is a sort of little motor hub BTW, home for Dallara racing, builders of fine F1, F3 and indycar  race cars.
https://www.dallara.it/wps/portal/english
the prosciutto crudo and parmegiano reggiano from the area are not bad either


 

[Stev-o]

Congrats guys!  What track were you at? Autodromo Riccardo Paletti in Parma??

yep, it's near, about 20 miles west of parma.
Varano de Melegari is a sort of little motor hub BTW, home for Dallara racing, builders of fine F1, F3 and indycar  race cars.
https://www.dallara.it/wps/portal/english
the prosciutto crudo and parmegiano reggiano from the area are not bad either


 

Yes, am aware of Dallara, awesome race cars.  Didnt know they made Z bikes though?!
For Zanardi...

https://www.dallara.it/wps/portal/en/racing-vehicles/Z-bike#.VSxN89zF9Bo

[turboguzzi]

Ric (985) here's one for you...

simon, the frame was half modified already when i got it (though needed so much more work) so i dont feel THAT guilty about spoiling a good TZ...

my main guilt was in putting a one way reed valve at the breather... wanted to be a smart ass and keep negative pressure in the cases, ended up being a very effective method to pump the oil out!

And good luck in your new place

[JohnN]

Congratulations to all! Glad to hear vintage racing is alive and well in Italy, especially with SOHC's!

Riccardo- don't let this get you down. I've been there too, and sometimes you have to walk away from a wrecked bike for a couple of days and hopefully come back refreshed and ready to rebuild. Regarding handling, I'm going into my fifth season on my CR750 replica and after a track test this past weekend felt like I finally sorted out the handling. It took a combination of shorter wheelbase, raised rear end to increase rake and 30mm offset triple to bring the trail back up to a reasonable number. I made small changes each season, and now it is a totally different bike than the version I first took it to the track in 2011. The original version just didn't want to turn!

John

[Retro Rocket]

Well, it was a quite fine weekend after all. I've definitely improved my driving skills, I got to know the bike better and also got to look at her from an unusual view point (while airborne at 1,5 m height).

Also I've lost my track virginity, as it was my very first crash on the track. Now my leather suit has those super sexy marks that I will use to make umbrella girls fall in love with me ("see this scratches here babe? got them at Varano in 2015. They wanted to take me out of the track by ambulance, but I told them to f**k off as I headed to the bar for  whisky").

Attached the end result of the weekend.

These are the following option:

1. get the bike in shape and race it again. I'll need some advice on how to improve handling (a lot of advice)
2. take the good parts off and start racing my cb500 cafe racer (even if I would prefer to use on the open road, at least for this year)
3. claim the bike to be a Post-Futurist sculpture,then proceed to sell it for millions of euro to a wealthy collector

I don't see any bracing on that frame, that would be my first step, then i would add a steering damper, you have raised the back and lowered the front, your trail would be just over 3 inches which would make for a very nervous front end. Is there a replacement brace on the rear of the frame.?  Looks like you removed the guard bracket/brace. These bikes respond very well to good bracing and set up... There are some stupid fast 750's being raced in Australia, they also handle very well....

[bear]

Well, it was a quite fine weekend after all. I've definitely improved my driving skills, I got to know the bike better and also got to look at her from an unusual view point (while airborne at 1,5 m height).

Also I've lost my track virginity, as it was my very first crash on the track. Now my leather suit has those super sexy marks that I will use to make umbrella girls fall in love with me ("see this scratches here babe? got them at Varano in 2015. They wanted to take me out of the track by ambulance, but I told them to f**k off as I headed to the bar for  whisky").

Attached the end result of the weekend.

These are the following option:

1. get the bike in shape and race it again. I'll need some advice on how to improve handling (a lot of advice)
2. take the good parts off and start racing my cb500 cafe racer (even if I would prefer to use on the open road, at least for this year)
3. claim the bike to be a Post-Futurist sculpture,then proceed to sell it for millions of euro to a wealthy collector

... There are some stupid fast 750's being raced in Australia,....................Yep

 they also handle very well.... ...................Errr , Well I guess? It's all relative.

Cheers,
Brian

[turboguzzi]

Indeed bear... regretfully there has been such a downturn of participants that the previous up to 75' 750 class has been unified with the up to 83' class . i think that against a bevel drive 750 duc or round head 750 guzzi, a CB750 is "a good handler" and a match, but compared to the 750 TT1 pantah's it's quite a handful.
Nevertheless, like johnn, i do believe  that ric should fine tune it a bit before jumping ship, my 500/4 was a pig to steer until i went really high on the back + smaller offset triples.

[livefast_dieold]

Yep, I will stick with the 750 and explore its potential during the year, hopefully honing my driving skills as well...

Soooo, who's the 750 set up expert here? :-)

@Yossef, nice pic! Who has taken it?

[bwaller]

kos used to be heavily involved in CB/CR racing but isn't around anymore, seemingly off dirtracking now. JohnN races a CB750 and he can point you in the right direction.

One suggestion for bracing is to use a "saddle" type instead of a single piece of steel welded on one side of the frame tubing. Much stronger and very lightweight material works. I don't have a close up picture but hopefully you can see what I mean. These are not welded around the tube but only on the flat section.

[Retro Rocket]

All the places Bwaller has braced on his 550 are virtually the same for the 750, the main one that really helps the rear on a 750 is an "X" brace between the frame tubes above the swingarm pivot

[bwaller]

Just to add, the best approach with a swingarm brace. Have the engine bolts tight, correctly tension the swingarm bolt, then weld the brace in place. The frame will relax enough to remove the arm after but some frame weld in that area may need to be ground smooth.

[JohnN]

I'm not an expert so I used the information I found on this website for geometry, etc. as well as Ken at CycleX for frame bracing. I would not have built the CR replica had I not found this site and I'd be happy to share specs and pictures. Should another thread be started for this?
John

[Retro Rocket]

Just to add, the best approach with a swingarm brace. Have the engine bolts tight, correctly tension the swingarm bolt, then weld the brace in place. The frame will relax enough to remove the arm after but some frame weld in that area may need to be ground smooth.

Excellent advice...

I'm not an expert so I used the information I found on this website for geometry, etc. as well as Ken at CycleX for frame bracing. I would not have built the CR replica had I not found this site and I'd be happy to share specs and pictures. Should another thread be started for this?
John

Yes Joh, a single point of reference for these modifications would be a great Idea...

[dragracer]

Congratulations gentlemen. Sounds like it was a fun weekend. Thanks so much for the race report.

[livefast_dieold]

Thanks for the suggestion guys, I'll start a new thread then!

[JohnN]

Thread is already started- quite a few responses that should be helpful.