Well, we finally got the bike to the dragstrip for a test pass. Rode 2 hours to Carolina Dragway on thursday night since the weather was not looking to good on the weekend. We were in a rush to get to the lanes to make a pass because they were having a car shootout and Carolina is not known to be friendly towards the bikes when there'e a car event going on.
I elected to make the first pass on the bike to be certain it was okay for the wife to ride. The bike sounded good in the water box during the burnout so i decided to roll to the line to make a pass. Knowing the bike was untested, beginning with the chassis right down to the new motor, i had no clue if it would go straight off the line, if it would shift or how it would handle. I rolled slowly into the beams and twisted the throttle until it was locked. When the light came down i released the two step button and the bike left the line under power. It shifted to second gear but seemed to take a while to the next shift so i started looking for the shift button(the bike was set up to autoshift), i rolled out of the throttle but then found the button to upshift to 3rd. I locked the throttle again and the bike autoshift to the remaining gears on a full 1/4 mile pass backing off before the traps as the shutdown area is very rough. I was relieved the bike went straight and seemed to shift okay with the exception of me being anxious on the shift from 2nd to 3rd.
The time slip showed a 1.24, 60' on a new tire, it ran 5.71 in the 1/8th and 9.14 in the 1/4 mile. No doubt the bike would have made a much quicker pass if i hadn't backed off the throttle twice. I got the bike back to the pit area, charged the battery and checked it over for leaks etc.. I did have to readjust the chain due to stretch but we also discovery the air shifter was leaking air at the high rate of loss. I isolated the leak to the switching valve. A decision was made to forego further passes due to the high volume of air leaking from the air shifter system.
I took the bike out of the trailer over the weekend and raised it high enough to get under the bike to disassemble the switching valve. I found a small piece of trash inside, clean it out and air the system up. No more air leakage. I worked on a few odds and ends and will retorque the head. Hopefully we can get the bike out on tuesday of wednesday night before we leave for the Cup race. If not, the wife will make her maiden pass during the friday paid test session at Valdosta.
Stay tuned folks and i'll post the ET on her pass so we can figure out the winner of the ET challenge.
