Topic: Story of the JMR-Suzuki and me

[Retro Rocket]

One not so obvious reason was the so called WTF?!?-factor when a few other racers saw the bike with the forks backwards 

I may have been one of those...

[Leino]

All the modifications made in the winter turned out to be good, I improved my PB several times during the test & tune day that took place on a Friday right before the first race.

[Leino]

https://www.facebook.com/petri.leino.35/videos/3799683714236/

[Leino]

Bike was good to ride and quick, only problem was the higher compression ratio and stock starter motor. If the night was cold you were in trouble in the morning without preheating.

Sam returned to Finland in 2012, this time to race with us. This was in June, second race of the championship. Some of you know the story, here's the beast he came here to tame.

[bwaller]

Thanks for re-cap Leino, good story....so far.  BUT keep going!

[Leino]

Thanks for re-cap Leino, good story....so far.  BUT keep going!

Story keeps getting better Brent, takes time to go through the old pictures and checking dates etc.
Thanks for reading 

[Leino]

This beast travelled with Sam.

[Leino]

Unfortunately the weather was not on our side and it rained most of Saturday, only two qualifying runs.

Sam & VRod



Me & JMR-Suzuki

[Sam Green Racing]

Great read so far Juha, keep it coming.

Sam.

[Leino]

Great read so far Juha, keep it coming.

Sam.

Thanks Sam, I'll go through some more material today 

[Leino]

For this particular weekend a friend of a friend borrowed us his trailer... he forgot to mention it had turned in to an antfarm while it had not been used. I don't think I've ever seen as many ants lined up inside a refrigerator looking for something to eat. Oh well, that didn't bring our spirits down 

A picture from our pit. My father and brother decided they want to be international and refuced to move when this picture was shot.

[Leino]

Sunday and eliminations. Sam's first round opponent was Risto "Ripa" Outavaara, four times National Champion, 1995/1999 Super Street Bike, 2007 Streetbike, 2010 Funnybike and several silver and bronze medals from Finnish, Swedish etc. championships over the years.

It was a tight race, but unfortunately Sam lost. He wasn't too sad about it. Just opened a can of his favourite drink, beer with alcohol in it 

I said earlier about Sam's ability to bring me good luck, so in to the finals I went. Unfortunately I redlighted and lost it.

[Leino]

Sam and his buddy posing.

[Leino]

We had a good time, Sam stayed with us the following week and we returned to Alastaro for the European Championship, Thursday to Sunday.
My son was racing in Juniorbike on his RG 125 and I had to tow my bosses Harley dragbike around for a couple of days until my friend Jarmo arrived and then the #$%*ty job was his.

RG blew the headgasket Thursday or first thing Friday morning and we waited for the spares to arrive.
I have a pretty bad allergy and it hit me during that weekend, I know I wasn't the most pleasant person to be around (if I ever am...) and I feel sorry for that. No reason to explain any further but I can tell you I was in pain.
Time flies by when you're having fun, like changing the head gasket and having a beer to go with that. Sam returned to England and we planned his next trip to Finland for the finals in September.

[Leino]

Two races left before the finals and in Kalajoki I qualified 4th but lost in the second round, not much to tell about it. Long way up there to come home without more round wins.

Next race was in Motopark I qualified 5th. Eliminations began and as I started my bike it sounded unusual, but the unusual noise stopped after two or three seconds. Everything seemed to be normal but as I went on to do my burnout I was listening very carefully for any indication of a problem.

I won the round easily but when I closed the throttle, engine sounded like the crank was eating it's way out the cases. Quick shutdown and rolled to the return road. Pushed the starter button and heard the broken starter clutch bolts rattling inside the cover. Nothing you can do about it in half an hour so for the first time bad luck struck me and the race was over for me.

[Leino]

After the starterclutch incident I still had a chance to finish in top three, it would have been alot easier if I just had replaced those three bolts in time but it was a experience to learn from.

Sam returned to Finland for the finals, I couldn't pick him up from Helsinki this time so he came to Turku by bus. Me and my brother had the van packed up and on to Alastaro we went.

Weather was against us again, cold and rainy. Sam qualified 9th, I was in 8th spot.
Can't remember who Sam raced in first elimination round but unfortunately he lost.
I had a good day as usual when Sam was hanging around, I made my way in to the semifinals, would have had a solo run and I knew that would put me in #3 spot in the championship, #1 guy was too far in points and already the champion but even a lost final round would give me the silver medal.
Not my year. One oiling too much by a car, a few drops of water and the race was stopped.

I finished 7th in the championship, a few lousy qualifying points away from the 3rd spot and just a finished race away from the 2nd place. We went home and got drunk.
New PB anyway, 9.661

Pretty picture for a change 

[Sam Green Racing]

a very pretty picture.

Sam.

[Leino]

[Leino]

Sam returned to England. He was going to US for at least one more race in 2012, in Valdosta I believe? I got a message from him, saying: "What do you need to go quicker?"
I didn't know why he asked me but then he dropped the bomb, he wanted to sponsor me and make sure I have the goodies to eventually get in to the 8's and win a championship or two along the way.

I didn't want to change class so we decided bigger is better. From the "small" 1327cc to 1498cc 

Sam ordered a new MTC big block and JE pistons, they were shipped over to Mike Rieck. Mike took them to Rick Stetson's place, Harry's Machined Parts who took care of the final machining. This project was in the very best hands available I believe 

At the same time I started looking for a GS 1150 head and found one in Germany. I shipped it to Mike for yet another porting job with too much modifications to mention here.(Honestly I don't even remember all the modifications he did to it  ) This was no easy task and Mike named the head "GS 1150 head from hell" even though I tried to tell him I bought it from Germany 

Starting problems were a real issue in 2012 and I had heard of Paul Cashio. I sent my starter motor to Mike who sent it to Paul and when I got it back, I wished I'd send one there a few years earlier... can't believe the difference it made. It spins the engine like I forgot to put the spark plugs in 

Building this motor took a lot of time so I raced the 2013 season with the "smallblock" 1327.

[Leino]

Season started OK, I did much better in qualifying compared to 2012. I had the rearshocks shimmed for more reboung damping and the suspension setup worked great in terms of ET and consistency. Rules changed and allowed me to use a quickshifter, more consistency again.
Finished runner up in the second race of the season, my front tyre punctured a little hole in the #3 header and the bike lost some power, I dialed in with a risk and lost.

Won the fourth (out of five) race, and on the finals, rain all Sunday and the race was stopped. I finished in second place in the championship after a tight struggle with one of the best ET bike racers I know in Finland, Jyrki Sinisalo on his R1.
It was a good season, bike worked well with the new starter motor and was reliable.







New PB 9.445 mostly thanks to the reshimmed YSS shocks. Launching the bike with the new setup was much easier.

After the season I pulled the engine out to find out my #3 cylinder piston had been hitting the head. Also sent my crank to Tampere to be checked. Unfortunately received a phonecall saying it was beyond reasonable repair. At this point I was glad I bought a few GS cranks back when they were available for next to nothing. So, a new crank, only used the straightcut primary gear and starter clutch taper from the old one.

Mike was working on the new head and shipped me these. That bottle is in there just for size comparison
85mm bore

[Leino]

New head arrived in the spring 2014. Mike did a beautiful job, as always.



My friend Pasi machined the new engine cases I bought from somewhere, perhaps Germany again?

[Leino]

Me and Mike agreed on using the old carbs, cams etc. hardware for now.
This engine was going to be a beast anyway, there's plenty of time for fine tuning later.

First start:

[Leino]

Modifications during the 2013-14 winter

-AFR logger
-steering damper
-1498cc engine, only the clutch and transmission came from the 1327

Test & tune day, Friday right before the race on Sat & Sun.
Found out the gearing for the 1327 was way too short for the torque monster 1498, this was discovered during the very first cautious run. AFR was close, but we changed the main jets one size bigger and used the tallest gearing I had with me. Problem fixed.

Me and Sam were right on our thoughts of bigger being better, the bike was much easier to ride and the wheelies were long, but low and very controllable. I shift the 2nd, 3rd and sometimes 4th gear with the front wheel in the air, bike goes straight and true. Best part is the engine pulls hard even in 5th and that feels great! 

[Leino]

2014 was a season of ups and downs. Started well, I qualified 2nd and won the first race.

Next three races were not so great, I couldn't keep my focus and it started to show.
Lost in the first round in the second race, second round in the third and again in first round in the fourth race.
Somehow I got myself together before the finals and found myself racing against my friend Jarmo on a Hayabusa in the final round.
We were #3 and #4 in the championship before the final race.
Two guys in front of us in points raced against us in earlier rounds and lost.
Situation was as follows... loser will finish in fourth place in the championship, if I win, I'm the national champion, if Jarmo wins, he finishes in third place and the guys who were in front of us before this final round of the championship would maintain their places.

I knew this wasn't going to be easy, Jarmo is a tough racer, former national Street Harley champion, loads of experience...

Here were are, waiting for the finals. My son on the Katana.




Jarmo's loaner Busa ran low 10's all year (all stock and daily rider) and I dialed in at 9.55 thinking it's a safe bet even if I can't get the bike out of the hole like it should.

He redlights by .008 seconds and I won. Five minutes earlier my son had done the same thing in junior dragbike so for the first time (as far as anyone could remember) in history two champions in the same family simultaneously.

A good year I say.

Clip-on bars now 





Nice Finnish habit.



Certificate



My trio.






Special Thanks to Mike Rieck and Sam Green, and of course all the others who have supported me through the years and continue to do so as I'm returning to racing next year. 

Here's what I did this summer 



Oh yeah, forgot to mention my new PB: 9.313 / 242.98km/h with a slightly too soft clutch setup. There's more to come 

Story of the JMR-Suzuki ain't over yet, as I'm writing this the bike is on it's first official diet.

To be continued.

[bwaller]

Here's what I did this summer 

Very cool Leino. Now what's this photo that was snuck in under the radar!  Multi talented no doubt!