Author Topic: No Reserve Racing - Project and status updates (Read 29900 times)

Kickstart · « **Reply #100 on:** May 10, 2016, 12:01:10 PM »

Just got off the phone with Matt... said .90kg/mm is the best place to start for my set-up (I weigh 170 lbs for reference)

Also gave me some tips - suggested drilling two more 1/16" holes in the gold valve plate.

seanbarney41 · « **Reply #101 on:** May 10, 2016, 02:00:20 PM »

That's great info CR fan, and from talking to you before about this I know that you also used shorter tubes to get your geometry right. Chris, what are your plans for the extra long GL fork tubes?

I am slightly concerned about losing too much travel as I am running the same fork brace as Chris (Superbrace) and it has a rather high arch that could interfere with the lower triple...mine's a street bike and Michigan has them BIG potholes.

bwaller · « **Reply #102 on:** May 10, 2016, 04:32:04 PM »

What weight emulator springs will you use?

seanbarney41 · « **Reply #103 on:** May 10, 2016, 04:51:57 PM »

Not sure yet...assumed I would start with whatever recommended by Race Tech, probably similar to Chris' but I weigh about 190.

Kickstart · « **Reply #104 on:** May 11, 2016, 08:30:05 AM »

I'm using the stock GL1000 forks/tubes, but I'm using a 18" front wheel which will bring the trail back some. Blue springs, Matt recommended starting with 3 or 3.5 turns on the springs.

Based on our back of the envelope calculations, we'll still have slightly more trail than stock compared to the original K2 specifications (around 3.9" up from 3.7") if we keep a standard length rear shocks. The offset on the GL1000 triple is 45mm vs 60mm for the K2, so that also increases the trail in addition to the longer tubes.

I ordered 13.5" rear shocks, which should get us to 3.8" trail. Of course, my trig is a little rusty, so I could be off a little. We'll take some more measurements when we get the everything together.

I know some guys are raising their rear 1-2" with longer shocks but I really don't want to push the envelope on the trail, and would like to stay in the 3.6-3.9" range for now.

Superbrace - I'm not in love with it. In fact, I called Fast from the Past and they found a Tarozzi brace that will fit the 75 GL1000 forks - part number: 22-0043. It fits, but the dust seals don't fit in the brace - so we'll have to make some adapters or something.

The Tarozzi brace also has a high "arch", but the design is superior - IMHO. It's design allows for some play, which allows you to tighten everything up after you got the tubes aligned properly. I'm concerned the Superbrace may cause stickion.

bwaller · « **Reply #105 on:** May 11, 2016, 06:12:06 PM »

Chris, you're wise to pay attention to trail...I use 14.25" shocks and eventually to finish the project I ignored the trail value. It handled fine...until it didn't and then I paid!

Reducing rake by raising the rear really does help it turn though, but reducing the offset has to go hand in hand. Once you calculate the final number you can always raise the tubes though the triples if possible.

I use the 40 in/lb emulator springs at 3 turns, this with the bike at 346lbs wet.

I hope the preparation goes smoothly.

Kickstart · « **Reply #106 on:** May 13, 2016, 10:57:10 AM »

Thanks Brent,

I don't think I would have paid much attention to the trail number if you hadn't posted about the experience/issue you had... so thanks again for the help.

I believe the blue springs are the 40lb/in ones... I'll have to double check.

346 lbs, wow. We weighed my current "production historic" bike I've been racing and it came in around 500 lbs with about 1/3 full tank. I'm not sure where we'll end up with the new frame/set-up. We'll be dropping a bunch of weight getting rid of the stock seat and fenders, and I'm also removing the starter motor and alternator coils (keeping the flywheel)... so that should free up some weight... but a full tank of gas and the heavier front end might add most of that back.

HondaMan · « **Reply #107 on:** May 14, 2016, 05:50:32 PM »

Chris: with that finely-stiffened frame, you will at least get more "margin" in the short-trail handling department. For example, if you ever watched those [crazy] riders who rode those dirt tracks with no brakes, always crossed-up one side or the other (I've forgotten what this type of racing is called), 1/8 mile oval, they did it with the 750 by stiffening up the frames like yours and then used 14" and even 15" rear shocks to get less trail yet. They didn't suffer the speed wobbles of the Brit bikes (which had weaker frames, except the Norton Commandos with steel inserts in their elasto-cushion shock mounts those were like riding a brick!). If you have damper control in front, I might suggest a damping setting that corresponds to using 20w40 fork oil in stock forks, i.e., slightly on the slow-to-rebound side.

Kickstart · « **Reply #108 on:** May 22, 2016, 08:15:46 PM »

Thanks Mark,

I also have a steering damper in the front. I usually set it on the lowest or second to lowest setting... but I'm not really sure what that corresponds to (which is one of the reasons I set it low).

Kickstart · « **Reply #109 on:** May 22, 2016, 08:47:04 PM »

OK... I changed the name of this thread to better reflect what we're doing.

No Reserve Racing is our team name - maybe you've heard of us

....but seriously, it's more fun when you have a team name.

We've got the CB160 (the build I started this thread with) pretty much ready for this season. We have a new custom exhaust (picture coming this week), and we're just waiting to see when we can get some time on the dyno.

For the CB750, we're moving up from Novice Production Historic Heavyweight class to Sportsman 750 with AHRMA.
In preparation we're moving over to a K2 frame from the F0 frame (I already had the K2 engine in the F frame). The legality of the 75/76 F model was questionable (which I think technically it should be legal) and I feel the frame geometry was actually at a disadvantage to the K's.

As mentioned above, we're also doing some modifications and some upgrades while making the swap. These upgrades are proving to be a lot of work.

Here's a picture of the way the bike looked this morning...
And then another picture of it with most of the parts after running it up and down the road for a quick test

Restoration Fan · « **Reply #110 on:** May 24, 2016, 04:48:34 PM »

I love the bike. Really nice work!

bwaller · « **Reply #111 on:** May 24, 2016, 05:09:47 PM »

Looks good. Not being critical, but I wonder if the tach would be better lower and further out front a tad. Tucked over the tank it might be in the way? It may suit perfectly, or you can always make a change after you race it.

Is the 160 ready & idling?

Kickstart · « **Reply #112 on:** May 24, 2016, 08:10:18 PM »

Thanks guys.

Yeah, we're still playing around with the tach location. The holder is machined out of plastic for now.. and we'll make the final one out of aluminum. We plan to shorten it about 1" before this weekend. We were thinking about tilting it down some but then the tach cable might have to bend too much, so we might play around with putting some spacers in to drop it further down.

The CB160 is technically ready to go, but we really want to get it on a dyno with the new exhaust. We would also like to clean-up / correct some bush league things we did in our rush to get it running last year. I'm only planning on taking the CB750 to this weekend's track days.

Kickstart · « **Reply #113 on:** May 29, 2016, 05:45:02 PM »

We managed to pull it off and get ourselves up to Palmer MA with a functioning bike. Picture attached. Seat cowling is a little larger than I would like, and the fender doesn't quite look right (it's for a 19" diameter tire), but not too shabby. We weighed the bike and came in at 402lbs. Which I'm really happy with. I didn't think we'd get it that light.

Completed day one of our two day track day event with no major problems. We blew a fuse, broke off the rear brake pedal - the kick starter didn't actually clear it as I thought it would

and lost a couple of nuts/bolts that weren't torque properly

... but made it through all my track sessions with no major issues, so we're feeling pretty good about that.

We're still working through an issues with the suspension... I'm getting a lot of chattering on the front wheel, especially in downhill sweepers... a lot.

I removed the fork brace to see if that was causing some stickion, but I don't think we have a stickion problem, and it didn't stop the chattering (although it might have helped a little). I also dropped the pressure in the tires a few PSI, which didn't seem to help much either.

Tomorrow morning we might remove some of the fork oil. I filled them up so there was 160mm of free airspace, but that took around 100 more cc's of fork fluid than what's specified in the GL1000 manual... so maybe I don't have enough free air space. We'll see if that helps.

Anyway... not a bad weekend so far. Engine is running great.

Kickstart · « **Reply #114 on:** May 29, 2016, 05:48:15 PM »

In this picture you can see the broken brake level, which snapped when I wacked it with the kick starter.

I'll have to call FastFromThePast to see if they can sell me just the pedal.

Kickstart · « **Reply #115 on:** June 30, 2016, 07:51:06 PM »

Update from Road America:

Another belated update... we were at Road America the weekend of 6/9 through 6/11. We raced both the CB750 (now in the Sportsman750 class), and the CB160 (in the LeMans start 160 and the GP200 class).

In summary, I had a lot of trouble keeping up... on both bikes. I was definitely having trouble warming up to the track (it's a fast track!), and the Sportsman750 class had some very fast racers. That said, we had a great time even if I was cleaning up the rear.

We also didn't really give the CB160 enough TLC (as we've been focused on getting the 750 ready for the sportsman class)... so it wasn't running at 100%.

I did OK on Saturday with the 750 - placing 7th out of 9 in the Sportsman750 class, and managed to stay out of last place in the 160 races placing 16th out of 19 and 22nd out of 26 (in the 160 and gp200 races respectively).

On Sunday I came in dead last on the 750 (7th out of 7), missed the 160 LeMans race due to a broken shift linkage, and placed 20th out of 26 in the gp200 race.

Two big challenges I had were:
The bikes were not geared well. We did put larger front sprockets on both bikes over the weekend which helped, but I was still running out of engine... and,
I just wasn't pushing myself hard enough (a little too intimidated by the track) - scrubbing off way to much speed going into turns and not taking quick enough turns.

Here are some videos:

CB160 gp200 race on Sunday - Everyone passes me at the start because I had the bike in neutral when I thought it was in gear

CB750 Sportsman750 race on Sunday - These guys are fast! I did better on Saturday but started getting worried I was over-revving the engine.

And here are some pictures:
https://goo.gl/photos/9pjuLbKptJQye7Er6

Kickstart · « **Reply #116 on:** June 30, 2016, 08:01:01 PM »

Hey... Old Scrambler was nice enough to stop by and share some of his vast wisdom..

Dennis... it was great meeting you!

Kickstart · « **Reply #117 on:** June 30, 2016, 08:04:36 PM »

Also... probably the best part of the weekend:

Right before I headed out for my last race on Sunday two young kids came up to me with notebooks asking for my autograph! They were walking around with their parents collecting autographs of the racers... it was really adorable... here's a picture.

Now, I don't think my autograph will ever be worth much

But it was awesome seeing them so excited to get autographs.

Kickstart · « **Reply #118 on:** June 30, 2016, 08:14:34 PM »

Okay... here's the picture of the 160 with the new exhaust I've been promising to post:

So, it's Stainless Steel but apparently it still rusts (stains?) due to being welded. Should just be superficial though. It also has some clearance issues with my boot rubbing off the pipe wrap, so we'll need to fab up some sort of heat shield.

We also need to put some type of baffle in there. It's currently an open pipe and it's loud! AHRMA is starting to crack down on open exhausts.

RAFster122s · « **Reply #119 on:** June 30, 2016, 10:25:44 PM »

Glad you had another racing weekend under the belt with no bruises and only a few minor things to attend to...
More track time and understanding the tracks and your cycle's needs will come with time. It's a process...just be methodical is my recommendation.

Congrats!

David

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Author Topic: No Reserve Racing - Project and status updates (Read 29900 times)