Topic: What is everyone stripping off to save weight?

[Don R]

 I was wondering about weight reduction and remembered this thread. I know I've added a lot of weight to the Rat Race to make it more street usable. (as in turn signals) I want to avoid that with the drag bike frame.
  I probably won't use either of the ARD's I have, the weight penalty will outweigh the cool factor. Or will it?
  After re-reading the first few pages of this thread I should have let it rest. It's mostly arguing about whether you should lighten your bike and not about how to do it.

[HondaMan]

  After re-reading the first few pages of this thread I should have let it rest. It's mostly arguing about whether you should lighten your bike and not about how to do it.

Why?? It's winter, after all. We need something to stay warm.

[PeWe]

Lighten yourself might be another  way?

[grcamna2]

Lighten yourself might be another  way?

A 2 wheel performance advantage 

I have lightened-up the weight of the spokes,rims,drive chain,tires and rear sprockets & use drilled discs;it helps the suspension handle bumps also and the bike accelerates quicker.
Have you considered an alloy swingarm ?

[MauiK3]

Well, IF I were to be concerned about weight I'd do allow rims, they won't change the appearance much and save unsprung weight which would aid in many ways. However, since I'm not doing any light to light drags, I'll leave it alone.
Oh, I watch my own weight too:-))

[Kelly E]

I weigh 125lbs so everyone's bike is faster when I ride it.

[PeWe]

I got similar feeling with 1000cc as with 836cc and 30 kg less load, 30-35 years earlier
Same bike, same rider

[HondaMan]

When I saw the title of this thread, my first reaction was:
"45 Auto is heavy. Carry fewer magazines while riding".

[Kelly E]

When I saw the title of this thread, my first reaction was:
"45 Auto is heavy. Carry fewer magazines while riding".

I only carry two spare magazines.

[Don R]

 Jay Gleason made a living out of being a lightweight rider. He rode most of the Japanese bikes for their magazine road tests. His Dad was the ATP turbo guy too, so he got a lot of track time.
 
  What's heavier, 750 rear drum or rear disc? A 16" chrome hog rim or Henry Abe 16x3"?
  How about a tubeless Lester front wheel, or a 750 Hondamatic spoke front wheel?
  I'm currently too heavy and plan to do something about that too. 

  45 to 380? 380 gives a lot more chances to do less damage. L0L!

[Kelly E]

Jay Gleason made a living out of being a lightweight rider. He rode most of the Japanese bikes for their magazine road tests. His Dad was the ATP turbo guy too, so he got a lot of track time.
 
  What's heavier, 750 rear drum or rear disc? A 16" chrome hog rim or Henry Abe 16x3"?
  How about a tubeless Lester front wheel, or a 750 Hondamatic spoke front wheel?
  I'm currently too heavy and plan to do something about that too. 

  45 to 380? 380 gives a lot more chances to do less damage. L0L!

With .45 255g FMJ I only need one shot. Those .380's might just piss off the meth heads.

It's a little guy thing. I drive a big ass truck, ride big bore motorcycles and carry a big ass pistol.

[Don R]

 I agree. A friend had a .380 that really fit my hand, don't know where it ended up after he passed.
 I'd really like to have a Les Baer 45 but a fellow allegedly heard that an AMT stainless steel one does a pretty good job.
 I met Les a couple times. Last I knew he still personally tests every one of his products. They hand fit every slide and require several hundred uses to consider properly broken in. Long waiting list for them.
 

[scottly]

  After re-reading the first few pages of this thread I should have let it rest. It's mostly arguing about whether you should lighten your bike and not about how to do it.

Yeah, these threads always degenerate into replies like taking a dump, eating fewer Big-macs, etc, usually by people that have nothing to add to a serious discussion of the topic. The same thing happens whenever anyone tries to discuss pods: the naysayers that have no real experience drown out those that have done it successfully. A lot of the times, it's the same individuals that post on both topics; I won't name anyone.  

[scottly]

Just for the record, my bike at last weigh-in was 404.5 pounds, with electric start, lights and mirrors. Once I learned to trust the tiny Shorai battery after these pics were taken, I removed the kick-start lever, which was about 1 1/2 pound, IIRC.

[grcamna2]

Just for the record, my bike at last weigh-in was 404.5 pounds, with electric start, lights and mirrors. Once I learned to trust the tiny Shorai battery after these pics were taken, I removed the kick-start lever, which was about 1 1/2 pound, IIRC.

With or w/o fuel ?

[scottly]

No fuel.

[grcamna2]

No fuel.

A CB750 at 404.5 lbs.  excellent

[Don R]

 I re-read and there are a few good ideas. I even had a couple that I had forgotten about.  My reason for bringing it up was that I've been re-installing parts that the PO had removed from The Rat Race 71 when he was racing it a lot. I found myself annoying other people at stop lights because I had no turn signals and couldn't get neutral to hand signal.
 The real drag bike needs to stay trim. I have reduced the front end weight a little. I'm thinking about a 16" aluminum rear with a tubeless tire. If I go with the longer swingarm I might not need the wheelie bars. I was looking at led clearance lights for a taillight even though I have a lucas type.

[DickL]

Great idea for a post. Center stand is the most obvious to me. Since you're in LA, the fenders (?), esp. the rear. There isn't much extra on the old motorcycles. It's more a matter of replacing parts with lighter ones. The beefy part of the front fender is a support for the forks. Your lights mount to the rear fender so you need to do something about that but that whole rear fender/ light/ plate mount weighs a ton. The stock seat pan weighs more than it needs to. Lighter battery. Then you start playing with ounces.

Ciao

Your fork!

[Tracksnblades1]

I re-read and there are a few good ideas. I even had a couple that I had forgotten about.  My reason for bringing it up was that I've been re-installing parts that the PO had removed from The Rat Race 71 when he was racing it a lot. I found myself annoying other people at stop lights because I had no turn signals and couldn't get neutral to hand signal.
 The real drag bike needs to stay trim. I have reduced the front end weight a little. I'm thinking about a 16" aluminum rear with a tubeless tire. If I go with the longer swingarm I might not need the wheelie bars. I was looking at led clearance lights for a taillight even though I have a lucas type.

What about spoking Aluminum rims up to your hubs to lessen the wheel’s flywheel effect during acceleration spin up…
A later model Kawasaki 550 has drum brake, super light 16 inch mag wheel rim allows wider tire.. Spacers and brake torque arm requires minor modifications.  May have mentioned this before….and like your rail, get rid of everything you can that doesn’t make power..

[Don R]

On the forks I used shorter 550 tubes, 1 F1 caliper, a drilled rotor, Hondamatic rim but I have a tubeless Lester that might be lighter. Aluminum headlight ears, I have a cheap ebay headlight that has a polycarbonate lens, it doesn't have an LED parking light bulb though.
  The wiring will be minimal. The battery box will be left off, and the battery will move down by the swingarm and shrink. If I run self-start, it is a cb900 8KW starter. Unless I get an RC cylinder I'll leave the oil cooler off. No charging system and a start only flywheel.
 I can't remove the passenger peg mounts,  the turbo exhaust mounts to the left one. It is the longer pipe but it needs length so the O2 sensor will read properly.

 That's the plan so far. I'm still studying CycleX's piston/cylinder options. The big flow heads are really cool but expensive (rightly so) A big Mikuni might not need a fuel pump if I ran race gas, E85 might not flow enough since it needs 20% more. If I could find one 72mm alcoa piston I'd have Ken restore the stroker motor cylinder.

[Tracksnblades1]

Are you going to insulate the exhaust to the turbine housing..?

[Don R]

Are you going to insulate the exhaust to the turbine housing..?

 My plan was to coat the inside with Eastwoods exhaust paint, or maybe in and out with Cerakote. I for sure won't wrap it although that would probably help spin the turbo.

[Tracksnblades1]

Are you going to insulate the exhaust to the turbine housing..?

 My plan was to coat the inside with Eastwoods exhaust paint, or maybe in and out with Cerakote. I for sure won't wrap it although that would probably help spin the turbo.

Just so you know ahead of a lot of work. I fabricated an 1/8” aluminum inner and outer heat shields for the exhaust manifold on a large turbo charged cummins. Somewhat identical to what’s used on gensets. Used kiln ceramic wool insulation in direct contact with the exhaust manifold and the custom aluminum inner and outer.

In this application the engine fan’s airflow is reversed. It moves air from the perforated engine enclosures into the engine bay and then through the radiator to the outside.. Originally wanting reduced under enclosure temperatures, I was hoping as a bonus it would quicken the spool of the big holset 80/82. I blanketed the turbo and insulated the turbo pipe to the muffler. similar to the manifold.

Well the internal enclosure temperature was drastically reduced. The EGTs and boost pressures remained the same..before the full load govenered EGTs remained the same. I guess @ near 900 cubes @1000* an insulated manifold won’t get any hotter than a 1000•. Insulated or not…😘

Turbo spool up? Couldn’t tell any difference. I think the conductive heat losses through a relatively short path through the cast iron manifold to the turbo doesn’really matter at this volume of exhaust..

[HondaMan]

On the forks I used shorter 550 tubes, 1 F1 caliper, a drilled rotor, Hondamatic rim but I have a tubeless Lester that might be lighter. Aluminum headlight ears, I have a cheap ebay headlight that has a polycarbonate lens, it doesn't have an LED parking light bulb though.
  The wiring will be minimal. The battery box will be left off, and the battery will move down by the swingarm and shrink. If I run self-start, it is a cb900 8KW starter. Unless I get an RC cylinder I'll leave the oil cooler off. No charging system and a start only flywheel.
 I can't remove the passenger peg mounts,  the turbo exhaust mounts to the left one. It is the longer pipe but it needs length so the O2 sensor will read properly.

 That's the plan so far. I'm still studying CycleX's piston/cylinder options. The big flow heads are really cool but expensive (rightly so) A big Mikuni might not need a fuel pump if I ran race gas, E85 might not flow enough since it needs 20% more. If I could find one 72mm alcoa piston I'd have Ken restore the stroker motor cylinder.

Are you by chance interested in a 16" rear alloy (cast) wheel? Gammaflat has a 19" front and 16" rear set he'd like to see gone from his garage. They are in the "snowflake" pattern, which was a market knee-jerk reaction to the spindly look of the Lesters of the time.