loudbike

Late

If I was actually packing all my gear and bikes for the DOCC Mosport event today, I would be; as usual, packing in the rain.

But, the reality is that with the Bimota DB1 and Ducati TT1 projects I simply bit off more than I could chew and neither machine is ready for prime time.  I've been kicking off the season with the DOCC event for 14 years and this is the first time I've missed the deadline.

A whole raft of factors have conspired to push both projects backwards, but the bottom line is that they're the most challenging builds I've tackled and the business took more attention than I expected this past winter.  And some of the business projects we've embarked on have required all or part of one or both of the machines, so I've been swapping motors in and out of frames with increasing regularity. 

So the TT1 for example, is well on its way - but half of it is in Montreal, where our exhaust systems are being built and the other half is back at the shop.   I've got two frames 'cause the ex-Leoni/Adamo DM frame went to Jeff Nash (who now owns the rest of the bike) and he replaced it with a new large diameter, thin wall DM frame - which incidentally, will take a big-block engine.  Back at the shop, the new frame's Stadium shock reservoir mount's done, the electrics panel is finished and a tidy, new Scitsu tach's been adapted to the fairing mount.  As I pick away at the new frame's wiring harness, the old frame sits in Montreal with the completed front-end and wheels are tied to Shannon's old F1 engine and one of Palmer's old swing arms.  The front end is off Lon Allen's old racer and got the full-zoot Lindemann treatment many years ago.  The fender's Bimota DB1SR, the wheels & rotors are off my old 853 F1 (very cool to have some of it on this machine) and the fairing is an original Romanelli item.  195mm triples, milled fork lowers, 280mm floaters and Brembo 30/34 calipers up front and 260mm floaters with one of Carlo Leoncini's gorgeous floating caliper mounts to match the rear-sets I bought from him.

 

The motor's still on the bench, but just about done.  Finalize the cam timing, wire the pick-ups, install the clutch and we'll have a nice, old-school small block with serious J Precision heads, NCR #7s, 12:1 compression and lot's of lightened components.  I'd have been lost without the ongoing support from Gary Palmer and Mike Weber as I worked through the process of assembling both of the engines.

Part of the reason the TT1's taking so long is the revelation that the best way to build these things is the way NCR put them together back in the day - and that means lots of fabrication.  I was lucky enough to get some meaningful guidance from Lou Saif and Bruce Meyers and but for a couple of fairing brackets to redo, I'm about done with the whittling, filing, hacking and sanding phase.  There's the fairing to trim, oil lines, brake lines and throttles to make - but that stuff is a walk in the park compared to the stuff I've been wrestling with to-date.

The Bimota DB1 SR project is probably at the same level of completion as the TT1, but the work involved in trimming and fitting the race bodywork kit that Airtech put together is overshadowing everything else..  

It took a while to figure out a decent strategy for ditching the immense OEM battery box that blocks most of the rear cylinder's airflow, but I'm pretty happy with the result; possible with one of the spiffy little Shorai batteries.  The Dyna mini coils were kind of a disappointment 'cause at the end of the day, their design doesn't really buy you any big benefit in terms of the amount of space they occupy and the HT wire connection really limits mounting options as well.  They are ligher though...

One of the biggest challenges was to find an aftermarket shock that would work with the really crazy packaging of the rising rate linkage.  At the end of the day we decided that we'd run a Stadium upsidedown and use the ride-height adjustment eyelet to give us the much needed clearance at the rocker.

And then there's the PM wheels.  I was delighted to be able to get my hands on a pair (again from Palmer) - until I started trying to adapt them to the DB1..  I only finished the job last week; with the completion of a scratch-built caliper hanger.  Fran McDemott was kind enough to load a rectalgle of aluminum plate into his lathe and drill the two holes required and the rest was done with a hack saw and angle grinder.  Well, except of course for the floating bushings which I was able to turn up on my little lathe.  Note the drill pattern on the rear rotor..  It was on the wheel when I got it and and puts a smile on my face every time I see it, so it stays on the bike.

I spent hours trying to find a way to mount a set of fluid reservoirs to the bike so I could eliminate the completely impractical Bimota items that double as fork top nuts.  Think about it..  The only way to fine tune M1Rs is to play with fluid levels and viscosities - and with the OEM set-up, you have to find a way to disconnect the reservoirs from the brake system (without losing any fluid) and then reconnect them after you fool around with the fluids.  When I get really pissed-off about this I try and imagine the argument that must have occured somewhere in the final design process..

The DB1 motor's just about done as well; a Monjuich engine with lightened rotating bits from Ed Milich, seriously worked heads from J Precision and a 780 kit.  I don't know what I'm in for with the Montjuich cams, but I guess that's all part of the exersize with these two small-block motors; I wanted to experience some of that old school, lumpy, hi-lift stuff before I got on with my life and simply dropped some really big motors into both of these bikes.

Or maybe I won't..  Maybe the lack of cubes and grunt will make me a better (read less lazy) rider.  But I won't know 'till I get these damned projects finished. 

I think there's an all-nighter or two in my future.

4th Annual Ducati TT/F1 Symposium - September 2nd - 4th, 2012

The sights and sounds of a sea of Ducati TT1, TT2, and 750F1s..  A gathering of some of the most rabidly enthusiastic TT1 and F1 fanatics from all over the world..

  The TT/F1 Symposium gets better each year and brings the bikes closer to their native habitat; the race track.  The event’s come a long way from the first gathering at Lou Saif’s shop in Queens, NY.  We had an excellent group the following year at Ralf Stechow’s shop in New Jersey the following year, followed by the mother of all TT/F1 extravaganzas at Viki Smith’s Ducstock event last year at Barber Motorsports Park.  But at Barber, we were still (but for the half-dozen racers) a distance from the track itself and we came away with that event with a desire to get the gathering into the pits and onto the track.  The TTs (and their hot-rodded F1 cousins) are after all; pure racers – many of which are fully prepped for battle.

So, for 2012, the 4th Annual Ducati TT/F1 Symposium moves north to New Hampshire Motor Speedway www.nhms.com; a tight, twisty track in the Northeast US.  

Connecticut enthusiast Mike Weber put a substantial amount of time into bringing a new Ducati TT and F1 class into the Loudon Road Racing Series for 2012 and this lets our machines duke it out on a more level playing field.  The new class structure and a ‘perfect storm’ of events let Mike create a really neat, multi-discipline program for the 2012 Symposium that offers racing, track time and of course, the already famous static display of these amazing bikes.

Registration for the TT/F1 Symposium is easy; just show up with your bike and gear.  To register for the track activities, follow the links to the organizing bodies in the schedule below:

• Sept 2nd - Modern Club Racing by Loudon Road Racing Series www.lrrsracing.com which has a P-89 class catering to TT/F1 bikes.  Suggested entries for TTs and F1s are P-89 light (featured on Sunday) and formula 50 light (Saturday).
• Sept 3rd - Vintage Racing with United States Classic Racing Association www.race-uscra.com having multiple classes for TT/F1 bikes.  Suggested entries:  Formula 1 and 2, Masters and Supermasters
• Sept 4th - Track Day with Fishtail Riding School www.fishtailridingschool.com for a more relaxed on track experience with classes from entry level to advanced.

 

We’re still nailing down some of the logistics, but you’ll find regular updates on the Ducati TT and F1 Forum.

See you there (if I ever get my bikes finished)..

Winter 2011 - loudbike vs Bimota DB1 SR & Ducati TT1

The Hot-blooded Mexican set a 4 bike limit some time ago and that's just fine with me.  I mean, how many bikes can I guy keep in top fettle anyway?  And when a Bimota DB1 SR came into my in late October, I was just up to my limit; Shannon's old F1 (the donor for the Yellow Bike III), the Gran Canyon, the R1100s, the TT1 (yeah, projects count..) but it seemed to me that I needed to take stock of what I had and where I was going.  Looking back at last season, I realized that I had hardly done any street time; generally choosing the bicycle over a street ride 9.5 times out of 10.

Interesting..

And I was getting closer to my dream collection; a DB1, a TT1, and F1 and a Mille racer, so street riding simply went off the menu.  With all of the mods I'd done to the Gran Canyon, I knew that a straight sale wasn't going to get me the return I wanted to see, so I threw myself into disassembling the machine and the parts went back into the GC community faster than you can say 'come and get it!'.  The R1100S ended up going to a new owner in Whitby, Ontario.

So, here I am at the close of an excellent season with three projects; two of which will be completed by the spring - and a surprising return back to the land of small-block 750s.  Had anyone suggested that I'd find myself in this position this time last year, I'd have looked at 'em like they were from another planet.  But so it goes with me and my bikes..  Nothing seems to stand still for very long - little goes according to plan 'cause let's face it; I don't think there is much of a plan.

The TT1 was never planned.

But Lou Saif persisted and eventually put one of Jimmy Adamo's big-tube DM frames and some bodywork in my hands and then Palmer sold me a bunch of his F1 stuff, and then I found a nice cache of TT1 stuff in our inventory.  Instant TT1! 

Well, sort of...

I never really wanted to build a TT 'cause I like to step outside the box my machines and create something that's unique - mine.  And the TT1 is such a well designed and densely packaged unit that it's very difficult to deviate from what the factory did and actually come out ahead of the game.  But I got a taste of working inside a set of constraints when I redid Palmer's old Yellow Bike last year and it was more challenging (and less painful) than I thought it would be.  So, with only a few deviations from what the NCR guys did back in the day - I'm off on the path towards a reasonably faithful replica of the real thing.  Which means a 750 based on the F1 motor, some NCR7 cams, hi-comp pistons, big Mikuni flat slides and a lot of headwork. 

And no buffing of aluminum bits.

The horror.... 

The motor's based on Lon Allen's old racer and the heads will as closely as possible mimic the ones Fran used to run on his TT1 back when we was Fab.  Should weigh a sneeze and sound like a small-block Chevy when it's done - and hopefully handle as well as Fran's did.

And then there's the matter of the DB1 SR.

When Scot Wilson told me that he was selling his fairly molested SR, I jumped on it.  No pressure to restore this one back to original - that would be a losing battle.  It's been crashed, repainted, probably crashed again and repainted one more time, but complete and sound enough to make a great track machine.  The original Montjuich motor is in great shape and all the important bits are seriously road-rashed, but structurally OK.  I've always loved the DB1 racers (my God, they're tiny!), but have no idea how well they handle.  Having stripped it down and looked at the package; probably really well once I'm done with it.  And as Palmer is known to say, 'anything can be made to handle'.

But the bodywork is a royal pain in the ass.  I mean, you can't adjust the steering damper, tickle the carbs - or do anything important without pulling the whole mess off the machine. 

How utterly Italian!  Want to adjust the steering damper?  Remove all the bodywork.  Need to mess with your forks?  Well, before you can get at the springs or fluids, you’re going to have to find a way to remove the reservoirs that double as fork caps without spilling brake fluid everywhere.  Need to tighten the chain?  Don’t forget to readjust the ride height. 

I almost threw in the towel and set it up with F1 bodywork, but then it wouldn't be a DB1 would it?  So, when I get the race bodywork back, I'll drill a couple of well-placed access ports and hope it doesn't look completely WRONG.  It’ll be a flashy little package with the polished PM spun aluminum wheels.  Rather than replace the well-ground foot pegs and bars, they'll get a mild polish as well - as will all the aluminum (just to make up for the lack of polished bits on the TT1).  Bodywork aside, the only real snag I hit was the loss of the stock rear carb manifold somewhere in the bike's past.  The packaging on this little gem is so tight that there's only a very limited amount of space for the big Dellorto and although we have a remarkably diverse selection of Malossi manifolds in stock, nothing put the carb in the right position to clear the rear shock.  I was thinking 'cut & weld' when new DB1 buddy Werner from suggested I look at an adjustable intake manifold made by Joko in Germany.  I just got the two I ordered in last week and they have to be the coolest parts I've bought in the last decade.  Beautifully made and highly functional, they did the trick.

When you consider the date of manufacture, the thing is pretty trick.  While the billet reservoir / fork caps are a bit over the top, my eyes bugged out when I realized that they ran fluid galleys through the lower triples just so they could eliminate a splitter manifold the mount the brake light switch. 

It only took a minute to realize that a big-block motor could be dropped into the chassis, and although I won't do so this year - the creative wheels are turning...

This is why we have such brutal winters up here in The Great White North.  Nothing else to do but crank up the music, turn up the heat and build a couple of funky Italian motorcycles.

Seasons Greetings!

Peace on earth

Goodwill towards men

and chocolate for all

Ducstock..

Many would say that Ducstock was about the machines; a dizzying array of exotica dominated by the outstanding showing of Ducati TTs and F1s.  Although, I doubt that I spent more than an hour in total communing with the bikes. 

Not by choice, but by circumstance – this event was about people.  People I’d read about in books and magazines, people that I’ve had email and board/list relationships with for over a decade but never met, and people who took the time to come into our lives as strangers and leave as newfound friends.

Ducstock was very cool.

We got a different perspective on Ducstock..  We didn’t move through it; browsing the machinery and exhibits – the event flowed through us.  Emilia and I would show up at the loudbike tent at 8:30AM and before we knew it, closing time would be upon us.  We were swamped with t-shirt sales and a seemingly endless stream of printing requests, visits and odd jobs.  Fortunately, the loudbike tent became the place where the Ducati Legends, Forum members and friends (old and new) dropped their packs and stuff for safekeeping, picked-up a bottle of cold water and pulled up a chair in the shade..  That was fine with us ‘cause we were so buried with work that we wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity for long chats with those who dropped by.

Ducstock was chock-full of pleasant suprises...

Like Italian TT expert and racer Carlo Leoncini and I babbling away in languages foreign but understanding each other anyway. 

Or Gabriel Richard from California; who bought my Hypermotard custom earlier this year and seemed to know everyone (and I mean everyone) on a first name basis.  He jumped on a plane and arrived without a plan – and probably had more fun than anyone else there. 

And Ed Milich - who carries on Todd Henning’s tradition of riding junk-yard-dogs to Championships, writes great prose, plays in a death-metal band and makes excellent parts for our Ducatis and Guzzis. I’ve had an email relationship with Ed for almost 10 years and finally met him when he came up to our tent with his wife and baby between races to visit and read from his books (while Emilia held the bull-horn). 

After killing us with some really bad hip-hop moves at dinner, Ralf Stechow confided that he was the guy in the Return of the Jedi movie poster (standing-in for an injured Mark Hamill).  Luke Skywalker – Jedi by day; Ducati fanatic by night..

As I was making up bike placards, I noticed that Gary Patton and Rich Paxton were essentially doing the same thing on the same bikes with similar results – and had never had the opportunity to meet and share the experience (they were both regional champions on F1 racers on opposite sides of the country).  I broke the news to them Saturday night in the hotel parking lot and left them there to trade lies for the next few hours. 

Gary’s another one of those guys who I knew by email, but never met in person.  He loaded the original (restored) machine into a van with another F1 racer he’d revived and made the long trip solo.  Emilia and I had dinner with Gary - listening to what it was really like behind the pit wall back in the day. 

Rich Paxon came to Ducstock chasing a dream; to ride his old F1 racer at Barber.  That dream, and the work of restoring the old girl got him through a tough fight with a serious illness and to watch him ride was to watch a man reborn.  Mike Weber came to Ducstock with a mission as well; and that was to get Rich to Ducstock.  In the process, he restored his old Harris TT and took to the track as well for the first time in a good while.

Scott Kearne came to Ducstock with with a heart full  of optimism and an unfinished TT2 replica.  We parked it in the TT and F1 Forum tent and by Sunday over a dozen people (including Pat Slinn and Roy Thersby) had had their hands on the machine.  Scott had never ridden a TT and on the Monday track sessions, the bike and rider bonded.  The smile never left his face.

It was also about a quiet and insightful meeting with Paul Ritter, a bevel-racing legend – and with Phil Schilling; Cycle Magazine’s legendary editor.  Or the two hours swapping lies with Cook Neilson at the St. Vincent’s hospital with Lou, Ralf and (there he is again!) Gabriel.

Pat Slinn and Roy Thersby made the trip over from England together and were right in there with us on Wednesday and Thursday as we set up the TT and F1 Forum tent and started unloading the bikes.  The loudbike tent became their base during the event – which gave us plenty of opportunity to get to know them and to listen to the endless stories about racing the TTs back in the day

The legends become human and with that humanity, even more legendary.

I’ve been corresponding with Mike Vogt since I started this blog and when I began listing the TT exotica on eBay, he bought the stuff like there was no tomorrow..  He’ll retire soon, and has enough parts stashed away to build killer TTs for many years.  He decided pretty late in the game to build a replica of the TT forerunner that helped Pat Slinn and Tony Rutter convince Ducati to give them a real factory machine.  He threw himself into the project with a passion that I found almost scary and in the process, taught himself to weld and paint.  The bike was barely completed in time to load it into the van for the long ride from Oregon and the project worth every bit of effort if only for the tear that it brought to Pat Slinn’s eye.

I came back to the hotel on the Thursday night to find the lobby tables pulled together and a TT/F1 assembly almost beyond belief:  Lou Saif, Mike Weber, Gary Patton, Rich Paxton, Ralf Stechow, VJ, Steve D’Angelo, Carlo Leoncini, Reno Leoni and..  I lost track.  Nothing do do but pull up a chair and soak it all in.

I’ve known the digital Rene and Sue Waters for a dog’s age, but Canada’s a big country and our paths never crossed.  But when I walked over to introduce myself to them in the pub parking lot, we greeted each other like old friends.  And so it went for 6 days; with the Northeast group, my old friends from the Mid-Atlantic, the Bevelheads, loudbike blog readers, and folks who like me; couldn’t recall how we knew each other.  We just did.

The event did have some bike-centric moments though..

We escaped the confines of our tent for the sound contest we sponsored – and it was (to a guy like me) a symphony beyond belief.  That event spawned the impromptu line-up of factory TTs that will go down in history as the largest gathering ever of those fine machines.  Afterwards, Jeff Nash and Pat Slinn coaxed to life for the first time a factory TT2 that he had bought from Frank Romanelli many years ago.  With its serious cams, stupid compression and absolutely no flywheel, it didn’t sound like any Ducati I’d ever heard..  Jeff Nash – another guy I’ve known by email since long before eBay..  When I built the Original loudbike, I sold off the 900SS bodywork to partially fund the project; to Jeff – and he’s still got it.

Reno Leoni spent most of Sunday morning at our tent and during that time I learned the history of the Mille that we had brought to the party as well as the evolution of the large-diameter, thin-wall Daspa TT1 frame that Lou had given me for my TT1 project.  That frame had been the basis of the Adamo/Leoni TT1 that Jeff had recently picked up and naturally, he was very interested in keeping it with the bike.  This posed a dilemma for me ‘cause I’ve learned that not all TT1s handle with 17” wheels and slicks.  That frame (confirmed by Reno) was built off a jig made from the original Verlicchis that work so brilliantly - and with contacts that Reno provided, Jeff can get me a copy and in trade and have the Adamo Daspa.  Another happy ending.

Reno is one very charming and helpful guy..

I missed the action in the pits, though – and all but one of the races.  Gary Palmer had an epic battle with Robbie Nigl and Paul Robbins rode my old bike beautifully.  I ached to get on the course, and did so on Monday – although what should have been a high point was a less than stellar experience.  I bonded well with the circuit – which came as no surprise.  Barber is after all, an Alan Wilson-designed circuit with lots of elevation changes and blind combinations – just like Calabogie and Mt. Tremblant.  I had the rhythm quickly and my knee on the pavement in a surprisingly short time.  But, the folks at the Penguin School never really had control of the riders and I parked the bike at lunch.  Unfortunatly, I was spot-on with my premonition as the afternoon was filled with red flags.  I’ve seen this enough times to know when the crowd just doesn’t have a good warm and fuzzy groove going and I’ve learned to get the hell out of the way when it happens. 

Paul Robbins came up to me Sunday afternoon after his race to tell me that Reno had dropped by the pit he was sharing with Gary ‘cause he saw the loudbike stickers on the F1s.  And that Reno had talked him into the Moto Giro next year.  Could I put together two 175s over the winter? 

“Two?”  I asked.  “Yeah – you’re coming.  …I’ve got plenty of points.”

I lent my support to Vicki Smith ‘cause I thought that a grass-roots event in the spirit of Woodstock had the potential to bring out the best of all of us. 

She was right on the money. 

Hi-rez images are HERE

Vicki's Photo Galley is HERE

Ducstock - Woodstock for Ducatisti?

Plans appear to be coming together for Barber NCR Ducstock National Ducati Party 2011, hosted at the AHRMA Vintage Festival in Birmingham, Alabama this coming October 7 – 10^th.  Within the Ducstock venue, Lou Saif’s TT Symposium comes together for the 3^rd time in as many years and promises to attract an impressive number of factory Ducati TT1 and TT2 machines as well as a gaggle of kit versions and racers.  I’m pretty sure we’ll see over 30 TTs and an even greater number of Ducati 750 F1 machines as well. 

To make things even more interesting, it looks like at least 12 or so TTs and F1s will be racing in the AHRMA BOTT F3 class – with guys like Robbie Nigle on Bill Swenson’s potent TT2,  Gary Palmer on his new F1 racer, Canadian Paul Robbins on my old 853 and (gasp ) me on the Yellow Bike.  There’s more..  I know Bruce Meyers has been preparing a trio of TTs for the race and I keep hearing rumors of all sorts of TT2s and TT1s being pulled into the fray.  It’s got the potential to be the largest Ducati TT1, TT2 and F1 grid ever assembled in North America. 

Imagine that..

Vicki Smith has set up a tent for factory TTs in the NCR display and the Ducati TT F1 Forum will have about 14 racers and hot-rods in an adjacent 20 x 40 tent.  And it’s expected that a TT and F1 village will sort of form-up around that area.  With a Concourse, the loudbike DesmoTunes Sound-off, the racing, past and present Ducati royalty, dinners and after-hours events, parade laps, a Monday track day and what looks to be an impressive number of International attendees – this should be a pretty unique event that offers many of us in the community to finally connect face-to-face.

The Hot-Blooded Mexican (Emilia) will be running the loudbike commercial booth while split my time between the TT F1 Forum tent and the racetrack – make sure you stop by to visit.

Follow this link for Ducstock Registration..

The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1.  loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles and an internet store offering more vintage Ducati parts than you can shake a stick at.

The Yellow Bike 1.1

The new motor showed its potential on the 3^rd break-in run on MD Cycles dyno. 

I was up to 6,500rpm on light throttle and could feel the new found torque and looked forward to seeing where the motor would end up once break-in was completed.  When I had finally completed enough easy heat cycles to whack it with gusto, there was no question that the lower compression 840cc configuration was going to be a big improvement in rideability.  And when we did the horsepower pull, the results were quite frankly; shocking…  The motor developed the same horsepower it had as a 13.5:1 800cc, but with torque numbers that were very close to the old 853 that I sold to Paul Robbins.  Mario and I looked at the air/fuel readings and the performance graph on the Dyno Jet display and I pronounced us ‘done for the day’.  There was simply nothing to be improved upon.

That night I plugged the 853 and Yellow Bike numbers into Excel and made a graph that let me overlay the two bikes power and torque characteristics.  It looked to me like the 840 was going to be a riot to ride at the upcoming Show-up, Shut-up and Ride (SSR) event at Grattan (in Michigan).

And it was.  While the serious HP hit was softened a bit, the newly-found bottom and mid made the bike a joy to ride. If I got a good drive out of the last corner, I could hold-off a standard 1098 for most of the front straight (not kidding). Handling was flawless once I added just a tad more compression to the front end.

Gary joined me with his new (and outstanding looking!) F1 on Thursday and even with the "street" motor, the bike had impressive speed.  And to call Gary fast would be like calling Einstein smart.  He was in a class of his own and simply ran away and hit from everyone else on the track (regardless of what they were riding).  We swapped machines in the afternoon and it was remarkable (or maybe not) how similar the two bikes felt.  If you started splitting hairs you could say that the Yellow Bike’s rising rate had the advantage over Gary’s cantilever set-up and that the Bridgestones offered better front end feel than the Pirellis, but essentially the two machines handled and felt the same.  Gary’s only observations after getting off the Yellow Bike were that my front brake sucked (didn’t like my MC ratio) and that the new motor rocked.  If there was any difference in turn in with my switch to a 180 section rear, he couldn’t feel it. 
So in terms of the engine failure, I guess it was truly a case of one door closing and another one opening..   It gave us the opportunity for a displacement increase and took the Yellow Bike from being a hard-edged, machine that didn’t exactly sit well with my lazy old fart riding style to something that is pure magic.

And SSR (the 10^th Anniversary) had an almost mystical quality to it.  …Perfect weather and an environment that seemed to bring out the best of everyone in attendance.   Quite possible the best track event I’ve attended in the last 10 years, it was also my first real vacation since opening the loudbike Store.

As I droned through the 10-hour trip back to Ottawa, I was struck by how utterly fulfilled I felt by the experience.  It was one of those rare weeks where absolutely everything went right - and then some..  Like the Candlestone Inn employee who brought me a coffee while I sat on the front steps; slapping mosquitoes as I checked my email.  Guy Pike’s brilliant 45 minute stand-up routine Thursday Night.  The spontaneous comedy that prevailed in our riders’ meetings.  The thunderstorm that rolled in blew the oppressive humidity out of the area just as I unloaded the last of my gear from the trailer.  The track surface that looked like crap; but offered exceptional traction.  Fifty-two riders running flat-out for three days and only two very minor off track excursions.  A 1988 Ducati 750 F1 that let me run with the fast guys on their 1098s.

..Completely unexpected and totally appreciated.

A public shout out to Gary Palmer for turning the motor rebuild around in record time and delivering a package that completely exceeded my expectations.  And to John Scholl (and everyone who attended) for making SSR one of the most amazing track experiences in North America.

The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1.  loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles and an internet store offering more vintage Ducati parts than you can shake a stick at.

Bad Gas..

Who’d have figured?

While we were at Mosport, Bar mentioned that he had a can of C12 lying around that he wasn’t going to use; adding that in a sealed container the shelf life was almost unlimited.  It was mine for the asking and he asked his wife to bring it over to the track on Sunday.  In the interim, I bought some C12 at the track, so it wasn’t until the last session at Mosport that I started into Bar’s gas – which I then used in the Yellow Bike at the Calabogie SSR event.

And learned an expensive lesson in race fuel shelf life.

When Gary got into to the engine (shipped to him last week), he discovered evidence of detonation on the piston squish areas and in the top of the cylinders.  The vertical cylinder wrist pin was broken and the piston cracked.  The horizontal pin and bush damaged and the mains showing evidence of a pretty severe hammering.   Had I not been running the WhisperJet Mk II muffler, the early signs of failure would have gone unnoticed and the results been catastrophic, so I guess I’m going to count myself lucky with the damage incurred.

With 13.4:1 compression and a pretty tight-to-the-limit squish, the motor required 110 octane to stay safe and we’d unknowingly gone down to 108 just switching to C12 and to God-knows-what with the five year old C12 that Bar gave me.  Add track temperatures in the mid-90s F and you get hammered wrist pins and mains.

Remarkably  with all these years hurtling around tracks on loud, fast Italian (and other) bikes,  I’ve managed to avoid having to deal with ultra-high compression motors and race gas - and just wandered into a situation where I wasn’t fully cognoscente of my surroundings and the rules of the game.  So, now I know much more than I did about the shelf life of race gas in plastic containers (measured in months, not years) and have firsthand knowledge when it comes to the dangers of detonation.

Gary’s going to put the motor back together with a more civilized compression ratio and to gain back some of the spice, the displacement will go up to 840cc.  Kudos to him for dropping everything and jumping on the rebuild so I have a chance of making the Grattan SSR event.

Here endeth the lesson.

The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1.  loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles and an internet store offering more vintage Ducati parts than you can shake a stick at.

Hot..

It was a mad thrash to get the Yellow Bike ready for the dreaded sound test at Calabogie, but when the nice man at sound check gave me the thumbs-up and told me that I had blown a high reading of 96db, I was obviously relieved that the WhisperJet Mk II was gonna work out.

This was Show-up, Shut-up & Ride – an invitation-only event that provides more safe and sane track time than you can imagine..  54 riders who are at most only three degrees separated from the organizer means that if you want an open track, you can get it and if you want to mix it up – you do so with friends.  The only down side to the event was the incredible heat; 42 degrees Celsius with the Humidex factor.   Calabogie’s sparkling clean, air-conditioned washrooms became an unlikely oasis.

At Calabogie, the Yellow bike was a revelation.   With the old 853; at knee-dragging angles, the level of communication from the front tire would reduce to a low whisper.  On the Yellow Bike, the message was loud and clear and the handling flawless.  We were so paranoid about the sound check that we tapered the perf-core down to 2” and the result was an increase in torque and unfortunately a big hit in power.  The good news is that we were under a few db, so we can redo the can with a straight-through 3” core and hopefully get back the power.  Regardless, the machine was hoot to ride on the 23-turn, 3 mile course.

But on the 2^nd day of the event, it seemed that there might be something else going on..  The motor was sounding mechanically louder with a pretty sharp ringing on deceleration and towards the end of the day it started worrying me enough to slow down and listen to what was going on.  As I did so, I could hear suspicious mechanical noises at neutral throttle and this turned into a clatter that had me headed back to the pits.

With the Yellow Bike parked, day 3 was all-BMW and what an interesting ride.  The bike rewards careful throttle control and smooth downshifts with fast laps and a really comfortable and fun ride.  The brakes could be better, the Pilot Powers were a little greasy and I spent most of the time being spooked about decking the cylinder heads, but I had a blast.  Rob (now officially a fast and smooth kinda guy) followed me around for a few laps and told me I had ½” to spare (which the photos confirmed).  With the Yellow Bike in dry dock for a while, the Boxer’s going to be my only ride for the DOCC Calabogie event at the end of this month – and I have a plan..  The Bridgestone slicks are coming off the Yellow Bike wheels and onto the Boxer – then I’ll move the clip-ons below the top clamp and drop the tubes.  And order a new pair of cylinder head protectors…

But it wasn’t all riding at the event.  Walt Siegel was back; recovered from last year’s crash and had his latest creation with him He had one of his latest creations on hand – another tidy 2V 900-based machine for his customer (and riding partner) Fritz.  I think we’re each others’ biggest fans which is kinda cool ‘cause the way we approach building bikes is so different.  If you haven’t heard of Walt, check out his work at www.waltsiegel.com.

So, what of the Yellow Bike motor? 

We’re not sure.

I see effects, but no cause.  Oil the color you would expect from an old Buick that hadn’t had an oil change in 50,000 miles, but no metal content.  Aluminum in suspension, but nothing magnetic.  Nothing on the magnetic drain plug or pre-filter.  No signs of excessive heat.  No funny smells.

But there’s scoring on both cylinder walls and some on the piston skirts.  Two pistons rocking on the wrist pins and one rod maybe rocking on the crank pin.  Gary’s perplexed as well and short of splitting the cases, there’s simply nothing to point at as a cause.  And it’s a relatively fresh motor as well, which has us even more confused.  It’s conceivable that in running the FCRs without filters, I ingested something – and also that something went silly with the oil pump.  In any case, the motor went off to Gary (he graciously offered to dig into it) today and hopefully he’ll be able to pin down the cause once he opens the cases.  Good thing I was running the muffler or I’d never have heard the clues in time to save the engine from something more catastrophic.  Oh, well – if it was easy, everybody would be riding a Yellow Bike and how much fun would that be?

I’m actually surprised at how well I’ve been taking things like this lately.  Must be mellowing in my old age…

The three-day event finished in the same kinda upside-down way that the Mosport event did.  Rob suddenly fast, smooth and completely on his game - Fran improvising on one of Gerry’s 900SSs - and me on a Boxer.

So I guess that’s the way it’s gonna be this season.  Make plans, but don’t expect anything to go according to them.  When things get strange, roll with the punches and have fun.

We all did.

The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1.  loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles.

As usual, I packed in the rain..

If you review my old posts (like you don’t have better things to do), you’ll find that more often than not I begin my Mosport posts with “As usual, I packed in the rain..” and this year was no exception.

 But we were rewarded for our patience through the wet, foggy mornings with perfect afternoons and when you’re an old guy; an afternoon of riding is just fine.  My only disappointment of the weekend was my riding – still suffering from a morbid fear of Mosport.  That meant there was no hope of catching Paul Robbins on my old F1 – he was cooking all weekend.  With a change to 5wt in his rebound fork, a couple of click of compression on the rear and clip-ons relocated below the top clamp, he pronounced the bike “Perfect” and simply left me in his dust.

The Yellow Bike had loads more power and could pull a serious gap on the back straight, but Paul was on his game and totally owned the infield.

  I’ve never had a new machine work so well right out of the box, but Gary’s work was apparent even in the first session.  All I did over the weekend was roll back the compression settings and continue to let air out of the Bridgestone slicks.  It’s a brilliant machine and even with a marked lack of low-end grunt (and not much mid-range either), if I carried enough corner speed, I’d be in the sweet spot for corner exit drive.  Power was intoxicating and wheelies were an issue.  Brakes are outstanding and the front-end feel is many levels improved over the old F1.

 
But this business with the Bridgestones..  Don’t get me wrong; they’re great tires, but the pressure specs are for hot tires; generally checked and set with the tire warmers at full temperatures.   No one had a cold spec – not even the Bridgestone guy.  Of course the answer was a resounding “Buy tire warmers, Silly Rabbit!”, but that means buying a generator.   And once you get a generator, then you have to get spiffier pit chairs and upgrade your boots and leathers and maybe get one of those helmet dryers - and then you’re into a cappuccino maker and you start looking on eBay for an R1.  Oh, and because these Bridgestones use the latest in GP technology – meaning construction so stiff that 22psi cold for the rear is a viable pressure – you need to re-valve your suspension.

I’m going back to the low-tech Pirellis.  Honestly; at my level I can’t feel the friggin’ difference.

Bar took the Yellow Bike out and after about 10 tentative laps, suddenly began to show his old form and speed as I watched from the outside of T2.  When he came in, he pronounced it one of the best bikes he’d ever ridden at Mosport – a serious compliment considering what he’s ridden around that track..

We had every intention of taking out the ex-Sears Pantah, but struggled with clip-on positioning all day Saturday.  Hedy brought another set out to the track on Sunday and it looked like we had a livable set-up until Bar gave the pinch bolt one last good turn and cracked the mount.  We tried the old bars in a compromising position (how could I not write that…), but it felt like steering a wheel barrow.  OK – next year.

 I finished the weekend off with a run on the BMW R1100S.  Yes, I’ve come to the conclusion that Ducati just doesn’t make the perfect street-bike – so after 5 tries at the brand, the final effort; the Hypermotard Custom went to Los Angeles where it belongs and the BMW replaces it and the Gran Canyon/.  I was surprised by the sweet handling and lack of  Telelever / Paralever weirdness - this is a really nice bike and incredible value.  A GS torque arm scored on eBay for $30 jacked the rear almost 14mm and other than cranking up the spring preload and removing the mirrors, track prep was minimal.  It sounds great, makes good power and seems to drop 100 lbs as soon as you start rolling.  No surprise that that this bike was so competitive in Canadian Thunder back in its day. 

So it wasn’t the TT extravaganza we had planned earlier this year, but then again; nothing this year is going according to plan.  It’s all good – just … different.

The Yellow Bike is based on a 1988 Ducati 750 F1.  loudbike is a state of mind, a weblog about fast, loud Italian motorcycles and an internet store offering more vintage Ducati parts than you can shake a stick at.