Early AMA Production Superbikes.

A passion of mine. I just posted a thread about finding early superbike forums, and realized that I have a rather large pile of pretty good pics from that era. Thought I'd share some with the membership here ... :biglaugh:

1977 to about 1983 is my favorite era for Superbike Racing bikes. It was a time when the AMA really turned blind eyes to many of the interpretations of the rulebook that were going on. The storyline is thick with controversies and protests. It's also thick with development! We went from UJMs to full-on racebikes on the showroom inside of 8 years time. Wow. SOHC CB750s to Ninjas, Interceptors, and GSXRs in 8 years. Yamaha didn't bring a whole lot to the table in the period. The FJ's weren't really part of the conversation. Yamaha was deeply involved in GP racing then. So they couldn't have been bothered with the Production Superbike class until the mid 1980s. By then the speedy development had calmed down, and things had settled on low handlebars and full fairings by then.

So here's a few to start of with....

1978 Vetter Kawasaki KZ1000 effort.





The 1979 GS1000 Yoshimura Suzuki riddeen by Wes Cooley ... could be bought fully complete from Pops Yoshimura back then for $10k. Seems like a STEAL these days ...





Here's one of the CB750F's that were so menacing for the 1980 season ....







Here's a modern rendition of that same idea ... this thing looks KILLAH!



Here's an early Moriwaki ...





(continued...)

Some of the early Kwackers ...





Note the missing side cover and the small cover that is protecting the magneto. The charging systems were totally removed from these engines. Mainly to provide better lean angle. If you'll notice on just about any of these bikes from this time you'll see a lot of monet spent right there at the left side of the engines. Much was done to mod that side so's to create that ever-increasing lean angle. As tired got better, the bikes got laid over further.





A modern spin on those Kawasakis ...



Then .. there was "this guy" and "those bikes". Wes Cooley and the Yoshimura Suzukis ....




Look at the ignition cover on the engine .. see hoew it';s been carved at an angle? More of those lean-angle improvements. Big bux to do stuff like that. Many bikes had to have customized or completely new crankshafts to pull this mod off.



Notice all of the hand done fab. The Nickle-Bronze "gas welded" frame mods. Wow. Pops sure was an artisan.



The white plastic bottle is the crankcase breather can.



Early days of LTS (long travel suspension). Move the shoicks forward and increase their laydown angle. Provides more travel, more compliance, and an overall better traction improvement. The shocks have less tendency to foam up like this as well, so fading suspension issues are off the menu now.



Per standards of the day, those Morris Magnesium wheels sure look nice in their trademark gold color. I wish I could find that exact color in a wheel paint. Looks great! Make note of the tire size! I think it's a 130-90-18. These bikes ran 18s in back, and 19s in front. Per AMA rules you had to run the stock profile seat, stock front fender, stock rear fender, stock fuel tank, stock engine castings, and "above the tank" handlebars. This class was ON FIRE for about 10 years.

These bikes wetted out at 450 pounds or less. Put out roughly 130-odd hp and had a habit of turning into hand grenades rather easily. The things learned about crankshafts and camchain tensioners in this era were forever entrenched into the modern engine designs we still see today.

Pops was the fist guy to use a four into one collector. The next season EVERY BIKE had 4x1 collectors on them. He made the first one out of a header from a small 4 cylinder car header set.

Too cool. Thanks for sharing the pics!

cool pics thx for sharing

I love nostalgia pics, thanks for posting them..........

Used to have a Honda 900 F with 750 side covers in the blue and silver. Put a lot of miles and smiles on that bike------- really fooled alot of 600 that thought they could out drag a poor ol' 750.:clapping:

Lew

Love those bikes!!! Thanks for sharing!