85 Drag Bike Project

[hubeerjw]

Good stuff Lankee. I'll be taking it all in. It will be interesting to see pics of me when I get the chassis and seat done to see what I look like on the bike. Who knows, maybe I'll go back to the drag bars. With the VMax though, you have the top triple then you have the bar mounts that bring the bars up and back. I figured I'd be getting some additional weight taken out, plus a little more adjustability with the clip ons. I'll try to post some pics as soon as I can.

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[KJShover]

Good stuff Lankee. I'll be taking it all in. It will be interesting to see pics of me when I get the chassis and seat done to see what I look like on the bike. Who knows, maybe I'll go back to the drag bars. With the VMax though, you have the top triple then you have the bar mounts that bring the bars up and back. I figured I'd be getting some additional weight taken out, plus a little more adjustability with the clip ons. I'll try to post some pics as soon as I can.

Thanks,

Jeff

The key is find your own niche, what works for others might not work for you. There are many racers that tuck in later as well as those who are tucked in from the start. Schultz, Terry Vance, Pizza John were tucking after the launch. Racers like Antron Brown, Angelle, and Matt Hines are tucking at the staging beams.

I suggest try em both and see where you fit in. Personally I have a mixture of both, if the track isn't holding up, I've been known to sit up in the saddle a little more. if it sticks like glue, I'm on the tank.

Look at other Vmax dragbike setups, and see what kind of chassis setups they are running.

When you get your bike all together and at the track, do us a favor and don't swing for the fences right off the bat. screw the launch and the 60' time. the main thing is to keep you safe during the learning curve. once you get set up and comfortable with your ride, everythig will fall in place.

Plus if you want to drop $2500 on a vacation here ya go :

http://www.frankhawley.com/class_psm.htm

http://www.rickeygadson.net/internal.htm

.

 

[hubeerjw]

I won't be swinging for the fence with this motor! I do have a lot to work on at the strip, and I'll try to learn as much as I can as quick as I can, but the more I think about this bike, I am also leaning towards a street/strip bike. I love going to the test and tune nights, and I'm not sure how much time I will dedicate to actually drag racing. I don't have kids (yet) but I do have quite a few other hobies (boating, drinking, trying to convince my wife to give me mouth hugs) so I'm not sure what I'm really doing with this bike? :confused2: This is mostly for fun, and to see what I can do. How much lighter can I make the bike, how much better can I launch the bike, and how fast can I go on a pretty limited budget. Maybe I'm more like a test-bed for the cheap wanna-be drag racer in some of us. I probably have about $400 in this motor and I have never played with a turbo before. I'll start slow and basically want to see what a stock motor can handle:biglaugh:. I'm hoping to get some of my investments into this bike back when I am done with it. I know a drag bike is a bottomless pit that can suck your pockets dry, but I'm having fun and have been able to do it fairly in expensive (so far). Thanks for all the comments and I'm still pretty early in this project so I'm sure I'll be needing a lot more help in the near future.
Jeff

 

[lankeeyankee]

Motorcycle drag racing is a lot of fun Jeff. It's almost like gambling either you are hooked the first time you win or its no big deal and you can do it for fun.
Back when I raced pro i took it way to serious. When I pulled into the track it was all serious till the time I pulled out of the gates and the ride home depended on how I placed and how much I won. I can remember the most pissed off time at a race in Columbus Ohio for the Spring Nationals. It started off with bad luck. We left out on a Thursday night in a bad thunderstorm raining cats and dogs for half the trip. I was driving my buddies custom Chevy Truck that had a built 400 small block and was lowered with wide wheels.. Wide tires on flooded highways arent a good combo if ya ever been there. Long story short the whole trip was rough along with hydro plaining to keep up with my partner that was driving a suburban. Arrived at the hotel in Ohio and went back to the trailer to check on all the equipment. I hit the main switch on the bike and no power! SHIT!!:bang head: We spent 3 hours tracing down a wire connector that was bad. Get to the track Friday morning go through tech and relax the rest of the day. Get up Sat morning and unload the bike at the track and the battery is dead after sitting on charger all night:bang head: So now we have to jump start it off the charger each time we fire it up. Get down to the lanes to make my first qaulifying pass and jumped the bike off no problem. I was trying to qaulify in the pro gas category of 9.20 well the bike didnt seem to pull hard and couldnt make the number even with the throttle stop removed. Got back to the pits and put the throttle stop and changed classes over to Super Gas which is a 9.90 index. Well now we are on the 2nd of 3 qaulifying passes. Roll down to the staging lanes and get ready to fire the bike and notice the rear slick is flat as a pancake:bang head: Well missed that qaulifying pass... Go buy another slick, come back install it just in time for my last qaulifying pass and now I am pissed off just fuming from all the shit, well I go out and run a 9.70 something which I couldnt even qaulify with.. Came back to the trailer, started literally throwing shit in the tralier. I told my team I am leaving and heading back to Nashville I quit!
The whole ride back from Ohio I was doing no less then 90 mph with the trailer bouncing off the ground! Had to pull over 3 times since my buddy was getting car sick from all the bouncing!
Racing is the greatest when your winning and its the all time worst when its problems after problems.. If you can just goto the track on the weekends to just have fun and race and dont mind being loaded up by 3rd round every time then you will have fun.

 

[hubeerjw]

I was working on removing some of the "extra" stuff on the frame last night and I weighed the center stand mounts that I cut off and they weigh in at a little over 1 lb. I was surprised to find out I may have gained over 0.005 seconds by just removing the tabs..... if only there were more tabs to remove, I may get it into the 9s!!!

I just found out that the guy that was going to rake my frame was out sick all last week, so my bike got put on hold for at least a week. I'm going to put the engine in the frame and start to work on some of the electricals. I'm sure there will be some issues I will have to sort through like shorting out some of the safety features and what not, but I would like to be able to do a test run on the engine before too long. I may be able to test out my COPs too!

 

[4gasem]

I weighed the stock rotor against my wave rotor at one pound difference.

You know as well as I do that 1 pound of rotational mass makes a much larger difference than 1 pound of static weight.

Looks good Jeff!

If I wasn't so busy working on my house and car I would stop down. I may still get some time and want to take a nice long ride in the car... :eusa_dance:


Chris

 

[KJShover]

If I wasn't so busy working on my house and car I would stop down. I may still get some time and want to take a nice long ride in the car... :eusa_dance:


Chris

Somthin tells me Chris that at 400hp your ride down wouldn't be all that long.:biglaugh:

 

[COP RUNNER]

Motorcycle drag racing is a lot of fun Jeff. It's almost like gambling either you are hooked the first time you win or its no big deal and you can do it for fun.
Back when I raced pro i took it way to serious. When I pulled into the track it was all serious till the time I pulled out of the gates and the ride home depended on how I placed and how much I won. I can remember the most pissed off time at a race in Columbus Ohio for the Spring Nationals. It started off with bad luck. We left out on a Thursday night in a bad thunderstorm raining cats and dogs for half the trip. I was driving my buddies custom Chevy Truck that had a built 400 small block and was lowered with wide wheels.. Wide tires on flooded highways arent a good combo if ya ever been there. Long story short the whole trip was rough along with hydro plaining to keep up with my partner that was driving a suburban. Arrived at the hotel in Ohio and went back to the trailer to check on all the equipment. I hit the main switch on the bike and no power! SHIT!!:bang head: We spent 3 hours tracing down a wire connector that was bad. Get to the track Friday morning go through tech and relax the rest of the day. Get up Sat morning and unload the bike at the track and the battery is dead after sitting on charger all night:bang head: So now we have to jump start it off the charger each time we fire it up. Get down to the lanes to make my first qaulifying pass and jumped the bike off no problem. I was trying to qaulify in the pro gas category of 9.20 well the bike didnt seem to pull hard and couldnt make the number even with the throttle stop removed. Got back to the pits and put the throttle stop and changed classes over to Super Gas which is a 9.90 index. Well now we are on the 2nd of 3 qaulifying passes. Roll down to the staging lanes and get ready to fire the bike and notice the rear slick is flat as a pancake:bang head: Well missed that qaulifying pass... Go buy another slick, come back install it just in time for my last qaulifying pass and now I am pissed off just fuming from all the shit, well I go out and run a 9.70 something which I couldnt even qaulify with.. Came back to the trailer, started literally throwing shit in the tralier. I told my team I am leaving and heading back to Nashville I quit!
The whole ride back from Ohio I was doing no less then 90 mph with the trailer bouncing off the ground! Had to pull over 3 times since my buddy was getting car sick from all the bouncing!
Racing is the greatest when your winning and its the all time worst when its problems after problems.. If you can just goto the track on the weekends to just have fun and race and dont mind being loaded up by 3rd round every time then you will have fun.

LANKEE'S RIGHT , WORD FOR WORD ! SAME WITH STOCK CAR RACING , THANK GOD I WON A BUNCH , IT MAKES THE BAD TIMES HURT LESS ! SOMETIMES , LIKE WHEN I BLEW MY TRANS IN THE HEAT RACE , I WASN'T PISSED , I WAS COMING OFF OF A WIN , MY CAR WAS STILL IN ONE PIECE , I COULD RELAX FOR THE REST OF THE NIGHT , UNZIP MY FIRE SUIT , EAT 3 HOT PRETZELS & M&M'S LIKE A KID ON HOLLOWEEN , AND ENJOY THE RACES ! AND IF SOMEONE I KNOW GOT DAMAGED & CAME IN THE PITS ME & EVERYONE WITH ME , WOULD ALL GO OVER & FIX THERE CAR SO THEY COULD GO BACK OUT ! AND TO ME THAT WAS THE BEST TIMES , SITTING IN THE STANDS LAUGHING OUR ASSES OFF ! EVEN MY WIFE LOVED IT EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT ! MAN I MISS IT !unk:

 

[lankeeyankee]

I cant say I would hang around at the track if I got beat before the final round back when I was younger. I may be able to now since I dont take racing so serious..
Lot of the guys would consider getting beat first round was a sign to start popping the top and firing up some puff puff pass pass stuff in there race trailers...
I may be going the same route with the VMAX or for sale.. Hmmm bracket bike or for sale. I just dont want to sell it to some kid and find out 2 weeks later he ran it off the road and killed himself.
1) MTC Slider Clutch $700.00
2) Dyna 2 Step Ignition $350.00
3) 6in Firestone Slick Mounted on the OEM wheel. $150.00
4) Digital Delay Crossover delay box. $425.00
5) Set of Aluminum Wheelie bars. $300.00
Total to bracket race and win money..... $1925.00

Dial me in at 6.93 and I will see you in the final round.

 

[Bawls]

My favorite is making it to the Final round and breaking out *DOOOOH*... When I was racing sand drags i think I broke out almost as often as I won lol. There's no better feeling than winning a big race, but now I've found that I'm such good friends with everyone at the track that I race at that If I lose it's to one of my best friends so I get to share their glory because I help all of them work on their bikes lol.

My most recent fuck up was at the Pinks armdrop live race. I lined up against a friend of mine on his gen1 8" over airshifted busa and he pulled me off the line but I managed to catch him half track. I needed to shift to 3rd just before the finish line but it was pretty close and I didn't want to take the chance on him catching me if tried to stretch 2nd until the end so I shifted and my bike wheelied. Evidentally His front tire was at my hip and it crossed the beam before my rear did because he somehow managed to get the win lol. I was Pissed that night because I had to scrape money to make the entry fees and It screwed me out of 750 dollars. That night on our ride home I abused another friend on his piped 08 busa from a roll and got my frustrations out lol.

 

[hubeerjw]

I got some work done on the bike tonight. It is starting to look like a bike again! I am playing with the electrical system trying to get things ready for a test run of the engine. I have a few questions for you electrical guys out there.

Can I simply unplug the side stand switch or do I need to ground or create a short between the two wires?

If I am not using the Vboost, what can I disconnect? (the servo motor, the controller, anything else?)

Can I remove the vacuume sensor/controller? I'm guessing I may not have the proper advance at the higher RPM's, but will the DYNA 3000 overcome this?

What other electronics can I remove to help simplify the electrical system, but still have a running engine? (besides the obvious, signals, horn, headlight, taillight, etc.)

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[hubeerjw]

Oh, and here are some pics of my progress tonight. The last one is shot of the front wheel with Morley's brake adapter. I'm using a Hayabusa caliper and master, and WOW, one finger braking! Of course it is just around the garage, but you can tell there is a difference!

 

[4gasem]

Looks good! What are your wheels of choice? Are you just running stock '85 front and the slick in back? Are radial tires lighter than bias ply?

Chris

 

[hubeerjw]

Looks good! What are your wheels of choice? Are you just running stock '85 front and the slick in back? Are radial tires lighter than bias ply?

Chris

I have a Kosman front wheel, but I don't know if I will use it or not... probably just stick with the 85 front and use the modified rear to hold the car slick like you mentioned. I don't know about the weight of the tires/wheels with bias/radial. I would have to look at the hole wheel/tire combo. If anyone has weights I would be interested, but my pockets don't run too deep on this project so going to new wheels may be hard to pull off, unless I can "justify" it with the rotational mass weight savings. I thik they say 1 lb of rotational mass is equal to 7 lbs on the bike? Oh, and you are welcome to come down any time and turn some wrenches! That goes for anyone else too!!!! I don't have a whole lot to offer you in return, besides some cold beer and a nice warm home-cooked meal.
Later,
Jeff

 

[hubeerjw]

IT RUNS!!!!
Well, it started anyway! I swapped my carbs from my 02 and put them on the drag bike, and put on the Dyna3000 and the COPs I got from birdoprey and walla.... I've got a running 1300 motor!!!

I didn't have an exhaust on it, or the airbox, or the cooling system, or a lot of other things but she is alive!!!!! I was very surprised how quickly it fired up. It blew a lot of smoke at first (I kept it pretty lubed up during the rebuild) but I shut it off and waited a while before firing it up again, and it sounds good.... no misses, just raw power!!!

I'm still messing with removing the electrical components I don't need, but at least I have a funtional engine! I'm going to be tearing it all down again so I can have the frame raked and painted. After that is done, it is time to start building it up again and getting this thing track ready... oh, and I may decide to throw the turbo on it this time and see what happens!:biglaugh:

A big thanks goes out to Sean Morley and everyone else who has helped me out with this. I'm no where close to being done, but I was very excited to find out I didn't completely mess up the engine! I've got some pics I'll try to upload tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to go get denied by the wife:bang head:
Cheers,
Jeff

 

[naughtyG]

Well done Jeff!! Keep it up m8, and I can't wait to see how it goes with the turbo..

 

[hubeerjw]

Here are some pics of it the other night... still have a lot of work to do on the wiring! I'm tearing it down as we speak so the frame can get raked.

 

[hubeerjw]

I got the frame back from the welder and I think he did a great job at raking the neck! Looks good to me anyway! Here are some pics of the frame and my new battery box that is welded in the swingarm. Time to start mocking things up again!

 

[hubeerjw]

Here is a pic of the bike somewhat assembled with the newly raked frame.

Me Likey!!!!

Morley, here is a pic of the rear seat

 

[RagingMain]

Jeff is that a turnbuckle where your shock goes???