I sold my old 01 fe 650 e to a friend,He wanted a light weight bike
to replace his class winning ex 500 of last year.I said this is our largest
displacement made he seemed excited to take it,so i went through &
installed the double brng balancer, new mains & seals updated rockerarms
& just a general good looking over also a 41 keihin.His race was at (PIR)
portland international raceway.I went to saturday practice with him
to help in bike setup & learn something about the tarmac I'v never
done any road racing myself, but he doesn't turn wrenches so we were
good for each other.First was to teach him to start the berg, no problem
for him he is 6,2 & 230lbs,second was to get gearing set,front straight
was 3/4mi long so i thought well 16 tooth front & 38 rear thats all the
legs i could give her & not wanting to have her grenade on all that wide
open stuff figured that sort of gearing might keep it from reaching
top rpm & keep it alive.The bike had no problem's pulling that gearing
at all & he reached 6th before halfway down the straight & buzzed it
hard for another 10 to 15 seconds before shutting down for turn one.
Before the second practice was over i was noticing others in his class
were shifting into high gear well after him,he was not real good at giving
me much info as to jetting or gearing so i just did my own guess work.
The bike was looking good & not leaking from anywere so i was feeling
good about selling him the bike!Then comes sunday,first race he get's
5th out of twelve,got a great start but by the end of the front straight
he was back to third but he gets around them in turns three & four,
only to start getting passed sooner on the front straight so that he
could not repass & keep them close so he finished three quarter's
of the front straight behind first,wich i thought was great & so did he.
He tells me the bike is so fun to ride you can go anywere on it &
it just rips out of the turns so he's getting me all excited & i start taking
some notes by looking at the other bikes in the class,first off there
are twin cylinder bikes up to 500cc & 660 yamaha motors in mz frames.
They all sit very low to the ground & we sit very high plus he is very big!
So i remove the front fender & radiator shrouds hand guards & deflectors
duck tape off were the headlight used to be, now looking a little more
slippery & not having alot more up our sleeve we will see how the next
race pans out, it's a different class with less rider's but still good feedback.
He finished 2nd out of 4 three bike length's behind. Very exciting race.
So he is getting very excited about how things are shaping up & i am
too, so i said should we remove the air filter like the rest of these guy's?
He says sure so we do,now i don't have anything more i know to do but
watch & pray! Well he grabs the start of moto two & leads by a lenght
as he goes by us to just get passed at the end of the staight by the
winner of race one,making a very close race all the way to the finish
only separated by three to four bike lengths as they crossed the line!!
He is riding great the bike has made great strides in a short weekend,
only one more race before the weekend is over.He grabs the start
& won the last race by two bike lenghts making for a very exciting
weekend for me & him! Man that is very cool to see a berg out at the
roadrace track hanging with purpose built bikes!!!
Gotta call spocket specialties to see if they can make a 36 tooth rear
& a 17 tooth front,gonna tear open the stock muffler & see if that helps
too! I normally do the riding but tuning is very exciting & now I want
to see this through to the end 6 more rounds till the end! Keep ya posted!
to replace his class winning ex 500 of last year.I said this is our largest
displacement made he seemed excited to take it,so i went through &
installed the double brng balancer, new mains & seals updated rockerarms
& just a general good looking over also a 41 keihin.His race was at (PIR)
portland international raceway.I went to saturday practice with him
to help in bike setup & learn something about the tarmac I'v never
done any road racing myself, but he doesn't turn wrenches so we were
good for each other.First was to teach him to start the berg, no problem
for him he is 6,2 & 230lbs,second was to get gearing set,front straight
was 3/4mi long so i thought well 16 tooth front & 38 rear thats all the
legs i could give her & not wanting to have her grenade on all that wide
open stuff figured that sort of gearing might keep it from reaching
top rpm & keep it alive.The bike had no problem's pulling that gearing
at all & he reached 6th before halfway down the straight & buzzed it
hard for another 10 to 15 seconds before shutting down for turn one.
Before the second practice was over i was noticing others in his class
were shifting into high gear well after him,he was not real good at giving
me much info as to jetting or gearing so i just did my own guess work.
The bike was looking good & not leaking from anywere so i was feeling
good about selling him the bike!Then comes sunday,first race he get's
5th out of twelve,got a great start but by the end of the front straight
he was back to third but he gets around them in turns three & four,
only to start getting passed sooner on the front straight so that he
could not repass & keep them close so he finished three quarter's
of the front straight behind first,wich i thought was great & so did he.
He tells me the bike is so fun to ride you can go anywere on it &
it just rips out of the turns so he's getting me all excited & i start taking
some notes by looking at the other bikes in the class,first off there
are twin cylinder bikes up to 500cc & 660 yamaha motors in mz frames.
They all sit very low to the ground & we sit very high plus he is very big!
So i remove the front fender & radiator shrouds hand guards & deflectors
duck tape off were the headlight used to be, now looking a little more
slippery & not having alot more up our sleeve we will see how the next
race pans out, it's a different class with less rider's but still good feedback.
He finished 2nd out of 4 three bike length's behind. Very exciting race.
So he is getting very excited about how things are shaping up & i am
too, so i said should we remove the air filter like the rest of these guy's?
He says sure so we do,now i don't have anything more i know to do but
watch & pray! Well he grabs the start of moto two & leads by a lenght
as he goes by us to just get passed at the end of the staight by the
winner of race one,making a very close race all the way to the finish
only separated by three to four bike lengths as they crossed the line!!
He is riding great the bike has made great strides in a short weekend,
only one more race before the weekend is over.He grabs the start
& won the last race by two bike lenghts making for a very exciting
weekend for me & him! Man that is very cool to see a berg out at the
roadrace track hanging with purpose built bikes!!!
Gotta call spocket specialties to see if they can make a 36 tooth rear
& a 17 tooth front,gonna tear open the stock muffler & see if that helps
too! I normally do the riding but tuning is very exciting & now I want
to see this through to the end 6 more rounds till the end! Keep ya posted!
