Sacramento Test and Tune

Sacramento Test and Tune

I attended two of the scheduled test and tune events at Sacramento Speedway this off season. The first one was in February. The air shifter that I use wasn't working for my first two passes. After the second pass we figured out that the battery wasn't charged enough to operate the shifter. We changed the battery and on my third pass I ran an 11.14 second quarter mile at 121 MPH. I had to shut the bike down early because the lining dowel that holds the cam cover in place had broken. Luckily no other damage was done to the motor. Even though I only got to make one good pass down the track, we did learn some valuable information about the motorcycle.

The second session we attended at Sacramento was in March, just two weeks shy of the first national event. Unfortunately we did not get much quality testing done at this event either because of the NHRA rules that are enforced at Sacramento. Right out of the trailer I launched a 10.7 second quarter mile pass at 122 MPH. NHRA rules for motorcycle riders says that any racer going over 120 MPH must wear a full leather suit that zips together. At the time I wasn't using a suit like that. I had to reduce my testing to 60 foot times, eighth mile times and eight mile speeds so that I wouldn't exceed the 120 MPH rule.

After that fiasco we got the bike to launch really hard. It was launching so hard that it would throw me off balance causing me to turn the handle bars while the front tire was in the air. The NHRA officials didn't like that very much either. They kindly asked us to fix the problem or leave the event for my safety. The problem was that the handlebars were to close to me and I wasn't stretched out enough over the motorcycle. We couldn't make a new setup at the racetrack so we packed up and headed home.

It wasn't doing us any good testing that way because I needed to pour the coals to it and see what the motorcycle would do at full throttle. Once we got home JP designed and made a new mounting set-up for the bars that put them in front of the forks instead of mounted to risers. This made an incredible difference in my positioning on the bike.

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Sacramento Test and Tune

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