| Author | Message | ||
     Eboos |
I am starting this thread about racing and track modifications for my tube framed Buell mostly because of the frustration that I have had with the lack of information that is available on setting up these bikes. Over the past few years, I have been racing this bike, and at the end of 2007, I decided that it was time to take the bike off the road completely so that I would be free to modify it as I saw fit without having to worry about keeping it practical for the street. The modifications that I have performed were a continuing process over a few years, and I only now started to document anything. I will try to explain what I have done and why to the best of my ability. The on going battle that I have had with this bike and something that has challenged my progress as a racer is the lack of cornering clearance this bike has in its stock form. There are many contributing factors that lead to this, and addressing one of them just emphasizes the importance of addressing the others. Here is a short list of the issues: Weak shock spring Flat swing arm angle Low foot peg position The low foot peg position was the first issue that I started to take care of. I purchased the Crossroads Performance rear sets as one of the first accessories that I got for this bike. They brought your feet up and back, but in order to clear the passenger peg supports, they had to use spacers that mounted the rear sets about an inch and a quarter away from the frame. In addition to not properly addressing the issue of cornering clearance, they gave the rider an un-naturally wide stance which was uncomfortable. There are other rear sets out there that are mounted differently, but most are long since out of production. When I chose to take the bike off the street completely, I did not hesitate to cut the passenger peg supports off the frame. Of course, while doing this, you also loose the kickstand, which is fine since this is a race bike. I never felt that the pad style rear stands held the bike very securely, so I wanted to mount some spools. I went with the Yamaha/Triumph size 6mm spools since I just happened to have the 6x1M tap. To ensure even placement, I mounted the spools to the bottom edge was even with the bottom of the swing arm, and the rear edge was even with the front of the machined slot. It’s been about 2.5 years that I’ve had them on, and haven’t had any issues. Just make sure you tap it clean, and use loctite when mounting. Cutting off the peg supports certainly wasn’t the end of the story with the pegs. After having to go home after only 2 laps in practice for breaking my folding foot peg, I thought enough is enough with such an obvious weak area. I had some aluminum bar stock lying around, so I went to my shop and made some solid, non-folding, peg supports for my LSL foot pegs. Again, fortunately, I just happened to have the right size taps. These crash a whole lot better which I found out earlier this year. I modified them later in the year to make them a quarter of an inch shorter then the stock peg mounts to tuck them in a little tighter. While I was at it, I trimmed nearly a half an inch from each toe peg. They still scraped, so at the limit of what I was going to do with the pegs, I knew that I had to start looking at other areas. Up until 2009, I was running the stock rear shock. Even with a ton of preload, the shock was just too under sprung for my weight. I knew that it had to go, and when I started budgeting for the 2009 season, that was a top priority. Penske was having a late fall/early winter sale, and I purchased my double clicker from Peter Kates at GMD Computrack Boston just before Christmas. I picked it up during his Super Bowl party (which is awesome every year), and installed it when I got home. The first thing that I noticed is that it had an unusually high amount of sticktion. That was due to the tie bars not being equally adjusted. When I fixed that, it was good to go. One of the features that I was really looking for is the right height adjustment, but I was disappointed to find that the shock in its shortest position is equal to the stock length, there by nullifying the ability to raise the rear with the shock adjustment. Mark Reynolds, a former Buell Lightning Series racer, and a good friend, was telling me about the different front shock mounts that Buell Racing used to make that would allow you to alter the ride height. The only catch is, first, they are out of production, and second, they never produced them for the later style shorter rear shock. I had to figure out how I was going to make my own. At the end of this summer, I left the last dealership that I used to work for and joined Tripp at Precision HD/Buell. Richie, the owner, is a performance enthusiast, and a former racer himself. He also stocked the shop with a ton of metal working machinery. I felt like I was in heaven. I wanted to make the shock mount, but I didn’t want to sacrifice my stock one, just in case I messed it up. Tripp just happened to have a shock mount sitting on his desk, and gave it to me. It was the older style for the longer shock. There is about a 2 inch difference between the old style and the new style, and there is a 2:1 ratio between the shock mount and the axle slot for the swing arm. For every inch forward I mounted the shock, I would raise the ride height 2 inches. After talking with Henry Duga at Buell Racing, I found that I needed to mount the shock 1/2” forward to gain 1 inch of rear ride height. I cut the mount across its base, repositioned it, and welded in a wedge of steel. I actually had to do it twice because the first time was too far forward. Of course this would cause another problem. The steeper swing arm angle caused the chain to be way too loose in the rested position. I needed something to take up the slack while the swing arm is rested, but will let it free when the suspension compresses: something kind of like the XB’s belt roller. I already had one chain roller to keep the chain from excessively dragging on the top of the swing arm, but I had already broken it off once because it wasn’t supported on both sides, and shattered it to peaces on the dyno after making the new shock mount without the lower roller. Again, Tripp came to the rescue. He just happened to have a second roller mount, and I found that the rollers themselves were from Moose Racing, and were commonly available at any dirt bike shop. I made a plate that would go in place of the front pulley guard and swing arm block support that would house the roller mounts and support the rollers on both sides to eliminate the possibility of snapping off the bolts. I haven’t been able to test it yet. The final result has yet to be tested. I ran into a little trouble with money last year, and I wasn’t able to make it to the last round. I also ran too much sag in the rear last year, and didn’t correct that until I finished the shock mount modification. The combination of correct sag and a slightly higher rear ride height should give me the clearance that I’ve been looking for. I will do some preseason testing around early March when I get everything back together again. | ||
| Eboos |
Electrical When I took off all the lighting on my bike, I considered stripping down the wiring harness. I did unplug all the unnecessary sub-harnesses, but I decided not to start cutting anything off. This proved to be a good thing later down the road. After testing the 1125R at Pocono Speedway, I knew that I needed to mount this faring on my bike. Prior to that, I ran the stock gauge cluster in the stock position mounted on the top tree. In a tuck, my chin was hitting the gauge cluster, and it didn’t offer crap for wind protection or aerodynamics. In 2008, I tried to mount the Airtech Superbike faring, but gave up on that piece of junk because I could not get any bar clearance with my clip-ons. For 2009, I priced out the 1125R fairing stay and windshield, and was surprised how cheap they were. I then called Airtech and had them send me an 1125R competition faring. The M2 frame has faring stay mounts on its head tube. I guess it’s for the faring stay on the S3, but I never checked. I made some aluminum plates to adapt the faring stay to my frame. I mounted it as low as possible while keeping the bolts inline. This ensured that I would have proper bar clearance, but also still have the wind protection that I needed. I did my preseason testing at VIR in 2009, which was my first day as a control rider for a new track day company: Boston Moto. Let me tell you, the difference the faring made on this bike was almost scary. Wow! I don’t think that I will ever have another un-fared bike again. But what does this have to do with electrical stuff? Well, I had to make a bunch of other changes too. First, the stock gauge cluster was just too big, and there wasn’t any place to mount it on the 1125R faring stay. I could not help myself from being drawn to the Starline Athon GPS lap timer with track mapping. Having a bunch of referral credit with one of my sponsors, Superbike Toy Store, I placed an order for one. This was the simplest thing to install. Hook up the positive and negative to the battery, and wire tie the tach pickup to the front spark plug wire. To think that I was getting nervous that it was only a week away from VIR when it arrived. It took me longer to figure out how I was going to mount it to the stay. I just bolted it on, and didn’t bother drilling anything. Cool item for what it’s capable of doing, but due to laziness, I haven’t setup the lap timer to work, so all I have is a $600 tach. The indicator lights were all but un-necessary. All I needed were the oil pressure warning light and the neutral indicator light. I couldn’t figure out how to separate them from the housing, so I went to Radio Shack and bought a red and a green LED. Using the wiring diagram, I figured out which wires were the leads and hooked up the other ones to a single ground. I used the stock sub harness connector, and everything was good to go. I mounted them in some stock instrument mounting holes in the faring stay, but the holes were a little too big, and the LEDs didn’t have any real shoulder to keep them in place. I ended up just taping them up with electrical tape, and wire tying them in place. It’s a race bike, who cares. They worked great, and are brighter then stock. I also thought it was time to loose the keyed ignition switch. While I have never forgotten my key, I didn’t want to risk it. Plus, my gas cap was getting a little tired too. They tend to wallow out. I bought a Blast gas cap, which is keyless, and a toggle switch from Radio Shack. This toggle switch is lit when the power is on, which is nice for a quick visual indication. I was going to try to use just the stock ignition switch wiring connector clip, but I couldn’t find the proper connectors, so I cut the wires off at the base of the ignition switch. First, I tested them with my volt meter to figure out what wire did what. The switch had 3 tangs. One is the hot lead, but I needed to figure out the other 2. This is only a 2 position switch, and the stock ignition is a 3 position switch. I plugged in the hot lead and then the other 2 wires and tested it with the stock gauges temporarily plugged in so I could see them light up. I would have the starter switch work, but the gauges not light up. I reversed the wires, and the gauges would light up but the starter switch wouldn’t work. I realized that I was doing this all wrong. I spliced together both wires for the accessory part of the ignition and the starter and plugged them in. Both worked, but now I lost the light on the ignition switch. I ran a ground wire from the third prong to a ground from the gauge sub harness connector, and everything worked perfectly. I did have to drill a hole in the faring stay to mount this. I also bought a video recorder system. As long as the camera is connected, there will be power draw weather or not the power switch is turned on. I didn’t want to have to worry about changing batteries on this, and I didn’t want to have to disconnect it after every use if I hard wired it to the battery. I figured that an unused lighting wire would allow me to cut the power connection to the video recorder when I turned off the ignition switch. After checking with my volt meter, I ended up going with the tail light wiring to power the video recorder. It’s a good thing that I didn’t cut them off like I planned. Finally, unrelated, but an electrical thing none the less. When I switched to a quick turn throttle, I needed a new run/stop/start switch. I needed something thin enough to fit between the throttle housing and the master cylinder. This motorcycle is simply a collection of mechanical and electrical components, and they don’t care at all if you use items from one brand or another as long as you can make them work. The RSS switch that I used is from a 2009 Honda CBR600RR. It was nice and thin, but with easy to use buttons. It also had five wires, while the stock switch used three. Broke out the volt meter again, and figured out which wire did what and removed the un-needed ones. The wires on this switch were not long enough to reach the sub-harness connector, so I had to add some length. | ||
| Eboos |
Tools I hate changing my wheels. I hope that it never rains while I am at the track. Not because I am afraid to ride in the rain, but because changing my wheels always takes forever. If you’ve ever tried to change your rear wheel without a buddy to help you, you know that it is a pain because everything wants to fall out of place. I’ve used dummy pins before in other industries, and thought they would help with wheel changes. I made a small dummy axle out of some 1 inch piping and turned it down to 25mm. This will hold the rear brake caliper mounting bracket in place while you position the rear wheel and slide in the axle. I use pump gas. I am not nearly fast enough to want to spend 15+ dollars per gallon on race gas, but I am glad that others do. I took home a used 5 gallon VP gas can that was just going to get thrown out, and now I use that as my waste oil can. This is a clean, spill proof, and large capacity way to collect waste engine, tranny, and fork oil to be transported and disposed of later. Best of all is that it was free. Harbor freight makes a motorcycle lift and work table for about $400.00. I made a work table for about $40. For the 90% savings, I am willing to have to use my ramp to get my bike up there. Plus, I made it 8 feet long and 3 feet wide, so I have enough room to put the bike either on front and rear stands, or jack stands from the foot pegs. If you have the garage space, make yourself one of these and get yourself a pneumatic stool on wheels. | ||
| Hootowl |
HF sells chain hoists too, pretty cheap. You could lift the bike and roll the table underneath. It'd save you the trouble of trying to push the bike up a ramp. | ||
| The4ork |
cool story, good read. unfortunately i had no idea on what your talking about in some parts. i'd like to put my buell on the track this spring  | ||
| Eboos |
I'll include some pics in the near future. | ||
| Eboos |
Here is the bike, almost ready for 2010. Here is the faring. The clear coat is still drying. | ||
| Brinnutz |
Damn good write up man...I enjoyed it. after spending the money for a Penkse, I see my idea won't work, LOL. I want to raise the rear end up an inch. I may have someone fab me up a front bracket. (Message edited by brinnutz on March 27, 2010) | ||
| Reducati |
wow...nice! | ||
| Eboos |
Here is the modified shock mount. I used a long shock mount and modified it to fit the short shock in the raised position. Here is the chain roller that I made to take up the chain slack. The chain rides on top of both rollers. It was just dummy fitted for the second picture. | ||
| Brinnutz |
So to accomplish what I want I'll have to go chain eh? | ||
| Eboos |
No, but you may need a lower idler pulley. I am using a much smaller diameter front and rear sprocket then the stock pulleys, so rub is also an issue. With the stock belt drive, you shouldn't have much of an issue with rub, just the slack. | ||
| Cyclonecharlie |
This is a great read and a lot of good ideas. I definitely see the need for the chain rollers(looking at the swing arm) but don't see how the top roller is going to hold up under a constant heavy load. Would it be possible to cut part of the swing arm down(in the wear area)? | ||
| 46champ |
If you want to be a serious racer you will go to a chain if nothing else for the gear changing option. | ||
| Eboos |
The top roller is an expendable item. I got 2 years out of the first one, but it will wear out (and explode, like mine did while on the dyno). | ||
| Brinnutz |
Roger that. I think I'll see if I can't get one made for reasonable cost. We'll see. | ||
| Eboos |
Both rollers are supported on both sides and bolted through. This is an improvement over the unsupported piece that comes from Baker Drivetrain. The rollers are from Moose Racing and you can find them at any dirtbike shop. | ||
| Cyclonecharlie |
Looks like if you went up a tooth on the front and three or four on the rear(to keep the same ratio) you could greatly reduce this problem. That's what I've encountered on our dirt track bikes. | ||
| 46champ |
I have a question??? If someone was going to start with a clean sheet of paper. Which tuber model would be the best from a performance potential? As a track/race bike. S1, M2, X1 | ||
| Eboos |
X1 | ||
| 46champ |
Eboos thanks I kind of thought that. Is the frame any better than the others or is it better components on the stock bike? | ||
| Fahren |
The latest model X1 you can find. Buell refined things just about every year. | ||
| Eboos |
One key point on the frame is the removable subframe. This is a good bit of crash insurance. Also, the way the rear peg mounts detach makes a great mounting point for rear sets. | ||
| Maru |
Hi Erik. If I order Buell Parts from precision, is their any particular parts person that i should ask for? Steve. Another Mass Buell rider here. | ||
| Eboos |
Tripp is the man! He is an owner of a 99M2, and a member here. You can find him in our sponsor section on this site or just call. | ||
| Maru |
Thanks Erik, i will call or have the wife call in the next week or so. i need some isolators and a few other things for the S2. i love the chain idler set up. Steve | ||
| Eboos |
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| Eboos |
The top chain roller did not work. It broke in the first 2 laps. I ran without it for the rest of the 2 days, and it was just fine. It rubs on the swingarm, but not too bad. The lower roller works perfectly. | ||
| Skntpig |
That's alot of stress on that top roller. Mine didn't work either. Once the right amount of swingarm and block is gone it stops grinding. | ||
| Eboos |
LOL, that is the same conclusion that I came to. |
