After racing at the Imola 4hr last September I realised that my endurance bike is really just a glorified street bike and that to be competitive I'd have to up my game a little in the bike department. I'm still slow but maybe a faster, lighter bike might help. After some serious soul searching (for about a minute) and some discussion with Ant at Mandello Racing an idea was formulated. The plan was to create a bike that would be equal to the best of the European endurance Guzzis: 100hp, revised geometry and a weight of around 400lbs in endurance trim.
Below is the new bike so far:
Loose specs: Mike Rich Motorsports developed 1064cc square fin motor. 12:1 compression, Megacycle cam. Projected hp is around 100 at the rear wheel.
The frame has been de raked to 25.5 degrees and even with the MK4 3/4" longer swingarm the wheelbase is 2.5-3" shorter than stock. Offset is 45mm by way of modified Ducati triple clamps bored out to 40mm to fit the Guzzi California forks.
Fibreglass bodywork is from Mandello Racing in Italy.
Wheels are EPM magnesium by Magni. 2.5 front, 3.5 rear.
Hi there glad to see your progress I saw your bike online and admired it already. I was wondering who you enlisted to do the frame mods and how you decided the frame geometry and all you ended up with are optimal. Thanks and please take some videos so we can hear the exhaust and see you and the bike on the track hopefully soon.
ReplyDeleteHi there. Thank you for the kind words. A fabricator friend did the de raking. Pretty straight forward to do. Slice the main frame tube and gussets, tweak the headstock 3.5 degrees and re weld. A local frame guy checked it out for straightness. I used the geometry on my red racer as a guide knowing I'd be using the same profile tires and swingarm angle. There's a great geometry calculator at the RB Racing website. That helped a lot. Shock length was determined by suspending the rear of the bike then setting the forks to the desired angle (bottom of triples are 4mm away from fork brace at full compression) and then setting swingarm angle and rear ride height by adjusting the strap the bike was suspended by. Too much swingarm angle and the UJ binds so I set it a couple degrees off from that. Shock length is 355mm. 360 mm is too much.25.5 degrees of rake and 45mm offset gives right around 100mm trail which seems to be the standard. Here I go being long winded again..........
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