Comments on: Racing Rules and the XBRR

By: Fred

Fred — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 13:53:01 +0000

I am hoping more to see modified showroom bikes rather than one offs. As you say, guys like Roland Sands could probably build something trackworthy using a catalogue v-twin and discovery or tlc would most likely jump right on it. I am looking to see shops modify road warriors, vtx,s or whatever more in the spirit of early nascar and form a sanctioning body with loose rules. In my opinion it would be a win win for the factories and the customers as the factories would get recognition and customers would buy a better motorcycle eventually. The funny thing is that harley would have the jump on all of them with its fxrs.

By: Dom

Dom — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 07:14:42 +0000

That may be the eventual evolution of things. There’s a lot of innovative cross pollination going on these days between chopper and race bike culture. You get things like buell, running harley engines in chassis based on streetbike design, Confederate building sportster type bikes out of carbon fiber with lightweight race parts, and even some outfits that might otherwise be termed chopper shops making their stuff with a real eye to performance think Roland Sands and Goldammer. I could see people like this getting interested in a atleast a small series, say at regular bike show stops or something, nothing heavily regulated but more equivalent to a track rental but with a real motley assortment of creative engineering blasting around with some decent photography. While we’re being overly optimistic i could see the discovery channel organising it, wouldn’t be too big a deal but it would get on the tube and get watched.

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 03:00:39 +0000

I think the buell xbrr is a well intentioned waste of time and money. An air cooled twin with a massive stroke will be a parts eater whether it is competitive or not and what do you prove by beating bikes with half your displacement? Ive been thinking about a cruiser class for a couple of years now. Let em chop and re-weld frames. change wheels etc. Just keep the factories out for a while and mandate that the bikes are bought off the showroom floor. Its all about developing a better product for the consumer and what better way to show off the viability of your v-twin by letting it run wide open around a track for 70 miles or so. Hey, they used to laugh at stock cars too. Can you imagine what a pack of 1400cc vtwins with racing pipes would sound like? People would probably crowd the stands just to listen to them. Plus, it would bring back the days when mechanics would work day and night, employing real ingenuity to create their machines. For what its worth, Ive raced dirt track for 15 years now and my present ride is a knight frame with a 686cc raptor engine. I bought the motor off e-bay for 1200 bucks and modified the frame and everything else accordingly. I even had to make a 2 into 1 intake manifold. On a slippery short track it is superior to anything else by a large margin. My point is that the ingenuity required kept me going for a few months and others find it interesting as well. Wouldnt it be nice to see some guys creating bikes that arent choppers? I for one would love to see race prepped road warriors, boulevards and whatever going at it regardless of the lap times.

By: aaron

aaron — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 21:58:11 +0000

jammer-the problem is once an underdog wins on a privateer bike, he usually becomes a factory rider pretty quick! underdogs die fast, unless they keep losing. rossi was an underdog for about half a lap in his first race after he switched to a yamaha…the quickest transformation from dominant to underdog to genius ever? makes you wonder how suzuki or kaw would do with him riding….I’ve no doubt ducati would scoop a world championship with him on board (though they may go backwards with the 800cc formula) I’d rather watch a genius dominate than a hack luck out for a day. problem with the ama is there is no rider of superhuman abilities (yes, this sounds like stupid adoration of a 9 year old, but what can you do….) that makes my jaw drop nearly every time he rides.

By: Jammer

Jammer — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:45:05 +0000

I’ve been following Motorcycle racing for a few years now and have to admit I stopped watching and tivoing the Honda Cup er…… Formula Extreme at the beginning of last year. Not interested in watching two factory backed (weither indirectly or not) racers battle it out for the win. It appears, by all the hype, that Honda feels that they have the most to lose if an XBRR is allowed to race. I want to see a rider that doesn’t get paid millions to ride win just once.
I would like to feel that the underdog still has a chance to win. Even if it were staged it would recapture my interest. Wasn’t the XB12R that was raced in that class last season hogged out to 1340cc’s?