Featured Land Speed Racing 2023

i dunno, sandi. never had an issue before, and the jpgs ive posted in the past are all displaying correctly.

i can load an image directly from my phone if i use the forum attachment feature, but its very slow and clunky. so far thats all that works.

normally i take a photo with my phone, upload to imgur.com, a third party hosting site. i use that site to store all my photos in one place. then using the imgur software, i open a photo, copy the jpg coding, and then post here with the jpg address within image tags

but that no longer works.

 

heres the jpg code for an image i store on imgur, deactivated so you can read it

[img ]https://i.imgur.com/WKi3ggCl.jpg[/img]

here's the same code that should display the image

 

slow day. it seemed that everybody in front of us had a problem. there were blown engines, broken machines, DNF halfway down th etrack. five machines out of nine blew up and delayed everybody else. i ran in the morning. took one easy pass at 6500, just held it around 95 mph checking out the bike.

the next pass i held on until about halfway, then said fuggit and opened it up. 125. the motor liked the jetting.

on the third pass, i opened it up all the way and got 127. th ebike ran very well, but was slow. do i went to the pits to refuel, came back and spent about an hour in libne, and the BSA guy said

that fork cap is cracked.

and it was. at the m,oment im runnign a disc brake front end without the disc, and those caps that always crack were the disc brake ones with the bigger hole. i know not to crank down on them, but this one was broken through. so i said, well, ill run this once and then go back and chage it.

and common sense prevailed, and i said, no, ill pull out of line and fix it.

but instead i parked the bike and went to help the number two son on the kawasaki. hes at 106 and tomorrow theres a tailwind. but hes right at redline on the ninja at 106 and i dont have a smaller rear spprocket for him


but tomorrow is another day

 

fixed the fork cap. i lost the nut off the right motor mount stud, the one that holds the plate to the frame near the swing arm. but the wife of the BSA guy found it on the course and brought it back, so its on again.

the kids ar eneck and neck at 108, a half mph apart on the ninja. who has the smoothest backside will win out tomorrow., i cant get over my highest speed of 130, mostly just farting arounfd at 126 to 127.

tomorrow morning ill pop the tanks and retorque the head, and then adjust the valves. everything was right wbut maybe its lossened up/

 

this is the starter mule. i carry a 12-volt automotive battery and a pingel hand-held starter motor in it.

i had to take the kick start off the bike. not because it wouldnt work, but because there isnt room for my foot and the rear set controls. theyre so close that when i kick start the bike, it catches, then my heel hits the gearshift and drops the box into first. the motor stalls, and the start is a fail. i cant lenghten the distance because im limited to 6 inches between the foot peg and the rear axle. i would have to install a longer swingarm and then move the pegs back. i could do that within the rules, but id rather not.

i tired over and over to solve this problem. cant push start the bike because the compression is so high. cant reposition the shifer lever because then i cant get my foot under it on the run, and im already in a very awkward position on the bike.

i tried to raise it up so an upshjift was a simple press with my heel, but that meant that downshifting was very difficult and ic coudnt recover from amistake.

so i gave up on the kickstart lever and just use the electric motor. it works great, but it means the racing unit is the bike plus the starter mule.

is an ancient workman industrial tricycle, maybe fifty or sixty years old. cant tell, not even the manufacturer kept records. solid rubber tires and well worn coaster brakes. holds three or four hundred pounds but all i ask from it is to carry the battery.

 

these fork caps are expensive. the old cast ones break easily, and billet is available. but i dont know why billet would be any better than cast.

forged billet, maybe, but they dont say.

last day of racing was cancelled. rained out, really.

we got there late and missed the riders meeting. i retorqued the head and taught my number two son how to adjust the valves using the 26 tpi threads as a measurer. then i looked up and the cones were gone from the hotbox and people were leaving.

and it was wet.

so i went and chatted with the crew. we were talking about the 250 getting close to plateau at 108, and one of the organizers said,

you know; nobody's ever run nitrous on a 250 here . . .

i said, what class change? and he replied, easy, just change from gasoline to fuel. you could take the fuel record now if you'd just change classes, youre already faster than they are.

(gasoline can run in the "fuel" class even without actually running modified gasoline)

and 250 ninjas can run 122 with nitrous.

so now im thinking.

the problem with the ninjas is that while they can run 122, thats the limit of the motor. you blow the clutch first, and then if you fix it, you blow the gearbox.

the boys are right at redline with the 42 tooth sprocket and 108.8mph. so im going to buy a 40 and a 38, and tell them go ahead, lets see you overrun this

but maybe they will

 

i cant believe i broke this. i knw how fragile they are.

and really, its all theatre. down n the bottom of the fork leg are these caps with four 5/16 bolts to tighten up on the axle. so you do.

but you know what? the only thing holding the whole front wheel and two fork legs onto the machine in the first place are two 5/16-inch allen bolts holding the fork legs to the damper rods. whats the hocus pocus on these caps?

so i mostly just tighten them to wrist tight and safety wire them in place.

certainly at the current cost im not going to be breaking any more of them.

 

that building way back there in the back is actually a long way off. it looks like a normal aeroplane hanger, but it holds two--two-- B52 stratofortress bombers with the door closed.

that is impressive shit.

ive been up to it when i have time and its is immense.

the runway at this place is 12,800 feet-- the longest airstrip available for racing in the world. you can find longer, but you cant race there (edwards air force base) or it takes lots of money to do it (bonneville and colombia).

this place is available to anybody who is willing to fork over the dough for the petrol to get there. we drive two days and pay the dues.

its a priceless gift.

 

shit fire, we re back. 2400 miles, 240 US gallons of gasoline.

what was there?

a 52 studebaker
two 1950s cunninhams
a scattering of ford roadsters
a jet turbine streamliner
varios inline 4 and V8 streamliners
mustangs, corvettes, a porsche or two

motorcycles were only one harley, some zx14s, a zx10, an ancient aeromacchi, a350 honda, a buell or two,

then my 650 triumph, a 67 650 BSA hornet, a 72 OIF BSA with a 750 kit. a later T150

no nortons as the guy who brings them had back surgery and was manning the long shutdown instead of running. no moto guzzis or ducatis

the hornet used to hold the record at 131, then got beat by a friend of mine at 134, who i beat at 135. this time it did 131 again, while i was struggling at 127. but he shredded has belt drive, twice, on the alternator supports inside the primary. on the triumph the alternator is just held in by studs, and you can take em out. my 40mm spare belt wouldnt fit his 20mm pulley, si he folded his tent.

the 750 BSA used to break its transmission when i first saw it some years ago, abd this time the lectron carbs were finicky. but he managed to sort it and the bike just kept getting faster. 137, 138, 140, and finally 142.7xx. he has 100cc on me and a fairing, so its a different class, but that is an outstanding speed for any british twin on gasoline.

my kids broke their previous records on the ninja. i think the fastest was 108.334, and this time they did 108.814 and 108.433. only one got his name in the book.

 

and tbere was the suzuki hayabusa at 240. almost forgot

im pretty sure the reason i was so slow wS because of my ancient ignition. i have a lot of spark scatter because the magneto is driven by a rubber belt, and so i know its not optimal. i started with 150 mains, tried 155, 160, went fastest at 160 but only 130. then just for science i retarded the spark from 31 to 27 btdc and speed dropped to 123/124.

so im happy with the carbs and the timing. im running 34-inch by 1-5/8 -inch pipes, and have no reason to change them so far. ill check compression and swap the ignition and then we ll head back.

 

test

[img ]http://i.imgur.com/WKi3ggCl.jpg[/img]


http://i.imgur.com/WKi3ggCl.jpg

not yet.

i wonder what changed.

 

is the picture of the juvenile raccoon? he was an abandoned baby that we raised. he currently snuggles with the cats and then runs up for breakfast in the morning.

there are seven adult raccoons that come up n th emorning for breakfast.. he is currently adjusting to that social milieu

i am going to change ignition and maybe fuel. we ll see whther we can reconfigure our prevous achievements

i love raccoons. intelligent , personable. they destry beehives, though. so i make a case by case analysis

 

swapping the magneto for a pazon. i need a battery somewhere





and somewhere to mount the transistor unit



not much space on this machine for this stuff, so it goes where i can fit it

 

site still wont take jpgs

[ img]https://i.imgur.com/g08VJ6el.jpg[/img]

 

ive considered it. my pistons are 11.75 to one, with a very high and intrusive dome. i use two plugs per cylibder to compensate but theres no doubt that the dome interferes with filling tbe chamber, especially at overlap

my closest competitor is just one mph slower, and he uses 10.5 to one and only single plugs.

so its hard to decide which i s better- higher compression and poor swirl and tumble, or lower compession and better filling. i still have two more pistns to use up tho.

theyre expensive too-- US $700 for four. ill post some pictureslater so you can see what i mean

 

these are the pistons

JE units, 11.75 to 1





unpolished here

polished with some attention to valve pockets



you can see that the unrelieved valve pockets really shroud the intake valves (oversize) at full lift. i cut most of thjis lip away, and give up the minimal compression ratio loss for the increased clearance around the valve margin.



i clay the pistons before i fully assemble. i look for 0.040 clearance on intake, and 0.060 clearance on exhaust, then around 0.060 on the lip of the valve pocket