Welcome to the “Inappropriate Race Bike”, Part 2 and Final. Ish. If you haven’t already, see Part 1 for how we got here.
First up, a dyno run to see what it does. Luigi the Marketing Fellah at Ducati reckons 110 in the brochure. So that should be 100 at the rear wheel.
Threats that if it doesn’t make 100bhp its going in the bin.
Especially as it has a nice set of (lightly scratched) Aussie made Staintune open mufflers already.
Off we go to the local Invercargill dyno run by Jon Rawcliffe at JRL Tuning. He’s the sort of bloke every racer needs to know- can figure out stuff, fix stuff, make stuff, make stuff fit where it wasn’t meant to, and all while having a laugh and yarn over a cup of Jeds#4.
Jon Rawcliffe at Levels, 2023. Photo courtesy of Melanie J. Smythe images
Jon turns up at race events in IVC, Levels, Chch, Greymouth, North Island, and even rode his bike to the Cliffhanger hill climb in the Other Island and back. Keen.
Earmuffs on, mumbled apologies to the neighbours and dyno ahoy!
Damn things makes about 80.
Much puzzlement, and it's off to the workshop for a diagnosis. And a pot of Jeds#4.
Wheel the bin a bit closer, as that's nowhere near 100bhp.
New air filter, new plugs, new fuel filter and pump, fresh oil while we are there.
All faults cleared on ECU, TPS re set. Nothing too obvious.
Cue sucking of air through the teeth and saying “ That’s interesting”.
Another dyno run. About the same.
Open Heart Surgery Required
Cam covers off, and about now Dr Sherlock Rawcliffe spots the problem and whadd’ya know:
Some flash alloy adjustable cam sprockets have been fitted.
Nice upgrade. Less reciprocating weight. Which is great.
Except…one of the cam wheels on each head has an offset key from the factory.
So while someone has set the timing, they didn’t account for that.
One cam is 20 degrees out. The other is 12 degrees out. Lucky we didn’t have a piston/valve/grown-man-crying incident.
Cam timing is reset and bingo, it’s making 106 big fat Italian horses. Job done.
That would have been the end of it, except Pom grabs a bargain Apwilla RSV1000 and declares it will be faster/make more bhp than the Sensible Tourer.
Pfft.
106bhp isn’t quite enough for a clear-cut victory over the Budget Apwilla.
The Sensible Tourer gets wheeled in for an upgrade
The suspension is sent off to Tim at Technical Racing for a refresh, and a fix to the lack of compression in the front forks. And to add more rebound at the back. It now bounces with calm and decorum, as befitting a Gentlemans Tourer:
Those Sensible Tourer awkward-shaped-handle-bars-that-suit-no-one get the bin. To be replaced with an old-school Superbike bar from Eurobike.
A quick throttle mod, lower gearing and a Regina race chain:
A kilo lost off the flywheel into swarf at JRL’s workshop:
The leaky 0.6mm base gaskets get swapped out for a skinny 0.3 ones. While it’s there it gets new main bearings to make it all last, and the heads tidied up to remove the dangly bits.
The ECU got a remap. Did we mention slipper clutch yet?
Hamish Parsons, in the gravel, Teretonga 2022
On a previous sunny day shakedown, this happened. Oops. Ex motorX rider discovers excessive V Twin engine braking. Lucky a soft landing. Extra kudos for crashing IN FRONT of the camera.
In goes a close ratio 748 gearbox, just cos we wondered what it would be like. Like a knife through butter is the answer. It is huge fun slotting gears like a GP rider, as 3rd, 4th and 5th are so much closer together, however, the bike makes so much torque, you could almost use just a 3 speed gearbox of a HQ Holden and it would be fine.
Add some old-school sized superbike numberplates, plenty of bits get painted Wattyl Etch Primer Black, to make them lighter and slimmer (same theory with rotund chicks wearing black).
The 5kg battery gets ditched for one made of anti-gravity from Poweroad and Darbi Accessories. LINK This battery also helps lighten wallets. Amazing trick!
An old dead power commander PC3 is sent off to Dynoworx, who manage to revive it and massage a few more bhp out of it with electrical magic and getting the fuelling spot on.
The Result?
Leaning on 118bhp. (Big Happy power).
That’s within a sniff of the Championship winning 675 Triumph. It’s bang on with the top of the line race 600s.
Not bad for a Sensible Tourer.
Oh, and a whole lot more than an Apwilla RSV.
Dyno graph of the Sensible Tourer before/after:
Red line is as-delivered, cam timing set, serviced.
Blue is after some luvvin.
The green line shows a real 996 Superbike with stage 1 tune (it hangs on a little longer at high rpm, but the ST stomps it).
The area under the blue line is great. Up to 10bhp more everywhere compared to a 996 Superbike. That is a real life example of “Grunt”. And all done at a crank shaft preserving 10,000rpm rev limit.
As for the elephant on the dyno sheet, the one making 130bhp…no one can remember exactly what it was or what mods had been done, or even if it was a 996. It’s possible it was a 998S.
But it does look fun!
What Now?
A Summer of getting ridden as often as possible. Trying to wear it out, in fact.
Street races:
Jon Rawcliffe at the Greymouth Street Race, 2022. Photo courtesy of Melanie J. Smythe images
Track days:
Ashton Hughes at the Southern Classic, 2022. Photo courtesy of Melanie J. Smythe images
Hamish Parsons at Teretonga, 2022. Photos courtesy of Dave Loudon Photography
The Gravel Trap. Just once thank fully.
Standing Quarters, The Burt Monro Race week, Sound of Thunder and club days.
It’s the go-to bike for people wanting to have a fun track day experience.
Next project?
I have sworn off buying more bikes. But do have a soft spot for 748s. And the Universe has a great sense of humour - so now there's 5 of them.
One of which is the ex-Dave Cole 748SP. Interesting NZ race history there, with Dave Cole and Rodney OConnor of Eurobike fame getting one each. Uncrated them on a Wednesday, Raced on Saturday.
That particular 748 is getting rebuilt, refurbed and refreshed, with the aim of it being ridden like Luigi intended at the Totalspan Southern Classic Nov 23.
Summary
Goal achieved. All thanks to the good buggers who didn't laugh at the idea, chipped in with skills, pots of Jeds#4, good ideas and time.
Hey if we can do it with an old crashed Inappropriate Touring bike, you've got no excuses, with whatever bike is in your shed.
You'll have fun!
PS. Wonder if he is still the son-in-law.