Loring Spring 2015 - Video of the Fastest Pass

Here is the video of the fastest pass on the CL450/CB500T Frankenstein. Full speed was 94.08mph. This set the new record in the class.

Loring Spring 2015 - Tales From The Road - Part 2

It rained and snowed most of the night, but by Saturday morning the track had begun to dry out. We arrived around 9am to set up camp and get some last-minute tuning done. There was a small turnout, but still enough for an interesting day of racing!

I installed the velocity stacks and megaphone pipes, and ran some test passes on the backup track. Most of the carb tuning was fine, but I did have to increase the main jets from 100's to 120's. Once the track had dried off completely, the race officials opened it up for runs. 

Unfortunately, the weather didn't completely cooperate, and there was a stiff headwind all weekend. The first pass went poorly. I am not used to wearing the race boots, so I missed a shift. The next pass was spot-on, but the bike maxed out at 7500 rpm in top gear. We were shooting for 100+ mph, but the best the bike would manage was 94. Still, that was enough to beat the previous record, and I'm satisfied with the results.

Base Camp

Final Prep

Saab 93 Racer

Former Stock Car

Resurrected from a field, and running a Straight 6 truck engine

Datsun Racer

Setup at the start line. 

Fox Body racer

The most impressive cockpit instrumentation of the entire weekend.

500cc BSA Partial Streamliner

Newer former stock car

Loring Spring 2015 - Tales From The Road - Part 1

I'm happy to say that, after a nearly 2 year hiatus, we're finally getting back to Loring for a Land Speed Event. After work on Thursday, I picked up Justin at the Port Jeff train station, caught a ferry to Bridgeport, and we drove to our friends' house outside of Boston. This morning, we hit the road and drove the final 450 miles to Presque Isle. Here are some pictures from the first leg of the trip.

Bridgeport Ferry

Barbeque in Derby, CT

Welcome to Maine

And then the weather took a turn.....

CL450 Racer - Prepping For Loring 2015 Part 3

T-minus 12 days to leaving for Loring, and I am posting a quick update of the prep progress.

I installed the PAMCO, but ran into some problems setting it up. After a few weeks of little success and even less sleep, I ditched the electronic ignition and went back to the original condensers and points.

I also replaced the Dunlop K70 semi-knobbies with a pair of race-legal Dunlop K81 Roadmaster TT100's. These tires have an unbroken center ridge in the tread. When over-inflated to about 60psi, the tire contact area is extremely small, greatly reducing rolling resistance.

Finally, I discovered that the cam chain tensioner was stuck and had not properly auto-adjusted during the last two or three engine tune-ups. As a result, the cams were slightly out of time, and the chain had ground quite a bit of fine aluminum dust into the crankcase oil. After 6 oil changes, and running the engine each time to flush out the dust, the oil is now (moderately) clean once again, and the engine is making no strange noises.

The box of supplies and fire-suppression