Blog

IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT MY NEW SITE:

Dear BusaBob's Blog readers; I would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! The new year brings new opportunities. As I mentioned in my post from yesterday, I was contemplating a new website...well I set one up and it's called "BusaBob's Garage". The site can be found here: BusaBob's Garage Instead of focusing on all things Hayabusa, this new site will be geared toward all things car-and-bike. Unfortnately, Google Sites only allows 100Mb per site, so this site (BusaBob's Racing) is pretty well filled up. I may come back and clean things up on this site, so I can continue to post only Hayabusa related updates. However, my primary blog site will now be BusaBob's Garage - Blog I want to thank all of my readers for checking out BusaBob's Racing Hayabusa website and I hope that you will visit my new site.

Signing off for now.

BusaBob

4/13/15 - Results, Mojave Magnum 2015:

Hey Folks, I just got back from Mojave and had a great weekend. The highlight for me was that I beat my personal record for land speed and put down a 207.1 mph pass on Saturday morning. I followed it up with another 206.1, which was icing on the cake and not to mention that the big 1441 Busa held together and ran like a champ. Things weren't all good though...had some trouble with my air shifter and had to resort to manual shifting on three of my four passes. There were numerous aircraft delays and it seemed to take forever to actually get up to the starting line between passes. The wind shifted on Sunday and turned into a light but steady headwind. The one and only pass that I made on Sunday was ONLY 193 mph. This could be my last year one the Busa at Mojave as I am contemplating retirement from motorcycle land-speed racing. I have accomplished the goals that I set when I started this venture and at this point I don't have the desire, or resources, to go any faster. It's kind of like the old drag racing saying, i.e. "how fast will your wallet let you go", or something to that effect. Anyway, the Busa may be up on the auction block shortly, but I am still debating that decision.

4/10/15 - Mojave Magnum 2015:

I'm putting up a blog post on this site and will also post on my other site...today is a very important day. I'm heading down to Mojave this morning for the 2015 Mojave Magnum event. My goal is to beat my personal best speed from last year of 205.6 mph. The only thing new on the bike this year is the addition of an air-shifter. I think the advantage will not be the improved speed between shifts, but the aerodynamic advantage of not having to deal with the shifter, period, except for pressing the horn button when I see my shift light come on. This will allow me to focus on my riding position and get down in my tuck. I am hoping for some favorable tailwinds, as that is always a bonus. Anyway, time to get the bike and all the gear on the truck. Wish me luck!

12/24/14 - Twas the Night Before Xmas:

I took the YZ426F out for the first time on Monday and all things considered, the bike ran well. The only issues that I had was a few times trying to restart and I was not sure if the suspension was tuned correctly. Yesterday I tuned the suspension, or at least got it set to the baseline factory settings. I will take the bike out again on Sunday to do some more riding and fine tuning. I have to say that the bike makes a ton of power and I can pull the front end up in the first three gears. What a pleasure it is to ride a 4-stroke dirtbike over a 2-stroke, especially the YZ426. The bike has gobs of power and it delivers it smoothly and very predictably.

I have to mention here that I am contemplating a new blog page. For some reason, I am not able to post additional images anywhere on this site. Perhaps I have exceeded the maximum storage space for images and Google is punishing me. My plan is to either set up an additional page under my "Blog" link or do something like "Blogspot" and link it to my Blog link on this site. In addition, I may create another website altogether to document my upcoming trip to Alaska and all other things car and bike related. I seem to have gone a little bit astray on this site from the original intent of making it related to all things Hayabusa. Whatever the case, I will post information about it in this blog and I will post links to the new site(s). Hopefully I will get this done before the end of the holiday break and I will be able to start the new year with a clean slate.

12/20/14 - Off for the Holidays:

Today was the start of my two weeks off over the holidays. I don't go back to work now until Jan 5...yeeee hawww!!! I finished putting the Yamaha YZ426F together and got it running. I ended up having to rebuild the carburetor, which was really no big deal considering what I paid for the bike...I basically stole it. The guy that I bought it from included an awesome "t-bomber" graphics kit and it makes the bike look like a WWII bomber. I still need a few pieces and parts to make it the way I want it, but the thing is ride-able as it is right now. In fact, I took it for a quick spin around the block and the thing is a beast. I can't wait to get it out in the dirt. I have lots of work lined up for my time off, but I will take some time to play too. I plan on taking the YZ out in the dirt on Monday, since it looks like things are going to dry out a little bit. It should prove to be some great riding. Hopefully the bike will run well and without any issues. More later...

12/14/14 - Another Marathon Weekend:

This was another crazy weekend. II got up at 4:00 Sat and Sun...out in the garage by 5:00. Saturday I worked on the other CT-70 that I have going. I managed to get the wheels cleaned up, painted and on the bike. As soon as I can get to it, I will be cleaning up an engine to put in that bike. Also on the plate this weekend was another project that I picked up last week...2001 Yamaha YZ426F. The bike was basically a rolling chassis with the engine mounted in it. The guy gave me all of the other parts in a couple big boxes. I got the bike back together today, but came up short when it came time to fire it up. I had to take a three hour break to do a brake job on a buddy's car. Perhaps if I had that extra three hours, I could have got the bike running. At this point, I'm not sure what is going on with it, but when I get some more time on it I will start checking spark, fuel and all of the usual culprits. Kinda disappointing though, spending all that time putting it together and not being able to make it run. Oh well, as I always say; "nothin is easy". Well, I have five days of work in front of me and then 2-weeks off over the holidays. I plan to get a ton of stuff done over those two weeks.

12/6/14 - December is Here:

December is here and 2014 is quickly coming to a close. This weekend I'm working on the blue CT70 that I painted. The thing is giving me fits because the engine that was in it was making noise on the bottom end, so I pulled that engine out and tore down another one, which I split the cases, checked everything out, replaced all gaskets, seals, etc... Got the donor engine in the bike and it's running like crap. I have some ideas what the problem(s) is, so I have to get into the thing again today. For such a little bike, this thing is a BIG pain in the A$$. Oh well, such is life. I also have some buddies racing in the 24 Hours of Lemons race this weekend. The car passed tech inspection yesterday and they will be racing today and tomorrow...best of luck to the team. They worked hard to get the car ready and poured a lot of resources into the thing, so I hope they do well. In the coming weeks I will be focusing on at least 1-2 more CT70 builds. I have another one in the queue right now and I am starting to put it back together...need to get an engine cleaned up for that one and order some parts. Over X-mas and New Year break, I may have to shift my focus to the Busa. I'm thinking that I should pull the engine and check out that intake valve that has been bugging me. The other thing I have to do is get that air-shifter on there. Registration for Mojave starts in February and the event is in April. I know that it will sneak up on me real quick and I want to be ready. After that, I'm all-in for the trip to Alaska in June. 2015 should prove to be an exciting year!

11/27/14 - Happy Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving is here and there is plenty to be thankful for; family, friends, health and all of the good things that we have, so thanks! We will have a house full today and it will be good too see them all. However, that does not discount the fact that I have a ton of work to do. Luckily I have a couple extra days off for the holiday and I am hopeful that I can knock out the things that I need to get done. First, and foremost, I have to repair a rear flat that I got on the KLR650 yesterday on the way home from work. We got off work early yesterday and I was taking my normal route home through the hills. The bike was feeling a little loose and I thought it was in the front, so I pulled to the side to take a look and didn't see any issues. I got back on the bike and went a few more miles. Suddenly, the rear started rolling all over the place. This happened to me once last year and another time about 5 years ago, so I knew immediately what it was and pulled the bike over. Low and behold, I was on top of the summit overlooking the valley. I took in the beautiful scenery for a moment, while thinking to myself...how the hell am I going to get this thing home? It was about 8 miles to the nearest gas station in either direction. I looked at my cell phone to see if I had a signal...sparse at best, but I did have a couple bars. First I had to capture a photo of my bike against the beautiful backdrop and a picture of the flat tire for the archives. I then quickly dialed home to get some help. Luckily I got through to my wife and son and had them load the ramp up on the truck to head on out to rescue me. Now that whole thing was a fiasco in and of itself, but I will spare you the details. While I was waiting, one of my buddies from work was driving by and stopped to see if I was okay...great guy and he offered to stay and help, but I didn't want to burden him with my issue. I told him that I had help on the way and to have a happy Thanksgiving. About 15 minutes later, help arrived and we got the bike loaded up on the truck. Got the bike home and found the metal shard in the rear tire...went to the local MC shop and picked up a couple rear tubes and one for the front (spares). Anyway, I'm getting ready to pull the rear tire and get a new tube in there. Hopefully that will do the trick and the Kawi will be ready to roll. That is my workhorse and I need it for the upcoming crappy weather months. Other than that, I'm in mini-bike hell this week. The engine on the blue bike that I painted is making some noise, so I am going to tear it out to investigate. I have another engine almost ready to go in if I need it...got to get that bike sold. I have another bike going back together now and need some parts to make it complete. So, the focus for the rest of the weekend will be the CT70's. Other than that, it's going to be whatever else I can get done in three days. Today I will be eating turkey and giving thanks, tomorrow it's game on!

11/22/14 - Update:

Been super busy at work and since the time change and weather turning, not much time to get anything done in the garage during the week. Last weekend, I managed to install the TAB Fuel Manager on the V-Rod. It seems to run better...less popping on deceleration and smooth throttle response. I'll run it for a while like that, but eventually may pick up a Power Commander and possibly a Stage II cam kit. I've got other fish to fry before that happens though. I started tearing down another of the CT70's that I am restoring. This one doesn't need paint but I do have to buy an exhaust, carburetor and several other misc items to get it going. Today I will be working on getting that one cleaned up and getting a parts list together. Tomorrow, I will be helping some buddies out with getting their race car prepped for the "24 Hours of Lemons" race that is coming up on Dec 6. They have a laundry list of stuff that needs to get done on the car and I offered to lend a hand. This year keeps flying by and it's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already next week. I have a couple extra days off work next week, so hopefully I can get some extra work done on the bikes. We are off several days between X-mas and New Years, so I'm planning to tear the engine out of the Busa during that time to get it checked out and possibly make some mods...we'll see what Santa brings. Other than that, just shaking the bushes anywhere I can to make a few extra bucks. So far, no takers on the sponsorship requests. I guess nobody wants to see BusaBob's slap a turbo on the Busa this year. That's alright...that 1441 engine still has some good power and potential. With a little luck, we might hit 210 mph at Mojave next year. More to come...

11/8/14 - Interesting Day Today:

I've been spending a little time helping one of my buddies out with some of his CT70's and he has been giving me some great deals on parts for my bikes. Today I went to help him again and he gave me a really great deal on a Honda ST90. These bikes are somewhat rare because they were only produced for three years, 1973-1975 and I'm pretty sure that this one is a 1975. It's a little rough, but everything is mostly in tact and it runs good. I will probably keep this one and do a nice restoration on it...not show quality, but it will look great when I'm done. I also got the blue CT70 that I painted running last night. It still needs a few tweaks before it's ready to sell, but it's looking pretty good. Got another busy day coming up tomorrow, mostly working on bike stuff. I also scored an air tank and a solenoid for my Hayabusa air shifter setup. The V-Rod is running good and I have been riding it to work almost every day. Took the KLR in to work one day last week and one of my rear turn signals broke off. The signals on the KLR are crap...just a hollow rubber tube and they are known to break, in fact, Kawasaki had a recall on them. I'm replacing them with Hayabusa turn signals. That's it for now...working hard every day! Here's some pix:

11/2/14 - Good Progress This Week:

This week was pretty exciting and productive. I went to the Progressive International Motorcycle Show on Saturday morning. Lots of good eye-candy there...Busa's, ZX14's, Honda, Yamaha, Triumph, Ducati, Harley, Victory, Indian, etc... I got tons of pictures and videos and I will be posting some here on my site and on my YouTube channel. I will work on getting it all together this week. I also bought a pair of waterproof/insulated riding pants from the show that I badly needed. I will get a chance to try them out, now that it's getting cool in the mornings.

The rest of the weekend was another whirl-wind. I changed struts and shocks on my buddy's car yesterday after the show...wrapped that up around 8:00 last night. Today, I finally got a chance to work on the blue CT70 that I painted a few weeks ago. I'm actually almost finished with it now and it should be good to go after next weekend...finally!!! The good news is; I don't have anything going on the schedule for this coming weekend, so I can really make a push to get some of my own stuff done for a change. We'll see how that goes, because things can change quickly.

10/26/14 - More Busy Work:

I sold the red CT70 yesterday and went to help a buddy out with some of his CT70's. He ended up giving me two CT70 engines for my time. I got one of the engines cleaned up this morning and almost ready to paint the side cover. I will be able to get another one of my bikes up and running in two weeks or less. Today, I have a couple other friend's cars that I'm working on. One has a check engine light (multi-cylinder misfire) and the other one I'm installing some lowering springs...should be an exciting day. Next weekend is the International Motorcycle Show on Saturday and I will also be swapping out struts on another buddy's car on Sunday. All of this stuff will eventually pay off and I will be able to do what I want to do on the Busa and get my stuff together for Alaska next year. I have some pretty big goals for next year, but it's all achievable with a little bit of hard work. As my dear old grand-dad always said "work makes life sweet"...he was right about that.

10/17/14 - Lovin Life Right Now:

Tell you what; I'm really loving the whole motorcycle thing right now. I'm sooooo glad that I pulled the trigger on this HOG and I couldn't be happier with the bike. Between the Busa, KLR650 and the V-Rod, I would say that the V-Rod is my fave right now. Of course, the Busa is the most exhilarating because it will do 200mph with a flip of the wrist, but it's almost to a point where it's not fun to ride on the commute. I'm seriously contemplating making it a dedicated race bike. The KLR650, on the other hand, is a great all around bike. I can take that bike anywhere and it is like my mule right now. It's got storage, it got heated grips, it's comfortable, but it just doesn't have all the get up and go that I like to have in a bike. The V-Rod is a whole different animal. It has plenty of power, but it's not over the top. It's long, low, loud and sexy. Each of these bikes have a purpose and I am totally happy with all of them. If I had unlimited resources, I could probably come up with at least 10 additional bikes that I would like to have, but I'll tell you that I'm pretty darn happy right now with what I got. I started a few mods on the V-Rod already; installed a baffle and re-packed the exhaust, windscreen is showing up tomorrow, also installing a fuel management system (tuner). I just want to get this thing all dialed in and then I will put the focus back on the Busa and the KLR. I've probably said it 10 times already, but the Busa is getting an air shifter before Mojave. I will also have to pull the head on the Busa to see what is going on with the carbon deposits on the valve. The KLR basically needs a more comfortable seat and a few other farkles in preparation for Alaska next year. Other than that, it's business as usual, but when I ride, I totally feel alive!!! Life is good.

10/8/14 - Finally Some Good News:

Lot's happening since my last post...sold the PC800, tons of stuff going on with cars and bikes. Now for the really good news: First, I'm adding another mule to the stable, i.e. I bought a 2009 Harley V-Rod Night Rod Special (pic below). I went to look at some bikes last week and I fell head over heels for this one. I ended up scoring a great deal on it and I will be picking it up at the dealer tomorrow or Friday. This is not your daddy's old air cooled bagger, this is a liquid cooled street machine with 125Hp and 85ft/lb torque. Not quite as much as the Busa, but it should prove to be a hoot, none the less. Second, and maybe more important, MKM announced that the next Mojave event will be April 11-12, 2015. It will be a 1.5 mile event, possibly with speed traps at the 1 mile and 1.5 mile marks. I am totally looking forward to the event and plan to have the bike tip-top and ready to go.

So, I didn't plan on getting another Harley so soon, but it has been in the back of my mind for a while. In fact, I was looking hard at the 2003 Anniversary Deuce CVO (gorgeous bike), but I found this Night Rod and basically forgot all about the Deuce. The Night Rod is a very solid and capable bike and it's the only water cooled bike that Harley makes. The engines on these things are said to be bullet proof, very smooth and gobs of power. I like all of that that and the thing looks bad A$$ too!!!

Besides thinking about Mojave and Harley's, I have been working hard on my CT70's. I got one painted this past weekend and the "Electric Blue Metallic" turned out absolutely gorgeous. I will post up some pix on my next blog update. Other than that, been working on cars and stuff around the house. Well, here's a pic of the new HOG...more later:

9/23/14 - Not much new:

Well, I wish I had more news that I can report on the Busa front, or otherwise, but the truth is that I have just been "spinning my wheels" here. Seems like I have been really busy, which I have, but thing just aren't moving as quickly as I would like. I got a few hits on the bikes that I mentioned in my last post, but no takers yet...really got to move some inventory here! Kind of a bummer that summer is winding down, but looking forward to some cooler temps and hopefully some much needed rain here in Cali. I guess I will just keep lining up the work on the weekends and ultimately get the Busa ready to go for next spring. The air shifter is still the top priority and if I have the means, I will also slap a fuel cell in there and see if the setup will get me to 210 mph. I'm thinking that's about all she wrote with a 200 lb rider and the current engine setup. Maybe we will start looking at some higher compression pistons and bigger cams, but I'm almost at the point where there are diminishing returns. I just don't know at this point if I want to go over to the darkside and throw a turbo on it, but that's prolly what it's gonna take to go to the next level...whatever that is...225 mph? Anyway, I just have to keep pushing myself to reach my goals and that's what I'm doing.

9/1/14 - Work , Work and More Work:

Since my last post, I got the gold CT70 running and sold it. The starting issue turned out to be the adjustment on the points. Believe it or not, I bought another one of these things and I'm back to having six of them. I also bought a Honda Pacific Coast PC800. Actually, me and a buddy bought it and we got a really good deal. We hope to turn it around and make a few bucks on it. I had to take a break from the bikes today and knock out some landscaping work that I have been putting off. All of this motorcycle and car business will hopefully get me what I want to put on the Busa for Mojave next year. It will also help me pay for my motorcycle adventure trip to Alaska in 2015. Here are some pix of the new CT70 and the PC800:

8/17/14 - Back to the grind:

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Since the last post; I sold a 2006 Goldwing for a buddy, rebuilt a CT70 engine for another guy, did two brake jobs, pulled a dent on a Mercedes, changed the oil on my KLR650 and still managed to get one of my CT70's up and running. I'm sure there is a ton of stuff that I missed and this is just the stuff that I got done on the weekends....been super busy at my day-job too. Busy time folks, busy times.

I have been fighting with my CT70, trying to get it running, so I can finally sell one and make back a little bit of the cash that I have invested. I stripped every nut and bold out of this bike and cleaned it all up. I repaired or replaced all of the parts that were broken or missing. I had it back together and running last Saturday, but was running it down the street at about 7K rpm and the thing just died and I could not get it restarted. It also had a leaky carburetor, so I ended up buying a new carb, but still no luck on the restart. Finally today (after running up to Concord in the morning), I started checking the electrical circuits. No spark on the coil, weak spark coming off the stator. I finally re-gapped the points and she came back to life. Took it out for another cruise and the thing runs beautiful except for a little. ticking on the rockers. I will recheck the valve adjustment and the engine should be running like a top. There are just a few minor things left on this little baby, so I should be able to get it all buttoned up and ready to sell in the next 1-2 weeks.

Here are some pix of the bike before and after...the Goldwing in the background is the one that I sold for my buddy. I call this picture the "mini and the mighty"

7/27/14 - Fun Stuff:

I finally got a chance to break away from the wrenching and do something a little more exciting. Friday night, I went to the NHRA Nationals qualifying at Sonoma Raceway. If you like racing and have never experienced the rolling thunder of the top-fuel dragsters and funny cars, it's a must that you go to one of these events. When these 8000 hp cars go by at 300+mph, it is earth shaking. They can go 1000 ft in less than 4 seconds at around 325 mph. It's hard to imagine what that would feel like to drive one of those machines...the g-force must be incredible. My 205.6 mph pales in comparison to what these folks do. However, anyone can do it if you have enough money, the right machine and the guts to go that fast. At the end of the day, it's the laws of physics and environmental factors that dictate how fast you can go. Here is a pic of yours truly sitting in a top fuel funny car. Not sure if it was a real one, maybe a prop. That's all for now, back to wrenching on the bikes!

7/13/14 - More Wrenching, etc:

Sorry to say it again...."not much happening with the Busa". It seems like that has mostly been the case since I ran it at Mojave back in April...seems like it's been forever! That's not to say that there is nothing going on though. In fact, it's quite on the contrary my friends. I have actually been working on cars and bikes non-stop for the past few months...just got done changing the gasket and fluid on the rear axle of my buddy's truck. I also picked up a new hobby restoring old Honda CT70's. These things are classic mini-bikes from 1969 and later and most everyone (my age) had one or knows someone who had one. I got started on this craze because I learned to ride on one of these things when I was 8 years old. Recently, I've been thinking about getting one and I ended up picking up a bare frame and front-end...no engine. One thing lead to another and now I have 6 of them. My plan is to restore them and sell them. Initially, I thought that I could make some money buying non-running bikes and fixing them up. I have seen these things posted on Craig's List anywhere from $1000 to $4800. I actually got some pretty decent deals on the bikes that I have, but after more research it appears that I will have to put roughly $1000 into each of the bikes to make them right. Hopefully, after restoring them, I can sell them for around $2500 each. Otherwise, the margins will be pretty slim and it will have been mostly a labor of love. It seems like that is the way that many of my projects and money making opportunities have gone so far, so what's new? Anyway, the CT70's are fun little bikes to work on and ride, so I'm planing to keep at least 1 or 2 out of the bunch. Here are a few pix of the bikes...the green one is exactly like the one I learned to ride on back in the 70's:

6/20/14 - Possible Adventure Ride to South America:

Over the past couple weeks, I have been watching two motorcycle adventure documentaries on Netflix. The name of the documentaries are "Long Way Round" and "Long Way Down". The shows star Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman. The first one, I believe, was filmed in 2001 and they rode BMW GS1150's around the world. The second one was filmed in 2007 and they rode from the top of Scotland down to the bottom of Africa (Capetown). Well...guess what. I got this crazy Idea that I might want to ride from Northern California down to South America. Actually, a buddy of mine (Li'l Jimmie) has already made the trek from Nor-Cal up to Alaska, so I asked him if he might be up for the adventure. Lil' Jimmie is totally into the idea and he virtually has the trip planned already...14,000 miles round trip and two months on the road. Well, I hate to disappoint you, but I will not be taking the Busa on that trip. I will either take the KLR-650, or I will be upgrading to a BMW GS(A) or something like that. Anyway, this is a chance for a once-in-a-lifetime adventure and I am pretty stoked about the idea. The trip could occur around Jan-Feb 2016 and believe it or not, it is not too early to start planning.

Yikes...I might have to set up another website to document this hair-brain idea!!!

Nothing new to report on the Busa at this time, except that I want to jump on it and do some riding!

6/8/14 - Back to Riding:

After a grueling 2-weeks, I finally finished installing a lawn in my side yard and back yard. I have been living in this house for four years and I just got tired of looking at the dirt, weeds and desert terrain out in the back of the house. Unfortunately, I had to take two weeks vacation to pull off the job and it was pretty much just me and some part time help from my sons. My old body suffered some punishment on this job and I told myself that I will never do that again. Good news is that I saved a lot of money doing it all myself and it actually turned out pretty darn good.

I think that I rode the bike one time in the past two weeks. I'm kinda looking forward to getting back to may day job, so I can enjoy the bike(s) on my commute. I did end up getting the K&N filtyer for the KLR650 and got that installed along with the final oil change after the break-in period, so it's good to go. The poor Busa has just been sitting in the corner of the garage collecting dust, but I am going to get it out soon for a good long ride.

That's all I got for today...summer is here and I am ready to ride. Maybe I'll try a little drag racing again one of these evenings...should be a hoot!

5/23/14 - KLR-650 Rebuild Complete:

l've been pretty busy these past couple weeks. I received the 685cc bored cylinder and J&E piston kit. Everything in the kit looked beautiful and it came with some very detailed instructions. I chose not to purchase the KLR-650 Clymer maual, because there is enough info about these bikes on line and I had already stripped down and rebuilt a Gen1 KLR within the last 2 years. The Gen2's are not a whole lot different than the Gen1's, so I figured it's no big deal. The top end went back together without any issues. The only problem I had was a loose vacuum line from the carb to the fuel valve, which was causing my fuel supply to cut out during my test ride. I got that all back together and haven't had any problems since. I completed the first 10 mile break-in last Sunday and dropped the oil and refilled it with new stuff. This week I did the second part of the break-in and now I have about 200 mi on it since the rebuild. Time to drop the oil again and change the filter. I ran Rotella-T oil for the break-in and I think that I will continue to run that oil in the bike from now on. You cant beat the price at $12 for a 5 qt jug, plus the engine and clutch really seem to like the stuff. Bottom line with the rebuild is that there is a noticeable difference in power from the larger displacement and the engine runs smoother because of the lighter piston. I've got enough power to pass a truck now and hopefully I won't be burning any more oil out the exhaust pipe. I also bought a K&N air filter that is supposed to be showing up next week.

Nothing new on the Busa front at the moment...will work for motorcycle parts. Any sponsors out there? Big Daddy needs an air shifter and a new set of high compression pistons. That's not much to ask. Heck, I could be asking for a $6000 turbo setup!!! Wishful thinking ;-)

It's kinda funny...I was thinking back about all of the motorcycles that I have owned since I started riding street bikes in 1997. I think it has been 10 bikes and out of the 10, I have got inside the engines on at least 6 of them, four of those have been major rebuilds. I don't know if I do it because I have bad luck with bikes, or if I just like buying bikes with crappy engines and rebuilding them. I wish I could somehow make a living doing it!

5/10/14 - KLR-650 Rebuild In Process:

l pulled the head and cylinder off the KLR-650 last weekend and shipped the cylinder out for machining. Surprisingly, the bore looked pretty good, but it's hard to tell anything without taking precise measurements with a bore gauge. The head appears to be in pretty good shape. There were carbon deposits in the combustion chamber, but I was able to get it cleaned up pretty good. Not sure if I mentioned it, but my KLR was an "oil burner"...I was adding about 1 qt of oil every 1K miles. Some of the KLR's were known to have this problem and I believe that it had to do with inferior piston rings. Anyway, there is a kit out there (685cc piston kit) that corrects this problem, but you have to get the cylinder bored and honed for the larger piston. The piston is lighter and the rings are made of better materials than the original. Today, I will be working on getting the carburetor jetted properly for the new setup and I will be installing my new rear tire and tube that got taken out by a big 3-1/2" nail on the freeway last week. Hopefully the cylinder and piston will show up next week and I will be able to get the thing back on the road. The other weird thing that I observed when I took it apart is that the timing marks on the crank and cams didn't seem to line up, i.e. when the crank was at TDC, the cams were both rotated off the marks. I am doubtful that both cams could have slipped on the chain, but it's hard to explain why the cams were off the mark, unless someone was in there before me and they screwed it up. Is it possible that it came from the factory like that? Well, after what I have seen over the years of wrenching on cars and bikes, I can believe just about anything.

Again, not much new on the Busa front. I have some plans in the works to make it better and faster, but I need to make a little money first to make that happen.

5/3/14 - This Week's Drama:

Well, regarding the Busa...not much going on at the moment, except that I will probably have to run it for a week or two on my commute. I was riding the KLR-650 on the freeway yesterday and picked up a big nail in the rear tire. It got a little sketchy for a moment when I felt the rear getting a little loose at 70 mph and I had to roll off the throttle an get the bike safely off to the shoulder. I was more than 1-mile from my exit (still on the freeway). I tried to push it, but not a chance. I ended up jumping back on the bike and rode it for 1-mile on the flat tire. The bike was all over the place and I'm lucky that I didn't get run over by a semi blowing by me at 70 mph. Anyway, got rescued with my truck and got the bike back to the house. Today, I will be taking off the rim to get that checked out, already got a new tire and tube on order. I am also installing a 685cc piston kit on that bike and I will probably start tearing it down today.

Oh yeah, my buddy Daveeed did the forensics on his Busa that he blew up at Mojave. It turns out that the cams and buckets were completely destroyed and I think he broke a valve. That was the exact reason that I was reluctant to go with super high lift cams. I read all of the horror stories about guys running big cams on the street and then having a meltdown after only 1-2K miles. I think that is exactly what happened to Daveeed and now he's got a big $2-3K minimum repair bill on his hands...head, cams, buckets, pistons, cylinder, etc... The moral of the story is; if you run big cams and ride it on the street, you're asking for trouble.

Oh, I got some more cool pix from Mojave...this one is my fave, check it out. The others are posted on my Photos page:

4/27/14 - What's Next ?:

It's been two weeks now since the Mojave event and I'm still having withdrawals from the adrenaline rush of going 200+ mph. I don't think a day has gone by that I haven't been thinking about it, and the sad part is that the next 1-mile event at Mojave might not happen until sometime in 2015. Jeeeze...it's only April and my race season is all but over. Well, hopefully not...I contacted the racing promoter and suggested another possible location and it turns out that they may already be looking into that. It's not really my place to say much about it, cause I don't know much, but I sure hope that they can find something and set up another event later this year. If not this year, at least find another alternate location where we can be guaranteed at least two or more events per year.

Regarding my bike, I couldn't be happier with the way it performed and how my engine build turned out, along with the tweaks that I made over the winter. The bike performed flawlessly and the only problems were rider induced, i.e. using the clutch on a couple runs when I was supposed to be speed shifting w/o the clutch. In fact, the bike runs so well that I even used it for my commute a few times after the event...still fun to ride and it's a hand-full. Of course, I can always use more power, but at this point I am pretty much tapped out with this setup. The one thing that I will do for sure is get an air shifter setup on the bike. I figure that the air shifter will cut the amount of time between shifts and prevent me from dropping too much RPM between shifts, vs. doing it manually. These setups are relatively cheap at around $300 and it is very easy to install. I figure that I will pick up a couple MPH with this setup and I will be just as fast, if not faster, than my buddy Daveeed...look out pal, here I come! The shifter could be the only modification before the next race, but we'll see how it all pans out. I could definitely squeeze some more power out of this thing with higher compression pistons and bigger cams, but how much is anybody's guess. I think I should just focus on the air shifter first and maybe improving the aerodynamics. I will probably get more bang for the buck there vs. spending $1500 on cams and pistons.

Other than that, it's going to be a busy summer. I have a couple big projects lined up and I would like to get it done before it gets too stinking hot here.

More later...

4/14/14 - Mojave Mile - Mission Accomplished:

The April 2014 Mojave Mile event is now history and the mission has been accomplished. I don't quite know where to start except by saying "WOW"....un-freakin-believable!!! This past weekend was so exciting and awesome that I wish I could do it every weekend! Long story short; I met my goal and made it into the Mojave Mile 200 mph club in a big way. Now for the long story...

It started out with a 5 hour drive down to Mojave on Friday morning. I arrived at the Mariah Inn Hotel around 2:00 pm, just as tech inspection opened up. Both my gear and the bike passed through tech quickly. I was teched in as a "Class A" driver with a 230 mph speed rating and the bike was rated for 250 mph...good-to-go. I hung out at the Mariah for the driver "meet-and-greet" that went from 6-7 pm. There were lots of new and old faces there and I hooked up with all of my racing buddies. I didn't stay out too late, because I wanted to be up and out the door in the morning, so I could be one of the first in the gate at the Mojave Air and Spaceport at 6:30 am.

Saturday morning, I woke at 4:00 am without a wake-up call, jumped in the shower and was out the door at 5:00 am, grabbed a quick bite and some coffee at Micky D's and I was sitting at the airport gate at 6:00 am. The gates opened promptly at 6:30 and I grabbed a good spot in the paddock area close to the starting grids. My buddies showed up shortly after and we were all parked in close proximity. We got the bikes unloaded and the drivers meeting started as usual around 7:00 am. At 7:30 am they had a "track drive" where everyone takes a spin down the track to get a look at the layout and make darn sure you know where the finish line is and where to start slowing down for the turnout. Anyway, I've been down this airstrip a couple dozen times, so I knew exactly what to expect. This year, they didn't have "reserved runs" for people who pre-paid, so they had a "Lemans" style start. When they gave the signal, me and my buddy Daveeed launched our bikes right up in the first gridline and were probably the first 5 or 6 racers lined up to make our pass. We headed down to the staging area by the starting line and it was only a few minutes until I was lined up at the start to make my first pass. I was lined up next to Daveeed at the start and he launched. Less than 1 minute later they gave me the signal to start and I made my pass. I got to the timing trailer to pick up my time slip and had a good feeling....BANG, Big Daddy got out the big hammer and pounded out a 202.4 mph pass right out of the box! What a way to start the day, I had a guaranteed 200 mph club t-shirt on my first pass...it could only get better, and it did.

I ended up making a total of 5 passes on Saturday, all of them over 200 mph and on the last pass of the day I hit 205.6 mph. The conditions were perfect and we had a strong tailwind behind us all day long and it was getting stronger as the day went on. I made my last pass around 2:45 pm and I decided that was enough for the day. In hindsight, I probably should have taken another 1-2 more passes, but I didn't want to push my luck...tomorrow's another day. I hung around the track for another hour and then loaded the bike up on the truck and headed back to the hotel. Saturday night, I got together with the racing buddies for dinner and a little celebration. My buddy Daveeed ended up with a 207 mph, but he lost compression on one of his cylinders, so his bike is probably toast. Fireman Jim pulled off an impressive 212 mph and I believe that his was the fastest pass for a naturally aspirated bike. There were other guys out there running faster times with turbos, NOS, etc, but we don't have that luxury.

Sunday morning started off in a similar fashion, i.e. up and out the door early. I got to the track and decided that I was going to change out my front and rear sprockets because I was geared too tall (19T/39T) and I was crossing the line at the top of 5th gear (one more left). I got the gears changed to 18T/40T and I was making my first pass around 9:00 am. I completed my first pass and got to the timing trailer for my time slip...what the heck...198.9 mph. I realized that I forgot everything that I learned yesterday, I was using the clutch again on the first few gears, when I should have been speed shifting without the clutch. Oh well, we'll get it right again on the next pass. I took a little break and got lined back up for my second pass. The wind on Sunday was definitely lighter than it was on Saturday, but it was a bit more of a tail/cross wind. I made my second pass and I felt the wind blowing me around a bit. I had to hang off the right side a little to keep the bike lined up on the center line...got back for my time slip and it was 200.0 mph exactly. With that second pass on Sunday, that made it 7 total for the weekend. I decided to pack it up because I wasn't going any faster and it was kind of pointless to make any more runs. I had already accomplished what I set out to do, so I felt satisfied with what I got. The only regrets are that I should have taken 1-2 more runs on Saturday and that I screwed up that first run on Sunday and didn't hit 200 mph. That would have been the icing on the cake if all of my runs were over 200 mph, but I think it's okay to be humbled. It gives me something to shoot for next time.

There's a lot more to the story than I feel like writing about, but I have to say thanks again to my sponsor APE Raceparts for the great support. These folks took the time out of their busy schedules to show up at the event and Diane, Jay and Pat went out of their way to come over and introduce themselves...total top notch company, people and support. I also want to thank all my friends and family for supporting me and believing that I can make it happen. I'll tell you that I do feel fortunate, because there were a lot of bikes and cars this time who were having trouble and they were dropping out like flies. I feel bad for these guy, especially Daveeed, who could have a blown piston.

Regarding "next time", I'm not sure yet when that will be. MKM Promotions (the race organizers) announced last year that the April event could be the only event this year. Usually they have another one around September, but I guess it ain't happenin this year...bummer. I hope everything is okay and that we can get two events in 2015. The only other alternative is running at Bonneville on the salt (not for me) or heading to Texas or further east to one of the other 1-mile venues. We'll see how things play out, but I'm doubtful that I will get to one of these other venues, but I have to say that I am curious (Texas Mile?). Last but not least, there are still a few things that I can do to make my bike faster. First, I am absolutely installing some sort of auto shifter on the bike. I really need to keep my hand off the clutch and that is one way to do it. Second, there are a few things that I could do to make it a little more aerodynamic...details later. Finally, if I want to go "all-in", I could change to some higher compression pistons and bigger cams...expensive proposition, but not out of the question.

I hope you enjoy the video and I will post more to my blog when I have more Busa stories to tell. By the way, I did post a YouTube vid of my fastest run and the award ceremony here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrqnVH6dTwU

4/6/14 - 5 days until Mojave:

I wanted to make one more post before Mojave. This weekend I got all of the last minute items buttoned up that I mentioned in my last post. I took the bike out for a short spin to make sure that my shift light was coming on at 11,200 rpm and it works like a charm. It was actually pretty difficult to test it on the street, because in first gear at 11,200 rpm, I am already doing 90 mph, so basically I got to see the light come on while shifting from first to second on the freeway. Man, I'll tell you...the bike pulls like never before, I think I unleashed the beast. The second thing I wanted to do was test the new video cam. The mount is set up so I can see the shift light and the rest of the view is through the windscreen. Unfortunately, the camera can't view the tach or the speedo, but the video and sound seems to be good quality and if we are looking at the shift light, we can see how many gears that I get through and where I cross the finish line. My plan for each pass is to turn on the camera when I head to the starting line and then turn it off after I show my time slip at the time keeper trailer. I'm also planning to get some vids and pics of the event in general. Hopefully, I can put together a nice little video documentary of the event. Again, my main goal is to bust 200 mph in the mile and get my "200 mph club" t-shirt for the 1-mile event. The weather forecast looks good, with temps expected to be in the high 70's and hopefully we will get that nice tailwind. I don't know if I'll be posting to the blog again before the event, so its "off to the races"...wish me luck!!!

4/5/14 - 1 week until Mojave:

It's almost here! This time next week (5:45 am, Saturday), I will be down in Mojave, CA, probably just finishing my breakfast at Denny's and getting ready to bolt for the gates at the Mojave Air and Spaceport. Gates open at 6:30 am and racing starts at 8:00 am. They have the usual "drivers meeting" around 7:00 and a "track drive" at 7:30. I'm am going to try to get lined up in the grid as quickly as I can this year, because they do not have "reserved" grid anymore for those who pre-register. There are over 100 entries that have pre-registered, so I am assuming that it will be a long wait between runs. I'm hoping that I get at least 4 runs per day, but I know that everyone bails Sunday afternoon and it's quite possible that we could be running laps by 3:00 on Sunday. However, I'm hoping to go out there and bust 200 mph on my first run of the day on Saturday morning. As they say, "the early bird catches the worm"...I have spent the last 6-months preparing for this and I am ready to go out there and get the prize (Mojave Mile "200 mph Club").

So...just a few last minute things going on. First, I have to finish the safety wiring on my oil plugs and rear axle nut...half-hour job. Second, I will run through my checklist and make sure I have a complete list of everything that I am bringing with me, e.g. tools, gears, computer, racing gear, etc... Third, I'm going to take the bike out for a spin this weekend and log some data on my Bazzaz tuner. After putting the bike on the dyno last weekend and getting it tuned, I want to get the Bazzaz logging some real world data. In fact, I'm thinking about running the bike down to an abandoned airstrip nearby and doing a few 1-mile speed runs. Last, but not least, I picked up a Polaroid XS100 HD action camera http://www.polaroid.com/xs100. This thing is like a Go-Pro, but the design is a little different, i.e. it's a cylindrical shape like a flashlight. Last year, my buddy let me use his Go-Pro and because of where I had it mounted, the rectangular shape kinda got in my field of view. The Polaroid takes up less area behind the windscreen, so I should not have any problems. I hope to capture some great video of the entire event and all of my speed runs. All of this stuff will most certainly get posted up on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXwxqYt-793ebX38ybVsrw.

Well folks...less than a week to go. I might make one more blog post before the event, and I will certainly be making several more afterwards with the results and the "play-by-play". I am soooo excited that I can hardly sit still. These are good times!

3/29/14 - 2 weeks until Mojave:

The countdown continues and it's only 2-weeks until Mojave. Great progress today...got the bike up on the dyno to see if my theory with the cam adjustments worked. Well...it did work and I am totally happy with the results. First of all the Hp numbers were not as good as last time. Peak Hp came in at 208.1 Hp and the peak was right up at the rev limiter 11,500 rpm. Last time I dyno'ed the bike made 220 hp, but I attribute the lower number this time to the barometric pressure and humidity. It was raining today, so the humidity was around 100%. With that said, I accomplished my goal of moving my peak power from 10,200 rpm up to the rev limiter. The last time, the power "fell off the cliff" after 10,200 rpm. This time the bike kept making power until it hit the rev limiter (11,500 rpm). That was the whole idea of changing the cam timing and it did exactly what I thought it would...mission accomplished!!! Now I can wind it out in all the gears and take full advantage of the power at higher RPM's. Given favorable conditions at Mojave, I am banking on the fact that the higher RPM's will easily get me over 200 mph in the mile. Last time I was sooooo close at 198.8 mph, so I figure that I can pick up that 1.2 mph, and then some. Next weekend I will do my final prep for Mojave. All I have left is some safety wiring and going through the final checklist. Here is what the dyno showed today, if you click on the pic, you can see a bigger image. The green line is A/F ratio and the red line is Hp...man, I just love how that Hp keeps climbing all the way to the rev limiter!!!!!

3/22/14 - 3 weeks until Mojave:

The days and weeks continue to roll by, leading up to the Mojave event. This week I made some brackets that move my foot-pegs back about 1-1/2" and down approx. 1/2". In order to do this, I also had to make a 3 cm spacer/adapter to extend the shift linkage. All of this is important for me, because I am 6'1" tall and without it, I can't tuck my elbows in and I get a lot of wind drag. If I can pull this off and get tucked in the way I want to, I should be able to pick up some speed from reducing the drag coefficient. One final issue that I have to deal with on the foot-peg brackets is that the end of the kickstand is interfering with the bottom of the peg. I've got some ideas on how to deal with it. Once I get everything worked out, I will be posting more information on my "tech corner" page.

Another issue came up this week. Over the winter when the bike was in hibernation, I noticed a small oil drip under the drain plug. I didn't think much of it...maybe need a new crush washer on the drain plug...whatever. Well, it turned out that the threads were stripped on the oil pan. Seems that this is a common problem on the Busa's because of the cast aluminum pan and the 14x1.25 mm fine pitch on the plug. I was stressing over it, thinking that I wold have to pull the plastics and exhaust again in order to change the pan. I started looking for oversized 14x1.25mm oil plugs, but they are just not out there. I ended up going to a 1/2-20 double oversize "D.O" drain plug. The thread pitch on the 1.25 vs the 20 is almost identical and the diameter of the plug is a bit larger than the original 14x1.25. However, when threading this thing up into the pan, you have to be damn careful not to go too fast or you risk cracking the pan. What I did was thread the thing in just like I was tapping a screw hole, i.e. go about 1/2 turn, back it out, then go another half turn, back out, etc... After finally getting the thing threaded all the way, I used a metal washer with the rubber center instead of the original aluminum crush washer. After all the threading, etc, I made sure to dump some oil into the fill hole and let it come right out the bottom in order to wash out any residual metal shavings. Finally, I put the new plug and washer in there and filled the oil. I just checked it this morning after filling it last night and it's perfect...no leaks. Got lucky on that one folks! I really didn't feel like changing the oil pan.

I should have everything buttoned up by tomorrow and hopefully be able to get the bike out for a spin. The dyno date is tentative now, because my dyno guy is having some computer issues. Hopefully he can get it worked out, so we can get the bike up on the dyno next Saturday 3/29. I can't wait to see the dyno numbers. By the way, I did get the bike fired up last week and it seems like it's running great. I posted a YouTube video of how it sounds without the muffler...check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubh_XkdjZzk

3/16/14 - 4 weeks until Mojave:

I made good progress on the bike yesterday. The aluminum subframe and Tiger undertail is all buttoned up, as well as all of the wiring. Basically, the only things left to do is to connect the oil and coolant hoses, gas tank, muffler and add fluids. I will then breathe the fire of life back into the beast and see what happens. I don't expect any problems, although, I may have to do a little tuning with the Bazzaz to get the air/fuel dialed in. I'm hoping to get the bike up on the dyno on the 29th at JT&S Performance. We'll see if all of this effort payed off when I see the dyno numbers. At the minimum, I would like to see a few more Hp and that my peak Hp shifted from 10,200 RPM up to a higher RPM, like 11,000 or 11,500. I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one and I will post the dyno results as soon as I get them. Oh, by the way, I got my injectors back this week and they were perfect. Other than that, I calculated the total weight loss from changing to the aluminum subframe components and going from stock exhaust to the Brock's stainless system. Between those two things, my total weight loss on the bike is 32.5 lbs. I posted a YouTube video about it...check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqSsmvcJ9A8

3/9/14 - 5 weeks until Mojave:

This was an interesting week, to say the least. I wasn't planing on it, but I picked up an aluminum subframe for my bike from a guy on Craig's List. Interesting guy...builds custom bikes, but had someone else put his Busa engine together and they put the pistons in backwards and broke a valve. I found out that all 99-00 Busas had aluminum subframes and in 01 they went to steel, because of some complaints of cracking and bending of the aluminum...likely due to riders carrying heavy passengers, etc... It turns out that these frames are about 8 pounds lighter than the steel, if you count the removal of the passenger footpegs. Well, I am too lazy to try and lose 8lbs of body weight, so I decided to spend the $100 for the subframe (actually, I am trying to lose a few pounds before the event). I figure that less weight = more speed and hopefully I will pick up 1-2 mph.

I pulled the engine out of the bike and inspected everything. I found carbon deposits on one of the intake valves on cylinder #1 (the valve farthest away from the fuel inlet). I am thinking that fueling has something to do with this, so I pulled my injectors and I am having them cleaned and flow tested. I should have the injectors and the results back by Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if there was a problem with the #1 injector. I am also going to improve my fuel rail for even flow to all the injectors. My plan is to open up (drill) the fuel rail a bit and to move the inlet from the end to the center of the rail. I'm also going to check my in-tank filter to make sure there is no blockage. Recall that I have an upgraded fuel pump and modified pressure regulator, so I should be getting plenty fuel pressure to the injectors. I really have to get a pressure gauge on this thing though to see exactly were I'm at. Oh, interesting guy at the injector place too. It turns out that this place rebuilds injectors, fuel pumps, etc and they will be a great resource for the future www.fuelinjectioncorp.com ...check them out.

Finally, after a long debate, I set my cam timing at 110.5/108.75 degrees. I found a great thread on the psychobike.com forum that explains the effects of narrowing and widening the cam settings. I will post the link in my "Links/Videos" page. According to the info, the settings that I selected should move my power band higher in the RPM range, but I may lose some bottom end torque. This is really what I was after, because I want my peak power closer to red-line. We'll see how that goes on the dyno (I hope) before Mojave. I'm running on a bit of a shoestring budget this year, so I hope I can actually get the bike on the dyno before the event. In fact, it's not likely that I will be able to run the MR12 magic gas because of budget constraints...any sponsors out there?

Today the engine will go back in the bike and I will take off the old steel subframe. Maybe by next weekend I will have the bike back up and running. Then it's off to test-and-tune...I can't wait to take this thing for a spin.

Well, back to the garage!!!

3/1/14 - 6 weeks until Mojave:

Here we go folks, it's March 1 and the countdown has begun for the 2014 Mojave Mile, at least it has in my mind. This week I woke up and realized that Mojave is only 6-weeks away. Yikes...not a lot of time left or safety margin to get done what I want to get done. I finally got off my arse this week and pulled the valve cover on the Busa. I found that the cam pin was hitting the cam position sensor and put a nice little divot on the bottom of the sensor. I was able to inspect the cam buckets and I did not see any wear...good thing, as I was worried about that. I was also having a debate with myself whether to pull the engine to degree that cams, but I decided that I'm going to move forward with the plan. My buddy Daveeed is supplying me with a cam position sensor and the degree wheel that I need to work on the cams. All that for a cheap Chinese lunch and a 12-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon (what a guy). This weekend I should have the bike mostly torn down and might be able to get the engine out, but we'll see how things go. I also started looking at how to re-position my exhaust pipe, so I can move my foot pegs down and back 1". It looks like I will need either a straight exhaust coupling or a coupling with a smaller bend than the one that is in there. I will also have to make adapter plates to re-position the pegs. Well...off to work on the bike.

2/15/14 - Workin like a dog:

Well, I finally got the job done on the Dodge Ram today. It ended up being a couple of bad valve lash adjusters (lifters). When I opened the valve cover, I found two rockers from cylinders 2 and 8 sitting down in the bottom of the head. Tell you what...I'll never buy a Dodge Ram. I had one and nothin but trouble, now I see rockers falling off on this one...bad engines and trannys on those things, yuk!

Anyway, now that I got that out of the way, it's back on the Busa. I ordered a spare airbox off e-bay for a spare set of short velocity stacks. I'm going to run all short stacks on the big Busa, because it's supposed to help the top end power. I have already mentioned the other stuff that I'm going to do on the bike, so I won't post the boring details again. It's a long weekend this week with President's Day, so I may actually get a chance to pull the valve cover on the Busa to get a look inside. Man, I can't wait to see what it looks like in there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing ugly jump out and bites me. Either way, it's Mojave or Bust...I'm going to race, come hell or high water. I've been watching the Mojave roster and it is now up to 59 entries and 13 of them are bikes. My buddy Daveeed is up on the roster, as well as George and several others that I know. It's gonna be a real hoot this time.

More later...

2/1/14 - February is here:

The weeks continue to roll by and Mojave is now 1-week closer. I'm really getting anxious to get that Busa opened up and to see how things are looking inside the engine. The main focus to make some more Hp and speed this time around is twofold; 1) degree the intake cam to 108 deg to raise my peak Hp to at least 11,000 rpm, 2) I will probably run VP MR12 racing fuel this time out. The MR12 is like liquid gold, i.e. it is about $125 for 5 gallons, but this stuff is proven to boost Hp on the Busa's, so I'm gonna give it a shot this time. The Mojave event in April is 1-mile only, so this is my only chance this year to bust 200 mph in 1-mile. Last year I did 198.8 mph in the mile and the bike ran out of power. I figure if I can shift my peak power to a higher rpm, that in itself will put me over the top, but the MR12 is going to be cheap insurance and a slight boost in Hp to guarantee 200 mph in the mile and another "200 mph club" t-shirt. I am quite confident that I will get there unless conditions are poor at Mojave, like a 20 mph headwind or something like that.

On another note; I got an inquiry from my website this week. A nice guy was asking some advice about building a 220 Hp Busa, and he was wondering if he should lower the bike stretch the swingarm. My advice to him was to build the bike for the purpose that he intends to use it. For example; if you are going to dragrace you would want to lower and stretch the bike and run shorter gears for the 1/4 mile. If you are going for land-speed, you want taller gears, maybe lower, but no stretch. If you are running on the street, probably no lowering and no stretch, otherwise you sacrifice ground clearance and maneuverability. Turns out that he's a heavier guy who just wants to run on the street and shut his buddies up from talking smack. I advised him not to mess with the height or length of the bike, but rather get the suspension tuned for his weight and riding style. The other thing that he should do is get the bike tuned through the entire rpm range (idle to full throttle). Busa's are very smooth and predictable even with all that Hp. I would venture to compare a built and properly tuned Busa to a Ferrari. Where else can you get that kind of Hp/weight with smooth and predictable power and stability? You just can't get it with 4-wheels unless you shell out $100-250K. Bikers might be a little crazy, but the thing that I like is that I can build that 200 mph, 2-wheeled Ferrari, for about $10K.

Well folks, back to the shop. I have a head gasket job on a truck to take care of and I will be tied up with that for the next couple weeks. After that, the Busa is going up on the rack...I can't wait!

More to come soon...

1/25/14 - BusaBob's Racing - January Update:

Man, it's hard to believe we're in the new year and January is almost over. This month has flown by like it didn't even happen! I'm sure it's due to the fact that I have been busy with work and working on side projects every waking moment. I mentioned a few projects in my 12/23/13 post and most of those are either complete or still in the works, i.e. got my buddy's RC51 sold and that turned out to be a win-win for all involved. The GT40 kit car is still in the works and the project could be going on for quite some time. I also finished up the KTM 300 dirtbike and it turned out quite nice. In fact, I took it out for a shakedown last night and I will be heading out again this afternoon to take it for a spin out in the dirt at the OHV park. I have a couple more car projects to finish before I can start wrenching on the Busa. Today I'm replacing front struts on my buddy's Camry and another friend from work is dropping off her son's 2005 Ram 1500 that has a blown head gasket. I am absolutely dreading the head gasket job, because it is virtually a complete teardown of the engine, with the exception of pulling the motor and disassembling the block. What the hell though...it's money and it helps fund BusaBob's Racing efforts. When all is said and done, I will probably start wrenching on the Busa around mid-February. I am keeping my fingers crossed that everything is okay inside the engine and that I don't find any nasty (expensive) surprises. I am already registered for the April Mojave event. Right now there are 34 entries and 7 of them are bikes. I know most of the bikers and it is the usual cast of characters. I just hope like hell that the Mojave event goes on as planned and they don't announce some cancellation like they did last year, otherwise I'll be putting my bike up on the truck and heading down to Texas for the Texas mile. Anyway, here's a few pix of the stuff that I've been working on:

Li'l Jimmie's RC51 Belkster's GT40 Kit Car BusaBob's KTM300 Dirtbike

12/25/13 - News Flash...2014 Mojave Dates Announced:

Just found out that the next Mojave event will be held on April 12-13, 2014. According to their website, this could be the "ONLY" event at Mojave in 2014. That means that I have a little more than 3-months to get registered and do what I'm going to do on the Busa to bust 200 mph in the mile. That doesn't leave me much time to do everything that I planned, but I will give it a shot. One thing I know for sure is that the cam degree settings will be changed. The other low-buck mod will be the short velocity stacks on the intake. If I can get to the other stuff, that will be a bonus. Let's see what happens!

12/23/13 - Merry Christmas...Winter Projects:

First of all, Merry Christmas to all and thanks for visiting my site, supporting, and reading my blog in 2013. It was a good year and I met my main goal of 200 mph on the big Busa. Next year (2014) should be filled with even more excitement. I am expecting that there will be two Mojave events, one around April and the other around September. The main goal for 2014 is to go 200 mph in 1-mile...plain and simple. How we get there is another story, but I think it can be done with only a few modifications on the current setup. I have already mentioned some of these proposed mods in my previous posts, so I will save the details for when I am actually performing these mods.

Well, I wish I could tell you that I've been working on the Busa, but the truth is that I have my garage full of projects to help me fund the effort. I'm getting another bike prepped and ready to sell for a good buddy of mine and I also have a GT-40 kit car that I'm working on for another buddy. I also bought an old 1994 KTM 300 EXC dirtbike. I only paid $500 for it and thought that I might have a cheap runner to play with out in the dirt, but it turns out that I bought myself a project. I opened up the engine and there was all kinds of metal inside the combustion chamber...the cylinder, piston and crank are shot. I am going to go ahead and make the repairs, because the chassis is in pretty good shape and I think the bike is worth saving. At the end of the day, I will probably have around $1200 into it, but I hear that these KTM 300's are great bikes. After making the repairs, at least I will know that I have a solid bike, and in the scope of things $1200 is not that bad.

Enough said for now...got to get back to the projects!

11/24/13 - Back to the Busa:

I'm contemplating my next moves on the Busa. First thing is to pull the valve cover to see what the cams and buckets are looking like. I will also check the valve clearance at this time. Chances are that I will have to pull the cams to re-shim the buckets. The other thing that I really want to do is re-degree the cams. I went a little bit conservative when I degreed the cams last year and I set them for 106.5/108.5 degrees. This time, I'm going to set them around the max, which I believe is 108/110 degrees. I'm pretty sure that this will help to get my peak Hp higher up in the RPM range, but I have to talk to some folks on the Busa forum to make sure this will do the trick. The other thing that I'm thinking about is going with a 1-gallon aluminum fuel cell and running an external pump and regulator. I will then ditch the stock fuel tank and go with some kind of lightweight cover.The other thing I should do to the fuel system is upgrade to the Honda S-2000 injectors and maybe a better fuel rail. I'm also going to take my buddy Daveeed's advice and go with the short velocity stacks on all of the throttle body intakes. If Santa is good to me this year and if it looks like the funds will be there, I may get some kind of lock-up clutch to improve my launch. Some land-speed fairings would also be nice and maybe an extended swingarm for drag racing. We'll see what the new year brings. I will probably start checking things out over the Xmas/New Year break, seeing as how I have some time off work. Still riding the bikes every chance I get...went on a nice 250 mile ride on the KLR yesterday.

11/10/13 - Some Other News:

It's not often that I'm not thinking or talking about the Busa. Well, this is one of those times...I'm really happy that I scored a great deal on a 2008 KLR650 over the weekend. The bike is in great shape and has about 19K miles on it and it has tons of extras. I have already done some of my own modifications on it and more to come. I'll tell you; it's no Busa when it comes to power, but it's a great commuter and weekend adventure bike. I had an older 1993 KLR650 that I sold along with my DRZ400 dirtbike to fund this KLR project, but I have no regrets, it's a great bike. I have a commuter bike because I like riding to work during the week, and let's face it, a 220Hp Busa is fun to ride, but it's not the most commuter friendly bike in the world. The other thing is that I can rack up miles on this bike and not worry about putting all those miles on the Busa...I'll just put on 1/4 mile, or 1-mile, at a time, as fast as she will go. Life is good!!!

Not much new on the Busa front. I'll start getting her ready for racing season in a couple months.

11/3/13 - News Flash:

I'm happy to announce that APE Raceparts will be sponsoring BusaBob's Racing in 2014, and for the second year in a row. Thanks Team APE...you guys are awesome!!!

11/2/13 - Planning for 2014:

Well, it's finally sinking in that the 2013 race season is pretty much over. However, it would be nice if I could get at least one more test-and-tune drag race up at Sacramento Raceway before the end of the year.

Right now, my focus is on planning for 2014. I have contacted my 2013 sponsors, APE Raceparts and Brock's Performance, and it sounds like they are on board for next year. The support from these guys was huge in 2013 and played a big role in my success. I also have letters out to a couple other potential sponsors and I have submitted my entry to the Champion Sparkplugs "Search for a Champion". I've got to get the word out on this one, because my chances of getting sponsored are not only based on the content and quality of my video, but also on the number of votes that I receive between Jan 6 and Feb 2. My video entry can be seen here: http://www.alwaysachampion.com/search-for-a-champion/entry/1534464#.UnUIQqPn-Uk If you click on the "home" page that is where to register to vote, so vote early and vote often, because BusaBob's Racing could really use this sponsorship.

In terms of what is going on with the bike; the bike runs awesome right now, but I need some more power and aerodynamics. There are three things that I will focus on:

Power: I think that I can make more power on the top end without major engine mods. I plan to change my cam degree settings from 106/108 to around 108/110. This will make the intake valves open sooner and exhaust will close later and will hopefully shift my peak power to a higher RPM. The other thing I will do if some cash comes my way is drop some higher compression pistons in there and maybe some bigger cams. It's not likely that it will happen this year, but you never know.

Aerodynamics: I big part of my problem this year was aerodynamics. Not so much that the bike itself has bad aero's, but since I'm a tall rider, it's difficult for me to get a good tuck (i.e. my elbows hang out, my legs are too high, and I can't get down far enough on the tank and behind the wind screen. I knew that these were an issue before I ran at Mojave this year, but it became very clear when I looked at the photos of me coming down the track (see below). In order to correct this, I am going to move in the handlebars, chop the fuel tank, and lower/move back my foot pegs...more to come on this.

Weight: Again, I am no Busa Jockey at 200lbs. I plan to loose some weight on the bike by getting rid of the rear footpegs, installing an aluminum Tiger undertail, and getting rid of the stock fuel tank and going with a 1-gallon aluminum fuel cell. The fuel cell idea will also allow me to lay down further on the tank, because I will have a lowered cover over the fuel cell vs. the bulbous stock fuel tank.

So you see, I have some big plans for 2014 and I believe that I will easily break 200mph in the mile next year. More to come...and remember to vote for me!

10/24/13 - Mojave Results:

More exciting news...Mojave Mile posted the results today http://mojavemile.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=12. It turns out that the three fastest guys in the 1-mile were my racing buddies Daveeed, FiremanJim and yours truly. We got 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the 1-mile M1 class. Daveeed will get a trophy for his fine performance. Funny thing is that I was within 4.7 mph of Daveeed's top speed of 203.5 mph...my best in the mile was 198.8 mph. I'll tell you what; that is not bad for the first time out after the rebuild. I still have a few things left in my bag of tricks, so next time out I'm gonna be the one in 1st place. Results were a little different in the 1.5 mile; Dave and Jim took 3rd and 4th, I was 8th out of 21. I think the reason for that is my Hp starts dropping off after 10,200 rpm and I am leaving at least 1000 rpm on the table because I should be making power up to 11,500 rpm. I will be taking care of that issue over the winter, and come April I will be running right up there with those two knuckle-heads. I feel really good about the results and knowing that I am within a few mph of some of the best racers that I know. The other thing is that I still went 200 mph, so I am now in the 200 mph club. The next goal is to bust that number in 1 mile. BusaBob's busa-build was a success!!!

10/19/13 - Mojave Results:

Well, it's been exactly one week since the "big dance" at Mojave. For the first couple days after the event, I was still going 200 mph. Even now, all I can think about is what I accomplished and what my next move will be. I'll tell you now; Land Speed Racing is better than any drug, and I am addicted. It's a good thing that they only hold the Mojave event 1-2 times a year or I would be broke. This event was an experience of a lifetime.

Now for some details about the event: Saturday was a good day...we had light shifting winds of about 10 mph and in the morning, it was mostly a headwind. It was sunny and the temp was in the high 70's. I made a total of 4 passes on Saturday; 186.8, 184.5, 193.5 (1-mile), 197.9 mph (1.5-mile). It seemed that the bike was tapped for power and in the mile, the shift light did not come on in 5th gear. After remapping my fuel for the conditions on the first and second run, things got better, but the gearing still seemed too tall. There were some impressive runs out there on Saturday, but it didn't seem like anyone was really posting the big numbers.

Sunday was a different story altogether. Winds shifted overnight and there was a strong 20 mph wind coming out of the west (track runs NW, so it was a bit of a side wind) with gusts of 30 mph or more. Before my first run, I decided to put a bigger sprocket on the rear to lower the gear ratio. Since I didn't break the 200 mph barrier on Saturday in the mile or 1-1/2 mile, I decided that I better start out with a 1-1/2 mile run. I finally got in the grid and completed my first pass on Sunday at 9:56 am. Boom...out of the box, I hit 200.0 mph. I went back to the paddock and was greeted by my riding buddies with congratulations. Man, what an awesome feeling to hit that 200 mph mark.

My next plan of attack was to bust 200 mph in the mile. I checked the tune on the bike and made some adjustments. On my second pass of the day, I lined up on the 1-mile course and I told myself that I needed to do a drag-race launch to bust 200 mph. I came out of the hole with a good launch, but the front end came way up in a power wheelie and I had to get out of the throttle a little bit to get it back on the ground. I got back in the throttle and ended up just short of the 200 mph at 198.8 mph. That would prove to be my best 1-mile run of the day. My last pass was at 3:10 pm and the winds were picking up. My buddy Daveeed said that the wind was getting a little scary and this would be his last pass of the day. I told him it would be my last one too, unless I didn't bust 200 mph...I was just kidding. I went out to make my pass...I had a good run going, but from the start and up till the 3/4 mile mark I was about 10 feet to the right of the center line on the runway. As I was going down the track, I was leaning to the right to counter the effects of the sidewind. Around the 3/4 mile mark I felt a gust that blew me from the right to the left and right on top of the center line. I had to back out of the throttle and ended up with 188.2 mph. That part was a little scary, so I made it my last pass...put it back up on the truck and "live to race another day".

I'm still waiting for the official results and my 200 mph club t-shirt, but after that there is certainly more to come. I believe that I should now focus on better airflow at the intake. I will also re-degree my cams and try to shift my powerband to a higher rpm. I will also focus on my aerodynamics in getting a better riding position behind the bike. I noticed in the pictures that were taken, my riding position was too upright, surely producing drag and restricting speed. I will be looking at moving my foot pegs to the rear and down and I will also modify the fuel tank, so I can get further below the windshield.

Please check out my updated Photos and videos. I have also started a YouTube channel that can be found in my Links / Videos page.

10/14/13 - Mojave Results:

Just got back from Mojave last night, so just a quick post with the results: 1-1/2 mile speed = 200.0 mph, 1 mile speed = 198.8 mph...yes, that means that I'm in the 200 mph club! What an awesome weekend at Mojave! I'm still coming down off the adrenaline rush from the whole experience. Now that it's over, I'm already thinking about what I'm going to do to my bike to make it faster. I will post pics and video in the next few days and I will also be revamping my website a little bit with the new info. Stay tuned!

9/2/13 - Mojave - Countdown Begins:

My Buddies made it back from Bonneville and Daveeed turned in a 200 mph pass on his first run and all others were under 200 mph. Some bad weather came in, so they only got a few passes each, and I don't think they had the chance to get everything dialed in perfectly. Anyway, enough about them...this is about me.

Mojave is now a little more than 6-weeks away. I am working out some last minute details and came across a puzzling issue; I used ECU Editor to set my rev-limit to 11,500 rpm. I was reviewing my dyno sheet (shown below...click on it to view full size) and it looks like I hit the rev-limit around 10,800 (stock Busa setting). I'm thinking that this can't be right...there must be some sort of rpm scaling issue on the dyno. The problem I have with all of this is; if my rev-limit is 11,500 rpm and the graph shows 10,800 rpm, then where does that put my peak Hp? According to the graph, my peak is 9,117, but if there is a 1,000 rpm scaling error, does that mean that my peak is 10,117? This matters a lot, because 1,000 rpm will allow me to wind out my gearing and gain more top speed. I put this question up on the Busa forum and it seems to be a mystery. They are recommending that I run the bike on another dyno to see at what rpm the peak really is. If I go by the graph, it looks like I could shift around 10,000 rpm, but I would much rather know exactly where my peak is and select the gearing and shift point based on a known value and not on an unknown. The way I look at it, the math has to be right first and I want to make sure that I have plenty of margin over 200 mph, based on peak Hp vs. rpm and gearing. After that, there are other variables that I have to consider like track conditions, wind resistance, and A/F adjustments.

I'm thinking that I might have to put it up on another dyno to take out the guesswork. I'm a little disappointed about this and I don't want to say what I really think, so I'll just leave it at that...

8/9/13 - Mojave - Game On:

I just got confirmation for my two-day registration at Mojave on Oct 12-13...bike number is "45". With the two-day registration, you get a Mojave t-shirt and a guaranteed grid spot on Saturday morning. I checked out the attendee list and it seems like there are a lot more bikes this year than last. Lots of Busa's and ZX14's, many naturally aspirated and a few with power adders, i.e. NOS or turbo. I also recognize some of the riders from last year and some that didn't show up last year, who are renowned LSR racers. There are also a lot of awesome cars registered and I expect to see at least a few break 200 mph. This is a dual-distance event, where you can run a mile or a mile and 1/2.

I personally don't expect to break any records, because there are a lot of folks on Busa's who have "been there and done that". However, my main goal for this event is to go at least 200 mph in one mile. If that is not possible with my setup, I will try to do it in the 1-1/2 mile, but either way "Big Daddy" will be listed in the 200 mph club and I will walk away with the 200 mph club t-shirt.

As I mentioned in my last post, I got the Bazzaz running and now I'm logging data. I rode the bike to work today and after the map adjust from the Bazzaz and the bike is running the best it has since I did the rebuild. Again, the beauty of the Bazzaz is that I can make adjustments at the track for the given conditions and do a little tuning on the spot if I want to add or take fuel away. I will also make sure that I have a couple different gearing setups in case I'm having trouble reaching the speeds that I want. All that is left to do now is oil change, tire change and a little safety wiring. Two months and counting till Mojave!!!

8/3/13 - Data Logging Capability:

I'm a happy camper tonight because I finished the installation of my Bazzaz Z-Fi w/AFM system. Even though I love ECU Editor and all of it's capabilities, with my particular setup I was not able to see engine data. This was due to the interface that I made and I believe that there was some sort of conflict with the RS232 device that is in my interface. I could make edits to my maps, etc, but for some reason I was not able to flash my ECU directly from ECU Editor and I had to use the Renesas development tool instead. To most of you, this is probably mumbo-jumbo, but basically what I'm saying is that I did not have the full capabilities of the ECU Editor program, due to my interface device. The only other drawback for me is that I had to spend hours of research to figure out how to use ECU Editor and it seems that development for Gen 1 Busas ended long ago. In no way am I knocking ECU Editor, in fact I think that the guys who developed it are geniuses and I thank them for developing this powerful tool.

With that said, the history on the Bazzaz is that I found the system on Craig's List for $100 along with a few other Busa parts. I thought I would give it a shot, because these systems run somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 and I figured I couldn't lose even if the Bazzaz didn't work. Well, when I installed it initially (I believe it was right after I completed my engine build) it didn't work. In fact, the bike would not run at all...pulled the Bazzaz out and everything was okay. My first thought was that I bought a piece of junk and I was ready to chuck it in the trash. I didn't chuck it, instead I called Bazzaz tech support to see if there was anything I could do to troubleshoot the system. Turns out that Bazzaz really stands behind their product and the tech told me to send the unit to them and they would check it out at no charge. I sent the whole system to Bazzaz and a couple days later the tech called me and said that he found a couple pins swapped in one of the connectors and he fixed it no charge and sent it back to me. Mind you, that this was a used system and I was not the original purchaser.

I have been sitting on this system for months, because I changed over to my Brock's exhaust and I didn't install the bung for the o2 immediately when I installed the exhaust. As I mentioned in my last post, I finally pulled the pipe and got the bung welded...it was off to the races after that. Today, I installed all of the electronics for the Bazzaz. I have to say that it was a very easy installation and the hardest part was lifting the tail section to access the switched power going to the tail-light. Before getting everything buttoned back up I wanted to fire up the bike and make sure everything was working. I turned on the key and heard my fuel pump come on, hit the starter switch and BAM!, she fired right up. I then plugged my laptop into the Bazzaz and launched the program. Checked a few things out, set my target A/F to 12.8:1 and started logging data. It took a minute for the o2 to warm up and then low and behold, I was reading the A/F ratio and it was running in the neighborhood of 12.8:1. I was only able to see the A/F at idle and I revved it a few times and it picked up a low spot. Tomorrow, I will get everything buttoned up and take it out for a spin to log some real data. I can't wait to see the results from the data logging, because if you read my earlier trials and tribulations, you will know that I had a hell of a time getting my maps dialed in.

This Bazzaz system is gong to let me sleep at night without worrying if it's running too rich or too lean. I am gonna bust the number at Mojave folks...200 mph club, here I come! Yeeee-hawww, life is good being a Busa ridin red-neck! Okay, I'll stop now...I think I'm getting carried away.

7/28/13 - Bike Prep for Mojave:

Doing a bit of tinkering today in preparation for the upcoming Mojave event. I've been talking for a long time about installing the Bazzaz-AFR system. Today I finally got around to pulling the exhaust and getting the bung welded for the o2 sensor. It turns out on the Brock's system there is not a great place to install the o2 sensor on the y-pipe. I ended up putting it on the muffler where the coupler from the y-pipe feeds into the muffler. I'm also building a new shift light out of a Harbor Freight flashlight. I already had a shift light that I made out of two LED's, a resistor, and a piece of aluminum, but it was kinda ugly and I wanted more LED's and something that looked a bit more like a real shift light. You can read about these mods on my Tech Corner page. I have a full set of instructions on how to build the shift light and I think it's a pretty slick setup.

7/14/13 - Tuning Update - ECU Editor:

After my outing at Sacramento Raceway on June 7, I discovered that the Busa was still a little rough at idle between 1800-2200rpm. In addition to that, 3 out of 4 header pipes were glowing orange again up near the head. Last time I had the glowing header issue the bike was too rich and timing was retarded. This time it turned out that I was too lean because I pulled too much fuel out of the IAP and the MAP at the lower RPM and TPS range. The other reason that I know it was lean is that I pulled the sparkplugs and they were a white-ish yellow color, a clear indication of a lean condition. I think that I was so wrapped up in fixing the fuel economy issue that I had previously (see 6/2/13 post) that I pulled out just a little too much fuel. To adjust the IAP and TPS this time, I believe that I put about +5 counts back in where I previously took it out. I reflashed the ECU, fired it up, and let it idle for a good 15 minutes...no more glowing pipes! I went and fueled up, reset the trip meter and took it for a good long ride. Now the fuel economy is sitting around 34-36mpg...still not bad for a 220hp beast. I rode the bike into work 2 days last week after making the edits to the MAP's and it ran great...good throttle response, nice and smooth rolling on and off the throttle, no herky-jerky. Next on the agenda is getting the Bazzaz and the o2 sensor installed. Then I can really see what is going on with the A/F ratio because I will be able to data log and make adjustments accordingly. I want to get this done well before the Mojave Mile event coming up in October. I believe that being able to log data and tune at the track may be the difference in breaking 200mph in the mile, or not. The other thing that will get me there is my gearing. The bike certainly has the power to get there, it will probably come down to a few variables including; tuning, gearing, and track conditions. We'll see what happens. I will post another update as soon as I get the Bazzaz installed.

6/2/13 - Sacramento Raceway:

Well I took my bike out on the Sacramento Raceway dragstrip for the very first time last Friday June 7. Friday nights at SAC are test-and-tune and drivers can race from 6:00 to 10:00 for $50. I went out there with my good buddy Daveeeed, who is an experienced racer and is also the guy who got me addicted to the Hayabusa experience. The experience at SAC was a bit unusual because it was one of the hottest days yet this year. The temp when we got there was about 106F and I believe that the track temp was around 140F. There was only 5 motorcycles out there and maybe 6 cars. We basically had the track to ourselves and could have ran laps if we wanted to. On my first run, I blew a spark plug probably a result of over torque when I checked them on Friday morning. Thank God that I was able to get the threaded part out of the head and nothing fell into the cylinder. Luckily, Daveeeed had a spare set of plugs and I was able to keep running. I quickly learned that drag racing is not easy. After several crappy runs, trying to figure out the launch, shifting, riding position, etc...I was able to pull off a 10.45@141mph. I know it's not that impressive, but I'm pretty happy considering it was my first time dragracing ever, and that my gearing is set up for LSR. My buddy ran a 9.77@150mph and he's about 40lbs lighter than I am and has the same gearing on his bike. I should also mention that my other buddy came up there with his electric car and set a record for the 96V electric class. I think he ran about 15sec@85mph. Not very fast by Busa standards, but fast enough to get him a record in that class. I will run the 1/4 mile again soon and I will get in the 9's next time.

6/2/13 - Busa Tuning "IAP/TPS Map Revelations":

Anybody remember the old REO Speedwagon album title "You Can Tune a Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish"? Well, my interpretation is "You Can Tune a Piano and You Can Tune a Busa". Not sure if this will help many people, since there is a lot of data-logging and expanded capabilities for tuning Gen2 Hayabusas. However, if you have a Gen1 like me and you do not have data logging capability, you might want to pay attention, especially if you have a Busa or other Gixxer with the "Herky-Jerky" problem. My bike does not have any peripheral devices connected (yet) like Power Commander or Bazzaz. I am strictly tuning the bike using the software and interface found on http://ecueditor.com/.

First of all, keep in mind that I am no tuning expert, so any adjustments that you make to your maps are at your own risk. However, I'm here to tell you that the adjustments that I made to my IAP and TPS maps made a world of difference. After my last dyno session, my bike was very twitchy when rolling on the throttle (herky-jerky), it had a flat spot around 3000 rpm, and my fuel economy was suffering (28 mpg average). To some degree, one might think that a heavily modified bike with 220 hp would not get great fuel economy. If that was the only issue, I could probably deal with it. However, the poor fuel economy combined with the other issues were just too much for me to bear. It might also be okay if my bike was just a race bike that was only used on the 1/4 mile or for LSR, but the truth is that I still occasionally use this bike to commute back and forth to work, street riding, or a pleasure cruise. That was part of the reason why I built the bike the way that I did and used a somewhat mild cam selection etc...I want to use it for purposes other than racing. The bottom line is; the mods that I made to my maps fixed all the issues; no more herky-jerky, no more flat spot, and to top it off, my bike now gets 39.6 mpg average with a pretty aggressive riding style. Lets get to the details...

The reason that mike bike was particularly susceptible to these issues (in my opinion) was that I increased my fuel volume and pressure by installing an upgraded fuel pump and performing the "crush mod" on the pressure regulator. In my last dyno session, adjustments were made at 25, 50, 75, and 100% throttle. There was also some adjustments made in the idle section of the map, but not much in the IAP and TPS where the throttle is normally held during normal riding. If you are familiar with ecueditor, my IAP/TPS switching point is set to 8.1%. This is the point (throttle position) where the maps switch from IAP to TPS. If the maps are not set up correctly at this switching point, or transition, this is where you will experience the herky-jerky and flat spots. Additionally, your fuel economy will suffer if you are running too rich down in the IAP map. The main point is that most street riding is done while rolling on and off the throttle, somewhere between 0-50% throttle position. The fuel settings in these maps, especially the transition areas (in my case 8.1%), are very critical to the driveabilty of your bike on the street.

Regarding the IAP and TPS transition points, PetriK 2008, et. al. do a good job of explaining this on the ECU Hacking forum at the following link http://ecuhacking.activeboard.com/t15237500/tuning-the-fuel-maps-initial-thoughts-and-concepts/. I have learned a lot form PetriK and the others that created the ECU Editor and thank them for that. Without the powerful tools that these folks developed, I would not be talking about this. However, there is so much information on the ecuhacking site that it is hard to filter through all of it and many of these folks have long moved onto Gen2 development, so the Gen1 seems to be all but forgotten. This lead me to perform my own analysis of the data, were I compared a stock Gen1 busa map (can be automatically generated in the ECU Editor software) to my modified maps from my dyno sessions. The way I went about this was to load the IAP and TPS maps in the ECU Editor and then cut and paste them into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

After many hours of slicing, dicing, comparing, and graphing the data, I was able to see where my problem areas were. In particular, the main problem areas were; in the IAP map between 2000 and 2400 rpm. These areas were way too rich and this is were I believe that the poor fuel economy came from. The other problem was the transition area between the IAP and TPS maps. When these maps switch back and forth at 8.1% throttle it is critical that there are not big variations in the numbers between these two maps in that area. I had to compare the deltas of the IAP and TPS on the stock maps vs. my latest maps to determine where the problem areas were. This is where I believe that the "herky-jerky" problem was corrected. Finally, I had a flat spot around 2800-3000 rpm. When I was rolling on the throttle, the bike would basically fall on it's face for a second and then come back on. This was less noticeable if I came on the throttle hard. I was able to find the problem area by graphing the TPS data in the spreadsheet. The stock TPS graph vs. the TPS graph from my latest dyno session showed me immediately where the problem area was and I adjusted the map accordingly (smoothed out the numbers). This is shown graphically in the image below. You can see where the fuel dropped off where it is labeled "Problem Area". The other thing that I did was to take the delta between the TPS and IAP by subtracting the IAP numbers from the TPS. The second graph below shows this delta and you can see all of the numbers in the lower left are negative, where all of the numbers in the upper right are positive. I'm sure that this shows some significance of the transitions between the IAP and TPS. The last thing that I did was looked for any huge jumps in the numbers in the IAP and TPS. I found a few areas in the TPS where the numbers took a huge jump, say from 60 to 100. In the third table below, you can see that the numbers typically increment in a smooth manner. I found that at some of the RPM and throttle positions, the numbers were taking big jumps in the positive or negative direction. I smoothed all of this out, except at the levels above 30% throttle and the high RPM areas.

At the end of the day, the bike still has all the power that it had after my last dyno session, yet the throttle response is predictable and as smooth as butter. I have attached my Excel spreadsheet at the bottom of this page for anyone who is interested in seeing the data. If you have any questions, you can reach me here at my Contact link.

4/13/13 - Dyno Results:

After my last dyno run in March, it was determined that I did not have enough fuel in the high RPM range. According to sources, the stock injectors are supposed to support up to 230Hp. Since I already replaced the stock fuel pump with the Bosch pump, it was determined that fuel pressure was the culprit. Luckily, there is a little modification that can be done to the fuel pressure regulator that will increase fuel pressure. This modification is called the "crush mod". The image below shows the actual pressure regulator. Basically, what you have to do is crush the top part around .030-.035". There is a spring inside the top section and by crushing the case, it applies more pressure on the spring and therefore provides more fuel pressure. It was actually a good opportunity for me to make this modification because I didn't safety wire the regulator in place when I changed the fuel pump. There have been some stories of other folks blowing the regulator out of the pump housing after installing the higher volume fuel pump. So I did the crush mod and safety wired that little baby back in the housing.

After taking care of the mods, it was back to the dyno at JT&S performance in Sonoma. FiremanJim strapped the bike down on the dyno and made the first pull. As expected, the bike was rich because of the increased fuel pressure...perfect, the crush mod worked. After quite a bit of tweaking my maps and several pulls we hit the magic number...220.2 Hp @ 9117 RPM / 135 Ft Lbs torque. Needless to say, but I am very happy with these numbers. 220 Hp was my goal at the onset of this build and I finally got there. Not bad for a streetable bike that runs all motor and on pump gas. I would expect another 6-10 Hp if I use the magic racing gas at the track. That will put me up in the 230 Hp range and there is no reason that I should not be able to reach 200 mph in the mile at Mojave. You can check out my dyno sheet in my Bike Specs page.

3/24/13 -Hayabusa Update:

I finally got the bike up on the dyno and tuned yesterday by JT&S performance in Sonoma, CA. Overall, it was a good day...I pulled some respectable numbers and learned a few things in the process. The first thing I learned was that the bike was really running pretty crappy before I got it up on the dyno. I already knew this, because my fuel economy was only about 20mpg during my 400 mile break-in on the engine. This was due to two things; 1) my TPS (throttle position sensor) setting had me at about 9% throttle at idle, 2) the TPS setting had me sitting in a super rich range on my fuel map. In lamen's terms, I was dumping way too much fuel in the bike at the low throttle range. We fixed this problem by placing a jumper on the factory connector and getting the code to come up on the display. There is a small bar on the display and when the TPS is adjusted on the throttle body, the bar will go top-middle-bottom, the optimum setting is in the middle.

After we got the TPS issue sorted out, FiremanJim got to tuning. The first pass was 205hp and way too lean up at the high RPM range. After some more tweaking on the maps and several pulls on the dyno, we had one pull at 219hp/135ft-lbs torque. It appears that the bike has more potential, but it turns out that my stock fuel injectors are maxed out and/or I am not delivering enough fuel pressure. These issues can be addressed with some bigger injectors and making a slight modification to the fuel pressure regulator. I will take care of these items and I have no doubt that the bike will make over 220hp.

At the end of the day, I am sitting at 215hp @ 9146rpm / 135ft-lbs torque. I would say that is not too bad for an amateur engine builder, I am totally happy with the results. The bike runs, rides, and sounds great and the power is awesome. My baseline before the rebuild was about 165hp, so my performance build netted me 50hp. After I take care of the injectors and another dyno pull, I should be sitting right around the 220hp that I was shooting for.

Dyno sheets can be found in my Bike Specs section in the attachments. More to come...

3/17/13 -Hayabusa Update:

I was finally able to pop for that Brock's exhaust that I have been dreaming about for months. I received it on 3/15 (Friday) and installed it first thing Saturday morning. I ended up getting the Brock's full stainless system with the Short Meg muffler. I put the thing on the scale and the whole system weighs less than 10lbs. Better yet, I took the bike out for a short spin after the install and that thing barks like an angry dog. All I can say is WOW, the Brock's system is awesome...Brock's Rocks Baby.

I also just got done installing a Bosch fuel pump on the bike today. According to sources, the stock fuel pump may not deliver enough fuel for my big CC bike. Last thing I want to do is starve the bike of fuel when I am running up at 11,000+ RPM. Don't let anyone tell you that it's easy to install the Bosch pump. It takes a bit of engineering, cobbling, and electrical work to get it to fit. It's actually a fuel pump for a Porsche, but has about the same guts as the Busa pump. There's a plastic housing around the motor that has to be removed andf this can be done with a drift punch and rubber mallet. There's also a small metal valve on the stock housing with a tube that has to be shortend to clear the connector on the new pump. You also have to splice in some extra ground wire because the new connector is not the same as the old one. There is also a white plastic piece that has to be clipped to fit on the new pump. I would not attempt this install without removing the fuel tank.

The moment of truth is soon approaching, i.e. I have a date with the dyno next Saturday 3/23 at JT&S Performance in Sonoma. I am hoping to see some big numbers up in the neighborhood of 220Hp. The only thing that could hold the horsepower down (in my estimation) would be my cam selection. My cam profile is fairly agressive, but still somewhat street friendly. In order to get bigger Hp numbers via cam selection, I would have to go with an extremely agressive race cam profile and it would basically limit my use of the bike to the track only...not going there, I want to ride this thing.

Here are a couple pics of the Brock's exhaust. Next update will be after my dyno run...dyno sheets coming soon!!!

Busa's Rule!!!

2/18/13 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Rebuild Complete:

Well folks, all of the drama and suspense with the rebuild is pretty much over. I completed the rebuild this weekend on my 1441cc Suzuki Hayabusa with a few finishing touches like installing a second battery for a 24V starting system and doing a little tuning to get the bike running right. I have also completed the engine break in and I believe that the new piston rings are seated and all of the new engine components are happy in their new home.

There were a few challenges that I faced on this rebuild, being the back yard engine builder that I am. First, when installing a new crank, rods and pistons, I learned that bearing clearances are extremely important. I did a lot of research, measuring and checking before I purchased my bearing set and the research paid off. I purchased my bearings, installed them and checked all the clearances and they were perfect. Second, piston deck height, “squish”, ring gap, piston to valve clearances, and valve lash are all critical and play a key role in performance…these must be checked. Third, I installed some performance camshafts with adjustable sprockets and “degreeing” the cams was quite the challenge. Despite watching a couple videos and reading about the degreeing procedure, when it came down to it I felt like a helpless child and I had to call a buddy to talk me through the process. When I got him on the phone, it took us all of 5 minutes to degree the intake cam. Finally, just because the engine is slapped back together and everything is turning does not mean that it is going to run right. I was able to get three different maps (not including my original map) for the ECU from similar bikes and I tried all of them. The first time I fired it up was a scary moment for me. Not that I had major problems, but more out of concern for my investment. I have a lot of money tied up in this rebuild. The bike fired up on the first try and I let it idle for 15-20 minutes at 2K RPM to break in the cams. After letting it cool down completely, I fired it up again and took it out for the first spin. Everything was running good up to about 8K RPM, where the power fell flat. This was likely due to the ECU map being for a NOS application. On the second run, I loaded another map for a 1441 and the power was good across the RPM range, but I was having some idle problems. Again, I took a short spin and this time realized the HP and torque that the bike has. The third time out, I tried another map from my buddy’s 1397. The bike ran okay with this map on the road, but still having some idle problems. I got it back to the garage and let it idle a bit and I noticed that the exhaust header on cylinders 1 and 2 were glowing orange. At this time, alarm bells started going off in my mind. I started doing some research and it seems that this is a somewhat common problem and is due to a “lean” (not enough fuel) or “rich” (too much fuel) condition with retarded ignition timing. I did notice that I was blowing a bit of black smoke out the pipe and could smell unburnt fuel. The other tip-off was that the spark plugs were a bit fouled with carbon, so to me, this indicated an overly rich condition. The other thing that I did was pulled my fuel injectors, back-flushed them, and swapped injectors 1-2 with 3-4. After a bit of tweaking the air/fuel ratios in the idle map and advancing my timing by 1 degree in the ignition map, the bike is running much better…no more black smoke or melt-down on the exhaust.

The other thing that I was up against was hot starting problems because of my high compression. I ended up getting a second 12V battery and running it in series with the starter circuit to make a 24V starting system. This is a common fix for high compression bikes and I pretty much knew that I was going to have to make this modification. I made some rubber cushions for the bottom of the battery and I secured it underneath the fuel tank and on top of the transmission by the crankcase breather. No issues starting now, the bike pops right over, even on a hot start.

After all of this drama, I took the bike out for a spin yesterday afternoon and I am here to tell you that the bike has some incredible power. I got it up to at least 10K RPM in first through third gear and the bike literally took off like a rocket. I had to really focus on hanging on and making sure that the front end didn’t come up off the ground. Not bad for a rebuild by a back-yard mechanic and an ECU map that I tuned by myself. I can only imagine what this bike is going to be like after a get it up on the dyno and get it tuned with the optimal air/fuel ratios and ignition timing. I have no doubt that the bike will be capable of breaking 200 mph in the mile at Mojave.

There are still a few things remaining that I have to do on the bike. First, I am going to sell the Yoshimura RS-3 exhaust and install a Brock’s Performance “Short Meg” system. I believe that the Brock’s systems are the best out there and I can get a great deal on the system because they are my sponsor. Second, as I mentioned before, the bike has to be tuned on the dyno. At this point, I have no way of knowing where the air/fuel ratios are right now across the RPM range. The dyno and tuning will take care of this problem to optimize the A/F and set the bike up with a baseline for maximum performance. Last, I want to have some data logging capability on the bike. What this will do is collect real-time A/F data from the o2 sensor and store it in an A/F module. I can then retrieve the data on my laptop and compare it to the optimal A/F ratio, where I can then adjust the A/F to compensate for conditions on the racetrack. At the moment, I have such a system (Bazzaz), but it did not seem to be functioning properly when I installed it, so I removed it from the bike. I called Bazzaz, who is the maker of the system, and they will check out the system at no charge, I just have to send it down to Southern Cal.

I want to take a little time here to thank some key supporters. I want to give special thanks to my sponsors, Team APE and Brock’s Performance. These guys allowed me to stretch my budget on my build and the tech support and customer service from these folks is fantastic. I will be proud to represent Team APE and Brock’s Performance in 2013. I can't forget Rick Ward at Ward Performance for a great job on the CNC ported head and for taking time out of his day to answer all of my head and cam questions. I would also like to thank my riding buddies for putting up with all my “Big Daddy” BS and supporting me, namely; “Li’l Jimmie” FJR1300 (AKA BBD “Beamer Baby Daddy” GS1200), “Big Joe” YZF R1, “Clanker” PC800, GL1800, “Shaka” CBR1000, “Beamer Bob” GS1200. I also want to thank “Daveeed” GSX1300R, who is my riding buddy at Mojave and longtime friend, who borrowed me parts and tools, and would virtually give me the shirt off his back if it would help me out. He is actually the one who got me interested in Land Speed Racing and he has gone over 200 mph in 1-1/2 miles…also shooting for 200 mph in the mile. Also, “FiremanJim”, who is a record setting racer, 200 mph club member, and dyno tuner at JT&S Performance in Sonoma. Not only can this guy find power where nobody else can, but he also answers questions and helped me out when I couldn’t figure out how to degree my cams. I would also like to thank a few key people on the SuzukiHayabusa.org forums, Shawn, Bryan and Joe. They either set me up with maps for my ECU or helped answer some questions for me. Last, but not least, I want to thank my family, especially my wife Char for putting up with all my car and bike projects over the years and my recent aspirations to become a racer and to build a monster Busa.

Well, that’s about it for now. I am truly ecstatic that I accomplished this rebuild and that the bike is up and running as good as it is. Time to quit talking and do some riding! I will continue to post on my blog as things progress. I should have some dyno results soon and I am hoping for some big numbers out on the racetrack. See ya soon!

2/10/13 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Rebuild Update:

Good news this week related to the engine build. I got the engine installed in the bike last weekend and buttoned everything up yesterday and fired it up. As of now, I am going through the break-in procedure, but I did have the pleasure of taking it out for a couple short rides yesterday. From what I can tell so far, the bike has crazy power. However, during the initial break-in I have to be a little cautious with the RPM's and not lug the engine or get too high into the RPM range. I have two issues right now: 1) need a second battery because of the higher compression...having trouble turning over when hot, 2) I have to find a good baseline map for my ECU. I have four different ECU maps and so far I have tried three. Each one of the maps so far has not provided good throttle response through the entire range of the throttle. I have one more map that I can try today, but I have a feeling that this is going to take a bit of time and tuning. Ultimately, to get it right, I am going to have to get the bike up on the dyno to have it optimized. I also need the dyno to see what I gained in HP and torque and I hope to see some big numbers. In the mean time I have a Bazzaz tuning system (similar to Power Commander) that I am going to install on the bike. The Bazzaz has a air/fuel module that gets connected to an o2 sensor in the pipe and monitors the A/F ratio and logs the data. I can then take the data and tune the A/F ratio accordingly to optimize my tuning. This is no substitute for a good dyno tune, but it may get me on the road until I can get the bike on the dyno. It will also allow me to tune the bike at the track, based on variables such as air intake, density atmosphere, etc. That's it for now, time for some more break in and tuning.

2/2/13 - April Mojave Magnum Cancelled:

I found out this week that the Mojave Magnum event that was scheduled for April 20-21 is cancelled. Details can be found on the Mojave Mile website http://www.mojavemile.com/. This is really a letdown for me and I apologize to my sponsors for this unfortunate situation that is completely out of my control. The good news is that the October 2013 event is still a go, barring any more bad news from the race promoters. The other good news is that I am almost done with my build and a expect to get the engine buttoned up and hopefully back in the bike this weekend. Maybe the cancellation is a blessing. It will certanly allow me more time to break in the bike and get it tuned for optimum performance in October. Who knows, maybe I will even make a few passes on the drag strip this year.

1/26/13 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Rebuild:

It's been a while (too long) since my last update. Unfortunately, not much has been happening lately because I have been waiting patiently for parts. My Ward CNC ported head arrived a couple weeks ago and I also got my .395/.378 Web cams from APE Performance. Basically, all that I am waiting for is some cam chain guides and then I can get everything back together. I will put a little time on the engine this weekend because I can still bench shim the head/cams and check my piston-to-valve clearance. I was hoping to get it all back together this weekend, but there was a little mixup on one of my cam chain guides (got the wrong part). It has been tough being without the bike for two months now. At least I picked the right time (weather wise) to tear it down. It has been at or below freezing in the morning, so it's not like I would be using the bike to commute to work in the morning. However, I'm sure that this build is going to be well worth the wait. I can't wait to grab the throttle for the first time and see what kind of monster I created. It will also be exciting to see what kind of horsepower and torque that I can pull on the dyno. I am hopeful that I will see 220+hp. The nice thing is that I will now have full closed loop data logging, which will allow me to capture the actual parameters of the bike on the track and adjust those parameters as needed, such as air/fuel ratio, etc. This is going to be one hot setup for the street and track.

12/31/12 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Rebuild:

Happy New Year!!! (Almost) Well, finally making some progress on reassembly. I received all of my new main and rod bearings. The bearing selection was perfect, as all clearances were measured with plastigage. The bearing selection was actually pretty straight forward because all of the info is in the Busa service manual. However, you do have to make precise measurements on the crank journals with a micrometer for the rod bearings. In addition, the journal codes are etched into the crank and on the case for the main bearings. You have to match up these codes and then select the bearings with proper color codes for the mains. Despite the bearing codes, you still have to check them all with the plastigage to assure proper clearances. I was actually a bit intimidated before performing this whole procedure on the bottom end, but I took my time and did everything by the book and it all turned out perfect. Kudos to me...it is officially a "stroker". Tomorrow I will get all of the bits and pieces installed on the lower cases and then fit the pistons on the rods, install the cylinder block, and check my deck clearance for the cylinder head. The next challenges after that will be degreeing my cams and setting the piston to valve clearance. Again, I am a bit apprehensive because these are critical steps, but there is plenty of information available on these procedures.

12/22/12 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Rebuild:

GREAT NEWS THIS WEEK!!! I got sponsored by "Brock's Performance" http://www.brocksperformance.com/. Brock's offers innovative racing products for motorcycles, and they are especially known for their high performance exhaust systems. The sponsorship program administrator (Ben) is a great guy and he told me that he has "been following my build online". Kudos to Brock's Performance for giving a helping hand to racers like me and supporting the racing community. Same thing goes for my other sponsor, "Team APE" http://www.aperaceparts.com/. These guys are awesome and spent the time to answer all of my questions and provide the best parts that money can buy for my build.

Regarding the build, it's going to be a slow week in terms of wrenching on the bike. I am waiting for my main and rod bearings and I need those to start putting the engine cases back together. I also had a little setback on the cams because I took a chance on a used set of .415/.395 cams, but they had too much wear on the lobes and journals for my liking. Luckily, I was able to return them to the seller for a refund and I sent my original cams to APE Performance to get them done up right, with a .395/.378 profile. I feel that this cam profile will be more "streetable" and it will still give me plenty of power for the track. In addition, I am still waiting for the head to come back from Ward Performance and there were a few other odds and ends that I am waiting for from some other suppliers. As soon as I get the rest of my parts the rebuild will resume.

12/15/12 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Rebuild:

Well, the cases are split and the crank is out. For a bike with 40K miles, the internal engine components look surprisingly good. The inside of the engine is very clean and the only noticeable wear is on the main and rod bearings (to be expected). Other than that, everything else looks perfect. Just goes to show that good maintenance really does extend the life of an engine. I have already received many of the parts needed to complete my 1441cc big-bore, stroker build. I now have the crank, cylinders, pistons, rods, and cams. The only major component that I am waiting on is the CNC ported head and I should have that by next week. Yesterday, I weighed up the new pistons and rods and I can match them all up within 0.5 grams. The only items still remaining to purchase are; bearings, gaskets, sealants, cooling fan, and cam chain. As soon as I get those items, I can start putting it back together. Not sure if I will make my Christmas deadline, but I expect that it will be up and running by the end of January. No big hurry, but I would like to get it running and be able to break in the engine before it goes on the dyno and certainly before I run at Mojave in April.

12/2/12 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Teardown/Rebuild:

Not much activity this week in terms of working on the bike. I may split the cases today to see what the crank and tranny looks like. Most of this week was spent stressing over which parts to buy. I picked up a great deal on some Web .415/.395 cams, Wossner rods and a Gen 2 crank. I still have some reservations about running high lift cams for a mostly street application, but I am reading that the combo I selected is about the max that one would want to go. I also sent my head to Ward Performance for CNC porting and a valve job. Rick Ward is going to carefully check the pressure on the new valve springs and give me 55-60# pressure on the springs, which sounds like it might be the right pressure to ensure proper valve seating and not put too much stress on the valve train. I will probably send the cylinder block out to APE Raceparts this week to get it bored and get a new set of 13:1 pistons. After that, I have to think about all the other bits and pieces like bearings, gaskets, etc. I am here to tell you that building these bikes is not cheap.

11/24/12 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Teardown:

Well, the teardown has commenced. Getting the engine out wasn't too difficult, I just hope it goes back in in a similar fashion. After pulling all the hoses and connectors, labeling everything and bagging parts, I pulled the engine mounts and dropped the engine out. I put the engine up on a work table I spent the rest of the day Friday tearing it down...pulled the cams, head, and cylinder block. Lots of carbon deposits on the pistons and valves. The cylinder walls looked great, no scoring and I could still see the cross-hatch from honing. Saturday was another full day of teardown and I got almost all the remaining parts off, getting ready to split the cases to take a look at the crank and transmission. So far, the only thing bad that I found is that one of the lobes on the intake cam was about .010" smaller than the rest. This really doesn't matter though, because the cams are getting replaced. Depending what the crank and rods look like, I will then determine if this will be a stroker build our not. Heck, if I can get a good deal on the whole big-bore package and a crank, I might just make it a stroker anyway. I will talk to APE Raceparts next week to see what king of goodies they can set me up with...should be interesting.

11/17/12 - International Motorcycle Show:

I went to the International Motorcycle Show in San Mateo, CA last night for the 5th straight year. It was nice to go on a Friday night and beat the Saturday crowds. There were some interesting things to see at the show and a lot of focus from the manufacturers now seems to be on "adventure" bikes. However, it was sad to see that the Suzuki booth was pretty dead and they only had one lonely Hayabusa on display along with the rest of their lineup. They didn't have any swag in the booth, and no Suzuki brochures for their full lineup, just small individual cards for each bike model. Funny that there were just a few old guys sitting behind a plastic fold-up table and all they told me was that they "don't have any entry forms for their bike giveaway". What is going on with Suzuki and their marketing? They could have at least hired a few models to attract some attention to their booth. It was ironic, however, that the highlight of the show for me was a tricked out Hayabusa that was on display just as I walked into the show (photo below).

11/10/12 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Build Update:

This was an exciting week, because I picked up my first sponsor (APE Raceparts). Based on my original budget, this sponsorship will allow me to go with the 1441 stroker build and not have to worry about coming up with extra cash for incidentals like clutch and tranny parts. I will be able to do pretty much everything on my wish list, minus a turbo setup. However, the combo that I am going with probably is not right for a turbo anyway, so it's going to be all motor folks. I had to re-think the cam situation after reading some horror stories about running high-lift cams on the street. There were some stories about cams and buckets getting destroyed after as little as 1K-3K miles. This is not a mistake that I am willing to make, so I will go with a milder cam combo like .395/.385. There are also some other considerations like oiling, cooling and compression that I have to get sorted out. This will all take some research, but the teardown will commence Thanksgiving weekend.

11/3/2012 - Hayabusa Gen 1 Engine Rebuild:

Right now I am in the process of doing research for the up and coming engine build on my stock 2005 Busa. I'm not sure yet if it will be 1397cc or 1441cc, but we will see how far the dollar will go. I'm afraid if I go with the 1397cc and don't put in the stroker crank, I will have regrets later on. The reason that 1441cc is my limit is because I would like to keep this bike somewhat streetable. My first plan of attack is to tear the engine down to see exactly what I am working with. I have a budget and once I have the head and block off the bike, I will order the big bore kit and CNC port and send in my cores. I'm not sure yet where I will go with the cams. I'm thinking that I want to go 415/395, but I could be convinced otherwise. Again, the goal is to make 220+whp, but to keep it streetable. I need to do some more research and ping the forums to see if anyone is running this cam combo with a big bore and CNC port on the street.

More later...

Busa Bob