[Beairsto Racing]

I never had any issues with the mounts that Richard has previously fabbed up for the 2 ignition boxes, but he hated them and didn't feel they belonged on the bike, so I gave him a little artistic freedom.

The bike currently has a pair of Trailtech Vapor digital guages, they were the cheap and dirty fix to give me tachometers. However, the bar graph is hard to make out and I can't tell if the engines are revving at 9 or 10 grand once I'm underway. We found this tach, it's a little busy with all of the smaller needles but I'll probably buy a couple...plus it gives me oil pressure and oil temperature.

Well that's it for now until the swingarm design is finalized.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Scott, iff the original forks are no good over the rough sections do you think
increasing your unsprung weight by filling the arm with lead shot will cause the back end to be no good over the rough sections ?

This year, the first 2 miles on the long course was extremely corrugated towards the end of the week when I was finally running on it, the front end just chattered across. Once fitted, the "new" forks will go to Race Tech and get some upgrades.

Adding weight is one of the secrets to going fast on the salt. There are turbo bikes with over 400 pounds of ballast, guys use a car valve cover for a mold and bolt them to the swingarm...extra points for using a finned Mickey Thompson or Corvette. Although far from ideal, we need to keep the weight as low as possible and on the rear wheel.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Now is that i have finally had time to catch up with your thread. Thanks for the updates.:cheers

So my question is since you are an offroad guy also. How does that salt flats feel? Like sandy clay, hard pack sand? I know for sure its not the sugar sand we have down here.

The conditions vary from year to year. Bonneville naturally floods for most of the year, some years it never really gets a chance to dry out in time for Speed Week in August...then it's like driving in slush. There have been more records set over the years at the World Finals in October because the salt gets a couple more months to dry out, however that event often gets rained out, as it did this year.

The salt surface changes through out the day. Even if conditions are considered quite good, as the ambient temperature rises, the moisture is drawn up through the salt and it becomes damp and slippery.

It can be loose and you scoop it up into a ball and throw it. It can be so hard that you need a sledge hammer to pound stakes into the salt for the pit canopies. You can spin the tires and just glaze the salt over with a black mark or you can tear it up and leave a rut.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

A few more pictures of the new swingarm design. The jackshaft sprockets will be 18 tooth, to match what is on the rear countershaft.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Great project Scott. So the only reason to use the jackshaft is so you can fit a 200? Don't they make Z rated tires in 180 or 190?
Nice job on all those machined & anodized parts by the way. Looks the biz...

Z rating is no longer enough, I had those in 18", now the rules specify that it actually has to be a "race" tire and they are only available in 17" and 190 or 200 width. I send the new tires to Nate Jones and have them shaved and re-profiled, they are then legal for 265mph. Above that, you have to run car land speed tires.

The existing swingarm is just too tight with modern rubber. It is made of very light guage steel...almost sheet metal...very light, would probably crumple at a drag strip...I always had confidence that it was engineered well. However, we need to add some ballast for traction and thats another reason to build a heavier arm.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

More progress on the new swingarm design, bracing will be next...

 

[Beairsto Racing]

I see, that makes sense. Are you going to stick with the twin shocks, if the arm is going to be wider than the old one?

Yes, the plan is to stay with the twin shocks...might have to make new spacers for the upper mounts...Race Tech custom built them for us last year, they only have about 5 runs on them, I need to get a little bit more of my money's worth out of them.

There isn't enough room for a single shock set up, it's pretty busy with the fuel tank, pump, regulator, lines, battery box etc without having to re-engineer the rear of the frame...it's already 10 pounds of crap stuffed into a 5 pound bag.

A pair of struts would be even easier...some cars & bikes have run solid without suspension, however you are really dependant on absolute perfect surface conditions. Even just an inch of travel can allow the drive wheels to stay in contact with the surface rather than skittering across the bumps.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

I have a.d.d. but found it on page 6.thanks

No worries...there are no dumb questions.:cheers

This is a pretty cool video about a private meet in September.

http://espn.go.com/videohub/video/clip?id=7190038&categoryid=2378529

 

[Beairsto Racing]

The adjusters and bracing has been finalized. We will get a quote next week for the new swingarm...I'm a little apprehensive, it looks expensive.

I've been in Kenya for the last 3 months, it's time to get home and work on my own junk.

The plan is to get the fairing mounted while I'm home in December and have the time to fit it, measurements etc. The new body mounts arrived yesturday.

Then hopefully the swingarm will be ready in late January and we can continue with the modifications to the rear of the bike, mount the tail etc.

Plus all the extra work to keep everything functional...make the clip-ons and controls work in a very narrow space...move the oil coolers... extend the exhaust out the side or to the rear, I'm undecided...new dash and guages...fabricate a rear stand that will slip under the long tail and raise the rear wheel for starting, etc.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Richard Bak, my mechanic is also a machinist and makes what we need. However we use a factory to CNC everything when we can off the cad programs and the one off stuff becomes a little more affordable.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Just curious, why do you need the first set of sprockets to be adjustable?

A friend in my small town has a KZ 1000 with the same design of swingarm. Im pretty sure his are not adjustable.
I think he bought it from. http://www.tracdynamics.com/index2.html

Good questions...the countershaft to jackshaft chain will be relatively short and unfortunately will run hot as a result. I don't see how you could install that chain properly without it being a little too short or a little too long, and still be satisfied with it and not need to adjust the tension. One side of the jackshaft will want to pull, the other will want to push. The chain will inevitably stretch / wear under 5 miles of full throttle and may require further adjustment before it is out of spec.


We also wanted to run bigger bearings on the jackshaft than what the manufacturers were offering.

We looked at several companies, some were lightweight drag race units...not what we need, when I actually want the completed arm to weigh over 200 pounds with the lead shot. And there is alot of cheesy chrome crap out there as well for the Daytona Bike Week crowd.

An outboard bearing set up would have given us more options but the coupler screws that idea.

In the end, we ended up designing what we think will work best with the Double's frame, incorporating the features that we need and the bike's intended purpose. There didn't seem to be a way to get around having to build a one off arm, but that seems to be par for the course with this project.

It's a pretty heavy duty arm, I plan on throwing alot more horsepower at it after we clean up the areodynamics.

Cheers,
Scott

 

[Beairsto Racing]

The engines are 1316cc each with lots of head work and all the good parts, comparable packages have made @200hp. No idea what it makes at the rear wheel...do we lose a bit throught the coupler? Probably. Do we lose some more at Bonneville's high elevation and constantly changing air density? Yup.

The Double is too long to fit on a bike dyno, we hope to use a car dyno before the next event just to flog it...tuning is done on the salt...I just want to see if we are done breaking stuff.:cheers

Again, wrap it in a slippery body and see what it runs with these engines.

What's cooler than a twin engine bike? Twin engines with a pair of turbos, water to air intercoolers and running on alcohol. :frantic Long term...that's where this is headed...while still keeping some of that delightful oil cooled character! I've been collecting parts and will continue to whore myself out in 3rd world countries to support this project.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Some progress has been made with figuring out how to mount the new fairing and keep it legal with the rule book. Although the goal is to go fast, there are restrictions concerning how far forward the front of the fairing can protrude, length of the tail section, height etc.

The lower edge of the fairing will be trimmed back a little to provide some more ground clearance. A full length belly pan will be beaten out of aluminium.

Rather than messing up the side of the fairing with the headers poking out, a pair of exhaust pipes will run under the right side foot peg and exit out the back.

The 4 oil coolers will be relocated, we might have to add a couple of NACA ducts to force air through them.

The current tail section doubles as the gas tank, a new fuel cell will be fabricated and mounted in the rear sub frame. The existing automotive fuel pump and regulator will be replaced with smaller items.

The order has been placed for the new swingarm components, we should have them delivered by the end of the month and then Richard can tig weld them together. Before I returned to Dubai, I dropped off a couple hundred pounds of lead shot at his shop. He will fill the swing arm and part of the frame to add ballast for traction.

Although we are still a long way from having to worry about paint, I am entertaining the idea of a vinyl wrap with a first gen blue / white theme.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

159 days to go until Speed Week!

The swing arm components are finished and have been shipped. The arm itself wil be checked on the chassis and then welded together.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

The front mount for the fairing was fabricated and the sides use the new mounts that were machined last fall.

Now it's on to the oil coolers...as we are trying to reduce the frontal area and don't want them hanging off the sides of the bike like before, there is alot less room to package 4 of them within the body...we may try stacking them together in pairs...or find some sort of creative solution and stuff 2 in the tail etc.

The clip-ons and controls are going to have to be redesigned as well. It's a good thing the rules limit steering to only 15 degrees each way, because it's tight in there. My only concern is that they need to be angled enough to give me some leverage at low speeds.

The tail section will have to wait until the new swing arm is installed. Then a new fuel cell, fuel pump etc will get mounted in the rear.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

This project is gaining some momentum again!!

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Last weekend, I visited Richard's shop and we sorted out how I'm going to steer the Double. I stretched across it and made appropriate engine noises, I think I'll have enough leverage to steer it at low speed...gyroscopic effect should keep it upright from there on.

The big beefy front fairing mount grew a little more and now ties the fairing in at two more points. I'm looking forward to getting the windscreen fitted, it looks like a fighter jet canopy.

What to do with the exhaust has been debated...do we try to run them out the back?...do we make some "blisters" to cover most of them up?...I think the quick fix for now will be to water-jet some stainless trim to fit around them and use lots of heat shield on the inside of the fairing, the header tubes might get wrapped too.

We have a game plan for the oil coolers now too, I'm pleased that everything is falling into place.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

Richard has started aligning the swingarm pieces and tig welding it together.
The jackshaft sprocket will get sent out for surface hardening.

This chapter of the project has proven to be very effective in quickly converting money into shiny one-off bits of steel and aluminium.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

The Southern California Timing Association has been hosting Speed Week in August since 1949, more info can be found on their site below:
http://www.scta-bni.org/#

BUB offers a motorcycle only event in September and run under AMA and FIM rules ...pick your poison.:cheers

As I compete with the SCTA, I run under their rules and sanctioning body. The Double's class is 3000 APS/G...engine displacement is 3000cc or less, but more than the previous class of 2000cc(big jump!)...the "A" is for Altered Frame / Special Construction..."PS" is Partial Streamlining and there are lots of rules concerning how much the body work can cover the bike and rider..."G" is a gas class, it is still race fuel but ERC provides the event fuel and I have a choice of several approved ERC race fuels. Gas tanks have to be sealed by an official after being filled in the "gas" class. If the bike qualifies for a record and is impounded, fuel samples are taken before and after the record return run. Displacements are also measured, so you have to be able to tear down the engine(s) and reassemble if you want to keep running. Inspections, qualifiers, records etc are all detailed in the vehicle's log book.

Yes, you can build a recumbant style chassis and have the engines behind you but you still have to meet chassis and body rules / restrictions. The ultimate land speed racer is a streamliner that completely encloses the rider and engines...2 or 4 wheeled, you have to have roll cages, parachutes, fire suits, fire systems, fire walls etc.

Human powered bicycle streamliners are very efficient. Here you can get away without a windshield and just use a camera.

 

[Beairsto Racing]

This is Airtech's / MDR Racing electric bike that Kent Riches rides.
The Double's new body is based on this design.
I will have good visibility once I'm tucked down inside the fairing.

I'm off to Calgary to get a pair of tachs, oil pressure and oil temp gauges for it...2 of everything pretty much always!