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Ok, I've finally gone and done it. This thread will provide a centralized place to post the appreciation for the 1970s and 1980s AMA Production Superbikes that some of us embrace. This is a good thing ... at the very least I'll no longer feel the need to post pics and stories about these bikes, their riders, and their builders among other threads. Creating a home for this subject will also provide a place for others that have an appreciation for the machines of what many call the Golden Age of Production Superbike racing to post images and stories of their own. The style, the look, the innovative ideas, and many times the nasty ill-handling "wobble monsters" that were born from production streetbikes that were never meant to be on a racetrack. Welded steel tube frames that were just plain ~wrong~ in nearly every respect ... handling, lack of rigidity, less than optimum weight distribution, flexy suspension, lack of durability in the engines, overweight ... all of which created high degrees of challenges when it came to running them on racing surfaces.
King Kenny (Kenny Roberts) used to call this class "the diesels" .... and one can easily see why!
Lectron "Blue" carbs (made of plastic!), Lockheed brake calipers, Koni rear shocks. The rules said the rear tail light had to be operational ... so rather than having the light powered by the engine's electrical generation system power the light, they installed a 9 volt battery in the light's housing, which got them through tech inspection. Some bikes had hand bent exhaust systems, evident by the long graceful curves of the headers (opposed to sharp 90 degree bends done on a mandrel tube bender). Rear suspension setups taken from 1970s dirt bikes .... forward mounted and laid down, this lifted the back end of the bike and helped tuck in the front end. It also increased rear wheel travel to about 6 inches. The rules also stated that the stock headlight bucket and headlight mount had to be used, so most bikes simply angled the headlight bucket upward and mounted a large number plate to the bucket, thereby creating a sortof "cheater fairing". If you look at the engines' side cases, many of them were "chopped" at an angle to increase cornering clearance. So bikes even had custom alternators (or none at all) to permit smaller yet side cases.
Lots of really neat "let's see what we can get by with" innovations. Whatever it took to get the overweight, underpowered, "wet noodle" framed production streetbikes to make them at least half-assed race bikes.
Please feel free to comment as well as post any images you may have or have located. I'll be adding to this thread fairly regularly, as time allows as well as when I happen to locate yet unposted pictures and/or stories. Have fun, folks!
More to come as the hours, days, weeks, and months go by ....
? ? ? ? ? ?
King Kenny (Kenny Roberts) used to call this class "the diesels" .... and one can easily see why!
Lectron "Blue" carbs (made of plastic!), Lockheed brake calipers, Koni rear shocks. The rules said the rear tail light had to be operational ... so rather than having the light powered by the engine's electrical generation system power the light, they installed a 9 volt battery in the light's housing, which got them through tech inspection. Some bikes had hand bent exhaust systems, evident by the long graceful curves of the headers (opposed to sharp 90 degree bends done on a mandrel tube bender). Rear suspension setups taken from 1970s dirt bikes .... forward mounted and laid down, this lifted the back end of the bike and helped tuck in the front end. It also increased rear wheel travel to about 6 inches. The rules also stated that the stock headlight bucket and headlight mount had to be used, so most bikes simply angled the headlight bucket upward and mounted a large number plate to the bucket, thereby creating a sortof "cheater fairing". If you look at the engines' side cases, many of them were "chopped" at an angle to increase cornering clearance. So bikes even had custom alternators (or none at all) to permit smaller yet side cases.
Lots of really neat "let's see what we can get by with" innovations. Whatever it took to get the overweight, underpowered, "wet noodle" framed production streetbikes to make them at least half-assed race bikes.
Please feel free to comment as well as post any images you may have or have located. I'll be adding to this thread fairly regularly, as time allows as well as when I happen to locate yet unposted pictures and/or stories. Have fun, folks!
More to come as the hours, days, weeks, and months go by ....
? ? ? ? ? ?