Prep & Mods (11/97)

Michael and Morris from GMD Computrack LA had both bikes in the shop all month, so I didn't get any other maintenance work done. The second F2 started its transformation from a street bike to a race bike with the full treatment from Computrack:

The Penske 8987 provides three-way adjustment - high and low-speed compression plus rebound. As Michael was loading the bike on the trailer he casually mentioned that the Penske 8981 shock on the first bike could be upgraded to the 8987 - "what the hell, take that one too". I sure didn't want any whining next year because one bike was 'better' than the other!

Along with the usual excellent work, Morris also suggested increasing the slack on the chain to 1-1/4" for less rolling resistance and to ensure that the chain doesn't tighten up too much at the far ends of swingarm travel. Michael had the front fender tab welded in place - I had finally found an epoxy that held up (Aeropoxy ES6279), but nothing is better than welding!

To get an idea of how precisely the Computrack guys do their measurements, Morris measured the uninstalled length of the front springs before sliding them in and found one to be 1mm shorter than the other. To compensate for this, he installed one fork tube 1mm shorter in the triple clamps.

Front	preload	none
	rebound	5 clicks from max
	sag	25mm
	fork tube height	20mm (left)
		21mm (right)
Rear	preload	28mm
	compression	11 clicks from max (fast)
		3 clicks from max (slow)
	rebound	9 clicks from max
	ride height	8mm
	sag	25mm

I swapped out the recommended 5wt fork oil in the Shindy steering damper for 10wt oil. The 5wt was just too light.

Since I didn't have any bikes to work on this month, I turned my attention to the ATC 70. We rebuilt the top end, bored the cylinder 1mm over, rebuilt the carb & fuel petcock, threw on a new pipe and drive chain. Can you say first-gear wheelies? Lotsa fun.

Steve has been busting his hump lining up new sponsors for the 1998 season. Tyr Sox came on board a couple of weeks before November's race so we picked up a couple sets of their tire warmers. My initial impression is very good stuff. I'll have some pictures taken and give a full report next month.

Of course, the tire warmers are useless without some juice, so we scoured the Parts Trader and came across an Onan 5000 watt generator. It's a big mother and a bit noisy, but it had all the bells & whistles at a price I couldn't pass up. The tire warmers take 800 watts per set, so there'll be plenty of juice left over to run the gear in the trailer (more on that next month).