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Sometimes you're the bat in life. Other times, the ball.

Hey guys we've made a lot of progress in the past weeks, some of which is thanks to your responses and advice. I have to admit I'm a bit nervous about this weekend. So much effort has been put in from so many people coming from lots of different directions. Pretty cool actually watching this bike take shape. Kind of inspiring. This odd ball's got some charisma apparently.

First Gerry Piazza measured the Superduke R. Once his eyes uncrossed from looking at our chassis numbers he told us to raise the front end or just ride to Alice's this weekend instead of Infineon. So I called Jon Nichols, from Nichols Manufacturing, the next day. I've known Jon a while now. I have great respect for him. He makes some pretty trick F-18 parts to pay the bills, but his real passion is Motorcycles. I told Jon to call me on the day he planned to start cutting so I could film the process. Catfish and I shot that day last week. Fascinating process. And I mean, completely fascinating. I plan to put a video together next week. I'll post a link when it's done. For now though, here are some images.

DSC_0272.jpg


DSC_6711.jpg


DSC_6754.jpg


DSC_6761.jpg


DSC_6826.jpg


Once the boys at Nichols Manufacturing finished fabricating their new triple clamp Derek took the Superduke R with the new triple mounted - back to Gerry Piazza to be measured again. Rake went from 23 to 24 (much better), trail went from 97 to 101 (much better again), and the rear swingarm angle went from 7 degrees to 8 (slightly better).

Then Phil got back into the forks, and shock, and hopefully now our valving is back in somewhat of a normal operating range of movement/compliance. Finally Phil doesn't have to hold the bike up with valving anymore..


Please anyone with ideas or feedback, come by this weekend. I've been involved with testing before, but never in development. All knowledge is welcome knowledge in our pits. Or you can just come by for crackers. We'll have crackers..

Good luck this weekend everybody!
 
Rotten Randy said:
I've got a '08 Superduke R....
Front preload is at 5 turns clockwise
Front rebound 16 clicks out
Front compression 18 clicks out
Click to expand...

Rotten Randy, I wish I could share a knowledgeable opinion with you on your settings but our R is so far from stock on valving and shim stacks and spring rates, and now on angles and heights as well - I think our numbers would hurt you far more than they would help you.

Where do you ride that thing? Maybe we can hook up on a track day.

No I did not just use the term hook up, with a guy
 
Good luck this weekend - the people in your pics are good people and if they're in your corner...you'll do well!

Have fun my friend!
 
Aw com on Eric, I call foul. Your a damn tease! This is bike pr0n, show us the entire finished clamp!!!

Did your redesign reduce the offset distance? It looks like the actual height is lower than the stock unit? Collar depth? 2 pinch bolts? Damn, I guess I'll just have to make time and drop in this Saturday and see it in person.

I'll bring a spray-can of cheese to go with the crackers.

Ed
 
Last edited:
That triple looks trick as hell. I'll be the creepy kid checking out your triple clamp at the races. :laughing
 
This thread is full of win.. :thumbup

As in entertainment.. information.. bitchen photo's and amazing writing.

Love the vid at the shop.

Good luck this Weekend Go Go.

Hope to see you there.

:smoking
 
Never posted from the track before. We just finished the first day of testing with the new triple. WHAT a difference. Finally again we can push hard enough through a turn to feel the front pushing back - before my adams apple gets pinned to the pavement while sparks fly everywhere. Very exciting stuff. Really cool to be a part of making something work better than it came stock. I remember in 07 when I ran a Gixer 1k for a weekend. Bike was all over the road. Got the shock valved, the forks built, everything set just right but really, it still sucked when you really pushed. Then David Bell told me to put an 8mm spacer under the shock and BAM, the bike was instantly on rails.

Now there's no one to ask. No easy way up the ladder. But we had a good pace out there today I think. At least in some sections. The longer rake lets you muscle the bike through a turn without overpowering your traction. We're still not out of hot water though. We revealed some issues with stiction in the forks today. Finally easing up on the valving made the stiction stick out like a sore thumb in the carousel. Also the esses. The forks came apart twice today chasing stiction. They are again apart tonight.

Could someone bring vaseline please?
 
GoGo said:
Never posted from the track before. We just finished the first day of testing with the new triple. WHAT a difference. Finally again we can push hard enough through a turn to feel the front pushing back - before my adams apple gets pinned to the pavement while sparks fly everywhere. Very exciting stuff. Really cool to be a part of making something work better than it came stock. I remember in 07 when I ran a Gixer 1k for a weekend. Bike was all over the road. Got the shock valved, the forks built, everything set just right but really, it still sucked when you really pushed. Then David Bell told me to put an 8mm spacer under the shock and BAM, the bike was instantly on rails.

Now there's no one to ask. No easy way up the ladder. But we had a good pace out there today I think. At least in some sections. The longer rake lets you muscle the bike through a turn without overpowering your traction. We're still not out of hot water though. We revealed some issues with stiction in the forks today. Finally easing up on the valving made the stiction stick out like a sore thumb in the carousel. Also the esses. The forks came apart twice today chasing stiction. They are again apart tonight.

Could someone bring vaseline please?
Click to expand...

Good luck out there GoGo... sadly I wont be able to make it out there this weekend. Here's hoping the gremlins are found and eradicated. :thumbup
 
you okay, eric? you wadded in T10 about 35 seconds after i left turn 10 and headed for the backside of 9.
 
:laughing "Backside of Turn 9" at Sears, er, Infineon -- not Hwy 9!! :facepalm

:confused Hope things got ironed out, Eric!

Yana:banana
 
Thanks Joe :blush and ditto! ;)

I've not met GoGo/Eric -- yet I love his narratives and vids. :thumbup Hope he's ok!

Waiting for next installment.............

:teeth
Yana:banana
 
VERY interested in your suspension developement. I weight about 175lb on the bike. I've changed to KTM's lighter rate springs but I'm still not happy with the suspension.

its very twitchy when there is uneven pavement in a turn. I constantly find myself making adjustments while in a turn. I figure there's a revalve of the forks in my future.
 
fast4d said:
VERY interested in your suspension developement. I weight about 175lb on the bike. I've changed to KTM's lighter rate springs but I'm still not happy with the suspension.

its very twitchy when there is uneven pavement in a turn. I constantly find myself making adjustments while in a turn. I figure there's a revalve of the forks in my future.
Click to expand...

I also think a revalve is in order, but expect you'll still find the bike unstable in corners (comes with ~97mm trail). I've dropped forks down ~4mm below top of the triples and bike feels slightly more stable when leaned over, but is still over damped and conforms poorly to surface features.

There is a solution.... you throw money at it! :p
 
If I had my way I wouldn't change a thing on the Superduke R until I tried the upper triple we have now. What a mother of a difference it makes. Stable, confident, tracks well. Nichols will make them. They're just waiting to be sure it's ready. Unfortunately our first weekend with them mounted did not go well. Nothing to do with the triples, believe me. We are so far off with our valving.... well.... we crashed again. That's pretty far off.

No worries though we'll be back at speed testing in six days. :teeth
 
GoGo, how long are you on "vacation" from AFM? Thunderhill is just too damn hot anyways!

--S
 
sdr

Hi GOGO
Another SDR rider from the east coast, l purchased the other Filmore HMC bike, does your bike have WP gas fork catridge kit with (old #) #11 on the back ? did it have light front damage ? if so that's the one they crashed at road America Moto st race.

Great report and thanks for sharing the info,
 
Yeah that's ours. Scuffs on the fork bottoms prove it. Only by now ours is crashed a bit more. Oddly we've never damaged anything like they did at Atlanta.

I'll tell you what - Superdukes crash real well. Bring spare footpegs and you'll be fine. Also fork sliders..

As far as what's in our forks, unfortunately I don't think anything about our Superduke R forks will be helpful to anyone else on this planet. I don't know how many miles we have ridden this R by now, but it's more than enough laps to be in the ballpark. We are not in the ballpark. In fact we just ran at Thunderhill yesterday and we are not even close to getting close yet.

I would gladly share what we learned while testing at Thunderhill yesterday, if I thought it would help you. It won't help you.

Our problem with this program is not the bike. It is what we did to it. Usually you run a new bike stock, figure out what changes it needs, to where, then incrementally you go up from there - starting at "1" and ultimately ending up at, say, "10". Our problem is we started at "19". This problem was then compounded by the fact that of the various things we changed to "19" - some of them we then backed way off to "3", while others stayed at "19". This has created a bike that is virtually unrideable. At least not while trying to go very fast.

But that's just my opinion
 
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