Posted on Friday, October 09, 2009 - 10:57 am:

Mike Ciccotto on the Hal’s Performance Advantage Buell racebike. Ciccotto won the final race in the 2002 AMA Pro Thunder Series, at Laguna Seca. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.


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What American, air-cooled V-twin motorcycle has 135 horsepower, 100 lbs.-ft. of torque, weighs 380 pounds, has a 52-inch wheelbase, 21 degrees of rake and 84mm of trail? Sounds like a joke, right? Well, Mike Ciccotto’s Hal’s Performance Advantage Buell Firebolt XB9R is no joke.
Last month, we featured Michael Hannas’ ride on Ciccotto’s AMA Pro Thunder Buell Firebolt (see "Not Your Buddy’s Dad’s Harley-Davidson!, August 2002, Roadracing World). This month we present the technical run down of the American motorcycle that won the final round of the 2002 AMA Pro Thunder series. In fact, the Hal’s Performance Advantage Buell Firebolt that Hannas rode at Road America is the same bike that Ciccotto rode to victory at Laguna Seca. Which may mean that it’s a good thing Hannas didn’t crash it.

The most surprising thing about the Buell Firebolt Pro Thunder racer is that it is closer to the production bike than you might imagine. "It uses so many stock parts it’s outrageous," says Ciccotto’s Crew Chief, Terry Galagan. In case you are not familiar with Galagan’s racing resume, the soft-spoken Wisconsin resident tuned the Yamaha FZR600 that Scott "Z-Man" Zampach rode to the 1989 AMA 600cc Supersport Championship.

Hal’s Performance Advantage Harley-Davidson/Buell’s Galagan starts with the stock, unmodified production frame as it is produced by Verlicchi, the same company that fabricates the frame of the Aprilia RSV1000 Mille line-up. Galagan adds the production, oil-carrying swingarm and welds thin sheet metal in the right side opening between the main arm and the brace. Galagan says the extra metal doesn’t really add any rigidity and Erik Buell wants it removed for next year. Also, Buell swingarms get the necessary modifications to accept an adjustable axle. In the future, swingarm kits will be available from Buell to make the changeover easier for Firebolt owners wanting to race.



The Buell without bodywork. This is a small, short, light motorcycle, despite the lump of a Harley-Davidson engine. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.


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The fully-adjustable OEM Showa shock is replaced with a even more adjustable Penske unit. The upgraded rear suspension piece still works without a linkage, acting directly between the swingarm and the its upper mount on the main frame under the seat. Rear spring rates vary from 400-450 pounds.
The story behind the development of the XB9R’s front suspension is interesting. Buell test rider Shawn Higbee, a former Ducati Superbike rider and the 2001 Formula USA Champion, did most of the suspension development work on the production Firebolt at Buell’s main test track, also known as Talladega Gran Prix Raceway. Higbee and Max McAllister (owner of suspension tuning company Traxxion Dynamics and suspension tuner for most of Higbee’s recent racing efforts) gave input to Showa technicians, resulting in what McAllister says are the best production forks for racing he’s ever taken apart. As a result, all Pro Thunder Buell Firebolts race with McAllister’s Axxion Valves installed in the stock forks even though the rules allow them to change to any brand of forks they want. Ciccotto normally runs 0.95 kg/mm rate springs in his forks.

In probably the biggest deviation from the standard chassis, the fork legs are held by adjustable Attack Performance aluminum triple clamps. The main benefit from the addition of the triple clamps isn’t as much the extra millimeter of trail added to the Firebolt’s stock geometry, says Galagan, but the adjustability of the control positions. On the stock bike, the clip-ons mount directly into the top triple clamp and no adjustment is available. The Hal’s bike uses adjustable Vortex clip-ons to suit the rider’s taste. An Ohlins steering damper is mounted transversely across the front of the fork legs. And the non-adjustable, stock footpegs are used, and, when he rode the Buell for last month’s story, Hannas never dragged the pegs.



Left-side close up of the Buell, showing carbon-fiber scoop for cooling air, large oil cooler, huge main frame spars, frame slider, works Nissin calipers and short muffler. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.


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Ciccotto, like most of the other Firebolt racers, has opted to go with an aftermarket front brake set-up to deal with the greatly elevated speeds capable of the racing XB9R. Nissin, an OEM supplier for Buell, provided the Buell factory-supported, dealer-operated race teams with the latest dual, stainless steel rotors, six-piston calipers (the same as those used on Anthony Gobert’s factory Yamaha YZF-R7 Superbike), brake lines, fluid and racing master cylinder with remotely adjustable lever position. Galagan said Ciccotto only used 0.008-inch of the brake pad material at Daytona and only 0.002-inch more of material at Sears Point. Test rider Hannas raved about the brakes from the first few photo passes he made on the bike and didn’t stop talking about them all day.
At the Pikes Peak International Raceway round of the Pro Thunder series, Higbee raced with a modified version of Buell’s patented Zero Torsional Load (ZTL) front brake system on the OEM front wheel. Even with an upgraded Nissin master cylinder, a thicker rotor and different pads, Higbee admitted that he gave up some outright stopping power. But, more importantly, Higbee felt the reduction in unsprung mass with the lighter front wheel/brake set-up versus the normal, dual-disc racing set-up gave him a handling advantage on the tight, twisty, 1.3-mile track. In fact, Higbee had to add ballast to his bike after switching to the lighter ZTL system to meet the Pro Thunder minimum weight limit. A production brake rotor and caliper are used on the rear wheel.

Wheels are an interesting subject for the Firebolt. The standard bike comes with 3.50 x 17.0-inch front and 5.50 x 17.0-inch rear wheels. While some Pro Thunder Buell X-1 Lightnings have raced with 16.5-inch wheels with wide Superbike slicks over the past couple of years (Ciccotto raced with 17-inch slicks last year), the Firebolt was found to be very sensitive to tire and wheel sizes. How much so? Ciccotto and Higbee both raced on 17-inch Dunlop DOT-labeled tires at the opening round at Daytona. A recent test at Pikes Peak allowed the Firebolt teams to find a chassis set-up that would allow them to take advantage of the huge Superbike rubber.

As a result, the Hal’s team usually keeps a wide assortment of magnesium Marchesini wheels on hand. Front wheel sizes range from 3.50 x 17-inch to 3.50 x 16.5-inch and rears range from a smallest of 5.50 x 17-inch to a 6.00 x 16.5-inch. Halfway through the 2002 season, Hal’s obtained one of Marchesini’s latest, very expensive and very light forged magnesium wheels. Forged magnesium wheels are stronger and lighter than ordinary cast magnesium racing wheels. The difference between the two wheels equals one pound of reciprocating mass, says Galagan.

The biggest compliment concerning the handling of Galagan’s bike in 2002 didn’t come from Ciccotto, but rather from eventual AMA Pro Thunder Champion Kirk McCarthy. A veteran of World Superbike and Grand Prix racing, McCarthy often told reporters covering Pro Thunder in 2002 that the Firebolt turned better, held a tighter line and drove off corners better than his top-level Ducati 748 RS.

In contrast to the chassis department, the engine of the Pro Thunder Firebolt is very different than stock. Stock pieces still used on Ciccotto’s bike include the engine cases, cylinder heads, throttle body, clutch, primary drive, fuel pump and ECM.

It’s not hard to figure out that the Pro Thunder Firebolt, like the X-1 Lightning-based Pro Thunder racers before it, displaces 1348cc, just under the Pro Thunder class displacement limit of 1350cc. Buell reaches this displacement with 3.812-inch (96.8 mm) bore pistons from Wiseco in new cylinders from Millennium Technologies, using forged steel connecting rods from Harley-Davidson traveling through a 3.6-inch (91mm) stroke, with a lightened crankshaft. Crankshaft weights very, said Galagan, and the three-ring pistons have a ceramic coating on their domes and Teflon coating on their skirts. A two-ring piston is under development.

The crank works with lighter and stronger matrix, composite push rods, Screamin’ Eagle roller rockers made of 3M aluminum for more strength and less flex, custom grind cams with 0.643-inch (16mm) of lift on intake and exhaust, acting on 1.9-inch (48.2mm) titanium intake valves and 1.6-inch (40.6mm) titanium exhaust valves located in reworked cylinder head. For reference, those valve sizes are roughly the same size as those found in a 350 cubic inch Chevy V-8!


View of the bottom of the airbox and its single throttle body intake, behind the filler neck and cap for the in-frame fuel tank. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.


Another view of massive air-intake scoop, which directs cooling air to oil cooler and the rear cylinder. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.


Tuner Terry Galagan with the Buell, on a blustery day at Road America. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.

The street Firebolt’s ram-air airbox is jettisoned in favor of a large velocity stack sucking in all the air it can between the fuel filler cap and the airbox cover. A reprogrammed production ECM controls when the larger injectors squirt Union 76 114-octane leaded race fuel into the stock throttle body (bored out from 45mm to 52mm). The mixture is ignited by Champion gold pladium spark plugs. Exhaust gases exit via a custom stainless steel exhaust, featuring a collector pipe three-inches in diameter, located in the original, under-engine position. The Firebolt sounds great in stock trim and even better in race trim, but evidently, engine horsepower and decibels go hand-in-hand in the world of American V-Twins.


Tuner Terry Galagan with the Buell, on a blustery day at Road America. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.
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When asked about power output, Galagan was evasive, saying, "It’s pretty impressive if you consider where it starts to where it is now." Buell racers in the past have stated that they are putting out horsepower in the mid-130s with over 100 lbs.-ft. of torque. "There’s a lot more power in there if we could just rev them," says Galagan, adding that Ciccotto shifts at 7500 rpm. Galagan points out that engine reliability is related to how high the engine is spun and then by just watching the regular maintenance, changing the oil, checking leak-down and compression numbers. Overall, Galagan says the Pro Thunder Firebolt is "considerably" less expensive to build and operate than the team’s 2001, X-1-Lightning-based racebike because there’re so many stock parts utilized.

Galagan puts his engines together with Cometic gaskets, and the powerplant is lubricated by Torco 5w40 synthetic oil helped by Torco’s MPZ oil additive. A three-stage, Pro Flow oil pump routes the oil from the swingarm tank through a larger Fluidyne air-to-air oil cooler and back to the engine. Two stages of the Pro Flow pump return oil to the swingarm while the final stage sends oil to the engine. One of the return stages draws hot oil directly away from the cylinder head.

Galagan says that heat is the air-cooled Firebolt’s worst enemy. Keeping the oil below 230 degrees F is imperative to the engine’s well being. Carbon-fiber ducting at the fairing’s left leading edge ducts some air up through the frame to the engine’s air intake, but its main job is to get cool air to the rear cylinder. More carbon-fiber ducting draws air away from the rear cylinder, around the rear shock and out into a low-pressure area in front of the rear wheel. Galagan says that heating of the fuel in the frame hasn’t posed a problem and that the aluminum-alloy swingarm actually acts, as designed, as a heat sink for the hot oil contained within it.

Normally, the stock primary drive connects the crankshaft to an Andrews close-ratio, five-speed racing transmission, but Ciccotto has also raced his Firebolt with a prototype six-speed gearbox using a mirror-image shift drum. The new shift drum allows Ciccotto to shift racer-style, one-up/five-down, while using the stock shift linkage. Either way, Ciccotto shifts with a KLS electronic quick shifter.

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Close-up of reinforced stock Buell swingarm, chain drive conversion and chain-tensioning idler sprocket. Stock footpeg is mounted in original position. Photo by Brian J. Nelson.


The production belt final drive is replaced because it offers no way to change gearing. In its place, a 520-series Regina O-ring chain runs over Vortex aluminum sprockets made specially for Buell’s Marchesini wheels. Buell’s patented idler pulley, which always keeps the stock final belt at optimum tension, has been replaced by a special nylon-toothed sprocket with a high-speed bearing. Galagan says the tensioner sprocket doesn’t have any effect on the rear shock’s function or the swingarm’s travel. An overly large, 23-tooth, countershaft sprocket is used due to the primary drive ratios.
The electronics on the Firebolt presented the Hal’s crew with a problem. Do you get rid of the stock charging system and run a total-loss package with a full-size battery mounted high in the chassis or do you run a full charging system with a smaller battery relocated in a more ideal spot in the frame? Since Ciccotto likes the weight of the flywheel on the crank, Galagan kept the full charging system. No Pro Thunder Firebolts run starter motors and all need help from a starter cart to get going. Put it in fifth gear, let the cart get the rear wheel up to about 50 mph and "let out, not dump" the clutch. After that, the ECM’s auto-enrichener program automatically fast idles the engine until it senses the oil has reached operating temperature, usually about a 4-5 minute process.

The whole package is wrapped in very light and very aerodynamic carbon-fiber bodywork made by Tom Good of the Gemini race shop and topped with a Zero Gravity double-bubble wind screen. Under the bubble, Ciccotto reads stock Firebolt gauges on the stock, but still very trick magnesium dashboard/fairing bracket.

Galagan says Buell engineers have done their own wind tunnel testing of the Firebolt racer and it "blows the Ducati 748 away" in terms of coefficient of drag numbers. Titanium fasteners, "as many as we can get," are used but only one axle is titanium; more titanium is on the way. Although Ciccotto’s Firebolt is right at the 380-pound minimum weight limit, the crew is always trying to reduce the bike’s overall weight so that they can re-distribute the weight.

But with AMA Pro Thunder headed off to the WERA National Challenge Series, the big question is, where does the Buell Firebolt race now? The bike is now legal to run in AMA Superstock, formerly 750cc Supersport, but is far from being competitive at the moment. The future is unknown…