| Author | Message | ||
     Firemanjim |
Looks like we will be helping campaign the Destroyer owned by Thom McElhatton of Vallejo Buell. Our landlord, Mike,is doing the riding,Terry and I will tune and help crew. Heading to Sac this weekend for the AHDRA meet, then Pomona in Nov in conjunction with the Love Ride. Maybe Vegas after that?? Terry and Mike had it out at the weds nite drags last week doing break-in runs. Friday will be test and tune and Mike needs to do his race license passes. Should be fun--- | ||
| Bison |
Jim I will also be at Pomona and Las Vegas with my Destroyer. I look forward to meeting you. Look for the Black & Silver trailer with Alberta plates. I usually park with Eagle from Lafayette. regards ref | ||
| Firemanjim |
Will do. They finished the break in and tested some more last night. Went 10.01,so it's getting there. (Message edited by firemanjim on October 11, 2007) | ||
| Firemanjim |
We went to Sacramento Raceway for friday qualifying and sat racing--except we had the earliest/most rain ever in Sac area,over a damn inch on friday.Stopped raining at 5:00pm. Saturday we ran 10.00s all morn and then after resetting rev-limiter,a 9.90. Went in and pulled fuel out---and went 9.83,WOOHOO!! We made it to the semis and lost to a guy who ran 11.984 on an 11.98 dial-in. Was great fun and we are only just getting used to the bike. Next stop,Pomoma. | ||
| Matty |
See you there!  | ||
| Firemanjim |
Mike got his licensing passes done last night at Infineon and we are on I-5 right now on Grapevine. Should be fun,folks. Had a dang flat on the motorhome and wasted about 2 hours in Coalinga. Then hit Cycle Gear in Bakersfield as we forgot a back protector. Thanks to Wayne, we got a screaming deal on stuff and mike bought a new set of leathers to boot! | ||
| Road_thing |
If you're on the Grapevine right now, I hope somebody else is driving while you type! rt | ||
| Firemanjim |
I just used cruise control--right?? Bad luck followed us here as the engine broke on the first pass. After speaking with more Destroyer teams we felt a little better as it seemed to be all too common---and we had a second flat right after typing from the Grapevine,valve stem went. Rats. | ||
| Dragstang |
firemanjim what is breaking on the vrods? thanks randy | ||
| Firemanjim |
Randy,Destroyers have rod bolt issues and second gear,addressed by aftermarket.Cannot remember what other things everyone told us about--after we destroyed the motor.Our guess is rod bolt broke and all hell broke loose after that. Repairs to come soon. Probably Carillo rods from our buddy, John Noonan at JE Pistons. | ||
| Dragstang |
thank you for the reply. randy | ||
| Jackbequick |
The Destroyer you're talking about are those limited edition VRXSE's right? Were those only made in 2006? Or are they still available? Jack | ||
| Cronan128 |
they were only made in 2006 but you can still get one plenty of left overs throughout the country | ||
| Jackbequick |
Did they not turn out to be very competitive in their class? Looks like a fun thing to have. Entry level, turn key, drag racing. I suppose the MSRP of about $32 Large slowed a lot of folks down. Jack | ||
| Reepicheep |
F&S Buell (Dayton) had one on display last Saturday. It was used, but I think it had a price tag on it, so I think it was for sale. Thats a shame they have to be modified out of the box. The whole point of the project was to make a bike that could come out of the box and run a full season before working on it. That made the $32k price downright affordable. | ||
| Cronan128 |
they don't have to be modified to run the AHDRA destroyer class you are not allowed to do anything to them other then gearing and tuning | ||
| Garrett2 |
cronan is right, youre EXTREMELY limited on mods in teh destroyer class (what they were made for) as far as the 'Did they not turn out to be very competitive in their class? ' actually they did, in fact a destroyer won every race in its class  | ||
| Reepicheep |
If you have to "fix" the rod bolts and second gear to keep from blowing it up in the first three races, then you have to do *something* to it before running it in the destroyer class. Though I guess one tear down and fix for two well understood issues is better then trying to roll your own drag bike from scratch. Probably substantially cheaper as well. | ||
| Cronan128 |
you change that stuff and your destroyer is no longer legal for the class | ||
| Jackbequick |
"..actually they did, in fact a destroyer won every race in its class : )..." Well I guess I fed you a straight line on that one! Shows to go you how much I know about Destroyer racing. When I was in the Navy destroyers were the little ships that ran around trying to not get run over by an aircraft carrier while looking for a chance to save the bird farm's life. Fun ships though, kind of like the sports bikes of combatants. So as I understand the class rules it is a racing class for RUBs that want to drag race and the key to winning is to not race hard enough to break either of the two well known weak links in the in the machine. I guess if I had $50,000 or so to throw away it would all make more sense. Do the class rules exclude things like adding chrome? Can you get forward controls for it? Can you race in a dew rag? Or do you have to wear a helmet? Jack | ||
| Garrett2 |
wow, what a crappy stereotype. | ||
| Garrett2 |
and to be fair - they are also very competitive in Super Gas, they make up almost all of the entries in that class also cant say they win all of those, but quite a bit | ||
| Reepicheep |
Mark De Batista (from HD) gave a talk on the VROD for a SAE talk last Saturday at F&S Buell here in Dayton, it was a good talk. He touched on the Destroyer. The *plan* anyway was that for $32k (or whatever), you have a bike out of the crate that you can go drag racing with. The bike was supposed to be solid for around 300 passes, which was planned to be enough for practice and competition runs for a whole season. If you look at the bike, it's all business. Its a nicely done piece of work. I've not run a single drag race, much less a whole season, but I'm guessing that buying a bike for $32k and being able to just run it (and still having said bike at the end of the season, even if it does then need a rebuild), is a decent bang for the buck. Once Harley announced the bike, they got *crushed* with orders. I think their original plan for a very limited hand built run grew into a small production effort. | ||
| Garrett2 |
heres teh thing to - you have a reliable 9 second bike out the door for 30 grand. and youre able to compete its not like having to build a bike and hoping.... you KNOW its the same thing the guy in teh other lane has i love them, i wish i had one | ||
| Mutation_racer |
Anyone looking for a brand new destroyer. We have one left. Here at liberty we road race not drag race. Just thought i'd throw that out there |
