| Author | Message | ||
     Deanh8 |
Has anyone done a long frame firebolt? I see quite a few pics of race XB's with the long frame. Im assuming the rear tail wont line up right, as well as the seat. but those are easy fixes. New mounts and longer wiring or what? I would love to hear from someone who has done it and see how it differed the handling of the bike. | ||
| Brumbear |
jornum1 did one a couple years ago.PM him | ||
| Trojan |
Yes, we made our last race bike from a 2006 Ulysses (long frame and swingarm). Everything is a straight fit except that the main frame rails are slightly wider at the back so you have to widen the seat subframe very slightly to fit (or use spacers). Other than that it is easy   | ||
| Greg_e |
What are the advantages on the track? Seems like the extra wheelbase would slow down the cornering. | ||
| Deanh8 |
Adds stablity right? But at what power level do you need to be at to take advantage of the longer wheelbase? I really would like to know how this works out on the track... for better or for worse... Also i would hate to add more weight to the bike... | ||
| Greg_e |
I'm also interested in details on the ram air, thinking of starting that way on my bike just for the learning opportunity. Since mine is an 03 I was going to route the plumbing through the hole in the frame. Intakes would be very close to where yours are positioned, I was going to cut out the rest of the eyebrow area next to the lights since it should still be a high pressure area. | ||
| 46champ |
Long frame bikes have larger fuel tanks. | ||
| Trojan |
What are the advantages on the track? Seems like the extra wheelbase would slow down the cornering. In theory yes, but you have to remember that the shorter XB frame is quite twitchy whereas the longer frame is solid and stable, but still steers very quickly. Ours was set up slightly higher at the back to aid steering, but never needed a steering damper unlike our earlier XB9R based racer. But at what power level do you need to be at to take advantage of the longer wheelbase? Better handling doesn't relate to power level. If it handles beter then it will go fater regardless of how much power you have. Our bike had 103bhp at the rear wheel as we were running in UK Thunderbikes and were bhp/weight restricted. Handling on this bike was far better than our previous XB9R race bike. I'm also interested in details on the ram air, thinking of starting that way on my bike just for the learning opportunity. Since mine is an 03 I was going to route the plumbing through the hole in the frame. The ram air kit we used was from Hals. You have to remember that you need th straighest possible intakes to get any advantage from ram air. Once you start puttingbends and circuitous routes in the benfits are very low. Ram air only comes into its own at high speed, and is very effective over 100mph. | ||
| Deanh8 |
/\ how about weight? | ||
| Gunut75 |
I have a Firebolt frame with an sTT swing arm, so I still have the short frame steering head angle. Not as twitchy as it used to be. That was never a problem though. Much more stable in the handling department. A little less prone to standing on the rear tire. | ||
| Trojan |
/\ how about weight? Difficult to compare against a road bike, as we stripped a lot of weight off the racer (no fan assembly, smaller battery, lightweight bodywork parts etc) plus we had a Yamaha R1 front end on that weighed a bit more than the stock Buell setup but worked very well indeed | ||
| Froggy |
Dry weights are nearly identical between S and SS. With full tanks of gas, obviously the Long will be a few pounds heavier. |
