| Author | Message | ||
     Rubberdown |
2004 Firebolt 12; just under 15,000 miles; runs strong with no apparent issues; well maintained. Would this be a good bike for entry level racing or is the mileage too high? Jus thinking. Thanks.  | ||
| Xbcrazy |
Its perfect. | ||
| Slaughter |
Welcome to the MADNESS!!! Since you really have to consider doing your own work, it's a pretty easy thing to run a compression check, pull the heads, check pushrods/rockers/valves and look down into the cylinders to check bore. The only thing to be a little afraid of IF the guy who owned it tended to bounce it off the rev limit all the time, could have been hard on the bottom end. Personally, that mileage is not a worry if it's been well maintained. What mods you thinking of? There's a LOT of suspension work that makes really good sense and will do WONDERS for cutting your lap times: Forks: Re-Valving Re-Springing AK-20 Gas Cartridges Penske or Ohlins for the rear XBRR swingarm/Chain conversion Stock gearing is WAY TOO TALL for almost every track in the country. The XB9 Primary conversion sold by Al at American Sport Bike will get you a bit closer but you really need to get the chain conversion and a half dozen rear sprockets if you're racing at more than one track. It has been too long since I bought my Hal's swingarm conversion so don't know how they compare in price to the XBRR swingarm. If the engine is running sweet, I'd avoid engine mods until you have to pull it apart for a rebuild anyways. | ||
| Rubberdown |
Bike has the race kit and the engine will remain stock. Any extra money will go into the suspension. I'll keep the belt final for now. I think all I really need to start is a belly pan, steering damper, the front number plate that cover the light holes, and safety wiring. Where's the best source for these items? Also, is there a source for pre-drilled bolts needed for safety wired items? Thanks. (Message edited by rubberdown on June 06, 2008) | ||
| Sethbuchbinder |
Grandstand designs has all the components you’ll need to get your bike race ready including chain drive conversion, body work, steering damper, shocks, plus many other custom Buell parts. Not to mention powder coating, ceramic coating and anodizing. Give Pete a call 732-722-2955 www.grandstanddesigns.com Seth (Message edited by sethbuchbinder on June 06, 2008) | ||
| Rubberdown |
Thank you. | ||
| Jlnance |
safety wiring. Where's the best source for these items? Sportymark | ||
| Slaughter |
I haven't heard about pre-drilled fittings. Check with your organizations rules. The oil lines usually DO NOT need to be wired. Most will allow the use of a booger of silicone or JB weld to prevent the fitting from loosening. Safety wire drilling is a pain - best done with a drill press. At least once you have it done, it's DONE! Also, for the front caliper bolts, if you counterbore the top face of the casting down about 0.080, it will give good room for safety wire and not compromise the strength. As it is, the tops of the socket heads are flush with the surface of the casting. Might look cool but is a pain to wire. | ||
| Rubberdown |
I've found pre-drilled bolt sets for the big 4 Asian bikes, Ducati, and Aprilia, but not Buell. I can safety wire but the drilling's a pain. Thanks for the info. | ||
| Xbcrazy |
You can source all the pre-drilled stuff at www.mcmaster.com. Unfortunately no premade kits so you have to do it bolt by bolt. Pete | ||
| Gearheaderiko |
Buy a pack of 1/16" drill bits and go. Everything drills pretty easy with a bit that small and a drill press is really nice, but using an electric hand drill isnt bad at all. Its much easier than you think! Its a lot cheaper than buying bolts and quite a few (if you use a hand drill, carefully) dont even have to be removed to drill. Buy a big roll of safety wire (not just a few feet) and the safety wire pliers (it can be done without them, but the $25-$55 dollars you'll spend will be well worth it). Wear safety glasses! (and use machine oil) Now that I think about, it most of my bolts were drilled with a hand drill as my drill press chuck wouldnt go down to 1/16"! | ||
| Rubberdown |
Thanks for the info all! The big decision now is whether I will commit financially to a entry level race effort. I'm already running my HP2 in a few Rallymoto events and the $$$ required for any entry/prep/travel/repair ... are substantial. I need a raise.  | ||
| Rubberdown |
Moving ahead ... WERA requires a steering damper. I use a rotary ohlins on my HP2 which I like but I don't believe a rotary will mount on the 12R. What damper are ya'll using? What's the easiest to mount? Thanks. | ||
| Rubberdown |
Seth, I'll be calling Pete. | ||
| Slaughter |
Since I re-routed all my wiring, I use the XBRR damper on the XB9. You can't mount it without re-doing the wiring. Easiest to mount would likely be the Storz type. Good thing it's easy to mount because EVERY FREAKING TIME you tip over, you'll be replacing it! Instead, get one of the GPR rotaries for the XB or one of the transverse-mounted dampers sold by American Sport Bike (their site is down for maintenance so can't get you a link) - worth the extra money compared to Storz or other similar side-mounted. | ||
| Goldrush |
You definitely want to invest in a chain conversion. Grand stand has the best bang for the buck and the greatest point is when you change gearing it does not change your wheel base. Hals does not even make the swing arm conversions anymore, they will tell you to call Buell racing and order a XBRR swing arm, which if you are not doing motor work will simply be a waste. Also if you really are going to race you probably will be interested in the winter of putting a new crank in that bike it is not too expensive and it will give yo the peace of mind that you wno't waste all that time and money getting to the track only to wind up with a blown weekend. BUT WHAT DO I KNOW. | ||
| Rubberdown |
Anybody know if a GPR V4 top clamp mounted (rotary) steering damper designed for a Firebolt will work with the HeliBar top clamp my bike happens to have on it? | ||
| Smoke |
best way to prevent a blown weekend Mike is to bring a backup bike when you go to the track. my advice is to run what ya brung until the bike is the limiting factor. spend your money on suspension and track time and you will figure out when you need to upgrade the rest. don't know about the damper. have a great time. tim | ||
| Rubberdown |
Sage words Tim! | ||
| Gearhead |
Rubberdown, I want to throw my 2 cents in. Here's my take for what it's worth... 1) Figure out why you want to race in the first place. What's your long range goal? 2) Do you have the budget to attend lots of schools, trackdays and races? Track time = faster lap times. 3) Do you have someone to attend these events with you? If you're married or dating, do you have her support? 4) The bike is now way down the list. This is only my second year racing and this year has been miserable so far but I can give you my 4 answers. 1) I wanted to be part of the show, it also gave me an opportunity to purchase a track only bike and learn more about performance riding. I totally understand that I'm a very little fish in a very large and deep pond! Long range goal is to get quick enough to apply for an expert license. 2) Budget, I've figured $3000.00 - $3500.00 in entry fees alone not including fuel, lodging, tires and parts. Our terrible spring weather has cut down on my expenses this year! 1000cc guys spend well over $1000.00 per weekend on tires alone so to them my budget probably seems too small. 3) My wife is my biggest fan! I travel with a friend who also races an XB12 whose wife also travels to some of the races so there are at least 2 of us and as many as 4 at some events plus sometimes other friends come along. 4) The bike is stock motored with a belt, suspension upgrades, Buell belly pan and Pirelli DOT race tires. I KNOW there is a lot more in the bike than I am capable of getting out of it. When lap times flatten out then I'll look at other upgrades. I race with CCS so the streering damper is not required, I've never felt I needed one anyway. Go out have fun, be safe, learn, learn, learn and if you're lucky enough to have the SPEED gene in your DNA you'll have a ball mixing it up. Regardless, of your finishes, it's a blast, welcome to the madness!!! www.racingwithralph.blogspot.com | ||
| Rubberdown |
Gearhead, thoughtful post and good questions. 1. Always wanted to race and have been to one race school and a bunch of track days at various tracks. I raced road bicycles for a decade and really enjoy good hard close quarters riding both on the motor and pedal bike. I have a great semi-professional performance motorcycling opportunity going on that I want to have greater credentials to exploit. So far, it's primarily enduro riding but is expanding into the sport riding/track riding area. I'm currently involved in a RallyMoto series that's both off and on road racing and I enjoy the good times and friends there and hope to find similar good time road racing. So I'm just looking to expand my range of experience, have some fun, see if I like road racing, and build my skills. 2.Budget? There's never too much, and more often not enough, but I think I can handle 4-5 race weekends a season and practice days, and a couple of schools ... If I don't wad my stuff up too bad. Primarly tracks would be VIR,CMP, Roebling Road ... local Southeast venues. Between CCS and WERA there's enough semi-local stuff to keep busy. 3. Yes, I have help and support. 4. Bike? I agree with you. I just missed out on a nice turn-key 06' SV650 race prepped bike with 6 races on it. Damn. My Firebolt will be fine except it's a really nice street bike and I hate to mess it up; but, it's what I have now and I know and like the 'Bolts. (This is my 3rd XB). I'll probably just drill/wire the bike, put on a belly pan and # plate, remove the lights, install a steering damper (WERA requires and they have an event coming up at Roebling Road I'd like to do), Spoon on fresh tires, and go line up and get smoked until I get smoother/faster. I'm in a school on 7-12/13 at Roebling Road and will get my certification for racing at that time. Thanks for your thoughts, all. (Message edited by rubberdown on June 28, 2008) | ||
| Rubberdown |
The 'Bolt project's on hold. I just struck a deal on an 04' R6 fully race prepped with all the good suspension pieces, computract setup for a rider my size, stock motored, spare wheels and other bits, less than 1200 miles on it .... for a nice price. I'm picking it up Friday morning. I hope the deal goes through. I think I have a slot for a track day on Sunday at CMP, then school on 7-12/13 at Roebling Road, and hopefully race on 7-26 weekend with WERA at Roebling Road. We'll see how it goes. Thank you all for your help. Mike. | ||
| Smoke |
have fun Mike. don't forget to wind that baby up to find the torque!! tim | ||
| Rubberdown |
Torque??!! I'm not expecting to find much of that.  I do like trying different things out though and this is certainly a departure for me. I'll be sure to wind it tight! Happy 4th of July Tim! | ||
| Rubberdown |
OT update: Raced my first races at a WERA weekend at CMP. It went well. Raced one middleweight solo 16 on Saturday and three superbike sprints on Sunday. It was the biggest RUSH I've ever had. I passed people in each race and they did not pass me back. I'm starting to learn a lot about the bike and racing. I'm planning on racing again at Roebling Road this weekend. It sure is different than a track day (and I like it).  | ||
| Knickers |
Congrats on your first race. I've just started myself with WERA. I'm curious how your middleweight solo went against mostly 600s I'm guessing? There were probably some pretty high closing speeds between bikes I imagine. I spoke to the WERA officials about entering the lightweight solo which get's you racing against SV650's and 125GP machines and they gave me the go ahead. The rules are a little cloudy for Buells since we're only allowed into the lightweight twin superbike class with an asterisk. Kurt | ||
| Rubberdown |
I finished 9th out of 14 or 15. I was told I did well. I think my race was all 600's. As posted above, I decided not to race my very nice 12R street bike and found a good deal on a low use, race prepped 04' R6. It was a rocking good time. The people were fantastic too! I hope we meet sometime. Mike. | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Rubberdown, Sounds like you did well!! I plan on doing a few track days this year along with 1 race school and hopefully I will be racing an XB in WERA next year! | ||
| Rubberdown |
OT not Buell update:  | ||
| Not_purple_s2 |
Awesome! Looks like you got a knack. | ||
| Paint_shaker |
I have been following this thread. I just bought this bike from Rubberdown. It will be my track bike. Looking forward to the possibility of racing next year!! | ||
| Rubberdown |
I'll be pulling for ya PS. Call if I can help in anyway. Great to see you and Pops! | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Thanks! I am sure I will be in touch. Maybe I can make a track day at Roebling at some point. |
