Points finally posted from Bike Week

jens, are you bringing the 175 to talladega?

bob-have you ever raced road atl before? both of your bikes ought to haul butt there.

 

No. The 175 may never see the track again. Although my racing budget for 2002 has increased quite a bit over previous years I still had a tough decision to make. I could have either built the 175 I've wanted to for years but race it in a small class which during the 2001 season was comprised of Doug and I here in the Southeast... or I could buy and slowly develop a bike for a class with larger grids. I decided to start from scratch with an XS650 that could be raced in V3, a class that usually has a good turnout, and yet can still be competitive in it's bump up class, being V4 (whereas my 175 had absolutely no chance against the 350 Ducs in its bump up class, even at a small track like Talladega).

After only a few track outings I've already learned a great deal about the XS and with the help of Tim Joyce and Steve-O it is handling better. By mid season I expect to have the bikes handling sorted out so that I can really ride it hard and can then concentrate on the motor.

 

Jens, Bravo to you for picking a cool and potentially competetive bike in the XS, good to hear about it. Don't ditch the little Honda, take a break and come back to it later, like I have to many of my bikes. I get a little burned out with a particular bike now and then. When you get back to it, forget 2 into 1 exhausts, nothing makes more power than a proper megaphone exhaust-Rob Muzzy said this also a few years ago-tough to find room on a ZX7 though! I can believe Poneleit's Honda can make as much power as it does,at 180cc, but find it surprising that anyone would spend so much effort. What's involved (I'm speculating here)is a custom, high-rpm(read duration)cam, with not too much overlap to allow bigger valves(Todd Henning had Megacycle spread the lobe centers apart on the good CB350 cam to get less overlap and have room for bigger intake valves without the valves hitting each other, hense we have the x5 cam now),custom pistons made exactly for the 175 with the combination of cam, valves, head work(all of which change the ideal piston shape), and most important a REALLY GOOD head. The possibility of giving the compression the big squeeeeze and an incredebly well developed head is the reason I'll hold onto my money at protest time. That nitro thing was a joke,(I think, maybe it's nitrous compressed in the frame tubes!).Just when I thought I had the mac-daddy engine, someone(usually Todd), would up the ante. Dual plugs would indicate a poor combustion chamber from the piston filling up where fuel/air is in all of our bikes. Your 13kRPM cam will make power at 14k if you had the port velocity/flow up. Also, don't assume larger displacement will make more HP, the fastest CB350's are still 362cc,some rumored bigger engines either have not been built or simply made less peak HP. There is a limit in how much the head can flow. V3 is such a cool class because of the turnout. Hey? did they outlaw my 2-stroke RD in that class? I gotta get myself on the rules committe and get this sorted out.

 

stan,
our two-strokes have been deemed illegal for V3 this year. i still havent heard exactly why. i would like to bump my bike up also. in 2001 there were only two guys in the top ten at the end of the year in V3 that rode two strokers and they ended up 7th and 9th.

 

FWIW, I know that Poneleit has years of expert experience building Hondas. Plus, gossip has it that the guys in that shop are friends with M. Duhamel's crew. If that's true, and I don't know, I find it entirely possible that they really are that good on their technology. My plan is to do some more homework. But for now, I'm about at the limit of what the current clutch can handle for horsepower. I'm not prepared right now to have custom primaries made to spin the clutch faster. Oh well...

 

Stan: Based on high HP from legal engines using a comparison to engine size (realizing there are a lot of variables between engines) the realistic HP for a roadracer
of 180cc with a two valve per cylinder engine would be in the 23 - 24 HP range.
As you stated, there is a limit to the overbore that will be beneficial because of the head with it's limits. If the engine is at the maximum overbore size for the head then stroking the motor is very beneficial to create more HP. I know this technique has been used in the past by some fast racers.
I don't know anything about the particular Honda in question, but sounds like it is on the edge of being too fast.

Jim

 

Damn. I may have to bring the 175 up there (Talladega)just to deal with this Bul- shizzit.


[This message has been edited by YAM#849 (edited 03-24-2002).]

[This message has been edited by YAM#849 (edited 03-24-2002).]