Like an easy woman reputations are hard to live down. A neighbor has a blue one as a daily driver. It will always be a beautiful bike.
If you quit being an idiot for a minute, you might notice that I mentioned superbikes. I guess your pride must be hurt because I said a FZR 400 made 60 hp. Some things just don't change. I was the one who called my bike Miss Piggy. I don't need you to tell me to was heavy, and certainly I don't take it personally. I didn't design it.
I feel like an idiot, isn't the starter motor connected via a little clutch? Does it really have an effect in the way the engine runs once started??
Other than the weight of the starter motor and gearset and the weight of a larger battery, no. Butt that weight affects acceleration, braking and corner speed.
Right, so unless I'm confused the big reason to pull the starter motor is to make weight minimum's? Which are still relatively high in MotoGP and WSBK iirc. Some of the other comments made it look like you pull the starter to get the bike to run better, spin up faster, etc....
I believe that is correct. I tried to push start my RC once. There came a time in the process where I could not tell if I was holding the bike or vice versa. Either way I was fortunate things did not end up worse. I came as closed to passing out as I have ever.
Some motorcycles, the FZR in particular, had a rather large and heavy starter clutch on the end of the crankshaft. Removing that clutch allows the crank to spin much faster, and the added benefit of less parasitic drag was realized as well. So, less sprung weight (no starter, less wiring, smaller battery) and less rotating mass on the crankshaft. Also, going to total loss removes the rotor from the crank, yet another removal of unsprung weight and less parasitic drag (magnetic) from the charging system. larger battery is needed, but that is easily remedied and a small price to pay for a quick spinning engine. I am pretty sure that MotoGP bikes are not total loss, I read somewhere that they operate at 18+ volts to run all of the electronics, so they probably have a decent charging system to keep the voltage level topped up.
I got dehydrated after pushing mine back to the garage from turn two at Loudon. It's not even that far, if you haven't been! The bitch was just heavy. I got bad cramps in my right arm on the first lap in the next race.
Did you ever weigh it after mods? IIRC, I got mine down to about 425-430# with a half a tank of fuel. Even still, that thing was a pig, I never knew it til I got my '04 R6 and then an '06 GSXR750. Back to the GP bikes, didn't the Honda have a starter at some point in the last few yrs.
