rich46

Hello to all , We are looking for wheels for our Le Mans Race motorbike. We are allowed to use 17" wheels because of the difficulty of finding race rubber. So to that end does anyone out there know of a wheel manufacturer building carbon fiber or mag wheels to fit our motorbikes. I can find 18" ones but finding 17's is starting to be a bitch and Guzzi OEM wheels weigh a ton ! Thanks in advance Rich

I'll do what I can with getting pic's. This; I will admit is not my forte but I'll see what I can do/ Thank you all for the support. Racing IS FUN; but having folks rooting for you make it that much better. CHEERS !

I have returned ! Bikes have all been loaded into their respective crate (Just a FYI we get our shipping crated from a PDI shop in Williams ,Ca Triumph crates seem to be the best) we dropped them off at the Brokers end of the week and they'll soon be on their way to Australia. Gina and the team will meet again on January the 22 at Phillips Island. There was quite a lot of discussion on the fueling problem we were having. As is often the case it proved to far simpler than one might imagine. The fuel cap did not match up correctly with the tank flange thus closing off the vent hole between the two. The early Le Mans tanks are quite large ( 27 L the largest allowed for the IOM) so when we were racing in rather short races (5/6 laps on 2.5 mi. track) we only fueled them with about 2.5 ga. At Miller's we were racing in two back to back event so we fill the tank to the top. There had been starting problems so the races were not getting off without extra laps and time sitting around, I figured heck what could go wrong filling the tank to the tippy top.........Silly me; Guzzi's get good mileage and we never got to a place where the venting was really not working. It didn't matter when there was all that air space "BUT" when there wasn't ! "cue the Bronx cheer" she ran outa gas. I thank my lucky stars that we found; and fixed this before we tried racing 6 laps at the Island . Long ago I was taught that stampedes were most often horses rather than zebras. Again thank you all for your input. We did change several things within the fueling system. All these changes will, without doubt help the performance. We are being more aware of fuel temps entering the carbs by using heat resistant materials ( coolmat) on the uderside of the tank and protecting the lines and filters with heat wrap. Next stop is Phillips Islands !! No Worries Mates see ya Down under. Last time I was there was 1968 can't wait. This time I bring a Shelia (Gina) with me. Richard

Hi Phil, Good to hear from you. Here in the states we're known as the Purple Gang. Being that the bike is purple and all. Name of my race company is Sportcraft. Do come and find us and say hello And Ciao back at ya,

Time to bring you all up to date on the Moto Guzzi Racer. We last raced the bike at Millers then pulled the plug on our racing so we could get things ready for 2019. As some of you may recall the motorbike was build by Ed at Guzzi Power specifically to race in the Manx GP on the IOM. Because of the distance of those races and the very high speeds we had been using the tallest gearing Guzzi makes. On shorter courses this was costing us quite a bit in the top end department. At Millers we raced on a very short course; far shorter than I have ever seen at this track. It did show us how much we were giving up. Wade had gotten the jump on the field at the start but as soon as the riders settled in the lack of corner exit speed began to move him toward the rear of the field. We finished the event and most important we had gone considerably quicker loping of almost 10 sec. over the weekend. Since this event we have spent our time reading the bike "Gina" for her next outing. Middle of next week she goes into the shipping crate and heads to OZ for the Phillip Island Classic in January so wish us good luck. I'll will try and keep you updated on the trip and racing. By the way I think we solved the fuel problems we ran into at Miller. We had entered two races that were back to back. As time was going to be a wee bit of an issue we had filled the tank top the brim. What we have found is that our venting was minimal. This had never presented any problems in the past because we never filled the tank over half way. This left an air gap that allowed good fuel flow as there was enough venting within the tank to let fuel flow during high use periods. When the rider backed off the throttle the tank would equalize and off we'd go again. With the tank filled to brim no air space thus to venting. We were just starving the engine. We have now fixed the problem by allowing the tank to vent better. Someone on the list had asked where we were dynoing our engines I think he was asking about the altitude of our dyno shop. This engine was done at Wheelsmith's Factory Racing shop in Marin county which is at sea level. I have done dyno work at my old place in Colorado it's just something one needs to adjust for. I hope this answers the question and sorry it took so long to do so. Pass ya on the inside ! Rich

Checking back in. And again thanks for the ideas. The bike had spend quite a lot of time on the dyno and had never had a fueling problem so under these conditions I ask myself what things are different from the dyno run and running on the race track ? 1. Ambient temperature is different (high 80's verses 100's) BUT when we raced at Willow Springs it was in the 90's ?? 2. We were at 5000 feet in altitude Willow Springs is around 2000' 3. We were getting our fuel from a MotionPro fuel bottle rather than the Moto Guzzi tank 4. The Miller course was lots of short straights and tight corners. Because the motorbike spent so much time on the dyno I can't think how the carburetors could be at the bottom of the problem. Not once did we see the engine act as if it was fuel starving. The last few pulls were all right on the money as far as the sniffer readings indicated and the engine kept pulling as many RMP as we dared to ask of it. One thing we found as we pulled the motorbike apart was that the petcocks that came with the fuel tank (they looked to be fairly new) were very small 1/8" and the ones for the big motors are twice as large. When I asked the local MG guys I was told they came off a fairly small engine bike maybe no bigger than a 650cc. At this point all we can do is attack all the things we thing might be at the bottom of the problem and test again at the last AFM race at T-hill in North Ca, Thanks again for the input. Rich

JRD, Glad you like the write ups. We are not running OEM carburetors. As the rule allow for the change we have switched to Mukuni's. The reasons for the change is multi faceted; we already had a large supply of jets, gaskets, needles not to mention the Muki's flow better. We also are considering more heat protection for the fuel components. I am even considering making small (4" X 4") shields to go between the carbs and the cylinder fins. I totally agree that just looking at where the heat is generated and where the fuel is moving makes me wonder if vapor lock could be part of the problem. What is most strange is the fact that we raced the bike at Willow Springs (high in the California (2500') desert ) with no fueling problems. The one thing we did different was filling the tank to the very top because of the back to back races. Thanks for the feed back. Every idea helps as we work towards getting Gina up to speed. Cheers Rich

68C, Not really how these carburetors function. Fuel tank is the large fuel reservoir and the float bowl is more or less the small fuel holding tank. Fuel flow between the two is controled by a needle valve and float. Fuel flow is from gravity. The carb needs float bowls because fuel use is always fluctuating. Electric fuel pump easily over power the needle valves and when used are controlled by pressure regulators set at very low PSI. After examining the fuel system our conclusion is that the problem (this is often the case) is from several inherent weaknesses. Remove any one and we most likely we would have been OK. They things we found are as follows: Fuel tank has very poor venting. We were racing in two events back to back so we filled the tank to the top. At 4500' this may have caused the tank to not vent properly. Fuel lines need more protection aginst heat: The fuel lines cross the frame above the engine and are exposed and heat coming off the oil cooler. This can cause the fuel to become a vapor either in the lines or filters. The two fuel petcocks that are on the tank may have come from a Guzzi with smaller displacement.: The petcocks have very small exits the ones we have ordered are better than twice the size. The fuel petcocks have three positions on, off, and reserve it would be very easy to inadvertently push the lever to reserve. The reserve orfice is half the size of the main orifice. We are in the process of fixing all these issues and here in is the reason we have been racing the bike anywhere we can before shipping it off 12,000 miles from home. For me this is always the fun part of racing so I don't mind the work here, Wade the rider may feel a tad different. Cheers Rich

Chuck, Keeping in mind that nothing on the engine is OEM it can't be electrical as the ignition is all electronic. The engine does not really run totally out of fuel but rather goes into a fuel starve mode. What Wade told me was that it starts to fall off and as soon as he backed off and hit it again it would pick up. When I checked all the fuel related things, from the tank venting to the float height what seem most out of what I call spec is the size of the petcocks. Everything else was looking correct. The only other cause we consider would be vapor locking (weather was quite hot and 4400 feet altitude) we are doing what we can to make sure the fuel is not subjected to boiling. Still as soon as Wade came into the paddock the engine ran fine and started fine. Vapor locking usually requires time for the vapors within the system to dissipate there by allowing liquid gas to enter the system. Thanks for the thoughts and do keep them coming. I learned about how vapor locking works from a guy how restores vintage cars. These have the problem and he PM'd me the information. Cheers Rich

Back at Ya, Will see what I can do about pics. Tons of folks came by and were taking pics but I was kinda focused on the motorbike. I think that Eric on our team (Because of Gina's PURPLE tones we have become known as the PURPLE GANG) may have taken some. I'll chat him up and see what I can do. Thanks for your interest. Oh, almost forgot. As I went back over our notes from Miller I noticed that we seem to be loosing speed at the end of the straights. Talked to Wade the rider and he said that he would chop the throttle when she stopped pulling and then hit it again and she'd start pulling again. I went back through the fuel system plumbing and I think that we may be running out of fuel at full power on long straights. There are a multitude of fuel petcocks for the Guzzi, Aprilia and Docks so my question is: does anyone know the OEM size (16mm (1.0 TP female nipple ) with the largest exit barb ? The ones that came with the tank look to be about 1/8" and even as we are using one for each carb I think there in is the problem. Anyhow any ideas would be great. Cheers Rich

Hello Again, After we returned from Miller the team all got together and took time to discuss the weekend and the results. The bottom line is we improved all through out the weekend but we are still getting beat. In the last race Wade our rider took on the entire field and got the bike into and through turn one in the lead. And that's the good news. After that we kept getting passed until we ended the day in third as I posted before. We finally have come to the conclusion that our problem is in the gearing. Gina (our pet name for the motorbike) was built for the Isle of Man, Wade has nearly 20 years racing there and after many an hour going through the strengths and weaknesses of the Moto Guzzi we made it our main focus to make time in the fast and very fast sections of the Island. One of the things that we did was find the tallest gearing available. There in may have been a fine idea for Manx GP but not the best for short courses. Wade had said that at Miller (we were racing what is know as the East Course; which is very tight indeed) that he could rarely click top gear. So now our focus has changed. We first know that our rider is quick off the line and as he get more intimate with Gina and her Italian proclivities he is going faster every event. So we shall begin to work on improving his corner exit speeds. Top end at Daytona (by their Radar gun) was 150 so she's not slow but she ain't very quick to get her skirts gathered up and down the road Ed from Guzzi Power has been a great help to us and tomorrow I'm heading down to his shop for a lower final drive. Based on the ratios it should be about 14% lower that what we have been running. We plan on one last test prior to loading everything in the crate for shipment to OZ and I'll let you all know how that test worked out. Cheers Rich

Again sorry for taking so long to reply to the forum. I was going over the oiling problems and the comments about same plus those regarding positive/negative issue etc. I began my racing working on a type of race car called a Formula Junior. These engines tended to pump oil out at a alarming rate. When I began seeing this problem starting to begin in the Guzzi I tackled it in the same way we did the F Juniors. "KISS' we first tried to release the crankcase pressure with venting. As oil will escape through said venting we created small inline catch tanks in the form of small in line fuel filters (the kind that have replaceable internal filters) filling them with oil trapping foam. These "catch tanks" return the oil to the sump through a drain back system. Our problem was pumping oil out on to the track and our tires. At miller (UMC) we ran the Guzzi harder than we have ever done and with no visible oil loss, no oil misting or volume loss. Total cost of the new system was under $100. The system was by no means elegant but it was simple, cheap and functional. At the risk of over simplifying things 50 years of racing have imprinted one fact in my mind first fix the problem then make the fix sexy. I thank you all for the input as it has given me a plethora of ideas for the future. As the one thing that is as nearly as hard to find as money is time my simple fix will need to do until we return from down under. Thanks again for the information . Cheers Richard

Still at IT ! Sorry I have been AWOL for a while but life just gets in the way. Was first off doing a MERA (Motorcycle Endurance Riders Assoc.) event out of Salt Lake City. Don't ask how I did there; 36 hours with the temp. in triple digests and I bailed out and headed to a hotel with AC. We did race at Willow Springs and did OK for it being a new motorbike found and fixed some teething problems. Last weekend (Labor Day) we raced Utah Motorsport and got a third (not really a big deal and there were only 4 bikes) but did shave over 14 seconds off our times. Bike is running good but now we seem to be running out of gas. We think it might be the size of the Guzzi fuel valve outlet. As we are using a standard petcock X 2 but the fuel bowls seem to be going dry. We are still sorting the scooter out and are planning to head to Barber next month. Barber will be our last chance before the bikes get loaded for OZ in January. Anyhow hope you all had a great summer. Cheers Rich