Chain Drive ?

[callison]

If the Buells beat the Guzzis it will have much more to do with big bucks than design.

Lex

42520[/snapback]

 

Not entirely, I spent some time talking with Russ, the guy who built the first motor used by the Guzzi LSR team. He used to be a HD race mechanic. His take was the engines were pretty much similar in that they were big pushrod V-twins with all that implies. The major difference according to him was the crank. The Guzzi is 90 degrees and doesn't shake itself to pieces and can rev higher as a result. RPMs do equate to higher power output all other things being equal. That's why Honda built the 4, 5 and 6 cylinder race bikes back in Mike Hailwoods day. More power per equal volume of displacment due to higher revs. At some point though, internal friction will negate power gains or we'd have been seeing bikes with 32 cyclinder engines or something weird like that. But you're right, large quantities of enthusiasts equates to lots of money to use in the pursuit of speed and speed is measured in the consumption of cubic dollars per mile of hour of speed gained. HD's have a vast contingent of the faithful willing to spend any amount of money on improving the image of their preferred marque and Guzzi's just don't enjoy that kind of popularity. Maybe LSR for Guzzi's really means "Long Shoestring Racing".