This is a long story, that started more than 3 years ago with the idea to build a track day bike to give a sense to all the spares I bought when restoring my ’89 851.
Then it happened to go through another bike in a very bad condition, so the project was converted in a restoration of a ’91 851.
As I finished it, a new track day bike project started.
851 frame, 95mm kit gio.ca.moto, head porting with larger valves, showa fork (I got it for free swapping another part), ohlins mono, carbon air intake and airbox and some very nice parts built ad-hoc for the bike…
I know, it sounds like a sort of Frankenstein.
The project was completed in August and, after some test in a private area, it was time for a proper test in a circuit.
First run – 3 laps just to feel the bike and checking that it was responding well. I wish to have more laps but at the end of the main straight part, when downshifting, I “lost” the shift pedal… i had to stop outside the track waiting a van to take me back to the paddock zone. Ultimately it was just the pedal regulation that completely unscrewed and the pedal was almost hanging down. I fixed it, I checked the bike again and then out.
Second run – 6/7 laps increasing the speed and gaining confidence with the bike and the circuit. The engine is incredible, a lot of torque at all rpm (well, I did not went above 8.000/8.500, it was still a test!) and even if you enter a turn with a higher gear, you can exit very fast. Quite hard to drive it fast, you need a lot of strength if you want to go fast: basically an old school bike! The feeling was great on the right corners, while I was feeling the bike not that stable on the left corners… then I saw some smoke coming out from the bodywork. When I reached the pit I spotted some oil leaking on the engine carter, producing the smoke… Shit! I cleaned the engines trying to find the leaking point… I raised a bit the fuel tank and I found it: luckily it was only a screw on the cam cap that had to be screwed hard since it was half way out. I thought that this was also the main reason of the lower feeling on the left corners since I had some small oil drops on the left part of the rear tire. I checked some other screws, cleaned everything and then… out again.
Third run – 5/6 laps, with always a good feeling on the right and a bad one on the left… then a guy made some sings to me, so went out. Again some smoke from the engine and some oil on the lower part of the left cater. After another check, I spot the leakage: it was coming from behind the engine sprocket and again some oil on the rear tire.
I decided to stop: I did not want to have oil dripping on the track.
At the very end, it was a great test! With all the things that cannot work or go wrong I had just minor issues.
The bike was far above my expectations and, most important, I had great fun!!!
Let me thank all of you for all the information I read on the forum, for all the answers you gave to my questions and for the interesting threads you post. I’m really a newbie compared to many of you and although I cannot participate to most of the discussions, I like to read them, learning many things.
Let me just mention and thank Rudy, from which I bought some stuff and Tiz851 who gave me a lot of offline help.
Cheers,
Emanuele
