March 24, 2002
Hey Y'all
The LSR LMV always felt ferocious!  After a few runs, my arms got tired and sore. It felt like they were being pulled out of their sockets.  The noise and harsh ride contributed to the effect.  That little 1 liter Goliath humiliated Harleys running all the way up to the 3000 cc classes.  By contrast, the LSR carb Sport 1100 always felt sorta refined and stealthy. It just felt like a fast Sport 1100, nothing great but it was a true 150 mph bike. We proved that at Bonneville.

We took our own advice and sent the previously race-prepped Raceco heads to Mike Rich Motor Sports.  The heads came back looking astonishingly clean and different.  They were accompanied by a set of flow curves that were unbelievable!  So, after my first my first run at Maxton yesterday, when I turned in a 134, you can understand why I felt heartsick.  As I pulled into the impound area, the Sportster guys were checking my time and they were smirking from ear to ear.  With monumental effort, they kept from laughing outright.  I went back to the pits with Mother Goose (our team administrator and soon-to-be LSR rider) and tried to assess what I had screwed up when I reassemble the engine.  Finally, in desperation, I pulled the jets and found to my great surprise that they were the ones that I had neglected to change from our runs last October. I realized that with the massive increase in airflow, an accompanying increase in fuel was required.  I didn't have larger jets with me so we hopped into the car to run into Laurinburg to find some numbered drill bits, knowing that this was next to impossible in a small Southern town on a Saturday.  Maxton is in a sort of industrial park and as we drove by a factory which manufactures brakes for trains, I noticed a few cars sitting in the parking lot.  A foundry has to have a machine shop.  No?  Still wearing my leathers, I ran in and found a really nice guy who took me around the smoky dark innards of the huge building until we found the maintenance man.  I only had to tell him that we were trying to stave off the attack of a bunch of Yankees riding bikes made in Milwaukee and he hopped right to his work bench, found the right size drill and bored the jets.....refusing any type of compensation!

We put the jets in and hurried out to the start line.  The green flag dropped, I twisted the right grip and the bike became a snarling ferocious tiger!  The tach snapped to 10,000 in first, 10,000 in second, 10,000 in third, 10,000 in fourth and 9200 in 5th.  I was so mesmerized by the tach needle that after I went through the traps, I forgot to shut down right away.  I finally looked up and the end of the track was coming at me really fast!  I sat up to provide some air braking and the wind blast almost tore me off the bike! I climbed on the brakes at the last possible moment and made the turn out. When I got back to the impound area, I noticed that the Harley guys were no longer laughing!!  Then the Chief Timer handed my my timing slip and I understood why.

So......how fast can an 1100 Carb Sport go? If you guessed 165.715, you were right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We ended the weekend taking the Harley records in 1350cc, 1650cc and 3000cc Production Pushrod classes.

Mitch had already taken the 2000 cc record last October and we have some plans for that class for the April runs so we didn't raise the bar this time out.

My observations.....speed is addictive!  165 feels wonderful, waaaay better than 150!  You can fool around with pipes, crossovers, chips, Cheng Shinsand any oil that you like but what Shelby Kennard told me a long time ago is absolutely true, the week link in the Guzzi chain is the restrictive flow in the heads.........I'm sending my EV heads to Mike Rich this week!

Sidney in NC

ps.If 165 is here can 170 be far behind?

ps. so now what's your excuse for not calling Muriel at 800-877-9506 and buying a T-shirt?