Books on engine building

I'm going to buy a race bike and if the track days work out for me, I might give racing a go. At the moment I'm trying to decide between a very expensive but very well set up rvf 400 and a reasonably priced, fairly well set up zxr 400. A big plus with the rvf is that as well as having a newly rebuilt race engine, it comes with a spare stock engine. I could pop in the stock engine until I feel the need to go racing and then have a fresh engine to race with. I've always wanted to have a go at rebuilding a motor so the spare would be great to give it a go. Are there any books that cover that type of thing? I've done all my own maintenance so far but never needed to split a motor so a few tips or a guide would be great.

 

A few of the guys actually race. They will probably see your post and get with you. Also try a couple of motorcycle racing organizations and engine builders. My main guy here is George Dean who builds engines for the racecars that run bike engines. George Dean Racing. You might drop him an Email. George is a bloody genius.. and as well a great guy..

 

I'm not sure what engine builders or organisations are available here in Ireland. I do know that you have to join a club to racing though, so it will probably all fall into place once I decide to give it a go.

As for the book, I like to do a bit of preparation if possible. You would be surprised the tips that can be picked up from guys who have been doing it for so long that they've written a book on it. I'm almost finished "Four Stroke Performance Tuning" by A. Graham Bell. It's well worth a read. There's a lot of stuff in there I will never use but I picked up some valuable knowledge too.

If I ever do a rebuild I'll be sure to do a thread on it. I have a 90 VFR 750 that would make a good candidate too but I don't fancy spending the money on it. The fairings are very rough and I can't seem to find any reasonable priced fix for them. I could do with a new set really.

 

Your local club may be the way to go. Here the clubs are well organized and local to the point of having local members mostly. The racing clubs here are usually associated with a given track or tracks in the area,

A sample: WMRRA associated with PIR (Washington Motorcycle Road Race Association/ Pacific International Raceway) Many more this being just one example. The sites might help to fill in some blanks.

That run of VFR/Interceptors fairing parts is shrinking.. The Chinese make some but they lack in quality. Fibreglass here from Airtech or there is a German firm that has parts too.. Lots of pesos.

 

Your dad may have been speaking not aboot engine building but more aboot cannibals. Was your dad a missionary maybe?

 

I don't suppose you know the site with the chinese stuff? I looked at the Airtech site but shipping is almost as expensive as the fairings.

There are plenty of clubs here too. Some organise their own road racing events etc. I happen to live in the part of the island that has no clubs at all but the nearest is only an hour or two away I think.

 

Try Ebay for the Chinese fairings. Be careful.. The price points are all over the map. The Ebay types show on the split version of this page. Ad naseum..

Racing on city streets here is not that popular for bikes. Caveat.. Organized racing.. There are several for cars both come and gone. The Long Beach GP in SoCal comes to mind. Houston had one but it has gone MIA.

In the US each state has its own laws. A few years ago some guys put together an on the real roads roadrace in Washington state. The area was in a financially depressed section of the state. The first year went well for all. The townies, the racers and the merchants were happy. The second year, just as I arrived a fella was killed on a 125. The race was shut down and stopped because of a fatality on a city street that state law by requirement, had to be investigated by the Washington State Patrol, Washington's version of State Police. The event did not survive the next year.

The Chinese fairings do not get good reviews and take a bit of doing. This does not mean they are impossible.. Shipping may even be less in Ireland.. My guess is that all of the Chinese fairings come from the same manufacturer some where in China and the sources are from the rice bowl middlemen that do business with the manufacturer. Just a guess..

The Airtech products are high quality and widely used on race bikes. By the time shipping is added and those taxes you folks have to pay there, the fairing would likely be worth more than the average 90-93..

Yikes!

 

There is always talk of shutting the races down for good when someone gets killed over here. Luckily is hasn't happened yet. The riders know the danger involved so I don't see why anyone else should have a say in it.

I'll have a look on ebay and see whats available. The big problem with Airtech was that the lower fairing was all one piece and needed to be sent via courier in a very large box. If it were seperate panels, it might not have been so expensive for shipping

 

I had a look on ebay there and can't even find any chinese kits. Ideally I'd like to get the lot together so I won't have as many issues with paint matching and fitting. Surely there is some company making them besides Airtech?

 

What stopped the roadrace in Washington was not so much the riders not knowing the danger but the locale in the Southwest area of the state. Kind of in the boonies if you will. Economically depressed area ect., but the law in effect.

State law demands that a fatality on public roads be investigated by the state police. The fella was killed as I recall very early in the day and the entire event was stopped. The investigation would have been compromised by allowing the races to continue because of potential changes to the public road which might destroy evidence.

Hundreds of spectators, riders ect went home. The next year there were no races.

Those Chinese fairings should show up on Google and Ebay.. Try not using Chinese in your search term protocols.. We just call them that.

Different search terms should also bring up the German firm that makes replacement fairing parts.

" fairing replacement Honda vfr Honda interceptor 1990 1993" Something along those lines..

 

I wasn't using chinese in the search lol! There just isn't any kits on there. I found some other sites since my last post anyway. Thurn Motorsports is probably the German firm you're thinking of and their kits look quite good.

I want to make sure my engine is mechanically sound before I go spending hundreds on fairings but at least now I know they can be found. That's a project for another day! I have to concentrate on getting a racebike now before the season is over.