KATANAMANGLER

You've been talking about this for a while now @zedheadand now you're finally going to do it! I'm looking forward to reading all about it. welcome to the team. Wings are in the post Dave! Go winged hammers!

Great result ! Well deserved too.

I've read through your thread and it all sounds painfully familiar. Especially the diagnosing with your wallet parts. New rubbers and OEM clips should have eleminated the air leak though. As an aside I normally remove the OEM chocolate JIS screws on the clamps and replace them with M4 stainless socket heads of the same length. I find they give a more positive drive when you are tightening a loosening them. If I was having a half blind stab at pointing you down a different rabbit hole I would say have you balanced the carbs? On the CVs there are 3 screws between the linkages that allow you to balance 1 & 2 together, 3&4 together then balance the two pairs together. To do this properly you need a set of vacuume gauges. What you are esentially doing is ensuring the the butterflies are allowing the same rate of draw on all 4 inlets. You can do that on the bench with a physical gauge but it doesn't ever take into account any wear and tear in the butterflies so it's better done dynamically measuring the draw with a vacuum gauge. All that said, it's an engine and as such it's the sum of its parts or more accurately its systems. It's important to run through those and check them all methodically to avoid disappearing down any single rabbit hole ( we all do it) Basics: Compression. Valve clearance. Spark plug gap, spark plug health and leads. If those are all good. Then you are able to look at the air and fuel system ( the carbs) safe in the knowledge that the other systems are in spec. One last disclainer: Constant velocity (CV) carbs are notoriously unhappy running without an airbox and the best you'll every get is a imperfect balance between the circuits that work when you are accelerating ( needle and main) and the idle circuit. Because the CV needs a draw to activate the diaphragm and lift the needle it works best with an airbox. Ultimately, if you want an airboxless set up my advice is get a set of RS carbs where the slide is directly activated by the throttle cable. All that said, you'll get it to work and most of us have ridden around quite happily with that imperfect set up without any real issues.

That's the spirit!

You do know that brakes just slow you down, right?

That must have been the 24 hour endurance race at the beginning of June. Amaizing result when you see the state ofthe bike. The classic races are just 4 hours. Less room for comebacks, unfortunately.

Yeah, you are right. It is a really cruel mistress. Most of these bikes are 40 years old. Our engines get a meticulous ground up rebuild between every race. The clutches are stripped and rebuilt between qualifying and the race. Using your T-bike to qualify and saving your main bike for race day is another way of keeping the hours down. It's a different kind of test from a flat out 10 lap short circuit. The riders and the bikes need to last. Mechanical sympathy is key and of course build quality.

Honestly, the rules of the EEC are that if you have an off , the rider has to push the bike back to his pits under his own steam. If you call for the van of shame the penalties are signifcant. We give our riders one rule: Don't bin it. If by some twist of fate they come off the race is effectively over from a competative standpoint, unless a good portion of the top 10 teams all flunk out. The bungs are there to protect the engines in the event of an off. It's more about next race than it is salvaging that race.

The levers and clipons are shitpence but each engine is around 6 grand. A plastic gaurd on the front brake is an ACU/ FIM manditory requirement to prevent accidental activation of the front brake in close tangles. It wont protect the lever in a slide. The bungs will protect the engine. They are chamfered to ensure there is no contact within standard travel. Properly saved my fresh engine from carnage when I had a big off last year.

Action shots...

We came to Paul Ricard for the first time and we have had the most amaizing weekend. Our team and our bikes were tested to their limits but on Sunday night, at 12am when the race finished, we looked around at one another and we knew that being part of this team was the best job any of us have ever had. We have improved as a team and we have learned so much that we can take into the next EEC round in Spain. Endurance racing is a cruel mistress and bike 82 retired at 2 hours but was running 4th. Had we continued as we had for the first 2 hours, we would have been 2nd in class. Team 81 completed the full race but with one rider retirement due to a contact lense failure. Dispite the challenges, we finished 6th in class. We will be back for the next round in Spain and we will keep you all updated on our preparations.

After months of preparation the Rooster Racing team 81 and 82 are onsite at Circuit Paul Ricard for the first round of the European Endurance Cup. We'll keep you all updated. I also have a huge box of OSS stickers, which I am handing out to some of the Suzuki teams, in between my team manager duties. Spreading the OSS love. Wish us luck!!

I had the pleasure of meeting up with some classic Suzuki racers from South Africa at the weekend. You might recognise @MikeMc71bike from the awesome aircooled pictures thread. Normally ridden by Mike, but pictured here being riden by none other than AJ Venter. Welcome to the Winged Hammers Mike. Keep us updated on the classic Suzuki race scene in South Africa.

https://oldskoolsuzuki.info/archives/3765

https://oldskoolsuzuki.info/archives/3765

Go winged hammers!!!

Olsdkoolsuzuki.info has always had an international mandate. It's always very rewarding when we see our site providing the basis for fellow OSSers to network and form real world connections. While it is true that most of the real world events happen in Europe, it doesn't have to stay that way, I would love to see that evolve to more accurately represent our international membership.

Ah good! Footage has emerged of the the afore mentioned inappropriate behaviour. Actually, it cost me 250 quid for that bike tyre...

When the organisers of the Show asked who would like to take their bike outside and start it there were a lot of OSS hands went up. Im just annoyed I didn't capture @Mole28doing a burnout on his racebike. Totally inappropriate for the event but totally appropriate for Mole and for OSS. Chink's interview is hilarious.

Many thanks to all the OSS boys and girls who travelled and gave up their weekend to show their bikes at the Scottish Bike Show this weekend. Well done @Wee Man for organising the stand. I might be biased,but for me, we had the the best stand of the show. The broad church of OSS was well represented.

I'll be honest I think the 80s Suzukis had about 5 lock variations. They are not sophisticated. I once lost my Katana key at a track day at Cadwell Park and the spare was at home. I just asked a few fellow 80s Suzuki riders if I could try their spare keys. Sure enough the 3rd one I tried from a GS750 worked a treat.

I'll have a couple of winged hammer race bikes for the stand too,