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BR46

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1 hour ago, Kzoo said:

Reminds me.  Yesterday on my bike ride at lunch I saw a cute young lady on a pink scooter (maybe a Vespa but who noticed) with a matching pink side car and she sported a matching pink helmet.  Sorry but I thought of you @BR46 

What made you think of me? Was it the pink helmet? The Vaspa? The cute chick? The pink sidecar?

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It looks like you ride almost in a superman position, stretched out over the motor.

So, when a motor self destructs at a high rpm,  you must be inches away from the top of the engine.  Do most (hopefully all) motors stay structurally together and the parts remain inside the motor?  I recall years ago, at a blower explosion at a drag race, years before some safety items were used, and the blower flew up and over the spectator stands. 

Are the stock pistons forged or cast?   

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The more I think about it.... this would fall into the NO category for me.  No way would I do this, along with not jumping out of perfectly good airplanes.  I don't think your nuts... this is just too much for me.  The guy on a top fuel bike... yeah he's nuts.   I've seen too many motors running top fuel blow up.

Back in 1977 when I purchased my fist car, a black Z28 Camaro (of course with a 4 speed) the guy asks, 'Do you want T-tops?'  I told him, 'No.  When I roll it over I want steel above my head.'  And I was serious.  When I drove the car home, that was the first day I started wearing a seat belt.  I knew I'd probably get into trouble.  (never did)  The one thing I liked about seat belts back then, when you cinched them tight, they stayed tight.  I found that held me in the seat, and I could go around corners faster.  

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28 minutes ago, Bikeguy said:

When I roll it over I want steel above my head.' 

People say that they can't believe that there's nothing to hold the monkey on the sidecar. I tell them if you flip you don't want to be attached to the sidecar. 

That what what's scary about F-1 sidecars if it flips the driver is trapped in side. I've seen one flip at 130+ and was sliding upside down with the driver trapped. 

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Having played with the nitro bombs for a while I've many scary stories from the days we were learning about safety devices.  Today's FC are a bit longer but back in the day, the driver essentially sat in a position that put the bellhousing between his/her knees and the transmission in the crotch.  We had no transmission or bellhousing armor, using what amounted to a Chrysler torqueflight automatic transmission (2 gears out of 3 manually shifted).  It was not under the floor boards. It was part of the floor so there was a thin transmission case between all those rotating parts and your essential areas.  Later when clutches were installed, armored steel bellhousings were used.  Don Garlits who basically invented the rear engine top fuel dragster did so after losing the toes on one foot during an engine explosion between his feet and legs.

Somewhere in my collection I had a pic of an explosion in Paula Murphy's  FC where the flywheel assembly could be seen departing through the roof of the car.  Knowing where that flywheel went as it exited left her a bit shaken.

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8 hours ago, BR46 said:

What I in the motor at the moment are cast pistons. 

Funny story about top fuel....We were racing in Ohio when I guy was checking out the sidecar who use to race top fuel drag bikes.  When Wo46 stepped out of the motorhome the guy who raced top fuel said. .......You ride that thing.......you're fucking nuts. I laughed and said but you ride a 200 mph nitro methane bomb and you think that she's nuts. 

This type of sidecar is called a kneeler sidecar. I don't sit on it you are kneeling on it to drive it and yes I'm pretty much laying on top of the motor. Screenshot_2020-03-13-21-04-26-1.thumb.png.364108dba9965b181b7e955391d77bf5.png

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That looks terrifying.  

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1 hour ago, maddmaxx said:

Having played with the nitro bombs for a while I've many scary stories from the days we were learning about safety devices.  Today's FC are a bit longer but back in the day, the driver essentially sat in a position that put the bellhousing between his/her knees and the transmission in the crotch.  We had no transmission or bellhousing armor, using what amounted to a Chrysler torqueflight automatic transmission (2 gears out of 3 manually shifted).  It was not under the floor boards. It was part of the floor so there was a thin transmission case between all those rotating parts and your essential areas.  Later when clutches were installed, armored steel bellhousings were used.  Don Garlits who basically invented the rear engine top fuel dragster did so after losing the toes on one foot during an engine explosion between his feet and legs.

Somewhere in my collection I had a pic of an explosion in Paula Murphy's  FC where the flywheel assembly could be seen departing through the roof of the car.  Knowing where that flywheel went as it exited left her a bit shaken.

I was at Union Grove dragaway in 1979 when 3 spectators were killed when a clutch and flywheel came out of a car and went into the stands.

20 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

Glad you got it back together.  Is there a size limit on cc?  I know that you said it had to be a twin.  

The max is 750cc with stock valve size and a maximum carburetor size 34mm round slide. If I was to put 36mm carbs on it would put in the next class up. That would mean that I would then have to build a bigger motor and spend more money to be competitive. 

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2 minutes ago, BR46 said:

I was at Union Grove dragaway in 1979 when 3 spectators were killed when a clutch and flywheel came out of a car and went into the stands.

The max is 750cc with stock valve size and a maximum carburetor size 34mm round slide. If I was to put 36mm carbs on it would put in the next class up. That would mean that I would then have to build a bigger motor and spend more money to be competitive. 

So if carb and valve sizes are maxed out then what do you do to make more power?  Just build the internals to take high RPM and open up intake and exhaust?  Can you cam it at all?

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6 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

So if carb and valve sizes are maxed out then what do you do to make more power?  Just build the internals to take high RPM and open up intake and exhaust?  Can you cam it at all?

That's where the fun begins. 

I get to spend hours in the garage figuring out how much I can shave off the head and reshaping the intake and exhaust ports in the search for more power (Tim Allen grunt) There's a average of 10hp hidden in the cylinder head on the old motors. 

One of the reasons that my son has blown up a few motors is the motorcycle that he is racing there no aftermarket speed part available. So he has to design and make his own. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. 

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3 minutes ago, BR46 said:

That's where the fun begins. 

I get to spend hours in the garage figuring out how much I can shave off the head and reshaping the intake and exhaust ports in the search for more power (Tim Allen grunt) There's a average of 10hp hidden in the cylinder head on the old motors. 

One of the reasons that my son has blown up a few motors is the motorcycle that he is racing there no aftermarket speed part available. So he has to design and make his own. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. 

What can you do about piston rings and drag.  In the straight line cars, the rings are built to have as little drag as possible, usually only sealing really tight during the power stroke.  Lots of oil blow by but hey......power is king.  We always took more "oil" out of the engine after a run then we put in, always sort of a sick green color contaminated by lots of alcohol and nitro.

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15 hours ago, BR46 said:

Fired up the sidecar today with a different motor today.

Sweet!

So, is a "sidecar" a functional motorcycle without the extra seat/wheel attached?  I always thought the extra bits were the sidecar, and the main bit was still a "motorcycle", but you seem to use it as either the bit with the engine (regardless of whether it has the extra stuff attached) or maybe as a whole (engine/regular bike + extra bits).

So, to us non-sidecar folks, what sort of terminology should we know (beyond the monkey)?

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35 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Lots of oil blow by but hey......power is king

I just run the rings with factory recommend gap. Some teams have motors with a few years of racing on the motors (BMWs) 

I just picked up another cylinder head that I'm going to put on the flow bench and see what I can find for more power. 

One trick that I'm going to try that a friend of mine did in a motor that he built and holds 5 land speed records is valves from new tuner cars. The valve is lighter and shaped for better flow than the 50 year old valves that I'm running. I will have to make my own valve guides. The rules are you have to run stock valve size nothing about lighter valve material. 

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41 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

Sweet!

So, is a "sidecar" a functional motorcycle without the extra seat/wheel attached?  I always thought the extra bits were the sidecar, and the main bit was still a "motorcycle", but you seem to use it as either the bit with the engine (regardless of whether it has the extra stuff attached) or maybe as a whole (engine/regular bike + extra bits).

So, to us non-sidecar folks, what sort of terminology should we know (beyond the monkey)?

Sidecar racing is basically a three wheel vehicle with a passenger. 

There's 7 classes of sidecars. Everything from stock motorcycles with a what we call the chair attached to F-1 that doesn't even resemble a motorcycle. 

F-1 sidecar with the body removed 

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Want to go for a ride on that platform? Top speed of a F-1 is 180+ mph. 

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5 minutes ago, BR46 said:

Want to go for a ride on that platform? Top speed of a F-1 is 180+ mph. 

I would on the bottom "finished" one!  That one looks like the  one in your post from several months ago? I think when we were discussing Jay Leno?  It is!

So what I called a sidecar is actually called the chair?  The monkey is in the chair?  The sidecar is the whole thing - all three wheels, engine, driver and monkey seats, etc.?

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6 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

I would on the bottom "finished" one!  That one looks like the  one in your post from several months ago? I think when we were discussing Jay Leno?  It is!

So what I called a sidecar is actually called the chair?  The monkey is in the chair?  The sidecar is the whole thing - all three wheels, engine, driver and monkey seats, etc.?

Correct 

I like to describe it as I have control of the gas and brake and only 25% of the steering. The other 75% is the co-driver/monkey that is responsible for making the sidecar turn. We use hand signals for different things like if we have a problem with front end push in a turn on the track I will give Wo46 a hand signal and she will switch what she does so we can turn better in that turn. 

Some monkeys will drag their bodies on the track to help make a turn. Kat will drag her hip and shoulder. She is so comfortable doing this she has waved to us as they are passing us in the turn.

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Celia will sit on the race track in the turn.

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Wo46 has scuffed her butt on the track a few times hanging out of the chair. 

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2 hours ago, BR46 said:

I just run the rings with factory recommend gap. Some teams have motors with a few years of racing on the motors (BMWs) 

I just picked up another cylinder head that I'm going to put on the flow bench and see what I can find for more power. 

One trick that I'm going to try that a friend of mine did in a motor that he built and holds 5 land speed records is valves from new tuner cars. The valve is lighter and shaped for better flow than the 50 year old valves that I'm running. I will have to make my own valve guides. The rules are you have to run stock valve size nothing about lighter valve material. 

This is true.  You don't run engines for a few seconds a couple of times and then take them apart and rebuild them.

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