VOL. 56 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 26, 2019 P91
Team USA had their best-ever year, with AMA Superbike legend
Josh Hayes heading the point scorers.
Ken Wootton Perpetual Trophy
winner, Australia's Steve Martin.
Thankfully, I still had some
allies in the PI pit and within an
hour my old sponsor for 2014
gave me the same Suzuki Katana
1100 that I raced to second in
the P5 Australian Championships
in 2014, and my father's close
friend Bob Rosenthal lent me his
Matchless G50 (that dad built) to
race in the Classic 500 class. You
meet the nicest people racing
motorcycles.
This Suzuki Katana is owned
by Old Gold Motorcycles, but it
isn't just any Katana. Based off
a 1982 1100, the motor has
been bored out to a chunky
1290cc with 145 horse-
power, but it's still about 30
horsepower down on what
the bikes like David John-
son's XR69 and Josh Hayes'
Yamaha are producing.
The Kat runs 37mm Keihin
carburetors, has a welded crank,
straight cut gears, undercut gear-
box, heavy duty race clutch, a full
titanium race exhaust system,
and a Japanese Uotani ignition
system.
As for the chassis, the bike
was pretty tired with old Ohlins
shocks at the rear and a cartridge
fork kit. Old Gold also removed
the standard swingarm and used
a Macintosh unit and braced the
frame, and we ran Lockheed AP
four-piston front brakes.
A special thanks to Bridges-
tone Australia, who helped us
out with the V01 slick tires front
and rear, with Bridgestone USA
also chipping in with a few set-up
ideas on the phone from their
head offices in Nashville.
The Katana ran flawlessly for
nearly the entire race meeting,
but a telltale puff of smoke on the
final lap of the third race made for
an early end to our International
Challenge as part of Team USA.
We still have not pulled the mo-
tor apart, but it didn't lose power
as it smoked, so hopefully the
damage isn't too bad.
Thanks to Steve at Old Gold
Motorcycles in Sydney for loan-
ing us this excellent machine and
saving Cycle News' weekend. It's
certainly a beast to ride—long
and slow steering—but still buck-
ets of fun.
Keihin 37mm carbs were used
on the Kat, although many
others in the pits were running
38 or 39mm units.
