Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127682
Where I would like for us to be is the factory road race team being the number one superbike team. But I would like to take what we learn a nd su pp ly it to dealers or other privateers that will buy production VRs and race with us . I would think that there should be some very good sponsorship opportunities out there for a team on a Harley. I'm hoping there are several teams being built around the Harley for next season as we'll have a very nice contingency program for the VRs. A lot of these pe0ple (competitor s) don't se em to care a b o ut other people racing the same brand and class of superb ike that they do, be ing competitive wi th them anyway. I don't really have that problem, I hope th is bike is easy to use for cu stom ers a nd th at we d o a good job of supplying pa rts and technical information so that man y teams are successful using the Harley-Davidson YR. The bikes are now being assembled at Jack Roush's in Michigan. Do you ever see a point where they will be built at the military plant in York? That, in fact, is the case. It's not final and I'm not that closely involved with it, but the first 15 are bein g assem bled a t Roush and after that the y a re bein g assembled at York. The transformation is now taking place so that th ey a re being made in York. It's in the main production facility, but off to the side. What is the Harley-Davidson race shop like? It's rumored to be this small, very historic room with wooden benches and pre-war block and tackle hanging from the ceiling. Some people mig ht think it's hist oric, but histo ric and decayed so me times look the sam e. (Laughs) No. It was dark when I first took my position there and we've put new lights in so it is not dark any more. It ' s a big facility, it 's 5000 square feet or bigger. Harley-Davids on is a union manufacturer and the mechan ics on the VR team ar e union. With all the wee kend work and overtime th ese must be very well-pai d mechanics. . Honestly, I don't pa y attention to the specifics of what they're mak ing. But that's just another obstacle that you could introduce if you choose to. I don 't choose to. Yeah, it might be double time on Sunday and all that, but these gu ys are worth it. They work their butts off for this tea m . Al Stangler and Craig Fillmer are two of the hardest wo rking, best mechanics I've had the experience to work wi th in racing or anywhere else, for that matte r. We understand that you underwent some problems in the beginning of not be ing able to achieve the same results on your dyno as the bike did on the race track? There were several small issues in there that, in the end, added up to a significant obstacle . Essentially, we could not, without a significant amount of work, run the bike' s exhaust exactly as it is in our dyno cell. So, we had small differences that we were not expecting that had very significant outcomes. We discovered after the first couple of races that, in fact, the system we had on our bike made less power than what we had on the dyno and therefore the calib ration of the fuel injection was not correct. We also had quite a learning curve on the fuel tank and fuel pump itself. We had to make sure that the basic package was good enough for years to come. Gas tanks don't win races - theyll lose races for a team, but they won't w in. Now we 've had time to get at all those little details and the y are basically under control. I'm not sure what wil l tum up on us now, but the frequency is certainly going do wn. What will you do from this point, once the reliability is there, which it seems it is? Will you add some compression and camshaft to it and go racing? I had some success on the dyno between Mid-Ohio and Brainerd. You just get lucky, d yno deve lopment some wha t goes in streaks. You can come up with a bunch of development that is very disap pointing, but last week I was able to ~ come across (sly smile) several horsepower. We put that engine in Friday for Miguel and it was in both bikes by Saturday morning. Everyone noticed a big difference - I know I d id. The results were brought about by some mino r tuning changes, small changes in the exhaust system and smaIl changes in the intake tract and that's essentially it. It was just fine tuning of some combinations; many times you can put on one part that should make more power and it doesn't. Then you put on one part that shou ld make more top end and it doesn't. You put a third one on and it doesn't make more power either, but you put the right combinations of those parts on and yo u ' ll get more power. Using theory and science you can ge t yourself close, in the ballpark, but after that it's just hard work. I believe th a t th e engine is a ve ry solid engine design and I don't think well have many more problems . There are no d urab ility issues or major design flaws or anything like tha t that will prevent us from obtain ing compe titive horsepower levels. We're fairly close now. I know we're down on power to our competition but we're getting closer. From here on out it's just going to be . further tuning efforts. Our reliability is good, our failures are some times well publicized, but we've actually had very few . Less than many of our neighbors, but nobody focuses on that part. You have taken some hits in the press. Has it affected you? You don't have a choice, you just don't wo rry about it. I' m not sure I understand why they were doin g that, bu t it doesn't affect what I'm doing. The press is kind of a curious lot for me. You met John Britten at Daytona. You two must have had plenty to talk about as you are the only two individuals on the planet developing V-twin superbikes at the moment. We just introduced ourselves, basically. We had a short conversation and he wanted to look at our engine for a couple of things that, even now, I'm not sure why. I'm not sure what he was interested in, and I never looked at his motorcycle. We really didn't talk about motorcycles too much . You're seen in the accompaniment of Erald o Ferracci much of the time. What are those conversations ab out? He's ve ry e n th usiastic, and a good sounding board. Are you do ing typical Japanese development in that you build one piece at a time with the successfu l parts filtering back to the second ri der's bike? Th a t wou ld explain Kling' s ma rgina ll y slower curve in riding the bike. An yth ing we build, we build th ree of th em . You need tw o view points on everythi ng, but the bikes aren't that much d ifferent from each other. Fritz has quite a bit more weight to d rag around and can 't get behind the windscreen as well as Miguel. Miguel has been on superbikes a little bit longer than Fritz, so all that affects Fritz's performance. Fritz is a great ride r . He doesn't compla in and he genuin ely loves to ride this bike. We'll be building a taller fairing for him as soon as possible. The major change you have done to the ch ass is is that the Penske forks have been swapped for O hlins units. Will you go back to th e Penske t u bes at some point? We've been using Ohlins for some time, af ter the Penske stuff at Daytona. We uncovered the need for further developme nt in th e Penske u nits. And with (penske) very involved wi th the F-l season in Europe and the Indy car season here, they are very busy. Th e H arley program is very important to them, it' s just that they don't have the time right now to continue development. Ohlins .has a quality part, they have been at it for a long time. Ohlins prov ides an excellent product and thei r service is outstanding when we have a question but Penske will be back with us here shortly. You are the lone front suspension cus-