Graves Motorsports Formula Xtreme Yamaha R1
By BLAKE CONNER
PHOTOS By KEVIN WING
'm really glad that I didn't have a lot
of notice prior to riding Damon
Buckmaster's Rl at California Speedway. It all came together at the last
moment due to the track suddenly
being available ... at least that was
Yamaha's public relations manager
Brad Banister's excuse. I think that
more than likely he just didn't want
any of the invited journalists to psyche
themselves out prior to attending.
The Formula Xtreme-class grid is
stacked to the rafters with big bore,
big horsepower, no limitation racebikes. What that says to me is a
bunch of bikes that are a real handful
to ride, tire shredding wheelie monsters that want to slap you to the tarmac like a steak on a hot grill.
As luck would have it, I was the
second journalist scheduled to ride
the bike. Also as my luck would have
it, I had never ridden at California
Speedway. I was able to bust out four
quick laps on a stock Rl prior to ridding Bucky's bike, which was a blessing and a curse at the same time. The
good news was that I knew which way
the corners went; the bad news was
that the stock R1 was tankslapping in
a few of the track's faster sections.
What was the Graves Motorsports R1
going to do to me, kill me?
As we were reminded over and
over, this was Bucky's actual racebike, it cost over $80,000, makes
heaps of power, and runs a race gear
pattern (one up, five down). As I've
learned over the years riding other
pricey bikes; just get over the cost
issue and ride the thing, because a
nervous rider is a crappy rider. The
first cool thing about the bike is that
it has an electric starter and is still
right at the minimum weight requirement. As I pulled out of the pit lane, I
short-shifted the bike a gear immediately, which made a nice clunk for
owner Chuck Graves and my peers to
cringe at. However, I now knew that
the bike had an ignition-kill quick
shifter - that Graves fabricated from a
side stand kill switch - which was
never mentioned to us, so it wasn't
the smoothest sounding shift. Sorry,
Chuck.
I
36
JULY
30. 2003'
cue
I
e
The spent exhaust
gases exit through a
Graves titanium
exhaust system and
silencer.
The swing ann is fabricated to Graves specifications and utilizes a
motocross-style chain guide to keep the chain in line with the sprockets,
despite the swingann's extended length. The rear shock is an Ohlins
magnesium-bodied unit with one of five different ratio Graves links. Graves
rear sets and foot controls keep the rider positioned property.
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