Me turning wrenches at the 89USGP-with more photos, and info

[reelrazor]

That is such awesome stuff. I'm VERY envious of you man! There's actually footage of Wayne, Kevin, and Mick on one of the Faster DVDs (can't remember which offhand). That footage is sooo fun to watch. Very different from the modern era. Sorry that it's slightly off-topic but do you guys know if there are any DVDs devoted to that period? Yeah, there's YouTube but it'd be great to kick back and watch those old races on the big LCD!

we were in the second or third pit slot (Laguna Seca). Pretty much right where they were accelerating/standing the bike up outa the last turn for Laguna's front "straight". They had hay bales against the wall straight in front of us. Kevin was trying sooo hard to stay with Rainey that he was clipping the last of the bales to get the bike pointed down the straight.

In the pics of Michael's bike, you can see the taped on added padding on the buttrest. He did that because he could feel himself pushing backwards on the entry to the corkscrew which is exactly WRONG- it's like cresting a ski hill.....you gotta get over the front end

[PIMPMYFZR]

OLD SCHOOL pics are the greatest man .. I bet those were some fun times back then .. jesus one can only imagine

[reelrazor]

Okay, a couple more:

The guys next to us in the paddocks were running GP2 with their Aprillia tandem twins:



this is the same bike in the factory Aprillia hands:


(look at all the rims laying around...}



The Gauloises TZ250 being spun up:




and, the Cabin showing (almost);


Honda..ppplllhhh! All show and no go...

[kilika2]

This is probably a dumb question but is there a mechanical reason to set up the dual exhaust that way? On the no 7 Yamaha.

Chris

[reelrazor]

This is probably a dumb question but is there a mechanical reason to set up the dual exhaust that way? On the no 7 Yamaha. Chris

It's a V-twin....


with the 'VEE' pointing straight forwards.

The upper exhaust comes from the upper cylinder, the lower from the lower. They get a straighter shot, with easier routing from each.

See the square fours?....(#'s 53, 41, 25) the 250s are just half of that engine

[kilika2]

Ahhh yes I didn't even look for engine size. Thanks for the lesson, and pics.

Chris

[reelrazor]

And the Aprillia's are 'tandem twins'-think two single cylinder engines sitting in a row-lengthwise..each cylinder with it's own separate crankshaft. The exhaust ports point out teh right hand rear of each cylinder...so easier to route exhaust out the right...one high, one low.

Some of these bikes used the upper expansion chamber as a brace/bracket for the rear subframe/bodywork.

[M in KC]

Good stuff right there! Thanks for sharing razor.