Another track bike has entered this fleet. This time it’s a 2010 Aprilia RSV4.
Also hailing from Italy, the RSV4 continues my preference for V-engine configurations, but this time with 4 cylinders instead of two. The last time I owned a V4 bike, it was the hefty Honda VRF 800fi (RC46).
Specifications for the RSV4 are impressive:
General information
Model:
Aprilia RSV4 R
Year:
2010
Category:
Sport
Engine and transmission
Displacement:
999.60 ccm (61.00 cubic inches)
Engine type:
V4, four-stroke
Power:
180 HP @ 12500 RPM
Torque:
84.8 ft.lbs @ 10000 RPM
Compression:
13.0:1
Bore x stroke:
78.0 x 52.3 mm (3.1 x 2.1 inches)
Valves per cylinder:
4
Ignition:
Magneti Marelli digital electronic ignition system integrated in engine control system, with one spark plug per cylinder and stick-coil-type coils
Gearbox:
6-speed
Clutch:
Multiplate wet clutch with mechanical slipper system
Exhaust system:
4 into 2 into 1 layout, single oxygen sensor, lateral single silencer with engine control unit-controlled butterfly valve and integrated trivalent catalytic converter (Euro 3)
Chassis, suspension, brakes and wheels
Frame type:
Front suspension:
Front suspension:
Upside-down Showa fork with 43 mm stanchions. Forged aluminium radial calliper mounting brackets. Completely adjustable spring preload and hydraulic compression and rebound damping.
Rear suspension:
Twin sided aluminium swingarm
Front tire:
120/70-17
Rear tire:
190/55-17
Front brakes:
Double disc
Front brakes diameter:
320 mm
Rear brakes:
Single disc
Rear brakes diameter:
220 mm (8.7 inches)
Mass and Capacity
Dry weight:
405.7 pounds
Power/weight ratio:
1.3118 HP/kg
Seat height:
33.3 inches
Fuel capacity:
4.49 gallons
My Bike:
The bike I picked up in Lancaster CA:
It was already setup for racing, thus perfect for the track-duty I envisioned. Although in great condition, the livery is a little confusing (being Kawaski Green that is).
In the next few days I’ll have more to share about this new Italian machine.
The Ducati 749 wore a new suit to the track this time around. Although it looked great, it’s mechanical state was not quite up to to the image. It was more show than go for Sunday’s track day.
The weekend started rough and it went a little downhill from there. While finishing the dress-up on the bike (the red gas tank arrived late on Friday), Saturday, the fuel tank o-ring was damaged and required a fast trip to San Jose to get a $25 replacement o-ring. At least the dealer had it in stock and I was able to get the bike back together in time to pull into Monterey for our pre-track-day dinner.
The first break in my routing was not unloading my truck on arrival. Once back from dinner it was 10:15 PM, I found that someone had pulled up next to me in the space I’d planned to setup my gear. There didn’t seem to be much point in unloading in the paddock at that point, so.. off to sleep I went:
Dawn comes early in Monterey, and despite my original setup plans foiled, equipment was unloaded and the bike was plugged into the generator to start warming up the tires:
With the rest of the crew arriving, we got the bikes into tech.
Dr. Johnny debut his newly refurbished track bike. He’s a happy camper, as you can tell!
Unfortunately, when unloading my 749, I noticed that the bike seemed difficult to move around. After some fiddling around we discovered that one of the front brakes was dragging pretty badly. My first session was going to be spent taking apart the left front caliper.
My pal Isaac was able to score a ride on the damn fine SuperLeggera owned by the track organizer. He was very impressed at the handling.. I guess light
I was eventually able to get the brakes handled and the bike on the track for the last couple of sessions of the day. Things went OK, but it seemed the brake was starting to drag again, so I packed it in; we all loaded up and headed for home.
April can mean unpredictable where here Northern California. Last weekend we had a deluge of rain. This weekend was a little different: Saturday evening at Laguna Seca.
The work for this Sunday’s trip to Laguna Seca started in earnest on Thursday, with some upgrades to the Track Van.
First of was constructing a strong anchor system for the motorcycle wheel chock. Using a pair of E-Track 2×4 mounts, and a 36″ long section of 1.5″ angle iron, a secure, yet easily removable mounting system was created. E-track mounting system
Another pair of E-Track anchors were added to the inventory, along with some more cargo straps for loading additional equipment (which came in handy as I’ll note later).
Along with updates to the truck came upgrades to the bike; principally a new set of proper track tires on Friday. The new hides are Pirelli SuperCorsa in medium compound rear, and soft compound front:
Out with the old:
In with the new:
Having done quite a few track days over the last year, I’ve come up with some items that I think are crucial to enjoying your day at the track. First of them is SHADE. Shade is very important here in California (I offer this to my friends in Seattle that I’m not sure have ever seen the sun). In the past I’ve been fortunate enough to have friends with nice easy-up awnings, but this outing was planned to be Solo, so I dropped $200 on a pretty heavy-duty setup at Costco. Although not as ‘easy-up’ as others (I have to remove the top each time to pack it) it’s big, and comes with side panels that were REALLY handy when the wind picks up at Laguna.
In the truck everything has a place, and everything is packed in it’s place; ready for the quick drive down the road to Laguna:
The next morning, it was a short walk to registration and tech inspection. Not sure why the app was showing 44F, it was low 60’s (you might notice people are wearing t-shrts) at 7:45 AM.
Once passed through tech, the generator was fired up so they would properly heat up the tires during the riders meeting, leaving the bike ready to go for the first session.
With the generator and tire warmer setup on loan from CT Racing, it was a great day of riding!
By the last session, I was able to cut 6 seconds off my previous best lap times, clocking a 1:51.34 just before the bike ran out of gas entering turn 2.
A couple of the lessons I took away from this last outing:
A good set of tires are essential
Tire warmers are not hype, they not only keep your tires up to optimal temp they let them last longer and operating more consistently
A lap time timer is mandatory if you’re trying to develop good consistent laps… what I found was laps that *felt* fast were often slow, and the ones where I was relaxed, taking it easy, were my fastest by far. If you want to know if you’re really getting quicker, you’re lying to yourself unless you use a lap timer
Proper preparation for the day is important. I had a maintenance issue develop right before lunch and I had to scrounge up materials to build a brake bleeing setup, and get some tools loaned to me because the things I expected and brought tools for were not the ones that shut me down
Barely, but it does fit. Now to paraphrase Quinn “You’re going to need a bigger garage.”. It would seem so… or external storage lot (there are a few around).
Bought this fancy Magic Eraser thing to try and remove the plethora of hideous graphics on the van. It was $14 at the local auto parts store, I bought both of the ones they had. Sorry, didn’t take a photo of it, yet.
After a few hours of grinding off decals from the driver’s door.. it’s looking just a tiny bit better!
Taking a break from vinyl / decal / sticker removal, I started to measure out the interior of the van for how things are might fit. First was measuring off the back doors to see how far the track bikes will intrude into the cargo area (7′ 6″ minimum). The black line is where it will likely end.
Van has a cargo floor with several anchor points. Good for hauling gear, bad for adding a 2nd seat row as I’m currently planning.
With a lot of 10 year old halogen lighted vehicles, the plastic lenses age, yellow and during into little more than a diffuser. Not good for night time driving. A kit was “On Sale” at a chain auto parts store (I later saw it for the exact same product at another locally owned parts store for the same daily price).
About an hour of sanding on both lights and polishing netted a decent result. I think I need to spend more time working on these lights, it’s still not a like-new effect.
Much more work to be done to bring this thing back to a more presentable condition.
It’s January 1, 2015. Not only is it a new day, and a new year, but a new project.
It’s Project Track Truck. Prepping for the next season of track days begins now, with the end of a 3 month search for the desired track vehicle. After much deliberation, waffling, searching (including writing software to find these elusive beasts at less than insane prices), missing out deals…. I finally (think) I have it.
A 2004 Dodge Sprinter 3500 Long WB, High Roof, Extended Box. Yeap, it’s as big as big and heavy duty as they came in 2004.
With a GVW Rating of 9990 lb., this is just a couple of happy meals shy of a commercial vehicle. Powered by a 154 HP, 5-cylinder diesel engine (yes, it’s forced induction by way of turbocharger). It’s no sports car, and it’s also not very pretty. In fact, I believe the first words out of the Mrs. mouth were: “Holy crap, that thing is ugly. Have you lost your mind?”
Perhaps… but it’s my mind to lose (I think), and this is how I plan to do it.
2004 Dodge Sprinter 3500
Cleaning it up
Later in the day, I assembled a crack cleaning crew, consisting of myself and my 12 y.o. son. We embarked upon a clean-up effort to remove the gruesome letting from the van.
After nearly 4 hours of labor, a trip to the hardware store, and some failed ideas.. we were able to mostly clean up the passenger door and the two rear doors.
It might not seem like much, but it was some progress, and even though I might still shudder when visible in daylight, for now, at the moment, at night… with poor lighting.. it almost looks OK.
While watching the sky fall here on the California Coast, I decided to hack together a fun little toy for scouring some of the local Craigs List sites for things; such as Track Bikes. 🙂
The Concept:
Collect regions of interest list for Craigs List.
Execute search in each region using AJAX’ed page grabs.
Display parsed results in a list on the final page.
The Execution:
Using a multi-dimetional array of States, with sub-regions, hostnames were collected recorded. It looks something like this:
This list is iterated upon, with each entry being passed to and AJAX worker bot. When the bot completed the page grab and parsing, the data is returned to the main document, and dynamically inserted.
This is all pretty basic stuff, but automation of searches is a specialty of mine, and it’s kept me gainfully employed with many contracts over the last 15 years.
Finding a race dash brace for the 749 was far harder than I thought it would be. Nobody listed the part new, so it was off to eBay I went. Even there the options were very slim. I found one in Europe, and another here on the West Coast of the US.
The part in Europe was one of the highest recommended solutions, but price was over $150 not including the costs and issues with international shipping. The other option was a part made by Lockhart Philips, located just 70 miles north of me in Santa Rosa. I pulled the trigger on the local part and had it within a couple of days.
Lockhart Philips Ducati 749 track dash brace
Having removed the street bodywork last week, I found that having it on the floor was not a good option, so a quick trip to the hardware store to get some bicycle hangers solved the problem. Up, safe, and out of the way.
Street body work retired, likely for good.
With the street bodywork away, the search is one for suitable track bodywork. Much like the race brace, it’s not the simplest to find. More information on that once I have my decision made in that regard.
Having the bodywork issue resolved, and the race brace in hand, the front assembly for headlights and dash were dispensed with. Despite the size, they were not nearly as heavy as I had anticipated. But they were a little challenging to remove with more than 9 bolts holding the two halves together, and another 4 attaching them to the frame. Access to some of the bolts was not the simplest either. Never the less, it’s done. Headlights removed from Ducati 749 Dark.
Ducati 749 Dark with dash board and headlight assembly removed.
After a couple of hours of test fitting and trying to decide where to mount the fuse block, the bracket was installed and the wires tidied up. Track bracket installed on Ducati 749 Dark
Lockhart Philips race dash bracket for 749 installed.
The updated view of the cockpit. Dash mounted to Lockhart Philips 749 race brace
Having the bike in the shop for a few days now, and have been putting the plans together for the transformation.
First order of business was to remove the street plastic and start working on removal of all the street parts.
Having ridden the bike more than 100 miles from Redwood City to the shop, I knew it was in good running order, with a couple of exceptions. All the same, have the bodywork off makes it easier to examine things closely and determine if any additional work needed to be done.
Naked Ducati 749
I plan to run the bike at Laguna Seca, and the maximum sound limits are pretty strict. So, the cool Remus exhaust… had to be replaced with the very heavy and not very sexy looking stock component.
Installation of the stock exhaust system.
The dash and headlights are in great shape, and I hope to keep them that way. However track bikes do not need lights. Most organizations will let you run the bike on the track if you tape them off. But I plan to remove them all together and replace the entire assembly with a race bracket. One other item that needs to be dealt with, is the lack of a factory steering stabilizer on the Ducati 749 Dark. :/ That’s not going to be cheap. 749 upper triple and dash
One of the repair issues I have is a leaking right front shock fork. It’s not easy to see, but it’s much wetter than it should be, and it’s known to be leaking. I knew this when I bought it. Since the forks will be re-worked for the track, I’m not too worried about it, especially since the previous owner supplied me the repair parts. 749 Dark front fork
Another bit that I want to address is the clutch cover. This is looks very sturdy, and I’m sure will work far better than the stock stamped sheet metal cover in a crash. However I plan to replace it with one identical to that which I run on my 1098. It’s made by Woodraft and has a replaceable slider. Ducati 749 Dark engine right side and clutch cover.
Here it comes, yet another bike project. The question you might be asking… “Will he actually finish this one?” OF COURSE!!! Well, that intent is always there. One major difference in this project, is that the bike I’m starting with ACTUALLY RUNS!. And not just runs, but is perfectly road worthy. After buying the bike, I road it 100 miles home, over some of the best local twisty roads this area has to offer (to be honest, these are some pretty good roads by any standard!).
Here is what I’m starting off with. A 2004 Ducati 749 Superbike. She sure looks good, doesn’t she? Why I’d take a perfectly nice looking bike like this and turn it into a track sled might seem boggling to some (and perfectly sensible to others). Well, let me start off by saying that the bike was CHEAP! I mean, 1990’s 600 sport-bike cheap. A 1990 Honda CRB600 generally goes for more than I paid for this bike. Beside the fact the Ducati really is a track weapon, this one was also eminently affordable. 🙂 2004 Ducati 749
Now stay tuned as I work my way through this bike, get it ready to hit the track, and of course, shoot some video along the way! 😀
Another track bike has entered this fleet. This time it’s a 2010 Aprilia RSV4. 
