Greg Brillus Racer

[greg brillus]

Hi there Bruce, sorry it's a four leader off a 1972 GT 750 Suzuki. The strap serves a multi purpose....I was worried that I had no way of mechanically locking the concentric through bolts on either side, so the strap gives me an extra brace on the left side to help mount the steering damper, and on the right side, I will wire lock the 5/16 bsf bolt to the strap. It's not necessarily a permanent thing, but I need to get the job done for now....I can improve things along the way......the bike is at the exhaust shop now, which is the last major item to be made up. I only need to finish the assembly of both cylinder heads, with their larger valves, and gold star springs...all new rockers/bearings/pins and the ET 100/1 mod done to all. We also had the extra spark plug holes machined, so I can either use some decompressors or run twin spark ignition if I want. You can see the alloy cast primary cover with the HRD logo in it. We have made up several of these so we have some spares....I think they came out really great...it will be painted in gloss black to match the engine. I am quite keen to leave the heads in the bare vapor blasted finish, I'll see what happens on that one. The dust on the front end parts is from the making of some alloy parts I made up, and didn't see it before taking the pictures......but the finish is very good under the dust. Look carefully at the axles/spindles...they are all titanium. When I pushed the bike out of the shed to take to the exhaust shop....if I was blind folded and asked what I was moving.....I would have replied.....Oh it feels like a modern 250.....very light and nimble on the steering. Sorry for the long delay, but these things take time.......Greg.

 

[greg brillus]

Hi there Max, Now that really is the question that I am looking forward to finding out myself. I have been methodically checking individual weights of parts as I progressed along. I have at no stage cut chopped or drilled holes in any original parts, as tempting as this has been. So I am sure I could still shave off more weight..... I have changed things that I could without doing anything drastic to original parts. I estimate the weight to be around 150 to 155 kg's ( 330 to 340 Lb.'s) this is dry....so with the weight of 4 to 4.5 liters of oil in the oil tank/gearbox plus fuel (methanol) this is what I was aiming for at the beginning of the project, and it seems to be roughly on target, although I think it was more good luck than anything.....the changes are quite inconspicuous to most, but are extensive (expensive) I guess nothing worth while comes cheap, but I am really looking forward to riding it.....it has taken up a lot of my time, and I am far behind with other bike work I do for other people, but they understand. Sometimes you have to take the time to do something for yourself...... Cheers for now.....Greg.

 

[Bill Thomas]

How about doing the oil filter cap in alloy, It always seems heavy to me, Cheers Bill.

 

[highbury731]

I bet a fabricated steel rear fork would shed a lot of weight

 

[STEPXL]

Hi Greg,
The bike is certainly coming together since I dropped in to see you in April. When the nights work is done in the shed on the Racer thought you might enjoy this video.

 

[greg brillus]

Hi there Bill, yes I recon your right, I will get around to it, and would buy a spare one if someone had one.....I am running out of time in the short term, so some things will get done later, when time permits. Great video Steph, I think we could all make up something like this if we cared to......but it is great non the less. I am hoping to have the racer up and running within a month.

 

[Bill Thomas]

I think an alloy filter cap would look better also, The bronze colour don't go with anything, Two of my bikes don't use a mag cowl and it drives me mad !! Cheers Bill.

 

[Black Flash]

Great work on the bike, very impressing!
whenever I see pictures and read stories like this I count the days till I will become a pensioner and have more time for my toys.
But then all the pensioners I speak to have even less time since they stopped working full days !?!
Perhaps I should close the notebook and get out into the garage and DO something.

 

[greg brillus]

Hi all this may or may not mean something to some of you, but you may remember I talked about the heads I am using having larger inlet valves than standard, by another 1/8 th of an inch so 1.925 diameter. And I mentioned that while I was making up new valves using big block chev stainless valves, that I was going to move the step for the collar up the stem another 80 thou. This was because the Mk 5 cams of Terry's have 11 mm lift at the valve on the inlets and a little less on the exhausts. When doing the lower guides on both heads ( remember these are original heads not the newer squish band ones) we made sure that the tops of the guides were as low as we could get them, whilst still keeping a knife edge at the tops. Before this the lower guides were sunk so low that oil would pool up on top of them, so promoting oil down each valve stem......hence the Smokey exhaust. I think someone suggested, that changing the collar position on the valves would not be necessary......this is simply not true in this case, as when the new modified valve is tried with a collar in place, the valve can travel a good 13 mm before it hits the top of the guide, whereas with the original o/size valve it would run out of travel at about 10 mm of movement. If I need to I can always machine the step lower down the stem, as I know there will be other issues from the rocker upward......but so far it all looks like it will work out well. Does anyone recommend changing the seat / valve angles to 45 degrees, as most engine builders say that the flow is much better than 30 for higher performance. Cheers.......Greg.

 

[Bill Thomas]

Hello Highbury, Not sure, But I think Greg says for the class he wants to ride in has to have Standard frame ?, Job to know where to stop with these mod's !! Cheers Bill.