SF168.RT JOE ROCKET.indd
Transcription
SF168.RT JOE ROCKET.indd
’t it? n d i d y l l a en evenbtuling and the p p a h o t had d of the ing arms just n a Well, it e l e h t n g i Out herf the burger, swin home o t keep getting couldn’ and rear longer uldn’t tyres co tting keep genot unless wider, torcycles the mo d were to involve rolling freak becomethat would look shows t home in the more a han on the circus t street. K PICS: CLIN WORDS & 066/168 / STREETFIGHTERSMAGAZINE SF168.RT JOE ROCKET.indd 1 18/12/07 9:55:45 am While this type of ‘pimped’ motorcycle may remain popular with the sort of people who regard wearing your trousers around your knees as the height of sartorial elegance and think that carbon fibre is the main ingredient of a breakfast cereal, the over-long and over-blinged Busa, R1, or whatever has ceased to a be a ‘motorcycle’ and has become as much a fashion accessory as the TV chopper. When Bruce Parker of the Joe Rocket clothing company wanted a customised sports bike to promote his new line of Project H officially licensed Honda schmutter it would have been all too easy to have the punters gasping in admiration by painting, chroming and stretching a brand new stock Honda endowed with a ridiculously wide rear tyre to end-up with a bike that was closer to Preparation H than Project H. And, while it may not take much in the way of unnecessary ornamentation to have Joe Public crying ‘Awesome!’, Joe Rocket however wanted more than the usual chromed and custom-painted hobby horse to promote his latest products. A conversation with Dave Sonsky, the Ed at Super Streetbike magazine and former Star Boy, formulated the basic premise for the project that would keep the rear-end of the new CBR1000RR unfashionably stock in both length and width while concentrating on paintwork and accessories to make the bike special... until Bob Fisher at Roaring Toyz became involved. Alongside Custom Sportbike Concepts, Roaring Toyz have been responsible for the bulk of blinged Busas and their ilk, being both originators and innovators of the style, but Fisher is a racer at heart could see the chance to take the original Project H concept of Parker and Sonsky for a street-friendly customised race rep and use his experience as an AMA racer to add go as well as show. STREETFIGHTERSMAGAZINE \168 \067 SF168.RT JOE ROCKET.indd 2 18/12/07 9:56:01 am After consultations with Honda and stylist Adam Canni the main three protagonists – Parker, Sonsky and Fisher – came up with the blueprint for a bike that would be trick enough to drop jaws on the show circuit and still be able to be hustled around a racetrack as good as (if not better), than the original motorcycle. Step one was to shitcan the original plan for the stock rear-end and go for a tubular steel single-sided swingarm as close as possible to stock dimensions allied to a rear wheel that would be able to make the most of Pirelli’s brand new Diablo high performance 240mm tyre. Step two was more power – and the easiest road to a big jump in bee-haich-pee is to strap on a turbo. Having built very special show bikes for major manufacturers like Kawasaki and for the Metric Revolution television show, besides dozens of high dollar motorcycles for well-heeled customers like the rapper Ludacris (as featured in Streetfighters #166), Bob Fisher is used to working with tight deadlines and is able to both project manage the building of a special bike as well as getting on with the job of actually nailing it all together. Naturally the rounding up of the usual suspects like Performance Machine to supply the wheels and brakes and Gregg Desjardins at Gregg’s Customs to fabricate a tubular steel swingarm similar to the one on Fisher’s Metric Revolution Gixer was part of the plan, besides the talents of Roaring Toyz favourite painter, Ryan Hathaway and the rest of the RT crew. A new addition to the spec sheet however is Dave Jones and Cycle Logic who created the turbo kit especially for the Honda CBR1000RR. And while the intentions were always to lean this motorcycle more towards the tarmac of racetrack than the carpeted aisles of the show circuit, a few bolt-on baubles wouldn’t be amiss, although the line was drawn at fake guns for footrests, crack pipes for levers and coke spoons for mirrors (and this was Honda we were dealing with after all so everything had to be agreed on with the corporate team of lawyers), and genuine race parts like the Sato Racing rear-sets and frame sliders were sourced in addition to a couple of purely custom dooh-dads like the Roaring Toyz bar-ends, the mirror blanks from Gregg’s and a battery of concealed LEDs. The trouble was that Parker needed the bike for the big Project H product launch at the American MotoGP round at Leguna Seca (where ‘local boy’ and factory Honda rider Nicky Hayden was expected to do good – but didn’t after colliding with fellow American, John Hopkins in the first corner), giving Bob Fisher less than four weeks to pull the bike apart, get it painted, source all of the parts and put it all back together again. And not just completed to satisfy anyone who looked at the bike on the Project H show stand, but completed to satisfy a blast around a racetrack to prove that the Honda wasn’t just another shiny show ornament. But, as is obvious by the photos in front of you, everyone involved pulled-out all of the stops and the bike was completed on schedule. Amazingly so as putting this bike together wasn’t as simple as it would have been with something like a Hayabusa, R1 or Gixer Thou where piles of custom parts like wheels, brakes, and even turbocharging systems, are groaning on the shelves of aftermarket suppliers. The wheels had to be specially made by Performance Machine, particularly the rear hoop that had to fit the oneoff single-sided swinger, and not content with designing and machining the wheels in record time PM’s man also found time to make a trio of matching brake discs. Despite being in California, way at the other side of America from the Roaring Toyz workshop in Florida where the bike was located, Gregg’s Customs came through with an all-new swingarm design using their own drive hub assembly and brake caliper instead of the Ducati parts previously pressedganged into service on Gregg’s single-sided arms. The design of the arm actually meant that the wheelbase ended up being extended by two inches, but with a turbo on call maybe that’s no bad thing, but to make sure that the rearend would behave Penske custom built a rear shocker to suit the length of the swingarm. To match the trick rear-end the Honda front forks were resprung and revalved by suspension experts GMD Computrac who also carried out a full chassis geometry optimisation to make sure that Fisher didn’t kak his Kushitani’s out on the racetrack when the turbo kicked in mid corner. Ahh the turbo, forced induction has definitely come a long way since the early days of boosting the BHP of a Jap four with a turbo off a lorry, a carb from a Harley and lot of homemade bits in between that gave the engine ‘turbo lag’ that could be measured with an egg timer and the life expectancy of a suicide bomber. Modern electronics, fuel injection and the principle of the blowthrough turbo system have all been brought together by companies like Cycle Logic to tame the raw edge of a turbo and produce an almost seamless rush of power while keeping the reciprocal parts inside the engine. 068/168 / STREETFIGHTERSMAGAZINE SF168.RT JOE ROCKET.indd 3 18/12/07 9:56:40 am The Cycle Logic kit incorporates an IHI dual ball bearing turbo unit with an integrated wastegate and a custom made fuel pressure controller to produce approximately 240bhp from the Honda CBR engine at 8lbs boost with no additional mods other than remapping the stock fuel injection system and fitting a Cycle Logic lock-up clutch to hold the power. The other key ingredient being the exquisite plenum chamber machined from billet aluminium by Cycle Logic that’s an exact duplicate of the factory airbox in order to replicate the airflow characteristics designed by Honda factory engineers. A real shame that it’s hidden from view, but all will be revealed soon in a Cycle Logic feature. Is this new Roaring Toyz bike the shape of things to come on the US custom sports bikes scene? Are the Americans at last tuning in to European race bike styling instead of trying to turn a Hayabusa into a Harley? I doubt it, but if they do you’ll see it first in Streetfighters. OWNER: Bruce Parker @ Joe Rocket. ENGINE: 2007 Honda CBR1000RR with Cycle Logic turbo kit using an IHI dual ball bearing turbo with integrated wastegate, a custom made fuel pressure controller & a machined billet aluminium plenum chamber, Cycle Logic lock-up clutch, Custom Sportbike Concepts transparent clutch cover with coloured LEDs, Cycle Logic exhaust system with Roaring Toyz tail section. POWER OUTPUT: Operating @ 8lbs boost engine makes 240bhp at rear wheel. FRAME: 2007 Honda CBR1000RR, Sato rear-set footrest assemblies & racing from sliders. FRONT END: 2007 Honda CBR1000RR USD fork legs resprung & revalved by GMD, 2007 Honda CBR1000RR fork yokes & clip-on handlebars with top yoke chromed & Roaring Toyz bar-ends, Performance Machine Torque 17in billet aluminium wheel with Pirelli Diablo 120/70ZRx17in tyre, Performance Machine Torque brake discs with Performance Machine 4-piston radial mount brake calipers, 2007 Honda CBR1000RR brake & clutch master cylinders with HEL braided stainless steel lines, Yana Shiki Titax adjustable brake & clutch levers. REAR END: Gregg’s Customs 2in overstock tubular chrome moly steel single-sided swingarm with custom made Penske shock absorber set up by GMD, Cycle Logic lowering links, Gregg’s Customs drive assembly, brake disc, brake caliper & master cylinder with HEL braided stainless steel line, Performance Machine Torque 18in billet aluminium wheel with Pirelli Diablo 240/40ZRx18in tyre. BODYWORK: 2007 Honda CBR1000RR fuel tank, fairing & seat unit, Hot Bodies undertail, Custom seat pads by EliteSeats4U, Sport Chrome fuel filler cap, Gregg’s Custom mirror blanks. ELECTRICS: Modified 2007 Honda CBR1000RR wiring harness & headlights, Clear Alternatives integrated rear light & turn signals, Gregg’s Customs LED front turn signals, 2007 Honda CBR1000RR instruments & switchgear colour coded by Ryan Hathaway, Custom Dynamics LED concealed accent lights. PAINTWORK: Custom paintwork by Ryan Hathaway @ Roaring Toyz. CHROME: Jon Reed @ Sport Chrome, California. POLISHING: Polishing by Roaring Toyz. ENGINEERING: Bike designed & built by Roaring Toyz, 2171 13th Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, Florida, USA. Website: www. roaringtoyz.com THANKS TO: “Bruce Parker @ Joe Rocket (www.parkersynergies.com); Dave Sonsky @ Super Streetbike (www. superstreetbike.com); Dave Jones @ Cycle Logic (www.cycleogicmotosports. com); Gregg Desjardins @ Greggs Customs (www.greggscustoms.com); Dave Zemla @ Performance Machine (performancemachine.com); GMD Computrack (www.gmdcomputrack.com); Nick Anglada @ CMC for the clutch cover; plus thanks to Ryan Hathaway for the paintwork; Adam Canni for the graphic design input; all the crew @ Roaring Toyz; and special thanks to model, Rebecca Klose.” STREETFIGHTERSMAGAZINE \168 \069 SF168.RT JOE ROCKET.indd 4 18/12/07 9:57:12 am