They've got this in the pure gold as well as a couple of bronze colors. It's never good to have the colorblind guy pick out the colors, though. Since Surly says the gold is mandatory, maybe I should leave the color choice up to him.
Speaking of which, he responded to my last post with some links about Superbike wheels. The first link shows quite a few Kawasakis in various states of trim - definitely worth a look if you're at all into go-fast bikes from the mid to late 70's. The other links are concerned specifically with the wheels.
When I started on this thing way, way back with the original sidecar, I was doing quite a bit of frame modification on the big Kaws, mostly for dragstrip use but a couple of things for road racers. The frame I have was wrecked, so some of the modifications were a direct result of the hand I was dealt but the rest was what I had learned from my experience working on race bikes and what ever I came across in the magazines, specifically, the November, 1978 issue of Cycle that had an in-depth look at the Kawasaki powered Vetter bike that was prepared by Pierre Des Roche and ridden by Reggie Pridmore. I'm not trying to build a replica bike but something that would be like an amateur road racer of the day would campaign on the WERA circuit or maybe a guy who wanted a better performing street bike. Actually that was the whole premise of the Superbike class, at least initially. Run what you brung class for the big street bikes. Loose rule format, leading to lots of experimentation and competitive racing.
Back to the wheels. The Vetter bike ran Morris mags - 19" front with a treaded tire, 18" rear with a slick, both Dunlops. Goodyear came out with a 19" slick that year but the Vetter bike stuck with what they were using, 'cause it worked for them. They had enough trouble with cornering clearance as it was with the 19", no way would they run a 16" like on Harley's Lucifer's Hammer. The BMWs from that era ran on wire wheels, by the way. My bike has a 19" front and an 18" rear. The rear is not the gigantic, for the time period at least, WM7 that they were running. I plan on running the stock mag on the front but widening the rear wheel some time down the road. I've got the Kosman clutch release on the bike so I can run an offset sprocket if necessary to give me the required tire clearance. So there we go. The wheel choices have been made. Color is the only decision and I think I'll have to defer to Surly on the gold. Campy, Morris, Lester - they all had gold wheels for the superbikes. I just need to figure out the proper finish to get mine to look like they did back then.
Speaking of which, he responded to my last post with some links about Superbike wheels. The first link shows quite a few Kawasakis in various states of trim - definitely worth a look if you're at all into go-fast bikes from the mid to late 70's. The other links are concerned specifically with the wheels.
When I started on this thing way, way back with the original sidecar, I was doing quite a bit of frame modification on the big Kaws, mostly for dragstrip use but a couple of things for road racers. The frame I have was wrecked, so some of the modifications were a direct result of the hand I was dealt but the rest was what I had learned from my experience working on race bikes and what ever I came across in the magazines, specifically, the November, 1978 issue of Cycle that had an in-depth look at the Kawasaki powered Vetter bike that was prepared by Pierre Des Roche and ridden by Reggie Pridmore. I'm not trying to build a replica bike but something that would be like an amateur road racer of the day would campaign on the WERA circuit or maybe a guy who wanted a better performing street bike. Actually that was the whole premise of the Superbike class, at least initially. Run what you brung class for the big street bikes. Loose rule format, leading to lots of experimentation and competitive racing.
Back to the wheels. The Vetter bike ran Morris mags - 19" front with a treaded tire, 18" rear with a slick, both Dunlops. Goodyear came out with a 19" slick that year but the Vetter bike stuck with what they were using, 'cause it worked for them. They had enough trouble with cornering clearance as it was with the 19", no way would they run a 16" like on Harley's Lucifer's Hammer. The BMWs from that era ran on wire wheels, by the way. My bike has a 19" front and an 18" rear. The rear is not the gigantic, for the time period at least, WM7 that they were running. I plan on running the stock mag on the front but widening the rear wheel some time down the road. I've got the Kosman clutch release on the bike so I can run an offset sprocket if necessary to give me the required tire clearance. So there we go. The wheel choices have been made. Color is the only decision and I think I'll have to defer to Surly on the gold. Campy, Morris, Lester - they all had gold wheels for the superbikes. I just need to figure out the proper finish to get mine to look like they did back then.
1 comment:
Later Ducati's also had Speedline mags. and there were EPM mag wheels as well.
Saturday I helped Joe load up a 900SS with Speedlines on it. What an odd coincidence,eh?
Silver and blue with gold wheels.
The Speedlines have a reputation for 'sploding.
I'll see what I can come up with for the color.
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