Racing into the Past, Part 2

 

Make it Right, Make it Light

So, once the project to replicate the 1987 version of The Beast started, a few parameters needed to be decided upon.  But before I get to that, let me just clarify something: when I originally built the bike, it was NOT named after the Beast mentioned in the Bible’s book of Revelation; nothing so nefarious ever entered my mind. Neither was it named after that most famous of early ‘50s Knucklehead drag bikes (also nicknamed “The Beast”) built by its equally famous owner Chet Herbert.  My version was named after the “jalopy” with which my friend Rex’s older brother mildly terrorized the neighborhood back in the summer of ’60 or ’61.  As a boy of about six years old, the sun faded black late 1930s Chevy with little or no exhaust and “THE BEAST” lettered on its doors in white house paint, left a strong impression.

That settled, let’s get back to the parameters of the build.  When I converted my ’75 Superglide for drag racing in the early 1980’s, one thing that was very apparent was that it was done on a tight budget. That was something I planned to replicate in reproducing the bike, partly because of a strong tendency toward frugality on my part.  The next decision was just how accurate the reproduction would be. A more or less exact duplicate would be great, but would it even be a reasonable goal, especially given my desire to keep the budget low?  Or should I approach it with the idea of keeping with “the spirit” of the original build at the expense of absolute accuracy in the parts used?

To a certain extent that decision was made early on, when, after spending some time looking for a reasonably priced 1975 donor bike with no luck at all, I stumbled on a beat up 1979 Superglide.  All I really needed as a starting point was the frame, engine cases, and transmission.  The ‘79  was complete, though the heads and various other parts had been removed and were in boxes.  The $1200 price tag was the deciding factor, and from there on, the spirit of the original build became the focus rather than the accuracy of each and every part.

Another example of how that played out is the front fork that graced the ’87 Beast.  It came from an early ‘70s Yankee 500cc 2-stroke dirt bike, which even then was a rare, but today is as scarce as hen’s teeth (not that I have any insight into the actual rarity of hen’s teeth).  Originally, I had taken the Yankee in trade for painting a motorcycle, so I had little money invested.  For the new version, it was just not feasible to consider finding another of that particular fork, so I briefly considered purchasing another dirt bike front end to modify.  In the end though, I decided to just go ahead and use the existing Superglide fork, doing all the lightening modification that I could to take some weight off the heavy stock piece.  This included removal of the full length rebound springs in favor of a couple Evo valve springs under the now defunct "dampers" to provide the requisite 2” fork travel, an aluminum stem, and turning excess brackets off of the legs.  Together with shortening the tops of the fork tubes and machining a few other aluminum pieces, that resulted in just a few ounces short of 8 pounds of weight reduction to the fork assembly.

Speaking of weight reduction, we can all agree that it is a key factor in drag racing, but it takes a certain mindset to practice it effectively, especially when there is a budget involved.  We might all like to be able to purchase every super-lightweight trick component, but for most of us who are in it for the fun and nostalgia factor, that simply is not a practical option.  My days of riding a credit card while I tried to chase down racing success is long over, and truth be told, all my real success came before credit was an option.  But making it lighter remains a worthy goal, so  I like to look at every part with this question in mind: how can I lighten this part without sacrificing too much strength?  The pictures that follow represent a few of those efforts on this build.

 

With its hardened gears, the inside of a transmission is not where one would normally look to reduce weight (at least not with normal tooling), but it turns out the shift drum, as well as a few other parts, is quite susceptible to an attack by a drill bit

 

Purchased a complete front wheel for $10 at an antique farm parts swap meet several years ago, sold the 19" alloy rim for $50 on Ebay, which left the hub to lace up to the original 21" rim from The Beast. ...but not before spending at little time on it with a ball end mill      

 

John, the original owner of Precision Metal Fab Racing, told me how to modify front forks for racing and its applicable to most front ends.  It involves eliminating the long spring from on top of the damper and replacing it with a short spring (or in this case 2 short springs) under it

This is what the assembly looks like ready to install into the slider. In this case a few more parts inside the bottom of the tube were eliminated by way of welding a large washer to the bottom of the tube

I was able to find a used fiberglass tank on Ebay that is very similar to that on the original Beast and for only about 10 times the price. Happily the new fiberglass rear fender from Airtech is lighter than the original version while being a good match.  

More to come...