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So here we are up to the summer of 2002 and you'd think I was
happy with my max but there's something I'm still not liking about
it.. I have street raced the max a time or two giving sport
bikes a good run but on many launch attempts the front has come up
in my face. Since I do love the occasional drag race, stretching
the bike would solve the front end problem.
Purchased a used Vmax swingarm and sent it to
PCW racing. PCW stretched, notched, braced and
added a brace point on the bottom in case I ever want to under
sling the rear caliper. A 3" over driveshaft was purchased
from Jon Furbur at Blue Ridge Sportmax.
This is a completed arm as it was returned from PCW. I chose not to have it powder coated by PCW since I needed to test fit first. The shock mounts were moved back to retain the stock angle. The last two pics above are of the left side shock relocation bracket.
The test fit showed no issues.. Everything lined up so the arm was off to Chromemasters for powder coating.
As usual Chromemasters did an excellent job. It was at this
point I replaced both swingarm races and bearings. As for
handling.. the bike handles better than ever and curve carving
wasn't affected one bit.. Just ask the folks at
Tail of the Dragon.
Scroll down till you see me and max.. The owners followed myself
and friend Garry Davis on the Vstrom and were impressed with what
mr max could do in the twisties.
The pics below were taken at Biktoberfest 2002 in Bulows campground and show myself as well as the newly stretched beast.
This is what a stretched Vmax is good at..
making rubber art on concrete.
See video of this here.
The video was made with a digital camera so it's very small.
By this time the power of my max is getting somewhat stale and
I'm ready for a change..
Earlier in the year I purchased a stage 7 jet kit from someone on
the tech list and had planned to have it installed by Jon Cornell
at
UFO. I finally got
organized and made the 12 hour one way drive with Chip Fisher on
22 November. I also had the pleasure of meeting my mirror's
maker Mario Aguiar. We had a great time and Jon worked his
magic tuning my bike to a respectable 131.8 rwhp and 82.4 ft lbs
of torque.
On a side note, while Jon was tuning on the bike, he found a
severely cracked intake boot or carb joint as it's called in the
book. I can't stress enough how these
must be checked on a regular basis... My bike had less than
10k miles when it went up to Jon and already a cracked boot.
These cracks are impossible to see on the bike since the clamps
cover where they usually crack. Carbs must be removed and
each joint inspected. Before you do this, go ahead and
purchase four new boots and if you find one cracked boot, just
change them all. Below are two pics of a cracked
boot. The first pic you can barely notice the crack.
Second pic it's obvious and a through and through crack.
Symptoms of this will be spitting back or coughing through one or
more carburetors and "hunting" an idle point after engine is
warm. Bike will never settle on an idle point in the rpm
range.. will seem to float around.
While you're in there, might as well replace the intake o'rings
under the vboost manifold. Yamaha part number for the
o'rings is 93210-45578-00. Prepare to pay approx $5.00 per
o'ring.. ouch
