National Superbike » Dirt

A Quick Look Inside the Dunlop Proving Grounds

Curt — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 02:44:50 +0000

I was over in the Huntsville, Alabama area last week and decided to stop in and see my good friend Danny Roberts who heads up the Dunlop Proving Grounds. We raced together back in the 80′s and have been friends for almost 30 years.

This is the facility where they test all of the dirt bike, street bike and race tires for motorcycles. Very cool place for a motorcycle guy (or girl)! I’ll post a few pictures that I took with my phone over the next few days. Here is a shot of the paved course where they test street bike tires and race tires. They have sprinkler systems installed so they can do wet testing under controlled conditions. Inside it is like a candy store for motorcycle junkies. Yes, that is a Yoshimura GSXR1000 2nd from the end – 196 RWHP. That is what it takes to test these tires.

Dunlop Proving Grounds

Test Bikes

Crazy Motocross Front Flip

Curt — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 03:46:35 +0000

It is hard to comprehend the physics of this but that makes it that much more amazing… Mark Monea, the Australian motocross/X games rider lands a 360 front flip.

New BMW R 1200 GS Triple Black

Curt — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:59:43 +0000

From BMW’s press release… I guess everyone is getting in on the Harley 48 look. Honestly, I don’t think the 1200 GS lends itself to this scheme all that well. But, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Coming Soonâ€¦ 2011 BMW R 1200 GS Triple Black Woodcliff Lake, NJ â€“ October 18, 2010â€¦The BMW R 1200 GS goes to â€œthe dark sideâ€ in 2011 with a special edition model â€“ the R 1200 GS Triple Black.Â Building upon a sapphire black metallic body color, the R 1200 GS Triple Black adds a series of specially developed dark components limited exclusively to this model.Â The result is a dark, distinctive R 1200 GS with unmistakable presence on or off the road.

BMW R 1200 GS Triple Black

Can Am Project- Part 7

Curt — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 05:40:50 +0000

With the clear coat on, we let everything sit and cure for a couple of days before wet sanding and buffing. Some of the parts like the front fender were fine as is but the tank and tail needed to be buffed for that ultra smooth dipped in glass look. Here is a picture after wet sanding (it looks like flat paint at this point) and then after buffing with several grades of compound. The decals look especially good under the clear… almost like they were painted on.

After wet sanding

After buffing

Can Am Project- Part 6

Curt — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 05:40:29 +0000

Today we install the graphics and clear coat everything. These are big decals and hard to get on straight but if you take your time and use the wet application method, you can get them on straight with no bubbles. It is always fun to see what the parts look like after clear coating. This is going to be a very cool old cafe bike…

Applying the decals

Tank clear coated

Can Am Project- Part 5

Curt — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:14:32 +0000

The next step in the Can Am project was spraying on the white base coat. We spent a fair amount of time getting the shade of white exactly how we wanted it. The white on these old bikes is really more of a cream. You really can’t tell unless you put it right up against a bright white shade (like what we used on the RZ500) but it makes a difference. So here it is with the base coat on. Next, we install the tank graphics…

Base coat applied

Can Am Project- Part 4

Curt — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:50:49 +0000

After lots of hand sanding and cleaning, we are ready to prime the parts. I always use an epoxy primer to seal the surface. This works equally well on metal (like the aluminum tank) and fiberglass/plastic. If needed, you can do some light sanding or scuffing with a scotch-brite pad after it has dried.

Can Am Project- Part 3

Curt — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:26:53 +0000

Front Fairing

Front Fairing Filler

Front fender repair

Next we need to do a little body work and filling. The front nose cone fairing used to have a removable number plate panel that could come off to uncover the headlight if it was installed. Since the bike will never be on the street, we decided to use a fiberglass plate to fill the hole. After it was bonded in, I had a fair amount of filling to do to get the contours right. Several light coats of fine body filler were used to build up the area where the plate was installed.

The front fender also needed some attention since it is old and had numerous cracks in the fiberglass. I used a special epoxy to fill and strengthen the areas that will be clamped to the fork tubes.

Can Am Project- Part 2

Curt — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 05:47:32 +0000

This bike was never used as a dirt bike- it was converted into a cafe racer from day one. So the bodywork reflects that. It is also old and had what seemed like dozens of layers of paint on it that had to be sanded off. Sanding stuff like this is time consuming and tedious but necessary if you want the final result to be show quality. So I sanded all of the fiberglass down to the original gel coat and prepped it for primer-

Can Am tail

Sanding the Tail Cowl

1975 Can Am 250 Project

Curt — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:41:58 +0000

Custom made aluminum tank

Just a quick post so you can see the custom made aluminum gas tank. A few days ago, I posted the picture of the old fiberglass tank that was really beyond repair. This new tank is a beautiful reproduction and matches the shape of the old tank nicely. We found the decals at reproduction decals so they should fit perfectly.

There is lots of sanding and detail filling to do on the ancient fiberglass bodywork- more on that tomorrow.