A year or so into racing the 749R and the angry lil' bugger had really gotten under my skin. I just loved it, hell, just starting it made me smile.....what more could I ask for?
How about more of the same? This is when NZ's biggest classic bike meeting, the Barry Sheene Festival of Speed, and the Island Classic in Oz were really getting some traction. You gotta dream big right? So this is when the idea of building a cool old bike and the possibility racing at the legendary Phillip Island (everyone needs a stretch target, lol) crept into my empty head. I refuse to confirm or deny if alcohol was involved at the time....
This is where another piece of the lust-puzzle falls into place, driven by a vivid recollection from back in the day. At 20-odd crackling along on a beat up Yamaha RZ350, with a mate on his bus-like GPZ750, and what might as well have been a UFO boomed past, looking and sounding impossibly exotic in our neck of the boonies: a Ducati 851 Tricolore. This was at a time when a cafe coffee "menu" only took up one line and the closest we had to "Grand Designs" was lessons in how to turn old car tyres into "beautiful" swans. All flashy white/red/green paint, and the music from those black megaphones (insert girlish swoon here), the damn thing gave me a fat a cat couldn't scratch and the image/sound was branded into my brain.
It didn't hurt that an 851 was something very different to the GSXR1100's, FZR1000's, ZXR750's that seemed to dominate the NZ Pre-89/Post-Classic grids. The idea of a lightweight underdog that braked and handled well nipping at the heels of the bulk hp IL4's just tickled my mechanical fancy.
So, a quarter century on from that near seminal moment, the hunt began for a half decent 851 that wouldn't implode our fragile piggy bank. It took a while but this is what eventually darkened my garage door 7 years ago. It was described as a race bike, but really it was a stock as a rock road bike wrapped in race fairings:
My apologies for not taking an earlier snap but It was at this point, a month into ownership, I realised I was in big trouble.....
Removing the rear wheel I would have put money on the rims being cast from iron not aluminium, and wait, is that a truck battery? And what's up with the (cool) alloy tank being heavier than the later model steel ones? How the fuck did Roche's WSB bike ever weigh just 145kg's?!!!
Now the 749R has a quick angry bark thanks to those lightweight internals and big exhaust, but this thing just sounded half asleep, cantering lethargically up and down the range even on a free rev.
The Marzocchi M1R forks weren't inspiring confidence just pushing the bike around the shed either, I couldn't imagine them at speed.
Just backing up the bus here, the 851 wasn't necessarily 851cc and came in several different guises. Listed from most race worthy to least:
- 851 Corsa - Factory race bikes of Roche and Falappa (il Leone!), best of the best, gusseted frame, 888cc, if it's not made from carbon fibre or magnesium then it's hewn from billet unobtainium
- 851 Kit - Privateer race bike, 888cc, close but not quite Factory spec, substituting unaffordium for unobtainium
851 SP2 - "Sports Production", top spec road bike, 888cc, with big cams/valves, better brakes, alloy rear subframe, "smart" P8 ECU with individual maps for each cylinder, twin injectors per TB, Ohlins USD forks, non-gusseted frame
851 Strada - "Street", 851cc, smaller valves/cams, steel rear subframe, "dumb" P7 ECU with a single common map for both cylinders, RWU Marzocchi forks, single injector per TB, non-gusseted frame
Seeing as how my name doesn't start with Jay and end in Leno, the only realistic options were SP or Strada, with the SP being the pick of the crop, head and shoulders above the Strada in every critical area. So of course I chose a Strada, with my wallet making an executive decision.
So, just to recap:
1. It's heavy
2. It's gutless
3. It doesn't handle
4. The brakes are good, but at this point they are pretty much redundant with the turn of speed available.
"Waiter, bring me a race bike, s'il vous plait."
"Certainly sir, what would you like?"
"I think I'll go for the chef special: the wobbly 851, go light on the hp, with a side serve of extra kg's thanks."
On the plus side, there are some simple tricks to liberating a few pasta powered ponies:
- cut the top off the airbox (the stock 'box is tiny, has bad resonance and a U-turn entry at the rear through restrictive corrugated air runners)
- a lightweight flywheel is an easy route to give it a bit more urgency
- a bigger exhaust is low hanging fruit on the hp tree. Just like early S4 916 monsters the 851 is strangled by the 40mm exhaust headers, and an ST4 with the same 916 engine as the S4 makes a healthy bit more hp with 45mm headers the only difference.
A lowly Strada makes all of 90rwhp, 20hp down on an SP (best not to even think about FZR/GSXR's), I was going to have to muster every brumby I could possibly find.
Interesting blast from the past here, disussing some of differences between the '88 models:
