The RD400 drag bike

[sirch345]

Thanks Neil, that gives me some real deadlines
So the good news is it starts and runs ….. I can safely say I will piss off my neighbours when I try and test ride it up the lane , it CRACKLES, rips and snarls like a demented beast!

I cant be arsed trying to put a video on here, but I can WhatsApp it to anyone who is interested

But then the throttle cable broke inside the twistgrip

So spent the afternoon making a new cable end with solder.
I drilled a 6mm hole in a piece of wood, cut a slot for the cable go in so its cleaned and frayed end is In the middle of the hole, put a 6mm drill tail back in the wood from below to set the required width of the cable end and then filled it with solder….. worked a treat

Well done it getting the bike running Al, no better incentive to continue with the rest of the work once it's alive

I don't suppose you have any photo's of the drilled piece of wood, it's sounds interesting At least the wood didn't take away any of the heat

Chris.

[fabiostar]

Brilliant news the beasty is running. even better you binned the Femsa, they are a complete pain in the hole and a complete hole in the pistons aswell

[AMCQ46]

I have been trying to track down the original engine tuner (Harry Barlow) since I collected the bike, just so I know what’s been done and what to watch out for when put it on the dyno..

Even though he did this RD engine and pipes in the mid to late 80’s, I was able to see that he had gone to America for a few years and worked there tuning RD s and LC race bikes before combing back to the uk and working more in the scooter tuning and race world.
But Despite the power of the internet, every lead on RD and scooter forums and googling his name only came up with landlines that are no longer in use, but last night someone gave me a mobile number that they had used 2 yrs ago to talk with Harry.

So I called the number and it just rang out, no voice mail etc , but before I gave up on that as another dead end, I send a text message describing who I was and why I was after him….. 10 hrs later I get a reply

Turns out he is in Thailand at the moment sourcing new suppliers & tuning parts and combining it with a long holiday, and he still has his old RD400 drag bike which he still intends to return to the track to reclaim his class record with some serious upgrades like billet cranks etc.

So as you can imagine, he can’t remember what specification was state of the art thinking back when he did this engine, so after a 30min conversation at midnight his time, he made me realise this is a serious motor that will need careful setting up, and he needs to know the baseline he is starting from. So he set me a lengthy list of measurements that he needed from the internals of the engine and once he has got them we will talk again

So where my previous plan was to get some dyno time and then race, I have now gone 1 big step back and stripped the top end off to get a baseline.

[AMCQ46]

[Duffy1964]

That is gonna be a serious badass screamer


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[lloydie]

Well done with tracking him down and even better he’s willing to assist you .

[sirch345]

I see you have been rather busy getting together all the engine spec's

A very nice little story building for this bike

As Lloydie says, well done Al in tracking down the engine builder, it just goes to show perseverance paid off.
It reminded me of a time I emailed Roger D only to find out he was on holiday abroad, even so he still got back to me

Chris.

[Kev L]

That is gonna be a serious badass screamer

Funnily enough that’s Al’s grinder tag!!!!!!

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[AMCQ46]

That is gonna be a serious badass screamer

Funnily enough that’s Al’s grinder tag!!!!!!

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I wondered who the old blue rinse leather clad pensioner was that was stalking me on grinder …. Makes sense now

[Kev L]

[fabiostar]

looks like a serious motor, love the pre exhaust port drilling, we used to do that to the 200 race bikes .. looking at the list its strange to see the plugs? 5es? you would think it would be running at least 8S?

[AMCQ46]

Yes the tunner said the should be 9s for the race but 8s to warm
It up


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[fabiostar]

Yes the tunner said the should be 9s for the race but 8s to warm
It up


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that solves that

[AMCQ46]

A photo from 1988 when I was catching up with the Scottish bike nutters at the SuperBike Magazine, Ultimate Streetbike, “Run what you brung” drag racing at Long Marsten.

The bike we are all looking at is a supercharged methanol running GSX1100 EFE that was home made by the bloke sitting on it (John McKeen). Back then it was OK to race with a leather jacket and jeans as Long as you had a helmet on.

the owner of the RD400 is standing in the middle in the black shirt, I don’t think he had qualified for the final so his bike would be back at the van.

32C0E959-95B1-4998-9CEC-6B32659430FF.jpeg (98.19 KiB) Viewed 4683 times

[sirch345]

What a cracking photo Al, they say a picture paints a thousand words good find

Chris.