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Jay Gleason is back on a V-Max!
4/30/09 Blog After being delayed by UPS and traffic, we arrived a little late and it was one big rush from that time on. Getting the bike out for Jay. Getting the track paperwork taken care of. Then setting the bike up, making sure the suspension is right. Jay schooled me on how he likes it. He gets on the bike to ride the practice path. I go for a soda and look up, he's out there ready for a pass. I run to the stands, flip on the camera and pray for a 9.60. 9.513 @ 143.7mph That was the story on my Blog. I have had a few days to cherish this moment. This whole endeavor was cooked up after a morning session of dyno'ing a fellow V-Max owner's bike to see what aftermarket air filter performed the best on the new model V-Max. The other owners name is Bob Ward, know in "net land" as Bad Max. Bob kept telling me I should take my modified V-Max down the track. At 6'5" and 270 pounds compounded with my lack of experience and skills, I kept thinking, "what's the point?" After some consideration and a few e-mail's later I e-mailed Bob to see if his friend, Lee, would be at the Bradenton Drag Strip that coming Thursday. Bob said he would and I told him I would consider letting him take Eleanor down the 1/4 mile to see what he could do. Bob took it from there and started a new thread on the StarVmax site which now nicely chronicles the entire story. In passing, I mentioned it would be cool to find Jay Gleason. Don't know who Jay is? Read the Epic Mar 1987 Cycle World article "Taking it to the Nine's" here.
I guess I made myself sound big and important enough that I got a response! Wendy, the video's creator, replies that Jay is interested and wants my phone number! I'm in complete shock! This internet thing, it's amazing! I don't think I have used enough of these exclamations!!!!!!!! I send back my cell phone number and sometime after that, I am talking to the man himself. I am sure I sounded a little excited and off kilter, but we agreed that if I could get a slick on the bike, he would be there. This sends me off into a tizzy, oh I need to do this and I need to do that. What if this, what if that? Preparation seems to be a blur. My neighbors must have hated my guts when I was dyno'ing the bike from early morning to late afternoon. I hope the kid with the whump thump stereo that wakes me up at 3 in the morning was trying to sleep and I got some payback! Thursday rolls around and I am waiting for last minute parts to be shipped UPS. They arrive late. Esten Spears and I load up and roll right into Tampa rush hour. I hate to be late and both of my last V-Max outings I have been tardy.
The track time and date are off. An day and a hour too early. These are the "full run" time slips, there was some wheelie and drop out runs that I do not have time slips for. I would have to say of the numbers we kept, they are very consistent. Jay commented the bike was bogging down during the launch. I have looked the LM-2 data over and found it to be a YCC-T problem that I am looking at. One possible solution is the Bye By Wire System I will continue to develop.
Here is the scan and a picture of the run Lee Pritchard made on my bike. He took it easy on my bike for this run. An easy launch, chopping the throttle for shifts and still made a good time. See above. He was able to etch out a 1.57 sixty foot time on Bob's modified bike that still had a street tire. So what's been done to this bike? For the list, click here. The reality of this situation, about $1,400 bucks and one day's work for the backyard mechanic and he/she would produce near the same numbers with someone like Jay at the helm. $600 of this is LM-2 data logger and a race slick. Both of which most riders will not need. At the time of this writing, I am proud to say I have the fastest 2nd Generation V-Max to go down a drag strip. But the reality is starting to sink in. This will not hold for long. I am just the first person to put a prototype exhaust system together with other currently unavailable aftermarket equipment, give it a good tune and take it to the track. I suppose this whole story is the end to the first chapter of a long history of performance gains and races to come. This was a slight vindication for the 2nd Generation V-Max owners. We all have heard we waited too long to pay too much to get too little. Well, looks like I got what I wanted. That's all that matters to me. I have spent numerous hours tinkering with this machine to find what makes power and what takes power and it's far from over. I am very glad to have a few other guys like Bob and Esten that are willing to let me dyno torture their bikes. Eleanor has had a hard life and could use the breaks. I know there is a lot of I's and me's in this write-up, but I did not do this alone. Many thanks to all those who helped make this happen. Primarily Jon Cornell at UFO for the parts and support, Esten, Lee, and Bob You can read Bob story about his bike here. My favorite part of this all, the legendary Jay Gleason rode my bike down the strip and set a new record in our community. One E-mail was all it took. Thank you Mr. Gleason. If you are interested in a DVD that chronicles some of Jay's career, get in touch with the VMOA store.
After analyzing the LM-2 Data, it looks like he his still consistent. Looking at the time slips, he is still fast. I hope this is just the beginning of some fast runs he will make on my bike which will give them both the respect they deserve. I'm up for taking it to the 8's! Anyone else want to join?
Tim Nash 8/26/09 Blog
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