S1W Revival Project

[Kurlon]

Roller finally arrived for the other Buell project I'm tackling, a legit S1W. It's a former AMA race bike, was a big bore stroker purportedly putting down 125hp, ended up racing at Loudon, made a downshift at the wrong moment over the back hill, dropped a valve, locked up and ended up crashing into the moonscape in T9, ultimately ended up in pond. The rider bought a 748 an hour later to keep his racing going, the Buell got torn apart but never put back together. I've got my work cut out for me, lots of good here, Marchesini mag wheels, Penske, etc... on the other hand I've got trashed Millenium cylinders, an S&S crank that is completely apart, bare split cases, and a literal bucked of unsorted hardware. The crank is problem #1, it needs a new big end pin, new big end bearings, and the rods need new small end bushings, not sure if making a Crank of Thesius is the way to roll or not. Second major issue, the frame has a pinched tube, right side lower forward frame tube, looks like someone just put that section of tube in a vice and just cranked on it, still straight, but I dunno if I could trust it. I do see the frame has been welded on before, there is a brace for the front motor mount on the left side that isn't on a stock frame, I've seen clamp on aluminum braces for that spot but it seems someone used metal glue instead.

More inventory to go, gotta figure out what's there, what's missing, along with a final build design for it. The goal is to get it back on the track.

 

[Kurlon]

Oh ICK! I just drained the tank, it still had gas in it... 1/3rd of a tank plus a bottom layer of what I can only describe as toxic honey. Fresh VP T4 seems to dilute it so there will be a few sessions of sloshing that around to try and clean it all out, but was not expecting that from a bike that crashed 20+ years ago.

https://www.facebook.com/771Racing/videos/1002459831016608

 

[Cooter]

You have officially come out as a masochist.

:black_eyed:

 

[Kurlon]

You have no idea. I should show you my 1992 Yamaha WR250ZD Supermoto...

This bike was initially offered to me by a friend when I said I was going to find a Buell for SuperHooligans. In theory it needed a head replaced to deal with the dropped valve, and would otherwise be turnkey ready to go on short notice. Well... it had been given to someone else to revive, bits of it ended up on other bikes, it got torn down to nothing, parts scattered and it just sat. Once I saw the condition, I knew it wouldn't be a quick project and went XB shopping in a rush, you saw the result. In the mean time, as noted this was a former AMA race bike, owned by my friend's teammate who passed away too soon, so it's got history and sentimental value. At the start I said I'd help get it going, may have slightly underestimated the challenge due to a lack of info at the time, but I'm keeping my word. I've basically got free reign to build it however I see fit, it'll at a minimum be doing vintage racing, possibly an endurance or two. If it turns out I'm liking it better than the XB it's there for me to use for SuperHooligans too.

Part of me wants to go nutty on the motor, cases are already bored, and apart so now's the time to mod'em up. Biiiig bore on an XB9 crank maybe? (Did the XB9 get the larger big end pin in 08 like the XB12 and XR1200?) Also have a brand new set of Thunderstorm heads, untouched and ready for love. Alternate theory is buy a cheap mostly there S1/SW1 locally, and use it as a motor and maybe frame donor to speed up the revival and hopefully save some nickel and dime'ng chasing down random bolts/brackets/etc that have long since wandered away?

 

[Kurlon]

I’m now confused by the frame, 99.9% of the S1 / S1W bike pics I look at don’t have that brace bar to the front motor mount. I can find some that have aftermarket bolt on / clamp on braces, and can find ads for Banke and a couple other examples… and then I found two pics of what appear to be S1 / S1W bikes WITH that brace bar in place like you find on later M2 / X1 frames. Was there an update to the frame late in it’s production, were people welding the bars on themselves and matching the OEM look perfectly, what’s the story here?

Damage, and you can spy the brace bar behind it.

 

[Cooter]

You're going to find much better info for that tuber on BadWeb. Great story though so don't forget to tell us too!

 

[Kurlon]

So welding in that brace was a common thing to do back in the day, that question answered. Opinions on repairing the crush range from "5 min job" to "Too expensive to bother with" or "Don't do it, you'll die and wipe out half the population at the same time." Whatever, that's a problem for down the line. Gas tank finally cleaned out, whatever that sludge was, race gas wouldn't put it back into solution and acetone would only soften it a bit. Finally got 99% of the jelly ick out, going to be swapping fuel filters for a while on that tank.

 

[OddBird]

I am following this thread with great interest…

 

[Kurlon]

So, got some more history on the bike, that frame 'damage' was intentionally done, it's an intended crimp but I don't know the reason behind it. Bike was in fact raced that way.

 

[34nineteen]

Do you need a belly pan for this bike? Lemme know, k bruh?

 

[Kurlon]

Bodywork was good last I poked, bike has been transferred to a shop as there was WAY more of a rush to get this bike racing again than I could accommodate as a spare time project so I'm now hands off.