Excalibur snatches win at Comp3 twilight meeting

Excalibur snatches the win at Comp3 1/8mile "Night of Thunder", Fram Autolite dragway, Meremere NZ!! The bazaar sequence of events that enabled Excalibur to seize the championship lead began when championship leader (Greg Pratt) failed to turn up. Excalibur started the twilight meeting struggling with air shifter gear change issues, however luck went our way in each of the elimination runs. Also we were top qualifier. Before the final pairing against Ian Hilder's "Rice Rocket", the Prostock bike suffering ECU problems eventually failing to make the start. This forfeited the winner's trophy to the Triumph with Jamie only needing to appear, which he did with a convincing 6.87 @ 97.6mph for the 1/8mile.

 

 Pic taken at earlier Meremere motorcycle drags 2014

Jamie staging at twilight

The engine was fitted with the thinnest head gasket I made from an old copper toilet cistern!! It's about .015" thinner so the compression will be approaching 10:1. The pistons required relieving at the squish band for a 1mm clearance. Also the inlet valve-clearance-to-piston was tweaked.

A rare new-old-stock pair of +.020 10.5:1 compression pistons was purchased. The downside is that they are 1mm (.040") smaller than current so engine capacity would decrease but the extra power from added compression would more than make up for it. Another issue is finding a barrel set at std (or +.020 in good condition). Naturally I'd be cutting the fins off. Ideal would be a fin-damaged std barrel that could be freshened up to size.

The air shifter proved to be quite a battle with a variety of  ECU settings trialed. Kill time was progressively widened, more/less leverage, lubricated clevises, larger air line, etc, all  to no avail. Finally the drive chain was tightened up tighter than any normal rigid road bike would be. The advise received was to make it tighter than would seem reasonable. This appears to be the solution at the time of writing.

Lowering the footpegs showed decided advantages. It allows staging of the bike in the absolute vertical position unlike previous "lean to the left" posture nicknamed "tripod". A minor issue is the clutch drag which becomes an issue in the higher rev range. With toes on the ground and heels on the pegs, it doesn't allow much holding of the bike from rolling forward. Hence lower staging revs are used. Lowering the pegs still further is being planned.

Planned upgrade before Comp4 at 2March is "oil-in-frame". The upper right frame tube will be utilized as the oil tank with strainer, filler cap, return line, breather and sight-level-glass fittings.
Ironically, an original ('71-onwards) Triumph 650/750 uses oil-in-frame so it's a kind of 'retro fit' in a manner of speaking.

Can Excalibur win the Compbike championship, leading the points with one round to go? Check back shortly for official points tally and at 2March for championship result..

Please see Excalibur Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ExcaliburTriumph

 

Meremere motorcycle drags 2014

Meremere motorcycle drags presented Team Excalibur the opportunity to experiment with settings and a new air shifter in a way not otherwise possible at a Competition meeting.

A great surprise and thrill was the official T-shirt for the days' event featuring Excalibur with Jamie pulling a wheelie in a previous comp meet.

 New T shirt design released at the weekend.

Jamie riding at the previous Comp meet against a Vrod Destroyer.

Pit box for the Meremere motorcycle meeting. Other bike is Orbs' weapon, a GM V6

 

Best time on the day was 11.008 making this the 2nd best on record for the vintage '73 Triumph Bonneville powered lightweight dragbike.

Excalibur on top at comp2

Team Excalibur emerged on top at Competition 2, claiming scalps on its' way up the elimination ladder. A best time of 11.009 was recorded which is the second quickest on record for the Triumph. In the final pairing the opponent red-lighted, gifting the victory to the T140. Just as well for us as Jamie missed a gear, managing only 11.4 for the run. In the heat of competition, mistakes are common. This time it "went our way"...

A retro tail piece was made from polystyrene and carbon fiber by rider, Jamie.

A pair of 4wire LS2 coils were fitted and configured in the Microsquirt ECU. A jumper on the MS board was reset to move the software from direct coil control to 5V trigger signal as LS2 have inbuilt igniters. Very fast charge time means a 4ms dwell is required.

 

 

 

 

Season 4, Comp1 then Spring Nationals

Excalibur run at near record pace at the Spring Nationals posting 11.01 ET on the first pass of day one. The weather was very hot for November and wind direction changeable. A number of adjustments were tried but times couldn't eclipse the early marker. Competition saw Excalibur climb to the semi finals against Greg Pratts' Vrod Destroyer. Jamie lost the run with 11.19 ET red light and finished the day third.
Changes made before/during the meetings were:
Gear ratio raised to 4.60:1 from 4.63:1
Ignition dwell settings 5ms, 6ms and 8ms.
Compression was raised by a small amount.
New inlet valve guides.
Steel head steady trialed.

The teams' new T-shirt design which is also available to supporters

A couple of pics out of the photo collection.

 

Excalibur riders' eye view.

Excalibur wins 2012- 2013 National championship

Excalibur wins the IHRA Comp Bike National series championship.

The final round concluded on April 28 after twice being rained off at New Zealands' Meremere dragstrip. The weather was fine with a light headwind.

In the final pairing, Jamie powered the 750 Bonneville drag bike to a respectable 11.08 @ 115mph. In addition, a new class record of 10.98 and 118.9mph was claimed for the record book.

The ambient air temperature was notably cooler than the previous meeting so it was decided to apply aluminum tape to the cooling fins of the cylinder head. The thought is that the T140 engines' compression ratio is a bit too low to generate enough effective heat  thereby reducing horsepower.
A clue to the phenomena is that an 02 sensor shows the mixture richening with higher revs. Also the bike has recorded record times for each subsequent March, the hottest temperature meetings.

Next weekend is the end-of-year prize giving at Pukekohe hotrod clubrooms. A week later will be the annual Excalibur celebration at the place where the Bonnie dragbike was made.

NZ Nationals action! Excalibur sets new marker.

IHRA's NZ Nationals at Meremere was a 3 day affair.

Day one gave each competitor a single qualifying run between 4pm -6.30pm. Jamie re-acquianted himself with the T140 and the initial run showed all was well.

Day two was hot with a light northerly breeze from the tropics. There was a question over the weather, as a storm was forecast to hit the following day. It was decided to bring forward the eliminations and hopefully conclude the competition early on day three.
A new personal best (PB) time and mph was recorded during the days' qualifying. The new record marker is 10.98 ET @ 119mph. This will be the new Index for the PCB class from next season.

Day three was set to run the semis and the finals with 4 bikes remaining in the competition.
2 Hyabusas, a Vrod plus Excalibur T140. Sadly persistent rain prevented any racing and the meeting was called off at 1pm. A "rain date" is believed to be 21st April at the time of writing.

Each of the runs at the meeting was faster than National index. Our goal of a 10 second run has finally been achieved.

The coolest thing is that Excalibur has a chance to win the Comp bike meeting plus be the winner of the championship! It has come down to one of the Hyabusas or Excalibur. Check back soon to see if the vintage '73 T140 can beat the Hyabusa for Comp bike honors.

John's 650 chop at our pitbox during qualifying.

Settings for meet:
Shift light 6100rpm
Rev limiter 7000rpm
Mph@ 6000: 104.5
Mph@ 6500: 113
Drive ratio: 4.63:1
Ign timing: 38'

Comp4, series final round, Feb 2013

Team Excalibur entered the final round with a mathematical chance of a championship win.
Rain delayed the start with one round of qualifying to sort the bike. We had the Microsquirt box fitted which was controlling ignition, shift light and rev limit.
The semi finals pairing against Greg Pratts' mighty Vrod Destroyer was lost due to a red light. The run gave Excalibur its' best all time ET: 11.079 @ 115.8mph.

Excalibur was placed 3rd for the day. As of writing it appears that we are 3rd in the championship.