[DeTomaso] Absolutely zero DT content

Fri Jul 29 05:37:38 EDT 2016

Charles,
    Sounds like a fine motoring day. I drove my car to work Sunday for west coast preparations and after arriving I wondered if my back side was the same temp as the exhaust tips.
Louisiana is just too hot this time of year. 
    Your clutch use question brought back memories. We used to race motocross, enduros and flat track from about 69 to 76. Even raced a sponsored Husquvarna with an automatic trans. It used centrifugal clutches and basic gear pairs, very quick and easy to race. Your clutch point about weight and usage is valid. We would wrap the left handlebar with black electrical tape one strip wide but 10 or so wraps, then place a shortened, 4" long, hacksaw blade, on it in axis with the bar. Then more tape would tape the blade in place. More tape would cover the blade so to act as an insulator, then a wire would be run from it mount hole to the ignition hot side coil wire which connected to the magneto. A basic kill switch which we used as a safety, OH CRAP, switch and to momentarily left thumb push to ground the ignition so we could shift without touching the clutch lever. We were able to shift quicker because of the momentary power loss removed bauk ring shift ring loads. I though about removing the clutch drum and pack to save weight and just have the helical gear drive from crank to trans input. Not worth it as its weight was too minor compared to the worth of freedom the clutch lever allowed me. So instead I drilled the clutch drums to save weight, the Husquvarna, Maico, Puck, Carabella and Yamaha did rev up faster. Also if the race was wet you would always be quickly reawaken by 30,000 volt low amp zing from the wet kill switch. Also that switch allowed us to keep a tighter death grip on the handlebar with shorter shift times.
Take care, 
Jeff

Jeff Cobb- I pad
W-225-343-7525
C-225-907-4514

Jeff Cobb Auto Works
1316 S. Acadian Thruway
Baton Rouge, La.
70806

On Jul 29, 2016, at 2:45 AM, Charles McCall <charlesmccall at gmail.com> wrote:

>   Motorcycle ramblings with a question at the end....
>   The weather has been absolutely fantastic here for the past few weeks,
>   so I have been using my motorcycle for my daily commute to and from
>   work. It's recently back on the road after more or less being in
>   storage for 18 years. It is true that long term storage isn't good for
>   vehicles - either cars or motorcycles. I filled the tank up with gas
>   and it all ran right on the floor... hoses that had disintegrated with
>   time. Got that repaired.A
>   The gas on the floor was mixing with a massive oil leak caused by a
>   gasket on the cam tensioner that dried out and cracked. Got that
>   fixed.A
>   I'm glad my motorcycle is air-cooled or I know what would be leaking
>   now! We didn't get off to a good start this year!
>   The motorcycle is a 1982 Suzuki GS650, nothing particularly special but
>   with a lot of sentimental value. I bought it when I was 19 and a
>   college sophomore. I'd never been on a motorcycle in my life - neither
>   as a passenger nor a driver. I walked into the local Suzuki dealer and
>   said "I like that one, I'll buy it!" and paid for it with my visa card,
>   at 19.6% interest. And I wonder why it took me so long to pay off my
>   college loans? ;-)
>   We went to the parking lot and the salesman told me "This is the
>   clutch, here's how you change gears, this is the front brake....have
>   fun!" And I learned how to drive on the way home. Ah, youth!
>   The motorcycle has been all over the place. I went to Cornell
>   University, in upstate NY, and my girlfriend at the time went to
>   Michigan, so it made the trip many times. It's attended Sturgis
>   (despite being a Japanese bike, but I drove it there unlike many of the
>   Harleys!) prowled the streets of Chicago, etc. But it got put into
>   storage when I moved to Europe and took a long time to catch up to me.
>   It recently was made road-worthy and is still wearing US plates,
>   although I'll have to fix that over the next year. It is very difficult
>   and very expensive to insure a vehicle in Europe with US plates. But
>   for those from the US or Canada attending Le Mans Classic - -IT CAN BE
>   DONE!
>   Anyway, my question. The tendency in race cars and sports cars is
>   moving away from a manual transmission to an automatic. I know that
>   isn't quite true but don't really care if there is still technically a
>   clutch or not - if there isn't a clutch pedal inside, then it's an
>   automatic! Why hasn't the same thing happened with motorcycles? Because
>   the shift time on a motorcycle is already so short? Do racers even use
>   the clutch on a race bike? The weight associated with the mechanism is
>   a larger percentage of a light bike as opposed to a car? A
>   Just wondering this morning, as it was a nice morning for a ride and as
>   there's no radio my mind went wandering...
> _______________________________________________
> 
> 
> Detomaso Email List is not managed by POCA
> Posted emails must not exceed 1.5 Megabytes
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at server.detomasolist.com
> http://server.detomasolist.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso
> 
> To manage your subscription (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) use the links above.
> 
> Members who post to this list grant license to the list to forward any message posted here to all past, current, or future members of the list. They also grant the list owner permission to maintain an archive or approve the archiving of list messages.