asphaltfighters STORMBRINGER - World's Fastest Road Bike!

You just can’t get enough now-a-days, can you? So, it is November 28th, and if you remember looking at the first photo, almost a month back, there was a news that Asphalt Fighters STORMBINGERS are going to launch the world's fastest bike on this day at the Essen Moto Expo and so here is it. What you see here is an or rather was an originally not so sedate Kawasaki ZX-10R which had an ass whooping power figure of 165 bhp. So now, it has been worked upon beyond modification and on the engine too which now produces a earth moving ground shattering nerve wrecking pants parting and what not ‘booster mode’ 280 bhp. What did I tell you, you just can’t get enough! This is a road legal bike with a 999cc engine from the stables of Asphaltfighters Stormbringer powered by WARM UP from Germany and even without the booster mode, it makes 220bhp! The booster mode gets activated once you cross the 180kmph mark. WARM UP is one of the leading custom bike builders from Germany. I know it is not fair to compare this custom bike with production bikes, but just to mention it that the world’s fastest bikes coming from the stables of Yamaha, Kawasaki, Ducati and the likes has a top end power of maximum 190bhp.
Looking at its performance figures, you wonder what more to wonder! 100 kmph is reached in only 2.9 seconds, 6.5 seconds to the 200 kmph and with assisted booster the 300 kmph mark comes in 13.9 seconds. Top speed is 320kmph.

Inside the heart, the cylinder heads are equipped with a new combustion chamber shape and flow efficiency, the intake and exhaust ports and valve seats. Forged aluminum pistons assist part of the high-concept as countless other detailed modifications goes inside the engine. Exhaust of course comes from the world renowned workshop of Akrapovic which has designed an innovative hexagonal shape silencer that is supposed to add more power. It has a 6 speed manual transmission. The shift and brake levers are mounted with double ball bearing which gives absolutely no play and not just that, the shift pattern can also be inverted!
The specially tuned machine has only a few things on its mind. Maximum performance, coupled with extreme handling and braking performance. The bike as a host of specialized companies working on it for example Bikerbox who specializes in the programmable electronics have fitted a full programmable traction control, launch control and a programmable speed limited so that the rider can set a race track or road speed limiter. For the credits, Bikerbox has done the entire works on the ZX-10R engine. Spiegler Brake Technology has more than 20 years experience in the development of high performance brake systems and they have provided their high technology in this bike with the revolutionary RIWI segment. In contrast to conventional brake discs, these discs have no continuous ring, but are composed of individual segments of high temperature resistant steel, which share a unique RIWI-segment floating system that is interconnected. Also, the braking forces do not act on the central part of the disc or the floaters, but directly to the individual RIWI segments. Lubrication is provided courtesy the fully synthetic Bel-Ray EXS 0 W - 40 engine oil. The high tech footrests and adjustable handlebars are courtesy Gilles Tooling while all the lights are from Kellermann. Paintwork is by Buetler. The forged wheels are from O.Z Motorbike, fairing is from Puigsuspensions from Emil Schwarz. The design of the bike is courtesy ROXXITY Ltd. Each of these workshops has decades of experience in their fields.

Lots of nitty gritties in the bike including some MotoGP features like a rearview camera that feeds what’s going on behind in to a small display on the tank. Additional welcome features along with the bike comes a matching Held suit and X-Lite carbon-Kevlar helmet is supplied to every buyer. The suspension, seating position and all controls will be adjusted accordingly to the rider weight and size.
There are some unheard of things on this motorcycle, for instance the front and rear Bridgestone tyres of dimensions 190/55 ZR 17 and 120/70 ZR 17 has different rubber compounds. In the center of the tread is a medium hard compound for delivering high mileage while the sides have a soft compound for firmer grip.
With all these ‘for the first time in a motorcycle gadgets’, the bike is still a lightweight at only 195 kilograms with a full tank it combines a spectacular aerodynamic design and of course it has a price but albeit what you thought, it is not astronomical but quite reasonable priced at 57,500 euros onwards.

Visit the Asphalt Fighters STORMBRINGER website to know how the bike was made and what is being used inside that monster bike.

Bikes & Babes Buzz at EICMA 2009

Photo Courtesy: scigacz Poland

Click on the logo to go to the original source

SBKs, Get Ready! The MV AGUSTA F4 is here!

Just recently this month, there was a post on the MV AGUSTA F4 and here it is again. Among the different group of bikers, I belong to the one where the bike is supposed to be metal, naked and raw, the so called ‘Old School’, but for each group of bikers there are bikes which cut across stereotypical mind sets and no matter how much I turn a blind eye to plastics and bikes with fairings, it would be really stupid of me if I even try to ignore bikes from the MV stable, plastic, carbon, fiber or not. And to say that these bikes don’t turn us ‘Old School’ bikers would be lying through teeth.
What you see here is the race version of the F4. You know that the F4 has always been hailed by MV as the world’s best Superbike and now they have launched the latest model of the F4. As the previous model was not able to enter the SBK series for its engine capacity at 1078cc, now the new model comes with 998cc and so SBK World series, say hello to the new demon. The previous F4 was equipped with a four cylinder 1078 cc, developing 190 horsepower and maximum torque figures of 124 Nm @ 8 200 rpm and it weighed 192 pounds dry. Its maximum speed was 300 kmph.
Agreed the F4 debuted 10 years ago and little has changed through these years, but why disturb the pattern that has smitten the world for 10 years without even changing? Ummm! Maybe for the better or that is what MV AGUSTA were thinking when this month they launched the 2010 MV AGUSTA F4. There were teasers, there were videos making the rounds, there were expectations that the F4 would change. But MV gave us the old F4 through a brilliant new F4. Very little has changed, yet it looks so beautiful. According to MV, this improvement on the outgoing model is neither less, nor more, just the ‘improvement of excellence’. All they wanted to do is make the world’s best Superbike and there is hardly anything to argue on that. It has everything a SBK needs, it has all the gizmos, its very light, it is blindingly fast, a super handler and to top all this, it is very beautiful. The new F4 has the same four-cylinder unit albeit with 998 cc and develops little less power with 186 hp @ 12 900 rpm of maximum power and maximum torque of 114 Nm @ 9 500 rpm but the top speed has been marginally increased to 305kmph, thanks to the state of the art weapons it possesses like the traction control and two injection maps, adjustable handlebar and what not. Surprisingly, the dry weight is identical to both versions at 192 pounds. I didn’t get that wrong, it is pounds, not kilos.
The F4 street version which will take you for a ride with its 100 ponies @ 9 200 rpm and a torque of 90 Nm at 5 500 rpm. While the race version has a top speed of 305 kmph, the road version has an equally good knack of top whack at 249kmph. Anyway, this post was just an excuse to gawk at the beauty, so why waste time reading, enjoy the pictures.The pictures come courtesy of Moto Caradisiac and the video is courtesy MV Agusta.

Queen of Speed - Leslie Porterfield

Tell me one red blooded male with hormones who doesn’t like bike and babes or babes on bikes. The girls are everywhere, from race tracks to being umbrella babes, from being calendar girls to Auto Expos to being brand ambassadors for big companies, they are everywhere and we love it. They certainly bring on the oomph factor. I mean, can you guess suited clean shaven boys or men standing by Rossi with an umbrella or smiling to you sitting on a prototype in EICMA! Not that we don’t associate these beautiful ladies with respect, but somehow they are more associated with being eye candy and bringing a smile to your face. The only place where they are less seen is atop these machines while running. But we still love them whether they ride or not. Just then there comes a distinguished lady with killer looks who can ride a motorcycle better than most men. And not only does she ride better, she has world records (records, not record) against her name, she owns a used motorcycle shop and she races on the Salts. This is where eye candy or smiles turns into admiration and respect and this is what Leslie Porterfield commands.

For starters, she is the 2008 AMA Racing Female Rider of the Year, she holds three land-speed records and is a member of the Bonneville 200 mph club. She is also the owner of High Five Cycles, a successful, used motorcycle dealership in downtown Dallas. And she has been riding since she was 16 and now she is only 32 years of age. How about that for a resume? So what does the beautiful lady prefer among 2 wheelers? Ms. Leslie rides a modified Suzuki Hayabusa, which she recently rode at the BUB Motorcycle Speed Trials clocking at 234.197mph, that’s 374.715kmph. No, I am not kidding; check the BUB website and the official timings. So what does that make her? Ms Porterfield is now officially the fastest female motorcyclist in the US. Of course she is also the first woman to enter the Bonneville 200mph Club on a conventional motorcycle (conventional motorcycle means motorcycles which can be road driven, not those streamliners you see at these trials).

A look at her a ccomplishments and records-
Accomplishments
* Top Time on a sit on Motorcycle Award from the 2009 BUB Speed Trials at 240mph.
* First Woman on a conventional motorcycle in the Bonneville 200mph Club.
* 2008 AMA Female Rider of the Year.
* Women's Spirit Award 2008 BUB Speed Trials
Records set
* SCTA 1350cc M-BF 209.046
* AMA and FIM 2000cc MPS-BF 232.522mph
* AMA and FIM 1000cc P-P 192.930

* AMA 1350cc APS-BF 234mph

With that kind of a resume, Leslie doesn’t have a problem finding sponsors and if you look at her website, you will notice both sides of the pages flooded with sponsor which include some world renowned brands like Arai, Airtech, Falicon, WPS, Fieldsheer, Heads Up Performance, Apex Speed Technology, Worldwide Bearings, PMR Components, PMP Sprockets, and Spider Grips.

Her Busa is a 2002 model, modified by Scott Horner of Head's Up Performance and Rhys Griffiths of Apex Speed Technologies. The bike is turbocharged with Airtech bodywork and a ECU from Apex. She also has a Honda CBR1000RR (the one pictured in red) which she ran in 2008 in the production class which has only a few modifications since it runs in the ‘production’ class, so there are limitations. The bike was re-geared and a Bazzaz tuner was added and guess what! She clocked 192mph on the bike, which is also a world record. The charming girl also gets her hands dirty with the tools and oil and she is quite a capable mechanic and for that she thanks Scott of Head’s Up Performance. Rhys of Apex Speed Tech gives her lessons on the electrical and electronics front. She also helps the staff in her Dallas used motorcycle store, High Five Cycles, and says, “It's not uncommon to find me in my service department doing oil changes, cleaning carburettors, swapping chains and sprockets, or dismantling something we're sending to the painter. I've done a lot of car repairs, too - everything from changing starters to rebuilding an automatic transmission, to swapping rear ends." The girl knows the machines in and out.

It didn’t start all very well for Leslie. In 2007, she had a crash speeding at over 100mph which resulted in seven broken ribs, a punctured lung and a concussion. Prior to the 200+ mph run on the Busa, she had touched 196mph which had her convinced that she could do a 200. But 2007, the year of her debut didn’t go well. But for how long can you keep talent done. So, after 1 year, she did what no woman had done before. Media pressure of course built up being the first lady in the Bonneville 200 MPH Club and again she showed that she is no flash in the pan with 2 other records of which one was with the Honda. The other record, well she bettered her 209mph on the Busa with a timing of 232 mph run on the turbo Busa. Along with the 2008 AMA Female Rider of the Year, she also won the Women’s Spirit Award at the BUB awards banquet.

So how many bikes do the lady own. Nine in all. Beside those two, she has a Ducati 998 which she uses for transportation when she is at home. She had a few runs in drag strips and she loves motocross, but says she is terrible at it. She does own a CRF 450 motard on which she likes to have fun in the city. She did receive tickets (not the good ones, the ones you get when you over speed), but that has been in the past. And of course she loves MotoGP and admires all the riders. But her talent is not only limited to 2 wheels. She holds an SCCA car road racing license and have pre-ridden the Baja 1000 and looks forward to participating in the race. – would love to participate in the race sometime soon.

Faster and Faster had an Email interview with her and she came up as a really regular girl with no airs whatsoever. Here is the direct link to the interview post.
From the interview… She has a BMW Z4 M coupe which she is very fond of besides sinking her teeth at Pepperoni Pizza. The Audrey Hepburn fan, contrary to what her image could stand for (read tom boyish) is actually very girlie and loves romantic movies. But of course being who she is, she had to love ‘On Any Sunday’, ‘World’s Fastest Indian’ and the likes. In the interview, about her famous run in 2008, she mentions “I had to put those thoughts out of my head this year. After my first pass down the salt, I was back into the groove and ready to break some records. In all competitive sports, there are risks, and I try to minimize mine as best I can. I made a pass at 231mph to qualify for the record, and on my return run I was at around 240mph when I threw a rod through the cases. I was lucky and thankful that nothing locked up. I still managed to average 234mph on that run, which put my new world record at 232mph. It also earned me the title of the fastest woman in the world on a motorcycle. I was thrilled, even though I had a gaping hole in my motor!”

The 2008 speed runs were initially dampened by constant rain which made the run’s traction to a minimum and records were doubtful due to this. But conditions got better as the week came to a close. Worth mentioning is that on the meet's final day, when Leslie made the record, it was soon broken with just minutes to spare before the Speed Trials ended. Nonetheless, Leslie’s record run netted her the BUB Enterprises-sponsored Top Time Award for "sit-on" motorcycles (as opposed to fully enclosed "sit-in" streamliners), the first time this prestigious prize was won by a woman.
This elegant beautiful lady can pass up as a model any time. With deep and due respect to all ladies, she could easily have been a umbrella or pit girl or whatever she wanted in the glamour department, but she didn’t want to be one-of-the-ladies, she is a star, the main attraction and what a way to get noticed!
You can visit the Leslie Porterfield website which I guess she manages on her own and you can also have a look at the High Five Cycles store. For her records, visit the BUB website. Photo credits as per mentioned in the photos.

GOLDAMMER Goldmember strikes Gold

So when does a bike or motorcycle or a 2 wheeler stop being one and becomes a visual quotient? The general belief or logical reasoning would say when you have state of the art elements on a bike and it defines retro or futuristic images added with that something extra which makes it stand alone. Somehow or the other, Roger Goldammer has always always been the odd man out. His bikes do not ‘show’ any state of the art features, his bikes do not have a retro or modern or futuristic look, his bikes are not even cool if you measure cool by say a Confederate or even a Ducati. All his bikes do are win championships at wherever it participates! The king of custom building is really the odd ball here for what he envisages, others can’t even comprehend. His bikes are not just custom bikes, this is one custom bike designer who always works more on the machine then the get up and just to tell you, his get ups are fantastic. But it is the machine that Roger works his charm that has given his living room a look like a trophy collector for the numerous trophies he has won.
What you see here is the Goldmember, an awkward looking bike at the first instance and then it will gradually grow on you and to such an extent that you would probably feel like spending the next few days and nights working on your bike. There were earlier posts on Roger’s machines, Nortorious and ExperiMental in this blog and why I am saying this is because to know what goes inside that head of his, you need to go through the post.

Okay, moving on to this post, what do you see, a elongated yellow coloured bike with no headlamps (so, okay I get it, this is a race bike), a race bike with a 3/4th fairing and what an odd kind of fairing is that! Did I say race bike? But it has spoke wheels and would you look at that, there are no disc brakes either. Surely Roger must be crazy to make something like this. Ummm… no, not exactly, geniuses do have the ‘crazy’ thing going, but I don’t think the guys at AMD does or else why would they award the 2008 AMD World Championship title to this bike? So you know there has to be more than meets the eye, right, but let me tell you, the bike doesn’t even have an electric start. I guess guys at the AMD have realized that choosing a motorcycle for any category doesn’t mean the bike has to have very sweetly multicoloured with everything you can throw at or having the world’s best chrome paint on two obnoxiously long handle bars, customizing is more than that, it is that, but there is more to customizing a bike as Roger would make you believe with his creations.
All of Roger’s bikes are meant to be ridden and outperform its class (that would be really difficult in one way as his bikes are in a class which has only his bikes, anyway) and not only just perform, his bikes perform at the grandest stage of ‘em all, the Bonne Salts. How thus a bike averaging at 160 mph sound to you, I repeat averaging, not top speed. Well, that is what Roger’s customized Goldmember is capable of and has also ‘been there done that’.

If you are not a first timer on the Goldammer bikes, you would probably start off with a long look at the stunning designs he creates. Okay, I lied about the ‘not having disc brakes’ part. I am sure you knew that too. Just like the Nortorious, both of the wheels have disc brakes beneath the specially designed hubs which give an overall image of having drum brakes. But believe me, you really have to kick start the bike.
So what goes inside the Goldmember? The Goldmember is equipped with a custom 960cc, liquid-cooled, single-cylinder engine using modified Harley-Davidson cases and a supercharger and nitrous in addition to its streamlined bodywork. Yes, he still believes in single cylinders just like his Nortorious and ExperiMental.
The gentleman from Canada that he is, he is known as a soft spoken person with a sense of humour and always eager with his inputs. His favorite bikes are the Dirt bikes and Sport bikes and it is not hard to tell but taking a look at his creations. What he builds is unlike anything that even remotely comes close. I am still repeating you need to go through the earlier posts to know how this man thinks and works. He has removed the staid image of custom build motorcycles as flashy chopper designs with a ready made HD engine with what actual custom designing should be like, radical to the extreme, yet very appealing and always carrying the core of motorcycles – performance. Many people just might lose the fact that his creations are a visual delight actually, what happens is that people are so taken back by his brilliant engines that one would often tend to look at the performance sheet and miss out the visual gratification.

The Goldmember made an entry into the Salts at 2006 and that was before winning the AMD Championship in 2008. So focused he is on the performance front that for him, it is much more critical that his bikes have the performance to boast of. And when that is done, it also gets easy for the AMD guys to choose it as their favorite bike since visually it stands apart from the herd.
For the Goldmember, Roger specifically wanted something which had a real performance to speak of and yet compete at the highest level (the World Championships of Custom Bike Building), something no one has tried before, no, let me get that right, something no one has thought before and these kind of ideas come only to this man. Just close your eyes and think about a custom bike and think about the performance of the bike. What comes in your imagination is you in a chopper cruising along the desert roads, right. That is what Roger has broken away with it. That is what I meant by saying that Roger does what others don’t even think of. Before the world knew Roger Goldammer, performance and custom bikes were like poles apart. Performance bikes are plasticky bikes all covered up with not much of an appeal while custom bikes are usually all show and not much of a go. And the twain shall never met. At least till Mr. Roger Goldammer came along. It was along such a decision taken with a friend when they casually thought of a single rear cylinder mounted on the front with fuel injection and Roger added his thoughts as why should he stop at that, but rather a full blown, electronic fuel injected, intercooled, single cylinder H-D-based-engine running on nitrous. There you had it, this man just cannot think simple. So he thought of adding a supercharger too.

As expected, lots of in house manufacturing from the camshaft which was made out of two cams to changing the push rod angles went in the bike. The engine was rotated back 15 degrees and moved closer to the transmission. Of course those disc brakes in hiding had to be in house and so were the spoke wheels. Roger mentions that the wheel and its nearby including those hubs and brakes took a lot of time beside hard work and determination. Overall, starting from the frame to the front end which has ‘shock inside neck’ to the swingarm to both the wheels and brakes were made in house. Transmission is through a six-speed Baker gearbox of Baker. Roger usesd a Rotrex supercharged inlet pipe and the forward to provide sufficient air to create the highest capacity possible. The inlet on the body is designed as such to let in flow direction of the wind engine which will of course increase cooling capacity and maintain a temperature limit even if the vehicle operates at full maximum limit. I searched a lot on the net to know more about the engine, but came up with nothing more. If any of the readers have any information on it, please forward it.
Roger Goldammer wanted his Goldmember to look as simple as possible and that was the reason of those spoke wheels, disc brakes that looks like drums, a plain three quarter fairing, etc. But to do all thos in other words, to make the bike look simple was the most difficult part in fact. Probably that was a part which the AMD guys were impressed it and made it a winner. The engine and all, well that was probably the reason that stretched the gap between this bike and the runners up by more than 150 points.

Visit the Roger Goldammer website but the site has not been updated and there is not too much info on it. Or if you live in Canada, you may visit him at his workshop cum home at Kelowna, British Columbia or you can phone (250.764.8002), fax (250.764.8022) or Email (sjgoldammer@shaw.ca ). Source of pictures and info for this blog were sourced from AMD Championships, Kick Ass Choppers blog and Bikernet.
The championship winning bike was painted in yellow with the number 39 by Jerry Ashley while the nickel plating and chroming was done by Southwest Forge.
Specifications
Engine Make / Size - HD V-twin based 965cc single cylinder.
Transmission - Baker 6 speed
Frame Make / Type - Goldammer chromolly
Front End & Swinarm - Goldammer- girder, shock inside neck &Goldammer
Wheels Front & Rear - Goldammer Buchannons 19" & Goldammer 23"
Front & Rear Brakes - Goldammer Internal disc
Rake & Stretch - 35° & None
Tires Front & Rear - Avon 120/70/19 & 130/60/23
Additional Info - Rotrex supercharged, fuel injected, intercooled, nitrous oxide injected single cylinder Harley-based engine, rear head on front cylinder, hand made camshaft, Pingel electric shifting.