In this article respected motorcycle drag racer and owner of the acclaimed MPS parts and speed shop, Dan Rudd, tells us all about his exciting new Hayabusa.
After spending the last 4 years heavily involved in making a nitrous Hayabusa quicker than any other, I decided that I missed riding more than I thought I would. More specifically, I really missed the sportsman classes! I wanted to do something new. I took inspiration from an old Dan Wagner built Outlaw bike that Tony Girardi rode.
No wheelie bars, with a delay box, Tony won the quick 16 at Palm Beach against the cars one night dialing 6.90s @ 200 + MPH. I thought if he could do that back then I should be able to build a state of the art no bar bracket bike. A Grudge Pro ET bike if you will. My plan is to go quick enough to run Top Gas with 60 foots in the high 1.20 low 1.30 range at 170 + MPH. Fast enough to have fun but not crazy fast like the current bunch of super talented Pro Street riders.
I started with a Gen 1 Hayabusa we had around the shop for quite some time that we called the “Test Bed”. It was used to develop and test a long list of products including: MPS Spyder Nitrous Kits, ecu reprogramming, Daytona WEGO 3, NC-2 nitrous controller, NOS mini nitrous controller, MSD Launchmaster, and SB-6. We had installed a Holley HP ecu after I sold my big tire Top Gas bike so we would still have a bike to test components for the Holley system. We had another project bike that had been sitting around partially complete for lots of years. So, I stole the rear wheel, rear shock, shortened front end, triple trees, fiberglass tank, and fairing for my new project. I ordered a Catalyst +21 tail for stock seat rails because I am a too tall for cut seat rails. I ordered up a new DME swingarm to make the bike 75 inches long. Dimey at DME was nice enough to set up my old shock with a new spring for a big guy.
I installed the swingarm and rear wheel and then called Todd Heiser of Dogwood Racing to fabricate some of the longest footpeg extensions ever. They turned out awesome and the riding position feels great! He also provided the aluminum rear subframe and mounted the tail. I use 2 WPS Lithium batteries mounted in MPS featherweight mounts to provide plenty of 24 volt starting power. An RC Components 16” wheel from RBM rounds out the chassis. I chose the old faithful K&R Pro Cube delay box to control the MPS Air/Hydraulic Clutch. To be able to ride the bike back I chose a MTC Gen 2 clutch covered by a MPS billet quick access clutch cover. We use a Robinson Industries oil pump gear, DME oil pressure bypass, and MPS 2” trap door, fixed pickup billet oil pan to keep the bearings supplied with Brad Penn racing oil. The MPS oil pans were developed on our Pro Mod and provide a constant oil supply to the engine under both acceleration and braking. An ARC oil heater is also installed in the pan for pre-heating the oil. A Robinson Industries output shaft support was used to avoid output shaft breakage. A silver ceramic coated Murray grudge sidewinder exhaust system was extended to direct the exhaust gasses out beyond the foot pegs.
The heart of the bike is of course the “Lethal Injection”, a combination of Holley Dominator ecu and MPS Spyder dry nitrous system. It uses MPS 62 lb/hr injectors in stock throttle bodies topped with MPS intake bell and fuel rail. An AEM fuel pump pushes VP C-16 fuel through Earl’s hose and Jiffey-Tite quick connect fittings. The Holley Dominator is the brains of the system, responsible for data logging all functions of the bike. It monitors: fuel flow, air fuel ratio, output shaft speed, fuel pressure, nitrous pressures, oil pressure, track temperature, tire temperature, suspension travel, relative humidity, coolant temperature, oil temperature, crankcase pressure, air temperature, and engine rpm. The Holley Dominator also controls all functions including fueling, ignition timing, the autoshift and shift kill functions. A small 2.75” touch screen is used to monitor data from the ecu. We are currently testing a prototype crankcase breather system using a lightweight catch can and breather cover with special baffling to keep oil from getting to the catch can and letting what oil that does get there to run back to the engine all while letting the crankcase breath. The engine will be left bone stock until the bike has been sorted out.
Fast forward to February 2016 and the first dyno pulls. It made 153 HP on motor with C16. Not earth shattering but about what I expected from a stock motor. Checked out all functions to be sure everything worked before heading to Orlando Speed World for my first test. Wade Rich has the track hooking great as usual for the all bike test session. I was just going to make some motor hits to try and get acclimated to the new bike. First pass sliding the clutch by hand went 9.84. Wound up going 9.72 @140 and was able to hold throttle wide open and let the button go. The second test session I turned the nitrous on at the hit. I figured it would pick up the anemic 60 footers of the stock motor. The bike stood up about 5 feet out. Never been on a bike that long wheelieing, kinda feels like you are on a stepladder! Not a good start to nitrous testing. Re-evaluted gearing (took off 5 teeth) and loosend up the clutch set up and tried again. Better this time, a 9.34 @ 150, but still so gun shy I let off for .6 seconds thinking I felt it wheelie. Last pass I stayed in it and went 9.12 @152. Better and at least I was on the right side of it now and able to slowly creep up on the ETs.
Off to the new Southern Dragbike Racing Series at South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta, GA for their inaugural race. Kind of fitting for my first race back to be their first race too! I tested 1/4 mile Friday night and ran a 9.03 @153. I hadn’t run any full trees testing, so I guessed at a delay time for Saturday morning. My reaction times of .020 and a .009 were stellar considering I hadn’t done this in 4 years! SDRS races are 1/8 mile racing and I went a best of 5.80 @ 127 on my two time runs. So I dialed 5.80 and started eliminations. Won the first round with a .017 light. I dialed down to 5.75 and won the second round with a .024 light. Won the third round with a perfect .000, and the fourth round with a .009. Fifth round I had an earned bye so I just broke the beams. In the semi final I ran an always tough Mike Moore. I had a .034 light, my worst of eliminations as his bike broke at the starting line. Wow hard to believe how well this is going! One more round to win! I have Mike Perry in the final and go red by .019 and run a 5.814 on a 5.80 dial. Not what I had drawn up, but all in all a damn good first outing! I found out at this race there was something else that I had missed more than the racing was the people associated with sportsman motorcycle drag racing. They are the best! Love you all!
Next stop Manufacturers Cup in April at SGMP. Hope to dial 8.60 or so. This bike has been lots of fun so far! I am looking forward to this year of racing more than I have in quite some time. I have plans for the other bike that I stole the parts from too, but that will be another story! Stay tuned!