Projects at Speed Demon:

In December of 2008 Speed Demon Cycles purchased one of the first XR1200's released in the
States. Rob had only one purpose for this bike; turn it into a full on race bike and make his return to
racing in The Loudon Road Racing Series in New Hampshire.

The road to get the bike set up for racing was not an easy one. Rob is probably one of the only guys
racing this bike in the U.S. The XR was released in Europe when it was first introduced in 2008 and
the Europeans went crazy for it and started to develop the bike for spec racing series in Spain, Italy,
and Great Britain. So all the trick racing parts had to be sourced from Europe or had to be made in
Speed Demon's shop!

Rob and his crew wasted no time. They tore the bike down and started to figure out what they
needed. They sourced a racing tail section, belly pan, exhaust, and frame savers from a shop in
England called Adrenalin Moto. Matt from Adrenalin was a big help and they proved to be an
excellent company to deal with. Rob and Eric also fitted a 17 inch front wheel, Brembo
calipers,floating rotors, braided brake lines, drag bars, and Ohlins rear shocks.  Rob's dad was vital
to the success of the project with his machining skills. He made wheel spacers, modified the calipers
so they would fit,  made custom foot pegs, and a one off spacer for the front motor mount. A Storz
steering stabilizer was the last bit installed before the bike was safety wired and taken to the track for
it's first run in anger!

The XR was brought up to Loudon for an open practice session where Rob would try to come to
grips with riding an unproven motorcycle coupled with being out of the racing scene for one and a
half years! But he got to business.

Right off the bat the XR had major ground clearance issues, it wasn't handling well under braking and
it was really slow! Rob finished out the day and headed back to the shop to try and make some
improvements before the race. Rob called his dad back in to see if he could make some blocks to
raise the rear of the bike. The old man pulled through and whipped up some 1.5 inch blocks to raise
the rear shocks and he also cut about an inch off the foot pegs to try and give Rob more ground
clearance. Eric adjusted the neck bearings and Rob loaded the bike back up and headed back to
the track.

The changes the crew made definitely helped but the bike and Rob were still way off the pace! Our
first race was GTL a 20 minute race filled with some fast riders and fast bikes.  Rob's goals for the
weekend were:  shake the rust off, get used to racing again, gather information to improve the bike
and  not to crash!   Rob achieved his goals but was disappointed with his lap times and finishing
position. Last is not where he thought he would be. The first round of the series was a wake up call
for him and the project.

With only 2 weeks to go until the 2nd round and the shop being full bore crazy busy the crew couldn't
make any changes to the bike so Rob went into the 2nd round to try and improve his lap times and
regain some of his old form.  Rob was able to shave a couple seconds from his lap times but he and
the bike still weren't even close to where they know they should be.

Rob decided to have the bike measured by Mike Matire at GMD Computrak in New York (actually in
Milford, CT.) and see what Mike had to say.  He was a big help and right off the bat noticed that the
suspension risers we had made were not working right and he thought the bike could go even higher
in the back. He thought the numbers weren't too bad and the bike could be made to handle pretty
well!  Good news! Rob ordered some suspension riser blocks from Matt at Adrenalin Moto.(these are
the blocks that they are running on the European race bikes). Rob also decided that the bike was too
slow and it needed the exhaust to be opened up and Rob also wanted more RPM's out of the bike.
Rob called Zippers Performance and ordered one of their Thundermax ecu's. The Thundermax is an
excellent product with many features including Autotune but the thing that was on Rob's mind was
raising the rev limiter another 500 rpm. This would help Rob hold off on shifting in awkward parts of
the track. Eric performed the mods to the exhaust and Rob did a quick road test and instantly felt a
change in the bike. Rob loaded the XR up for the next round.

Rob arrived on a Thursday for another open practice. In his first session he dropped over a second
from his previous weekends best. In his second session he dropped another 2 seconds. The XR
and Rob were finally making some progress. Unfortunately in the race Rob made a poor choice on
his tires and just limped the bike home. Feeling good about making forward progress Rob was able
to find some more ideas to improve his lap times.

The next step before the next round will be installing clip on handlebars, new tires, and modifying the
belly pan to get some more ground clearance.

Thank you so much for checking out our project page and be sure to check back for more pics and
updates after the next round on July 18th!