Question for Donthekawguy

Hey don i have a question for you. I want to run my 1974 z1 900 at the dragstrip on the weekends for the last few weeks before the season ends. What should i do to my bike to get it drag strip ready.

Hear is a list of what is already done to her.
-wired george carbs 117 main 20 piolot
-stock airbox
-530 chain 17front 42rear
-vance and hines 4 into 1, chopped down muffler with mac baffle cut in half and flipped.
-Bone stock motor with manual APE cam chain adjuster.
-Dunlop gold seal rear tire 4.00 X 18
-Points ignition with green dyna coils and copper wires (im converting to dyna s electronic this winter)

Im not looking to have the fastest bike there but i just wanna have fun and most importantly be safe and have people do a double look when i rip down the strip. I love when im on the street and i lift the front end up in 1st and people drop there jaw and just stare.

Just so you know...Don works night-shift,and that's where he has access to his computer,so don't expect a reply until the a.m.
Unless of course,you're a night-owl.

lol.......i have off tomorrow so ill be hanging round here for a while

Hey don, do you have any ideas what she should run. I know it says 12 seconds stock. Im going to guess 11.30's? I dunno.

Sounds like you have it set up right for what you can get out of it. Are you going to be riding it on the street or just the track? If your just racing you could try to get some weight off of it. You could lower the rear tire pressure to make sur you get a good launch. What carbs are you running? I had my 26's on mine and it would run out of steam on the top end. You could try making it run rich and pull out the baffle. Just keep an extra set of plugs with you. If you have the 28's they should be fine for the top end. You might want to invest in a shift light and set it around 400 rpm lower than where you want to shift at. that way you have time to shift before you get out of the power range. You will have to figure out where your power starts to drop off so you can figure out when to shift. If you have a dyno in your area, a few passes will help you figure that out. If not try to figure out when it feels like your running out of power on the top end and go from there. It's a little freaky watching the tach when your wide open going down the track, but it's a wide track. :laugh: I'm not sure with the 530 chain what gearing you should have. I went with a one tooth smaller front after my first trip to the track and dropped a second on my ET. That was a 15- 36 I beleive with a big chain. The best thing to do is run as much as you can and concentrate on you launch. Get your eaction time down and don't freak out if you pull the front wheel up. I was killing all the new sport bikes in the 60 foot because they would get scared when the front wheel came up and they had to back down. :laugh: I even beat a gsxr1000 in the quarter. then again she couldn't touch the ground unless she had her two inch boots on, and she killed it at the line and freaked out when she pulled the front wheel up. :laugh: But hey a win is a win right? Let me know how it goes when you get some passes in.

Acording to the z1 enterprises website the 17/42 with the 530 is the same as the 15/35 with the 630 chain. So i still have the stock gearing. I belive they are 26's but i dunno. I have the 28's but they need to be rebuilt. I ride it on the street alot but for some weird reason the cops around here dont like it when i kick it in 1st and the frot wheel floats until i shift into 2nd......go figure....lol. I find it starts to loose power around 8300 or 8400. It was kind of funny today i was on my way to the post office to mail the insurence payment, i was at a red light and a lady in an suv was next to me and there was a mail truck stopped about 150 feet in front of me. She actually revved her engine up, but when the light turned green i burried the old girl for everything she had and got infront of her with about 50 feet to spare before the mail truck. I happened to glance over and there was a little kid abut 4 or 5 years old looking at me with a huge smile on his face and his dad actually gave me a thumbs up.

:laugh: Thats some good stuff! Sounds like your motor runs way better than mine was so if you clean up the 28's and run around 20 lbs of air in the rear you should be in the 12's. I had a totally stock 75 900 that I squeaked a 12.75 out of back in the mid 80's. Of course I didn't know what I was doing but felt I had a good run about half way thru. You could try pulling out your baffle and fatten it up and shift at about 7500. That would do ya. Come to think of it I think I put on a 14 tooth front. I'll have to dig out the sprocket and take a look. It made a huge difference. There are a couple other racers on here and I'm sure when they see this post they will help out with some things I'm sure I'm missing.

Don...get back to WORK!:laugh:

I am at work! Oh yeah work is a relative term. I actually just have to show up. The rest is cake. :laugh: