Turbocharged motorcycles.
Discussion
Have never been popular.
Even the Japanese production turbo bikes of the 1980s were all damp squibs, to be honest.
But with turbo technology so far advanced now, does a turbo make more sense than cams, pipes and the usual tuning methods?
I ask because i can't believe how much traditional tuning costs now.
A mate came round today on his 2007 ZX10R.
His full titanium exhaust was £1,200 alone.
Some weight-saving carbon bits and hotter cams/gas-flowed head came to £3,400.
Would a £4,000, 250 bhp turbo kit not have been better value/more unique?
Even the Japanese production turbo bikes of the 1980s were all damp squibs, to be honest.
But with turbo technology so far advanced now, does a turbo make more sense than cams, pipes and the usual tuning methods?
I ask because i can't believe how much traditional tuning costs now.
A mate came round today on his 2007 ZX10R.
His full titanium exhaust was £1,200 alone.
Some weight-saving carbon bits and hotter cams/gas-flowed head came to £3,400.
Would a £4,000, 250 bhp turbo kit not have been better value/more unique?
Edited by Beemer-5 on Wednesday 13th February 18:39
theres a kit for the hayabusa
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUZUKI-GSXR-1300-TURBO-HAYAB...
must fight satan must resist
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SUZUKI-GSXR-1300-TURBO-HAYAB...
must fight satan must resist
Edited by SplatSpeed on Wednesday 13th February 18:36
Jeepers, they were barge-like enough with what, 100 bhp!
Scary!
Motor Cycle News had the first Z1300 in the country to appraise. One of their journalists, Iain Ramage, had the Z1300 on test and swapped it with my GS1000 for an evening.
That Kawasaki seemed HUGE back then!
But i loved it all the same.
6-pots were very special at time on 2 wheels, still are i guess.
Scary!
Motor Cycle News had the first Z1300 in the country to appraise. One of their journalists, Iain Ramage, had the Z1300 on test and swapped it with my GS1000 for an evening.
That Kawasaki seemed HUGE back then!
But i loved it all the same.
6-pots were very special at time on 2 wheels, still are i guess.
Having run a 440rwhp (dyno proven and not maxed out either for this) busa for two yrs id say yr better off with cams and pipe work. Reason being is that turbo's have lag regardless of what one you fit (I had a GT35 DBB) and thats not nice when you try to power round or out of corners. Also a well set up turbo is simply to fast for the road... try an easy real world 200mph at any point - M4, M3, A303 etc etc (officers reading this I am joking of course!)Also if you must run a turbo then double what ever the kit costs for not only uprated engine internals but a whole multitude of other bits to cope and handle the power... Dont be put off as its an experiance but its expensive, dont ever take what a tuner quotes you as the "all in price" ... you have been warned. LOL
Beemer-5 said:
Jeepers, they were barge-like enough with what, 100 bhp!
Scary!
Motor Cycle News had the first Z1300 in the country to appraise. One of their journalists, Iain Ramage, had the Z1300 on test and swapped it with my GS1000 for an evening.
That Kawasaki seemed HUGE back then!
But i loved it all the same.
6-pots were very special at time on 2 wheels, still are i guess.
Here's a pic of the bike at Tranwell, just outside of Morpeth.Scary!
Motor Cycle News had the first Z1300 in the country to appraise. One of their journalists, Iain Ramage, had the Z1300 on test and swapped it with my GS1000 for an evening.
That Kawasaki seemed HUGE back then!
But i loved it all the same.
6-pots were very special at time on 2 wheels, still are i guess.
He's in Singapore at the moment, so I can't get a better pic of it.
Beemer-5 said:
Have never been popular.
Even the Japanese production turbo bikes of the 1980s were all damp squibs, to be honest.
But with turbo technology so far advanced now, does a turbo make more sense than cams, pipes and the usual tuning methods?
I ask because i can't believe how much traditional tuning costs now.
A mate came round today on his 2007 ZX10R.
His full titanium exhaust was £1,200 alone.
Some weight-saving carbon bits and hotter cams/gas-flowed head came to £3,400.
Would a £4,000, 250 bhp turbo kit not have been better value/more unique?
I think its a case of why would you need 250bhp? ON a road bike 100bhp it ample, i would rather have a 130kg 100bhp machine personally.Even the Japanese production turbo bikes of the 1980s were all damp squibs, to be honest.
But with turbo technology so far advanced now, does a turbo make more sense than cams, pipes and the usual tuning methods?
I ask because i can't believe how much traditional tuning costs now.
A mate came round today on his 2007 ZX10R.
His full titanium exhaust was £1,200 alone.
Some weight-saving carbon bits and hotter cams/gas-flowed head came to £3,400.
Would a £4,000, 250 bhp turbo kit not have been better value/more unique?
Edited by Beemer-5 on Wednesday 13th February 18:39
Maybe a 400cc with small turbo making 100-130bhp would be intersting, but i could see turbos being of mose use on larger touring bikes with 800cc engines but having power/torque or 1200-1400 n/a engines.
On a sports bike trottlw reaponse is paramount and you will always have a bit of lag with a turbo, even if it is very small.
p.s. the zx10-r has a full titanium exhaust as standard
Edited by slim_boy_fat on Thursday 14th February 18:05
I used to have a GPZ750 turbo, which was a great bike, although not the best handling thing around. Had an unfortunate habit of suddenly kicking the rear end out when spooled up, just when you didn't want it to. I later had a ZX-10B3 that I fitted a Mr Turbo kit to. Over 220bhp in 1990! This was unfortunately written off in 1995 after I'd spent God knows how much cash on. I've got some pictures of it somewhere which I'll try to post up.
S600VXR said:
Having run a 440rwhp (dyno proven and not maxed out either for this) busa for two yrs id say yr better off with cams and pipe work. Reason being is that turbo's have lag regardless of what one you fit (I had a GT35 DBB) and thats not nice when you try to power round or out of corners. Also a well set up turbo is simply to fast for the road... try an easy real world 200mph at any point - M4, M3, A303 etc etc (officers reading this I am joking of course!)Also if you must run a turbo then double what ever the kit costs for not only uprated engine internals but a whole multitude of other bits to cope and handle the power... Dont be put off as its an experiance but its expensive, dont ever take what a tuner quotes you as the "all in price" ... you have been warned. LOL
I'll agree with this, I have a supercharged busa engine in a car and it's so fast, I can't imagine how it would feel in a bike. It's making about 340bhp at the crank but some of that is taken up driving the supercharger so probably 260-280 at the wheels. I get no lag because the sc is always spinning but the power delivery, because there is so much power, needs to be very carefully controlled even in a car. Straight lines are easy obviously but corners can be hairy in the wet.
Yep - at least double the cost any tuner gives you. Jack at Holeshot used to quote £2500+vat for a conversion but that's just fairy tale land, that's the cost of an engine rebuild with rods and pistons before you even start looking at ECU, turbo etc
I would like a turbo busa for drag racing, must be an awesome ride
Can't imagine anything worse than a turbo bike. I have a turbo car and while it's a good way to make cheap power adding a turbo seems to 'disconnect' the throttle from the performance in a way that would be awful on a bike I would have thought. I'd like a go on one for sure and can easily see that the acceleration would be addictive but the throttle control must be dire compared to an NA bike.
S600VXR said:
Having run a 440rwhp (dyno proven and not maxed out either for this) busa for two yrs id say yr better off with cams and pipe work. Reason being is that turbo's have lag regardless of what one you fit (I had a GT35 DBB) and thats not nice when you try to power round or out of corners. Also a well set up turbo is simply to fast for the road... try an easy real world 200mph at any point - M4, M3, A303 etc etc (officers reading this I am joking of course!)Also if you must run a turbo then double what ever the kit costs for not only uprated engine internals but a whole multitude of other bits to cope and handle the power... Dont be put off as its an experiance but its expensive, dont ever take what a tuner quotes you as the "all in price" ... you have been warned. LOL
My bike was already done when i bought it, but i am not surprised that a sub- 1300cc engine, producing 440 bhp at the rear wheel, (!), would have serious lag issues!!!That is an incredibly high state of tune, for a road vehicle, after all!
My ZZR1400 had very little turbo lag, actually and had 303 bhp from it's 1352cc, a much lower state of tune and much more suitable for the road than the 440 bhp 'busa you mentioned.
Traditional tuning is a waste of money on a litre sports bike nowadays, because you can spend thousands of punds, like my pal has, for 15 bhp. Pointless.
Beemer-5 said:
S600VXR said:
Having run a 440rwhp (dyno proven and not maxed out either for this) busa for two yrs id say yr better off with cams and pipe work. Reason being is that turbo's have lag regardless of what one you fit (I had a GT35 DBB) and thats not nice when you try to power round or out of corners. Also a well set up turbo is simply to fast for the road... try an easy real world 200mph at any point - M4, M3, A303 etc etc (officers reading this I am joking of course!)Also if you must run a turbo then double what ever the kit costs for not only uprated engine internals but a whole multitude of other bits to cope and handle the power... Dont be put off as its an experiance but its expensive, dont ever take what a tuner quotes you as the "all in price" ... you have been warned. LOL
My bike was already done when i bought it, but i am not surprised that a sub- 1300cc engine, producing 440 bhp at the rear wheel, (!), would have serious lag issues!!!That is an incredibly high state of tune, for a road vehicle, after all!
My ZZR1400 had very little turbo lag, actually and had 303 bhp from it's 1352cc, a much lower state of tune and much more suitable for the road than the 440 bhp 'busa you mentioned.
Traditional tuning is a waste of money on a litre sports bike nowadays, because you can spend thousands of punds, like my pal has, for 15 bhp. Pointless.
I'm sensible, got a nice little Monaro VXR now with only 635hp... (enough to outpull superbikes over 120mph though!
)How about superchargers; does anyone ever put these on bikes?
Motorsport history has various absolutely bonkers examples (before they were all banned!) so why aren't they common on extreme performance vehicles today?
Not downplaying them in any way, but turbo's, nitrous etc are in fairly common use by acceleration junkies, so why not superchargers?
And in the original Mad Max movie doesn't he have one on his car...?
'Cos that film's defo the best of them all...
Motorsport history has various absolutely bonkers examples (before they were all banned!) so why aren't they common on extreme performance vehicles today?
Not downplaying them in any way, but turbo's, nitrous etc are in fairly common use by acceleration junkies, so why not superchargers?
And in the original Mad Max movie doesn't he have one on his car...?
'Cos that film's defo the best of them all...
Rubin215 said:
How about superchargers; does anyone ever put these on bikes?
Motorsport history has various absolutely bonkers examples (before they were all banned!) so why aren't they common on extreme performance vehicles today?
Not downplaying them in any way, but turbo's, nitrous etc are in fairly common use by acceleration junkies, so why not superchargers?
And in the original Mad Max movie doesn't he have one on his car...?
'Cos that film's defo the best of them all...
Dont even go there unless you want to add your name to the long list of people who have been used as developement muels! TTS who still sell SC kits have gone bust twice that I know of and still com back under a different directorship to start banging "off the shelf" kits out again. Total crap stuff although one day someone may get it right and it will be better than a turbo.Motorsport history has various absolutely bonkers examples (before they were all banned!) so why aren't they common on extreme performance vehicles today?
Not downplaying them in any way, but turbo's, nitrous etc are in fairly common use by acceleration junkies, so why not superchargers?
And in the original Mad Max movie doesn't he have one on his car...?
'Cos that film's defo the best of them all...
Hooli said:
Beemer-5 said:
£1200 for an exhaust? To me that's crackers, when the stock pipes are now so efficient.
are they? they quote 15% gain (dyno proved in the club) for an akro system & PCIII set to suit on a gsx1400Edited by Beemer-5 on Friday 15th February 09:18
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