Oliver, I noticed that you guys were for the most part, going through the traps in 4th gear at the DragFest. Since some of the speeds were approaching 150 mph I'm assuming that the slicks were taller than the stock tire. How much taller are they?

Thanks,

Mark

Good catch!

Yes we ran the Mickey Thompson (M/T) slicks on our bikes. M/T and Goodyear are the only ones making slicks for our 18" rims.

The M/T slick is a bit taller than the stock tire but we did not measure the difference.

When I hit the traps at 143-144mph there was plenty left in 4th gear.

We will be trying the Goodyear on one of the next trips to the track.

Looks like Jon @ UFO used a DOT Shinko to set the new records..

Awesome, think closer to a 9 for Jon with slick?

rickc

Bad_Max wrote:
Shinko is close to a slick....very sticky. It must have been a 180 width though unless he changed wheels.

fxstein wrote:
The Goodyear slick is used (but branded Dunlop) on the H-D Destroyer. I used that slick for a season on my Destroyer and it's nowhere near as grippy as the M/T #3222 that you used and I've used for the last year on my Destroyer.
I run 8psi in mt M/T slick but the Destroyer is a lot lighter than the VMax (249Kg Vs 310Kg for the Max, ....both stock wet weights)
The only good part about the "Dunlop" slick is that it's rated as Tubeless and doesn't loose air.

To be quite honest, I wonder it the M/T slick has actually too much grip for the VMax.

Might sound weird, but on a track with VHT and as long as you have YCCT in place, traction was definitely not an issue with the VMax. When ever anybody would abort a run due to a missed shift of a bad lauch, you could hear the slick how it was sucked to the ground in conjunction with the VHT on the track. A lot of drag down the quarter mile.

I would not be surprised if you pick up a few mph with a different tire. We almost brought a Shinko with us, but figured we wont have the time to try both on the track. Less is sometimes more.

That way we could focus on the rest of the bike.

fxstein wrote:

I was thinking the same thing - despite all of the torque the motor has, the combination of all that traction plus the taller tire could contribute to the bogging when launching. As good as some of those launches were, a perfect launch would have no bogging at all.

I was tempted by a Shinko but they only go up to a 180 in the 18" size (unless anyone knows different?). However if you're right about the "Less is More" then maybe a 180 is OK (if it's sticky enough)
in that UFO vid it looks like a Shinko on there??

itgoes wrote:
I'll third that I'm starting to think that the vmax is going to need to slip a little in order to keep the rpm up and avoid bogging. That or a wheelie bar and real hard high RPM launch. I think Ricky had one good launch where he didn't appear to bog. He may have been slipping the clutch on that one.