Alright, here is a rough copy ha
For years it was just a dream bike. There was no reason for it to exist; it would have been illegal. Terry Good, The man behind ?On The Line Racing,? had been harboring thoughts of building an ultra-light motocross bike since the early ?70s when the Suzuki?s of Joel Robert and Roger DeCoster had come to the U.S. and made winning look easy. ?I remember watching those old Suzuki?s and wanting to have something like that bad,? Terry says today. ?They looked light.?
However, lightweight motorcycles were basically banned in ?73. The FIM came up with minimum weight rules that caused Suzuki to add weight to its race bikes. Years later, Terry would become involved with his own race team in the U.S. and he was required to run under similar rules. The Lightweight dream bike couldn?t be built, at least not AMA Sanctioned racing. He still had those illegal thoughts, though. His small company, which imported Technosel seat covers dabbled in trying to sell titanium parts for a little while, but the prices were high and the demand was low.
Years Passed and eventually Terry got out of racing. The thought returned. Sure, the super-light racer might be illegal for racing, but didn?t race any more. There was no reason not to build it. So Terry set about searching for parts. He started with what was basically the lightest motocross made. The Honda CR125R weighs 206 when it rolls off the showroom floor. That?s not very light, but at least it was a start. It would have to lose quite a few pounds before it was even as light as Honda claimed it was.
This isn?t a bike that just anyone could build. Terry had developed connections through his years of involvement with super cross. The idea of building the Super-light had been in the back of his head so long that he had almost unconsciously been collecting parts for years--parts that aren?t available to just anyone. The parts HRC made were light and good, but of course they weren?t to light. Below minimum weights might mean disqualifications. Still, there were some items that were perfect for the on the line super light. For example, Terry found a works HRC right side up fork. Try buying these at the local Honda dealer with your visa card. There are people today who still claim that conventional forks provide better action than modern forks. That was all fine and good but Terry used the fork because it was 4.75 pounds lighter than stock. Other HRC parts were the front wheel (3.5lbs less than stock), the rear shock(Minus 4.75lbs) and the master cylinders(minus 1.0 pound). The HRC parts were responsible for 16 pounds of weight loss. Basically, they got the bike from production weight to just below legal racing weight. If a person without HRC connections were to replace the same parts with say, Ohlins suspension, Talon hubs, Excel rims and the sort, he might be able to knock a very expensive seven to ten pounds from the weight of the machine.
More weight had to come off. The people at 911 MX shop are into titanium parts. Virtually every steel nut and bolt on the bike came off and was replaced with titanium. It was expensive. Retail cost would work out to about $4000. It was productive, though. The nuts and bolts accounted for 4.0 pounds, and between the two titanium axles, the bike lost another pound. More titanium: 911 MX shop made a handlebar and triple-clamp that were 1.5 pounds lighter than stock.
Where do you go from there? Terry got MMF to make a special sub frame that was 2.0 pounds lighter than stock, and Don Emler himself from FMF made a special 22-gauge pipe with 47 different cones(minus 1.75 pounds). The four inch long FMF silencer was loud, but got rid of half a pound. A Braking rear rotor and an HRC front rotor eliminated another 1.25 pounds.
Now it was getting tough and very, very expensive. The only thing left to explore was carbon fiber. A company called ?Air Tech,? which does stuff for HRC road racers team, had a lot of experience with the material, And would sell it to anyone brave enough to ask for the price. You would thing that the plastic parts like the fuel tank and fenders would already be so light that carbon fiber wouldn?t make much difference there, Wrong! The tank, fenders, air box, number plates, and even the seat base all were replaced with carbon fiber stuff and the weight savings was 8.75 pounds. After working like a madman to shave off a half pound here, and a half pound there, the plastic-to-carbon fiber conversion was a gold mine of weight savings.
So now the bike weighs 167 pounds. There were other changes that didn?t affect weight, like an HRC top end and Enzo shock, but basically the bike was done. What better person to take the bike for it first test ride than Roger DeCoster, the man who inspired the bike 23 years ago? The On-The-Line Superlight actually was far lighter than the works bikes that Roger rode in the ?70s. It should be, Terry?s bike used many more exotic materials. ?Suzuki was accused of making the bikes light by spending money on titanium, but it wasn?t really true,? says Roger. ?Yes, the bike had some titanium, but not nearly as much as BSA was using. Suzuki engineers made the bike light by using their heads. For example, instead of using nuts to hold on the shocks, they used circlips. What could be lighter??
The 370 that Roger raced in the GP?s of ?72 weighed about 196 pounds, while Joel Roberts?s 250 was 185 pounds. At the time a stock CZ was 233lbs. The CZ 250 that Roger raced in ?69 weighed 225 pounds due to some easy modifications. ?The CZs could have been lighter if they had just tried. For instance, the CZ hub was a very nice magnesium parts, but it used steel spacers and steel sprockets. They didn?t use very much aluminum at all.? Eventually, political maneuvering by other teams forced a minimum weight rule to be passed. The ruling came so close to the beginning of the season that Suzuki had to comply by pouring lead into the frames, some exotic material! The bike handled poorly as a result, and the magic ultra-lightweight Suzuki?s became a thing of the past.
Consider what time and technology have done since then. Roger?s RN Suzuki weighed 196 pounds and produced 35hp. The OTL weighs 167 pounds and produces probably 35hp. In fact, if you want to compare power to weight ratios, the OTL bike by itself(without rider) is much better than a CR250R.If you have riders weighing 140 pounds apiece on the bikes then they are about even. The OTL 125 would be able to get its share of hole shots against anything.
?Lightweight bikes do everything better,? says Roger. ?They accelerate better, stop quicker, turn easier and are more forgiving of mistakes. On some tracks with sharp ripples, sprung weight can actually make suspension work better, but those conditions are rare. Light bikes even get better traction, because it takes less bite to hook up, and you can run lower tire pressure without worrying about flats.?
All of this held true of the OTL bike when it came time to ride it. It truly felt like a 167 pound racer. Riding it was almost incidental to building it, though. The bike was an experiment--it was built to prove a point. Once built, it had no real purpose--it was a racer that couldn?t be raced, at least not professionally. Roger?s ride on the bike was brief, a few quick laps around Red Bud, it was a very muddy track, so the bike almost immediately accumulated 20 pounds or so of sticky mud. Life is like that sometimes. Did all of the lightweight parts do what they were supposed to? For the most part, yes. The fenders cracked with weight of the mud, and by the end of the day the rear broke off completely. With a slightly different shape they should be able to be made much stronger without adding additional weight. Roger was more concerned that the carbon fiber parts had jagged edges when they broke, and that might be dangerous in a race--if it could be raced.
Regardless, the OTL Superlight is a beautiful machine. It is one of a kind right now, and it will probably be one of a kind forever. That?s actually fine with us. We are satisfied just knowing that such a bike can be built.
That sucked lmfao.