Origins of the V11 Coppa Italia

[GuzziMoto]

On 8/27/2025 at 3:09 PM, Pressureangle said:

The 'production' class H-D 883s were fine examples of CHEATING lol

Nobody seemed to think twice if you got a push start, so the fast guys gutted the starters and fitted tiny batteries in the stock case. Removed half the magnets from the generator rotor, shaved the inside of the flywheels where it couldn't be seen without splitting the cases, shaved the inside of the rims where it couldn't be seen with the tires on...
All stuff I learned after the class ended, of course. Starter cover weighs nothing, and...appears unmeddled. 

I remember those days as well. Some of it I was aware of, but other things I likely never knew. It was funny to see guys on production bikes bumpstarting them. We were not going to cheat to the extent others were prepared to. Racing the Sportster was just a side show for us, our main focus in those days was racing air-cooled Ducati 750s. But I did enjoy racing the Sportster, most of the mid-pack guys were great fun to hang around. And due to the slow-motion nature of racing a Sportster I learned about fun things like reaching over and tapping the other guy on his far shoulder as you slowly went by, so they would look over their left should while you were going by on their right. I also learned about other less fun things like reaching over and turning some else's kill switch off. Learned to move the kill switch to a location they could not easily reach with their left hand.

Edited September 4 by GuzziMoto

[Pressureangle]

1 hour ago, GuzziMoto said:

 We were not going to cheat to the extent others were prepared to.

Good times. Who is 'we'? PM me if you don't want the stigma of racing a Sportster.

[audiomick]

5 hours ago, GuzziMoto said:

...fun things like reaching over and turning some else's kill switch off.

There was a race series in Australia for a short time in the late eighties. The bikes were Suzuki GSX 125, and the riders were about half-and-half professional racers and motorcycles journalists. In an article about that, that trick was mentioned. I believe it was more the pros that knew it: streamline the opponent, and when you slip out to pass, hit the kill-switch on the way past.

I never did it like that, but doing it to a mate as the traffic light turned green was occasionally good for a laugh. Ok, so I'm a nasty prick, but it was fun at the time.  

[GuzziMoto]

17 hours ago, Pressureangle said:

Good times. Who is 'we'? PM me if you don't want the stigma of racing a Sportster.

PM sent.

[GuzziMoto]

14 hours ago, audiomick said:

There was a race series in Australia for a short time in the late eighties. The bikes were Suzuki GSX 125, and the riders were about half-and-half professional racers and motorcycles journalists. In an article about that, that trick was mentioned. I believe it was more the pros that knew it: streamline the opponent, and when you slip out to pass, hit the kill-switch on the way past.

I never did it like that, but doing it to a mate as the traffic light turned green was occasionally good for a laugh. Ok, so I'm a nasty prick, but it was fun at the time.  

Those types of racing series can be pretty entertaining. One of the big ones here was BMW did a series of mostly ex-racers and moto-journalists on identical BMW Boxers. It was crazy. People like Yvon DuHamel, even retired, were still more aggressive than most people on the track. Perhaps it would have been better to put those guys on something slower like a GSX 125.