Vintage Day Pinerolo / Italy 2019 - Mugen Honda 125

luckynino
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Zurich CH
3/19/2019 10:12am Edited Date/Time 3/21/2019 3:06pm
Vintage Day Pinerolo / Italy 2019 - " C'era una volta il Cross "

Last weekend there was a very nice vintage meeting at Pinerolo , a famous old-school track near Torino / Italy.
We had beautyful weather on saturday and still perfect weather for riding on sunday as well. The track was perfect and there were hundreds of old bikes & older guys Wink Awseome atmosphere, friendship and happyness all around.

Anyway - a perfect weekend to get the cobwebs off of my vintage iron and myself. We had a very cold winter in Switzerland so the weekend was kind of the season-opening for me as well.

VIDEO: a couple laps with my sicilian friend Vascular (No.8)








Sunday:











3
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Red Crawford
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3/19/2019 10:45am
Nino, your posts never disappoint!
Awesome pics----and style!
2
luckynino
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3/19/2019 12:46pm Edited Date/Time 3/19/2019 1:12pm
Nino.. u ever race farleigh ??
i would sure like to...but the travel and effort to do so coming from Switzerland is what's holding me back. With family at home and a wife that suffers from MS and needs my help it's a big task to leave all for almost a week. About 5 years ago i already paid the fee but eventually didn't go as i couldn't find someone to share the travel with. Back then i tried to partner with the italians but they had their truck already loaded with 13 bikes...no more space for mine.

I'm already struggling to do events like Pinerolo this past weekend with travels up to 6 hours...this time i had my 80 year old dad joining me which is always cool. Just like in the old racing-days Wink

I plan to do some more of the italian races this year but some of them are pretty far down in the south, just too far away. In Switzerland we do have a vintage series but just for Twin-Shock bikes (-1980)...so i have to do the italian races to be able to compete with my 89s Wink
3
newmann
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3/19/2019 4:48pm
Love the old school Fox gear, got some myself!

The Shop

luckynino
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3/19/2019 9:44pm Edited Date/Time 3/19/2019 11:39pm
newmann wrote:
Love the old school Fox gear, got some myself!
Did you realize that the yellow number-thing is actually printed onto the jerey? I had our jerseys made like this to add some more old-school to them. I also added a Mugen-logo on the sides...some customizing had to be Wink






2
3/20/2019 4:56pm
Awesome stuff there Nino! Thank you for sharing, and that track looks like a blast for high speed vintage moto...and you guys were tearing it up! You buddy Vascular's '87 CR125 rips too! I am sure you have ridden each others bikes...so what is your opinion on the '87 vs. '89?
luckynino
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3/21/2019 12:07am Edited Date/Time 3/21/2019 1:49am
Yes - i tried the '87 on saturday (the video is from Sunday). The 87 too mounts a Mugen kit and some trick parts....however the real owner (not the guy i'm following in the video) isn't going that fast so he runs it with a 36mm carburetor which definitely limits the mid-top power output. Where his stops pulling mine still goes on with authority. Since the engines are basically identical i would clearly say all that's needed was the bigger carb to let it breathe...the chassis however felt really good. The suspension where really good while i was struggling to find a setup on mine. I tried a Öhlins rear shock but never found a good setting and my Mugen USD forks were bottoming so i had to raise oil level some. But these steep downhills, higher speeds and some bigger jumps still asked for more bottoming resistance. For me the biggest complaint on the '87 was the lack of top-end and overrev. But as mentioned-the real owner says the smaller carb gives him better low-end response. I don't ride that low in the rpm range so i wouldn't notice any advantage there but instead it feels like riding with a rag in the airbox Wink

In the video i used my '89 "practice" bike which mounts a Mugen as well. But my other '89 racebike is again on a whole other level! The Mugen would ask for shifts up top. At certain rpms it stops pulling while my tuned stock engine goes on and pulls endlessly...i'd say again the difference from the 87 to my 89 Mugen !!

Riding the '87


My '89 "practice"-bike as used in the video:


luckynino
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3/22/2019 12:08am
Here's the 1987 Honda CR i'm following in the video:

Mugen kitted engine
Mugen forks
VRP aluminium gas tank and rear subframe

...a little rocketship Wink It just shows that also vintage iron lets' you have big fun out on track !


1
3/22/2019 6:16am
luckynino wrote:
Yes - i tried the '87 on saturday (the video is from Sunday). The 87 too mounts a Mugen kit and some trick parts....however the real...
Yes - i tried the '87 on saturday (the video is from Sunday). The 87 too mounts a Mugen kit and some trick parts....however the real owner (not the guy i'm following in the video) isn't going that fast so he runs it with a 36mm carburetor which definitely limits the mid-top power output. Where his stops pulling mine still goes on with authority. Since the engines are basically identical i would clearly say all that's needed was the bigger carb to let it breathe...the chassis however felt really good. The suspension where really good while i was struggling to find a setup on mine. I tried a Öhlins rear shock but never found a good setting and my Mugen USD forks were bottoming so i had to raise oil level some. But these steep downhills, higher speeds and some bigger jumps still asked for more bottoming resistance. For me the biggest complaint on the '87 was the lack of top-end and overrev. But as mentioned-the real owner says the smaller carb gives him better low-end response. I don't ride that low in the rpm range so i wouldn't notice any advantage there but instead it feels like riding with a rag in the airbox Wink

In the video i used my '89 "practice" bike which mounts a Mugen as well. But my other '89 racebike is again on a whole other level! The Mugen would ask for shifts up top. At certain rpms it stops pulling while my tuned stock engine goes on and pulls endlessly...i'd say again the difference from the 87 to my 89 Mugen !!

Riding the '87


My '89 "practice"-bike as used in the video:


Both bikes sound clean and crisps, and obviously still haul ass! Thank you for sharing your testimony on the difference between the two, and I actually thought you would say the motors were pretty similar, but the suspension was much better on the '89! I have an '86 CR250 with the suspension updated by RaceTech, and the cartridge Showa conventional forks are still very good for a 33 year old bike. I am sure you will get your suspension dialed in, and no matter what, you have one sweet "practice" bike there! I can't imagine how fun/fast your race bike is!! Thank you for sharing with us your amazing historical CR's!
3/22/2019 6:46am
luckynino wrote:
Here's the 1987 Honda CR i'm following in the video: Mugen kitted engine Mugen forks VRP aluminium gas tank and rear subframe ...a little rocketship ;)...
Here's the 1987 Honda CR i'm following in the video:

Mugen kitted engine
Mugen forks
VRP aluminium gas tank and rear subframe

...a little rocketship Wink It just shows that also vintage iron lets' you have big fun out on track !


That dude is bad ass! I would LOVE to have that in my garage!! What is the history on this bike?

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