Building and Riding a RSD Super Single – Part 2 ‘The Ride’

RSD Super Single
The Ride ‘Part 2’

“You enjoying yourself out there bwoy?” said with a twag and from a guy wearing a Cow Boy hat, Sun glasses and waiting for me crossed-armed as I came off the Streets of Willow race circuit for the first time. “Yeah, mega, it’s a bit slow, but it goes around corners like its on rails”, I said with a big grin. “Well that’s good you’re enjoying yourself, but you see… we’ve had three complaints about you already and if you don’t stop upsetting folk then we are going to have to ask you to leave” were the words coming from a guy who looked pretty damn serious. The grumpy dude with the hat and glasses on just happened to be the circuit manager, he knew more than he wanted to know about me already and I’d only been on his track 25mins.

Oooppss, as usual I’d over stepped the mark and got myself in bother once again, this time in my very first session on the Willow Springs circuit in California while riding the RSD Super Single for the first time, the one I’d built just the week before. I do have this habit of over stepping the mark; I do it all the time, in fact on a daily basis.

I quickly deployed the ‘apology’ tactic and starting to defuse the situation before it got out of hand. Mainly, well only, because I wanted to get back out on the RSD Super Single again as I was having shed loads of fun.

I’d no idea why he was so mad but I did know my head was spinning,  It’s hot, I’ve just been out on track and as I’ve built this bike myself, I’m just waiting for the next thing to fall off.

Even I was surprised with the fact that I was enjoying myself this much as up until that short session on track, things had hardly been going smoothly. You see I’d already woken up late with a fuzzy head, missed my chauffeur driven lift to the circuit with Doug (who didn’t wait for me, come on dude I was only 10mins late). This meant that I now had to change into my race gear and ride to Willow Springs on my CBR600. Easy enough but the 120mile 2 hour journey was a total nightmare from start to finish as I went 5 junctions in totally the wrong direction.

Just when I thought I heading for better times as I blasted up on an R1, I caught a Police car and had to follow it 50 miles doing 75mph. Once there Doug, (who’d runoff without me) said “Ah, you finally made it?” I nearly said “Yeah and no thanks to you c*ck sucker”, but instead I kept my gob shut and just stared at him with a ‘don’t say another word’ look. I did however have to chuckle at his bright red face, which I‘d later find out he’d got from falling asleep in the scorching California sun, oh yes, with glasses on.

Once I parked up I asked where my bike was and the answer I got told me in one fell swoop exactly how things were going to work around here. “It’s in the back of the trailer where you put it. Gas is over there, tire pressure gauge here. Oh and you need to go and sign on before you go on the track and you do that over there” Said Rodney, a big-boned, brave, scary, fast and enthusiastic motorcycle rider. On top of that he’s also Roland’s main man and Chief RSD fabricator.

Ok, so I knew the rule at the workshop was ‘Do it all alone’ but I hoped that kind of rule wasn’t going to apply at the racetrack. It’s been a long time since I have been at a racetrack alone, in fact I don’t think I ever have but now I was definitely going solo.

When I did finally make it out on to the circuit the bloody gear linkage fell off on the 3rd corner. F*cking great, with a worsening bad-mood I headed back into the pits, there was no Dad or pit crew waiting for me this time, just some tools waiting to be picked up. Stupidly I kept my helmet and gloves on during the whole repair, I knew early into this super slow pit stop it was a mistake but stubbornly kept them on as I didn’t want to be wrong and by the time I got on track again I was wetter than a porn stars crack.

You could say at this point I was in a foul mood but once again my 2 wheeled buddy would turn my mood around and put a smile back on my smacked arse of a beetroot face. With-in corners the RSD Super Single had my interest as the thing steered like it was a go-kart. The little bugger was nimble, light and had excellent grip, big thumbs up.

The down side was the top speed of the bike but you can hardly expect too much out of a bog standard Enduro MX engine on a roadrace track. I knew it was going to be slow but if you had one of these, tuned it up a bit to push the HP up a bit, it would be much better, if only for the straight bits.

On this bike you just love corners even more as this Super Single excels at them. My experience was made even better as I was on a hot track with Dunlop slicks, no better combination. It wasn’t long before I was getting stuck in and starting to push it, interested to know where the bikes limits were and where its abilities lie.

The best bit is definitely in its ability to steer quickly and on a bike this light, it also changes direction in a heartbeat. I love a bike which steers well and has good front end grip and feedback. Once I have that from a bike I feel good about getting into, through and then out of a corner. All of these things, the Super Single did very well indeed.

I bet the other riders on track were pretty bummed out when they saw how steady it went up the straights yet how rapidly she went around anything which looked like a corner. Easy done on a bike that sticks to the road like sh*t on a shovel.

So, here’s the thing. You can now have the perfect entry level racer or trackday bike which you can buy or build yourself, won’t break the bank and you also have the option to put your own mark on. Seen as the development to the engines is such in the early stages you have the ability to play around with that yourself to make it go faster, the same could be said from the suspension, it’s good but needs rider input to improve it further.

Yes, I did think the Super Single project might have taken the cross-breeding step a little too far, but I have to stay, this is not the case. What Roland and his crew have actually done is make a motorcycle that is affordable, fun and interesting. You can buy or even make some parts yourself and what you take off the original MX you start with you can sell on EBay. I guess it wouldn’t cost much to crash it either, something which can’t be said for most bikes these days, as there is nothing worse than seeing an expensive bike bouncing up the racetrack.

But hey, don’t just take my words for it, as I leave the last words to a GP hero and one of the best motorcycle riders ever to grace the race tracks of this world, Mr Kevin Schwantz, who also reckons “They are just a blast. Properly set up, tweaked and with a 60BHP lump, just a great way to start racing”.
Nuff said.

Jamie

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