Looking into the depths of my hard disk I found this video (recorded with a mobile phone) of the BOTT XR1 first test we did in Albaida track, with Alex Martinez as a rider.
It is not a very good video, but I decided to upload it to YouTube because watching it, it is possible to appreciate the good behavior of the XR1 in such a short and twisty track.
Of course a large part of the merit is due to Alex, a very fast rider with any kind of bike (some years ago he finished in the top ten in the Superstock category in WSBK). If you turn the volume up, you will hear the tyres screaming in some corners.
The XR1 of this video weighted 180 kgs, 20 kgs less than the donor Buell XB12SS that we used to build it.
As you already know, we are working on a XR1 version created to be ridden only on the track, which will be named BOTT XR1R. This bike will be at least 20 kgs lighter than the XR1. With this weight reduction we will make it more effective on the track. We also plan to work on the engine to make it more powerful.
Only removing the electric starter, we save 7.5 kgs.
Because these engines are not easy to start (that’s why they have such a big electric starter), we made a test with an external starter, just to be sure that we wouldn’t have problems to start the bike without the electric starter. As you can see in the video, everything was OK.
Roughly, the XR1R is already assembled and now we are working on the details (this bike has many of them). One of the most important aspects of this project is that we are going to work with data acquisition. Next photos show the suspension sensors already mounted on the bike.
We will keep informing about this project!