Army Of Darkness is part motorcycle racing team, and part bike loving motorsports social collective. Endurance racing in the United States since 1993, AOD has won 19 national championships, so far. Along the way Team Captain Sam Fleming became the Wild Card Editor for Roadracing Magazine. That editorial position has allowed Sam to experience race tracks all around the world as well as learn the intricacies of motorcycle design from a Vincent Black Shadow to a race kitted Yamaha R1.
This channel augments the articles Sam and his friends publish in Roadracing World with infrequent original productions and special projects.
Subscribe to the AOD MOI email list for periodic updates here: list.13x.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/aodmoi
You can find Roadracing World at roadracingworld.com and you can find an archive of AOD articles at armyofdarkness.com.
AOD merchandise can be perused and purchased here: www.armyofdarkness.com/index.php/merchandise
Sam did mess up when Jayson was talking about swingarm pivot position (in the frame) but Sam was messing with the camera and thought he was talking about ride height (at the shock). That's the downside of trying to be an interviewer and camera man simultaneously!
Good job, Sam. I've been racing my Evo2R for three seasons now. It is a very easy bike to go fast on, work on, tune, and repair. Parts and knowledge are readily available in the US. The geometry can be made ideal for just about any rider. I took my bike to Computrack Atlanta last winter. Kent seemed disturbed initially when I said I had no handling issues but once he measured it, he said it was right where it should be, so we made no changes.
Thank you so much for the TM Racing Factory tour. I appreciate a lot. - I started with Fantic early in the 80s and ended up with a TM 250 2 stroke dirt bike, mod 2001, I think. Never regret. Hope my sons will restore the bike. I think the bike had 70 HP and out raced many similar dirt bikes.... Regards Kenneth the Norseman.
Excellent, Sam. I was one of those "Old school " machinists, I felt like it was more rewarding ( not in pay) than trying to stay awake while watching a CNC do its work. I'm now a Vintage Machinist (retired).
Rebuilding my 14b gearbox currently as cant change from 3rd to 4th under load, most likely bent shift fork. To be fair, 6 years of hard hard street riding, almost always on the upper end of the rpm, surprised it lasted this long and its such a small failure. But i have a question for you guys.. since i have engine apart again (2nd engine rebuild first time blew bottom bearings). I have a complete spare engine as i bought another engine when i blew the bearings.. so i have the time right now for some "correcting". Do you guys have any suggestions on what i should be on the lookout to improve and or modify? I don't want race performance, but i do want a little more oomph out of her, so im thinking already to send head off to be cut and ground for better airflow. I don't want to buy cams or such, but just looking to get a bit more power whilst the engine is apart?
Thanks for the Conti SM2 tire review, love the historical background too. Makes me wanna go use up the last gen Conti SM evo’s on my 690smc-r asap And PS, I Really appreciated your Italian TM Factory tour series, will be referencing that fine work and insight when I have Iconic motorbikes put all my practically new track bikes up for sale, a newer KTech’d Yamaha R3, TM 450smx sumo and Kramer 690 evo2 S up on their site. (Shameless plug just in case you could know anyone who could use one of them;)
Hey! Thanks so much for the kind words and taking the time to write. These videos are a labor of love to go with the magazine articles so its nice to hear you are enjoying them. In a couple weeks we'll have, at least the first part, of the Kramer Factory Tour!
@@armyofdarknessmotorcyclesb2883 Fantastic! Look forward to seeing and enjoying it. I met Markus and Joe at Barber about ‘17 as I tried my hand at mid-life crisis AHRMA racing after too many years having Chris haul me around AAA speedway at those RR World Action fundraisers and devouring all the various training camps on offer. Nice to have gotten a chance to get to know John and some of the local racers and fellow enthusiast/hangers on like myself ;)
We haven't ridden one yet. It is a great concept and there used to be lots of 400cc I4 bikes. A lot of modern bikes are getting kinda chonky due to emission regulations and production cost realities. So, it looks a little heavy for what it is, but then, a lot of bikes these days are kinda heavy. Unless its for a racing class its hard to see the value proposition of the 400 over the 636.
The 5vy has 3 intake valves, but it’s the same idea. Buy some gaskets, that valve spring tool and a valve and shim kit. Pray nothing is missing when you lift the cams, pray more, find a sharpie 😂
This review is so good! So much detail. Quick question. I'm looking to do 50/50 track days/street(on nice days). Does abs get in the way on track? Would you go abs or non abs?
Hi! Thanks for taking the time to write. ABS on motorcycles was originally pushed because riders weren't using enough front brake to avoid collisions. The theory was that ABS would give less experienced riders more confidence to brake harder. So, Advanced Intermediates/ Experts riders who use a lot of front brake on the street would get the non-ABS to save money and weight and reduce the chance of the extra plumbing introducing complexity as they are confident in using a lot of front brake already without the ABS safetynet. Less experienced riders who rely on ABS to prevent locking the rear wheel might want to stay with ABS BUT, it would probably be better to get some time on a little dirt bike to practice threshold braking (front and rear) so you learn how to find, and then handle, front and rear lock ups. At the end of the day, either of the versions are going to be fine for track days with non-ABS getting the nod for straight up racing.
Thanks for the really detailed explanation. Now I just have to figure out whether to go from my ninja 400 to the zx4rr or zx6r. I'm leaning towards 6r because it has a low power mode on I can leave it in on track until I'm ready.
If you have some motorcycle track experience and have halfway decent throttle control, the ZX6R isn't crazy powerful and won't be too much of a handful. It also handles very lightly.
To add one question if you don't mind. I don't use the back brake ever on track and actually wish I could have rear abs off all the time. Very confident in that, as well as very confident on my front brake and trail braking. Just wondering if having abs would be worth it given I am not racing(but would like to make it to advanced group at some point) and having that safety net would prevent me from locking the front wheel and taking a chance at crashing (Maybe if the track is wet or something like that).
we raced and serviced more then 10 bikes, 2015+ 2018 2020 R1s and never ever had a gearbox issue. We have our own Dyno as well where we test he hell out of these after engine rebuilds. Engines with more than 13000 km of racing only. How you guys 'managed 'to fuck up that gearbox, is .. science fiction.. Anyway, good work for the rest of the vid - KUDOS and keep up the good job :)
Is there any difference in 2009 r1 engines and 2020 are there parts interchangeable such as the crank pistons. I live in a country where motorcycle parts are extremely hard to come byyou have to make the best of it ! Please help
I’m a subscriber to the magazine. Loved the article that this video is the companion to! This video is the cherry on top. Thanks for posting! Very informative and entertaining. Looking forward to future postings.
The death wobbles are from uneven layers of asphalt like mini curbs. Curbs like on the side of the road. Learned about them decades ago the hard way. Learned how to navigate them too😊
