Joerg Teuchert
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Roland Sands details the build that racer Travis Pastrana tried out at Daytona Speedway.
If you want to squeeze that much juice out of your bike, it wouldn’t hurt to have Roland Sands by your side. Sands is a specialist in redesigning two-wheelers to achieve a racing form like an Indian Challenger, a bike that was not traditionally designed for speed. In a YouTube video posted Monday, Sands was there again, this time prepping a Suzuki GT750 Water Buffalo for an appearance at Daytona International Speedway.
Original plan: create a two-stroke triple bike
Introduced in the 1970s by Suzuki, the GT750 earned its Water Buffalo nickname because it was the first liquid-cooled engine to enter the market. The bike was also heavier than most bikes and harder to handle, which made it even harder to shake off that moniker. When Sands bought the Suzuki, he planned to create a two-stroke three-stroke drive.
“I probably thought the Water Buffalo was a better bike than it was,†Sands recalls. “But after we set the thing on fire and rode it for the first time, we realized he was such a dog, so it was time to do whatever we could to make the thing works. ” Oddly enough, Sands didn’t make many changes to the engine, which is still mostly stock in terms of parts.
The water buffalo changed more after Daytona
Most of the changes were made to the frame, including shortening the forks and raising the rear, which Sands said made the Water Buffalo look more like a flat track bike. After a week of adjustments, they asked rider Travis Pastrana to try the bike out at Daytona. After that stint, Pastrana had her own set of recommendations, especially with the foot controls.
Sands responded to these requests by installing RSD pegs and adjusting the brake lever and pedal brackets. He also improved the Suzuki’s traction with a set of Dunlop DT-3 tires. The bike also got faster and lighter when Sands replaced the gas tank with a lighter one from a Yamaha RD400, hacked part of the rear subframe, and adjusted the crank to get more action on the bike. diet.
Lots of wear, tear and crashes
Sands didn’t explain how the revised Water Buffalo performed statistically in races, but the sparse footage indicated the Suzuki appeared to be defending itself against the competition. The frequent wipings weren’t available for reading either, but all of that evidence is on the bike anyway.
“You can see the bike as a bit of wear and tear,†Sands noted. “He’s been run, he’s been upside down, he’s been beaten up a bit, but he’s still there and still doing his job.”
Source: Roland Sands design
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