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Hi, welcome to Top. Dead Center. I'm Alan. Neighbors. Now in your engine, top dead center is when the pistons create maximum compression and power on TV T DC is all about getting the most out of the motorcycle lifestyle and two wheel power like this
games, weekend buffet of action feeds, cycle junkies, every aspect of the two wheeled lifestyle.
And for those who live to race, there's 300,000 bucks up for grabs.
The flat trackers duke it out on the half mile dirt track and the road racers were busting their way through the twist.
Las
Vegas. Other strip was crowded with nitro burning hogs and turbo funny bikes
and the skies overhead were crowded with aerobatic pilots of freestyle sick dudes.
Speaking of 6 to 702 boys, we're there to entertain with their trick riding skills
and the speedway guys were sideways, spraying the decomposed granite
super Mozart boys were fighting the dirt, the asphalt and each other on their hybrid course.
And the 125 and 250 pros put on a show on the challenging stadium MX track.
But amidst all that action, the biggest gambler in Sin City, this weekend is Ryan Capes. The 23 year old Honda rider from Seattle likes to gamble big and go big
and go big. He does
outside of the Knievel family. There's not many jobs like this. Capes is a professional distance jumper.
A professional,
a lot of these guys say they're stuntmen or daredevils, but
that's not what I'm about. You know, I, I take calculated risks.
He currently holds the record for the second longest jump ever at 247 ft, but he is consumed by one single goal to be the first to jump 300.
There's a lot of guys that claim
that they're gonna do this and jump 300 ft. But
I call them all out on it because, you know, I'm the only guy doing it right now,
cocky or confident.
Just ask his team.
Ryan's got the skills to pay the bills.
So in his quest for 300 Cape's goal this weekend is to beat Doug Danger's current record of 251 ft.
Cape started honing his skills at an early age riding trails and competing in Motocross. But soon jumping became his obsession. His first ever distance jump of 60 ft was a little rough,
but he quickly progressed jumping farther and farther. And on March 29th, he stuck the ramp to dirt world record of 247 ft.
On my last record. I was on dirt. I was up in Washington
where rain plays in effect, it was super moist and I got rear wheel spin and today we're in Las Vegas, it's 100 degrees and we're on asphalt. So the bike is gonna hook up 1000 times better and I'm gonna actually gonna get more top speed out of my bike
to verify his speed approaching the ramp. Ryan relies on radar.
You don't have time to look down at the speedometer and you wanna look ahead at the ramp and I have a box right next to the ramp that will read off my speed. That's just as accurate.
Jump engineer, Brett Holloway builds the takeoff and landing ramps, calculates trajectories and most importantly, he watches out for Ryan's safety.
I feel safer when I'm on the landing ramp in that I can judge to see what Ryan's doing in the air, what the attitude of the motorcycle in the air and uh
his approach, I can actually look over the top of the safety deck and see his approach and I listen to
what the bike's doing
capes works his way up by starting off with a few shorter jumps to get a feel for things.
And as his comfort level increases the takeoff ramp gets moved back 10 ft at a time.
But as the ramp goes back, the desert winds begin to pick up and at these distances, this game becomes a life or death roll of the dice.
One
is just my front end just dropped
like I just got just the wind. It went like that and I just,
it was all like
even freestyle star Mad Mike Jones doesn't like the odds.
I think for me,
I would try to do it but not in the wind. It takes balls and money.
The wind is definitely a variable. We're gonna have to play our cards. Right. And uh
you know, pray for no win,
but Ryan won't leave Vegas without taking a shot at the record.
24 hours later, the win led up encouraging the team to get the bike ready.
Ryan uses a brand new Honda cr 250 for each record attempt. He runs a stiffer suspension of pro circuit pipe tag bars and talent hubs with pro wheels and oversized boats.
After a few speed runs the cycle of pushing back, the ramp continues
the distances increase because of the design of the takeoff ramp allowing for what Brett calls more pop
in the past. The majority of the professional distance jumpers use a ramp
that has less slope to it and uh they hit it at higher speeds.
I designed this ramp to work at slower speeds
so that
he gets more elevation and in turn, uh equals more distance.
Yeah, more elevation. All right. Try about 55 ft at the apex high enough to clear a five story building
and get this. He'll hit the ramp around 70
MPH and land. At 40
MPH, losing 30 in the air, literally causing him to fall out of the sky.
But the ramp goes back one final time
and Ryan goes for it.
Yeah,
237 ft. And it looks like all he needs now is a little more speed. A quick check with Brett. And it's Showtime.
If you start thinking about things, you just get nervous,
you really do. You need to stop
and just go,
I can do this.
I've done it before. I'm gonna do it again and you gotta have that right mentality or it's not gonna happen.
Full confidence, full throttle all the way to the ramp
that
it's a new world record.
Mm
Yeah.
Win, win,
win.
And the proof is in the tape.
That
new world record.
Las Vegas, Nevada. Ryan chase
ramp to dirt
traveled 260 ft
to beat his own record of 247 ft
and he did it in fourth gear.
I had plenty of room to hold my gear, you know, wide open to get the top speed that I need to do the record.
And, uh, held around 72 miles an hour
and, uh,
preloaded off the ramp as hard as I can to give me maximum pop
and, uh,
sell three quarters way down Milan and
stuck 260
but 260 is not enough. The team's already planning to go for 300.
So now Ryan holds the all time world record. Like no one has jumped the dirt bike as far as he just did right now ever
so. And that was fourth gear. So fourth gear, 210 ft ramp gap. 72 miles an hour, we got 260 ft.
We hit fifth gear and 84 miles an hour. We're gonna go over to probably close to 300.
But even with all this confidence from everyone around him, Ryan is uncharacteristically not in much of a hurry.
I'm gonna take some time and pull back and wait for uh some of the climbers to see if they step up.
You know, like I said, I'm the first person to 260.
I'm only in fourth gear.
I got fifth gear and uh I'll be the first one to go to 300.
Now, next on T DC, we test an Italian exotic,
the
A RSV 1000
playing a super tech V twin and a light chassis and rapid and exotic styling. The result of Priya's
Mile
RSV,
the new RSV factory is to superbikes. What Ferraris Inzo is to super cars fast, sexy, a little bit pricey but 100% Italian
cycle news editor Blake Connor knows the
Aia's appeal.
I think the guy who's a younger um go getter can appreciate a bike like this because it's a bike that you can ride. The heck out of
motivation comes from a 1 L fuel injected 60 degree V twin that breathes through big four valve heads.
It borrows a fing intake trick from the Honda RC 51 at
7000 RPM. A flapper valve opens aspirating the throttle bodies with high pressure air
at
10,000 RPM. It develops a peak 138 horsepower
750 RPM. Later, you're at red line,
a close ratio, six speed gearbox and hydraulic slipper clutch, complete the drive train
and it weighs in at 408 pounds dry.
Thanks to magnesium valve and clutch covers lots of carbon fiber and a very rigid all aluminum twin spa frame and banana swing arm.
The result, an awesome power to weight ratio of one pony for every 2.95 pounds.
If you're keeping score, that's 40% better than the end zone.
Centralizing the weight pays off and handle.
What di probably has done a very good job on is, is mass centralization. They, they've kept the bike's weight to a real center point on the bike. So when you flick it left to right into the corners, it just feels like it falls in on its own
on board with blake in the twist.
The end game is in stats. It's the experience
with an MS RP of 17 8 99. It's $643,000 cheaper than the Ferrari
and maybe a bit sexier.
The Italians know how to style everything from the, from the tiniest nut and bolt to the, to the overall shape of the motorcycle. There's nothing that's stuck on an Italian bike as an afterthought
and the styling is everywhere, turn signals molded into the tail of the one up seat sculpted fuel tank and a trick instrument cluster.
Ok. It's pretty and it's powerful. But how about the suspension?
The thing about the O and suspension is, is that it's just absolutely the best stuff in the world
going from upright to a folding
position and then back up, right. You can, you can do it quickly and smoothly and
the bike is completely composed
and the binders,
the brakes are completely overkill. They're, they're wonderful brakes the best that they're on any motorcycle right now
with 170 mile per hour. Top speed confidence comes from big four piston brims
floating in radial calipers.
It rolls on 17 inch forged aluminum oz race wheels with fat Pirelli Super courses.
In summary, it's an irresistible alternative to Bland mass produced super bikes.
The RSV earns high marks for performance tad handling, canyon carving attitude and sensual looks.
Sure we'd like it better if it was more affordable.
But this gorgeous Italian delivers everything you pay for and more.
Hey, welcome back guys. Today we're gonna begin transforming this 88 inch super glide into a 95 inch bad boy.
And to do the work, I want you guys to meet our expert Wrench. Tommy G
I don't know about expert. Oh, come on. You built a ton of race bikes. Sky even built a custom bike for Jay Leno. Yeah, that was a big project. But today's project it's gonna be a heck of a lot easier. All right,
we'll start with this big board kit for Metal Brock. It comes with everything you need.
Heads, pistons, intake, push rods, cams,
carburetor
and all the gaskets.
Now, let's get started.
Our 2002 V twin sports a twin cam 88 cubic inch motor.
It's powerful stuff,
but there's so many speed parts available. You just can't leave it alone.
Don't be intimidated with projects like this.
You guys should already have a shop manual for your bike and the basic hand tools, you need
the instructions that come with the kit will walk you through step by step.
It's a good idea to organize your hardware as you remove parts.
It should take a few hours to get the top end off.
Ok. Now we're ready to install the big board kit. The cylinders have been bored to accept these larger Ed Brock pistons. Now, compared to the stock 88 pistons,
the 95 units are three and 78 diameter,
a little tape on the stud threads will protect the new pistons from being scratched.
Here's a really important point after we get our cylinders back from the machine shop, we gotta wash them in hot, soapy water.
It's very important to get all the honing grid off the cylinder walls
when they're dry,
apply a thin coat of oil to the liners
using a ring compressor
and a little help from a buddy
slide the cylinders over the pistons and into the cases, the new heads are next
compared to the Stalkers.
Edelbrock CNC heads have bigger valves and tighter 72 CC combustion chambers. And that's gonna bring our compression ratio to 10 and a quarter to one. These heads also flow more air through these unique angular intake ports. Let's get them on
install new head gaskets and bolt. A new cylinder heads on.
Use a torque wrench set to 14 ft pounds to tighten the head bolts,
then
reinstall the rocker arm bases,
the kit's adjustable push rods go in next,
followed by the rocker arms and shafts
as the rocker covers and you're buttoned up.
This is a great place to stop for this week. But next week our hot rod Harley gets even hotter with a trick car, hot ignition
and two into one exhaust.
All right guys. Well, Tommy's cleaning up, let me show you a couple of neat new products. Now, this is Cobra's new fuel processor. Oh, it's designed to let you digitally tune most fuel injected bikes after you've installed an aftermarket exhaust. Now it just plugs into the ECU these two adjustable pots, let you tune fuel settings like idle and cruise.
Now they sell for $200 and if you plan on changing your pipes. You're gonna need one of these. Now, nobody plans on coming off their bike. But if you do this will come in handy. It's a new back protector from Joe Rocket. Oh, it has a heavy foam pad with cells that absorbs shock and abrasion to the spine area.
Al they sell for $89 and if you wear one under your jacket, he'll be a lot safer.
A Joe Rocket is also known for style.
This is their new power trip super charger jacket.
Now it's steer hide with a zip out mesh liner.
They fit great and they have zipper pockets and sleeves and they started around 399.
Now for you guys in restoring classic bikes,
check out this new reproduction tire.
It's a 516 exact replica of what came stock on the old Indian Twins.
It even has the original Indian logo on the side wall and you can pick up one from Coker tire for 95 bucks.
Well, that wraps up T DC for today.
We'll be back next week with a special look at all the new bikes for 04.
We'll see you next week.
Show Full Transcript
games, weekend buffet of action feeds, cycle junkies, every aspect of the two wheeled lifestyle.
And for those who live to race, there's 300,000 bucks up for grabs.
The flat trackers duke it out on the half mile dirt track and the road racers were busting their way through the twist.
Las
Vegas. Other strip was crowded with nitro burning hogs and turbo funny bikes
and the skies overhead were crowded with aerobatic pilots of freestyle sick dudes.
Speaking of 6 to 702 boys, we're there to entertain with their trick riding skills
and the speedway guys were sideways, spraying the decomposed granite
super Mozart boys were fighting the dirt, the asphalt and each other on their hybrid course.
And the 125 and 250 pros put on a show on the challenging stadium MX track.
But amidst all that action, the biggest gambler in Sin City, this weekend is Ryan Capes. The 23 year old Honda rider from Seattle likes to gamble big and go big
and go big. He does
outside of the Knievel family. There's not many jobs like this. Capes is a professional distance jumper.
A professional,
a lot of these guys say they're stuntmen or daredevils, but
that's not what I'm about. You know, I, I take calculated risks.
He currently holds the record for the second longest jump ever at 247 ft, but he is consumed by one single goal to be the first to jump 300.
There's a lot of guys that claim
that they're gonna do this and jump 300 ft. But
I call them all out on it because, you know, I'm the only guy doing it right now,
cocky or confident.
Just ask his team.
Ryan's got the skills to pay the bills.
So in his quest for 300 Cape's goal this weekend is to beat Doug Danger's current record of 251 ft.
Cape started honing his skills at an early age riding trails and competing in Motocross. But soon jumping became his obsession. His first ever distance jump of 60 ft was a little rough,
but he quickly progressed jumping farther and farther. And on March 29th, he stuck the ramp to dirt world record of 247 ft.
On my last record. I was on dirt. I was up in Washington
where rain plays in effect, it was super moist and I got rear wheel spin and today we're in Las Vegas, it's 100 degrees and we're on asphalt. So the bike is gonna hook up 1000 times better and I'm gonna actually gonna get more top speed out of my bike
to verify his speed approaching the ramp. Ryan relies on radar.
You don't have time to look down at the speedometer and you wanna look ahead at the ramp and I have a box right next to the ramp that will read off my speed. That's just as accurate.
Jump engineer, Brett Holloway builds the takeoff and landing ramps, calculates trajectories and most importantly, he watches out for Ryan's safety.
I feel safer when I'm on the landing ramp in that I can judge to see what Ryan's doing in the air, what the attitude of the motorcycle in the air and uh
his approach, I can actually look over the top of the safety deck and see his approach and I listen to
what the bike's doing
capes works his way up by starting off with a few shorter jumps to get a feel for things.
And as his comfort level increases the takeoff ramp gets moved back 10 ft at a time.
But as the ramp goes back, the desert winds begin to pick up and at these distances, this game becomes a life or death roll of the dice.
One
is just my front end just dropped
like I just got just the wind. It went like that and I just,
it was all like
even freestyle star Mad Mike Jones doesn't like the odds.
I think for me,
I would try to do it but not in the wind. It takes balls and money.
The wind is definitely a variable. We're gonna have to play our cards. Right. And uh
you know, pray for no win,
but Ryan won't leave Vegas without taking a shot at the record.
24 hours later, the win led up encouraging the team to get the bike ready.
Ryan uses a brand new Honda cr 250 for each record attempt. He runs a stiffer suspension of pro circuit pipe tag bars and talent hubs with pro wheels and oversized boats.
After a few speed runs the cycle of pushing back, the ramp continues
the distances increase because of the design of the takeoff ramp allowing for what Brett calls more pop
in the past. The majority of the professional distance jumpers use a ramp
that has less slope to it and uh they hit it at higher speeds.
I designed this ramp to work at slower speeds
so that
he gets more elevation and in turn, uh equals more distance.
Yeah, more elevation. All right. Try about 55 ft at the apex high enough to clear a five story building
and get this. He'll hit the ramp around 70
MPH and land. At 40
MPH, losing 30 in the air, literally causing him to fall out of the sky.
But the ramp goes back one final time
and Ryan goes for it.
Yeah,
237 ft. And it looks like all he needs now is a little more speed. A quick check with Brett. And it's Showtime.
If you start thinking about things, you just get nervous,
you really do. You need to stop
and just go,
I can do this.
I've done it before. I'm gonna do it again and you gotta have that right mentality or it's not gonna happen.
Full confidence, full throttle all the way to the ramp
that
it's a new world record.
Mm
Yeah.
Win, win,
win.
And the proof is in the tape.
That
new world record.
Las Vegas, Nevada. Ryan chase
ramp to dirt
traveled 260 ft
to beat his own record of 247 ft
and he did it in fourth gear.
I had plenty of room to hold my gear, you know, wide open to get the top speed that I need to do the record.
And, uh, held around 72 miles an hour
and, uh,
preloaded off the ramp as hard as I can to give me maximum pop
and, uh,
sell three quarters way down Milan and
stuck 260
but 260 is not enough. The team's already planning to go for 300.
So now Ryan holds the all time world record. Like no one has jumped the dirt bike as far as he just did right now ever
so. And that was fourth gear. So fourth gear, 210 ft ramp gap. 72 miles an hour, we got 260 ft.
We hit fifth gear and 84 miles an hour. We're gonna go over to probably close to 300.
But even with all this confidence from everyone around him, Ryan is uncharacteristically not in much of a hurry.
I'm gonna take some time and pull back and wait for uh some of the climbers to see if they step up.
You know, like I said, I'm the first person to 260.
I'm only in fourth gear.
I got fifth gear and uh I'll be the first one to go to 300.
Now, next on T DC, we test an Italian exotic,
the
A RSV 1000
playing a super tech V twin and a light chassis and rapid and exotic styling. The result of Priya's
Mile
RSV,
the new RSV factory is to superbikes. What Ferraris Inzo is to super cars fast, sexy, a little bit pricey but 100% Italian
cycle news editor Blake Connor knows the
Aia's appeal.
I think the guy who's a younger um go getter can appreciate a bike like this because it's a bike that you can ride. The heck out of
motivation comes from a 1 L fuel injected 60 degree V twin that breathes through big four valve heads.
It borrows a fing intake trick from the Honda RC 51 at
7000 RPM. A flapper valve opens aspirating the throttle bodies with high pressure air
at
10,000 RPM. It develops a peak 138 horsepower
750 RPM. Later, you're at red line,
a close ratio, six speed gearbox and hydraulic slipper clutch, complete the drive train
and it weighs in at 408 pounds dry.
Thanks to magnesium valve and clutch covers lots of carbon fiber and a very rigid all aluminum twin spa frame and banana swing arm.
The result, an awesome power to weight ratio of one pony for every 2.95 pounds.
If you're keeping score, that's 40% better than the end zone.
Centralizing the weight pays off and handle.
What di probably has done a very good job on is, is mass centralization. They, they've kept the bike's weight to a real center point on the bike. So when you flick it left to right into the corners, it just feels like it falls in on its own
on board with blake in the twist.
The end game is in stats. It's the experience
with an MS RP of 17 8 99. It's $643,000 cheaper than the Ferrari
and maybe a bit sexier.
The Italians know how to style everything from the, from the tiniest nut and bolt to the, to the overall shape of the motorcycle. There's nothing that's stuck on an Italian bike as an afterthought
and the styling is everywhere, turn signals molded into the tail of the one up seat sculpted fuel tank and a trick instrument cluster.
Ok. It's pretty and it's powerful. But how about the suspension?
The thing about the O and suspension is, is that it's just absolutely the best stuff in the world
going from upright to a folding
position and then back up, right. You can, you can do it quickly and smoothly and
the bike is completely composed
and the binders,
the brakes are completely overkill. They're, they're wonderful brakes the best that they're on any motorcycle right now
with 170 mile per hour. Top speed confidence comes from big four piston brims
floating in radial calipers.
It rolls on 17 inch forged aluminum oz race wheels with fat Pirelli Super courses.
In summary, it's an irresistible alternative to Bland mass produced super bikes.
The RSV earns high marks for performance tad handling, canyon carving attitude and sensual looks.
Sure we'd like it better if it was more affordable.
But this gorgeous Italian delivers everything you pay for and more.
Hey, welcome back guys. Today we're gonna begin transforming this 88 inch super glide into a 95 inch bad boy.
And to do the work, I want you guys to meet our expert Wrench. Tommy G
I don't know about expert. Oh, come on. You built a ton of race bikes. Sky even built a custom bike for Jay Leno. Yeah, that was a big project. But today's project it's gonna be a heck of a lot easier. All right,
we'll start with this big board kit for Metal Brock. It comes with everything you need.
Heads, pistons, intake, push rods, cams,
carburetor
and all the gaskets.
Now, let's get started.
Our 2002 V twin sports a twin cam 88 cubic inch motor.
It's powerful stuff,
but there's so many speed parts available. You just can't leave it alone.
Don't be intimidated with projects like this.
You guys should already have a shop manual for your bike and the basic hand tools, you need
the instructions that come with the kit will walk you through step by step.
It's a good idea to organize your hardware as you remove parts.
It should take a few hours to get the top end off.
Ok. Now we're ready to install the big board kit. The cylinders have been bored to accept these larger Ed Brock pistons. Now, compared to the stock 88 pistons,
the 95 units are three and 78 diameter,
a little tape on the stud threads will protect the new pistons from being scratched.
Here's a really important point after we get our cylinders back from the machine shop, we gotta wash them in hot, soapy water.
It's very important to get all the honing grid off the cylinder walls
when they're dry,
apply a thin coat of oil to the liners
using a ring compressor
and a little help from a buddy
slide the cylinders over the pistons and into the cases, the new heads are next
compared to the Stalkers.
Edelbrock CNC heads have bigger valves and tighter 72 CC combustion chambers. And that's gonna bring our compression ratio to 10 and a quarter to one. These heads also flow more air through these unique angular intake ports. Let's get them on
install new head gaskets and bolt. A new cylinder heads on.
Use a torque wrench set to 14 ft pounds to tighten the head bolts,
then
reinstall the rocker arm bases,
the kit's adjustable push rods go in next,
followed by the rocker arms and shafts
as the rocker covers and you're buttoned up.
This is a great place to stop for this week. But next week our hot rod Harley gets even hotter with a trick car, hot ignition
and two into one exhaust.
All right guys. Well, Tommy's cleaning up, let me show you a couple of neat new products. Now, this is Cobra's new fuel processor. Oh, it's designed to let you digitally tune most fuel injected bikes after you've installed an aftermarket exhaust. Now it just plugs into the ECU these two adjustable pots, let you tune fuel settings like idle and cruise.
Now they sell for $200 and if you plan on changing your pipes. You're gonna need one of these. Now, nobody plans on coming off their bike. But if you do this will come in handy. It's a new back protector from Joe Rocket. Oh, it has a heavy foam pad with cells that absorbs shock and abrasion to the spine area.
Al they sell for $89 and if you wear one under your jacket, he'll be a lot safer.
A Joe Rocket is also known for style.
This is their new power trip super charger jacket.
Now it's steer hide with a zip out mesh liner.
They fit great and they have zipper pockets and sleeves and they started around 399.
Now for you guys in restoring classic bikes,
check out this new reproduction tire.
It's a 516 exact replica of what came stock on the old Indian Twins.
It even has the original Indian logo on the side wall and you can pick up one from Coker tire for 95 bucks.
Well, that wraps up T DC for today.
We'll be back next week with a special look at all the new bikes for 04.
We'll see you next week.
