BAINES RACING PROJECT IMOLA.

[Roland Elworthy]

Hullo all,

This is my first posting on the Bevelheads forum and I hope you'll find the below of some interest? I work for a company named Baines Racing based on the circuit at Silverstone, England. Some of you, I'm sure, will be aware of us? You may also know something of our 'Project Imola' retro kits which have been very well received by the World's press?

This posting is really to make you aware of our website www.bainesracing.com which will tell you more about us and provide more details about the Imola project. You will also find on the homepage a fully downloadable brochure in pdf format.

I'll keep this short but hope you'll like what we're doing and please fire away with any comments or questions. I'd especially like your thoughts as to whether our 'bikes appear more convincing than Ducati's own forthcoming classic range



Thanks.

Roland

[Roland Elworthy]

Hullo all,

After six months on the forum we have yet to generate any interest amongst you with our Project Imola kits which is really surprising! One of you must have some questions surely?

Roland

[Colin Linz]

Roland,

I happened to read an article on the Bains retro Ducati, along with one from another company a few months ago. They do look good, and the Bains version was well received. Possibly the lack of interest stems from the belt drive motors used, most of us are into the older bevel-head engines. Do you make a kit for the older motors? I tried looking in your pdf catalogue, but I’m getting error readings on all the pages except page one. I believe that you market them in kit and fully assembled forms, what are there respective prices? Could you give me some basic dimensions (wheel base, trail, weight)?

[Roland Elworthy]

Hullo Colin,

Many thanks for your enquiry. We're afficionados of the bevel engines here too and raced them with much success for years. In fact the "Flying Fossil" may come out of retirement in the next year or so. To make a kit to accept the bevel engine though would be a pointless task as we'd be in effect just copying the '70's machine with all it's wonderful foibles and expensive maintainance costs! There would also be the problem of donor engines; I for one would not split a good 900SS to make a modern take of it.

We used the belt drive engine as the donor 'bikes are plentiful and cheap, the engines are highly tuneable and still totally reliable if certain guidelines are followed and the maintainance is straightfoward. In Great Britain a reasonable donor can be had for as little as £1500 and there are a variety of engines that can be used;eg the latest 1000DS will happily fit into the frame.

I'm sorry that you couldn't open the PDF, I've checked it and all appears fine although we have had problems with our site server so please try again. Most of the specs' you're after are on there together with a pic' of what's included in the basic kit. To summarise, wet weight is 168kgs with a distribution of 52/48 on a standard kit with no lightened parts used. Tyre sizes are the standard 120/70-17 and 170/60-17, power at the rear wheel is between 72 and 92bhp dependant on spec' for the 900 engine.

The price of the basic (though very comprehensive) kit is £3549 +VAT and shipping if applicable. To estimate for a completed 'bike is difficult as there are so many spec's available. I would think that the lower figure would be approx £7500 leading up to ??? for a full option one. I'll be happy to estimate for any spec'.

I will attach a photo' of the kit's latest incarnation in the next couple of days; this time we're building a faithful modern take of the NCR that won the 1980 24hr endurance race at Montjuic. I believe this half faired NCR to be one of the prettiest yet utterley aggressive racers of all time and it was a wonderful win the the factory as endurance never was one of their strong points. Not much has changed!! The tank and seat are now finished and we're working on the fairing which is quite different to the normall SS fairing. I hope you like it?

Thanks again Colin.

Best,

Roland
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[Colin Linz]

Thanks for the reply. I just happen to have a spare 860 desmo engine in my garage and have been wondering what to do with it. I may have to see if I can find an unloved Alchemy frame from somewhere.

I do like your bike though, and they would be a very practical choice for something a little different.

I found that old article I mentioned. The other bike was a TSI Imola Replica.

[BevHevSteve]

Hey Roland, I would imagine that most folks who have read your initial note on this forum, also saw your website URL, so went there to have a looky-see. From there they would have contacted yoiu through your own CONTACT US link or gave you a ring direct etc. So, I wouldn;t think that your post here was a waste.... Keep up the great work and I can;t wait to see your endurance bike clone...

[t.ducateer]

Hallo allemaal,
Blij dat ik ook iets lees over zulk bouwkit.
Ik ben sinds de zomer 2005 de eigenaar van een Baines Kit. Veel tijd om dit kit op te bouwen heb ik spijtig genoeg niet, maar de tijd die ik er al aan gewerkt heb, heb ik mij zeer geamuseerd. Het is een plezier om aan dit project te werken.
Ik merk wel dat het kit niet origineel Ducati is, want het frame past niet feilloos op de komponenten.
Ik hunker al naar de dag dat ik de sleutel draaien kan om de eerste rit te maken.

Groeten,
Tony
Belgie

[pavel]

Hi Roland,
please, contact me on my mail, horky@autoparkbrno.cz, I have some questions concerning Imola project.
Thanks
Pavel

[Eldert]

[quote="Peter Mille"]
Some years ago I built my own NCR/Hailwood Replica, using a Mille beveltwin engine [quote]

Peter
a replica should have campagnolo wheels and a 38 mm Marzocchi forks
not oscam wheels and a M1R forks like yours . that looks like hell to me
and are you sure you build it ?

Eldert