OVER Racing Project - Motorcycle.com
Team Over Racing flew into Southern California from Japan recently for an AHRMA racing event at Willow Springs, and went back three days later. They left behind a new track record for single cylinder motorcycles and three of the most awesome bikes to ever come out of the Orient.
It seems a little unfair to describe the Over Racing Project company as a Japanese version of Bimota, but it fits. They make high-performance motorcycles for both racing and street applications -- in limited quantities, mostly by hand -- around production motors from other manufacturers. That's right, all of these bikes, and new ones like them, are for sale -- for a price. Depending on the rate of exchange, they can be, well, expensive: Price of entry for a complete bike
Call us crazy, but when we got the invitation to ride the bikes we jumped at the chance. Here's an Over-view of the three bikes:
By Mike Franklin, Road Test Editor
Action photo by Tom Hnatiw
OV-15A
Start with a motor that Yamaha could have turned into an impressive sports bike, but instead installed in the sales-bomb TDM850. Add top-quality suspension bits, and garnish with carbon fiber. Transport to your local race track, and cook. That's the essence of the OV-15A.
When the Over team raced these bikes a week before, the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler, such is the way the weather changes in the high desert. As a result, the bikes were jetted far too rich for the 100-plus degree temperatures we had on this day. The bikes would cough and sputter until they got to the upper third of the rev range then clear up and pull like a 14 year old school boy. It meant that high corner speed was crucial to getting the motor to run well on the way out. Fortunately corner speed comes naturally to these bikes, and the OV-15A was the easiest of the three bikes to go fast on.
Even with the rich jetting, the bike would pull hard from 7000rpm all the way to its 9500rpm red-line. The low clip-ons and high seat made cornering a breeze. The easy way through Willow's Turn Five, a late-apex left that starts downhill and off-camber, was to rest your right elbow on the gas tank to take weight off the bars, plant a knee-skid hard into the asphalt, gas it up and get the rear end to come around and point the bike uphill for the blind, cresting right Turn Six. Get it right, and the reward is a killer drive into wide open Turn Eight. The awesome power throws the bike down the quarter-mile long front straight, and fast laps are ridiculously easy. Five fast laps later, and it was time to play musical bikes.
OV-16
Entry speeds that would have had our SRX600-based racer tied in knots felt lethargic on the Over. One finger on the powerful twin four-piston Nissin brakes was all it took to slow the lightweight down for the tightest corner on the track, and from there it was wide open throttle. The Bridgestone slicks that were left on it from racing the previous weekend were hardly worn and gave excellent feedback through the massive contact patch. The bike's feathery weight made it ridiculously easy to change lines in the middle of long, fast sweepers and invited crazy lean angles. Naturally, we obliged.
OV-10
The side stand gives this bike away as a street machine, although the only other concession for street use on this bike was the starter motor. Overall, though, the OV-1- was definitely set up to be run hard: The suspension was just as stiff as the single's, but unlike the other bikes, it didn't get much better with an increase in speed. Instead, it felt loose and unplanted in the bumpier corners, a little top heavy in the slower ones. Compounding the uneasy feeling was a transmission that would come out of fourth gear on the way into 100 mph Turn One and into a false neutral. After almost running straight a couple times, a mental note to keep a toe on the shifter through that turn solved the problem, but did little to inspire confidence. And the rear brake master cylinder came apart -- the pedal-to-piston pushrod detached wedged against the frame -- immobilizing the pedal. Both problems were related to stock Ducati parts not standing up to the pressures of race track abuse. If the suspension were set up a bit softer, and the bike were kept on the street, comfort and reliability shouldn't be problems. In fact this bike would have made a better street bike than the other two based on its torquey motor and more civil riding position.
How to find this stuff The American Importer is The Garage Company: 13218 Washington Blvd
Marina Del Rey, CA 90066
(310) 821-1793
Over Racing 5-14-25 Sumiyoshi
Suzuka City, Mei-Ken
Japan
(059) 379-0037
Fax: (059) 378-4253
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