Well the New Year is here and I am waist deep in motor parts in my
garage. The biggest mess to date has been the clean up of the motor I
blew at Atlanta. It seems a combination of thin oil (5-30 Mobil 1), too
much con-rod to crank-pin clearance, weak rod shells (type RX-1) and a
lazy mechanic (me) not checking the rod shells for 14 races was just
too much and the motor literally hammered all the babbit and some of
the copper off the rod shells.  On one of the rods, one half shell had
spun underneath the other. Needless to say the rods had to be
reconditioned, the crank ground and the entire motor had to be
disassembled and cleaned of contamination. This crank and case etc will
be assembled for use in a street bike, and an uncorrupted botton end
used for my Pro motor next year.

I do not plan on any major upgrades to my motors this winter, just
freshening up will do. The 850 will get the RR-3 cam from my Pro motor,
which is a significant upgrade from the 390 cam it had in it last
year.  The Pro motor will get a 382 cam, considered by most to be a
Daytona only cam, to hot for short tracks, I'll see if I can adjust my
riding style to make use of its higher top end power (and reduced
mid-range torque). The heads are at RACECO being freshened up, which
consists of replacing any valves or guides not up to spec and fitting
of some new valve springs.  Even though my 90mm RACECO pistons that had
seen 14 races looked perfect when they came out, I'll be replacing
them.

The running gear will get minor upgrades as well. I'm replacing the
large rear caliper (Brembo F08) with a smaller one like those fitted to
V50's (F05).  This will save 1.5 pounds of unsprung weight on the rear
wheel, something Guzzis desperately need reduced. The short swing arm I
borrowed this past year is being returned to its owner, so I'll have to
notch and brace my own. I'm changing frames this winter as my existing
frame is just too tired and tweaked to be trusted anymore.  In order to
get the lower race to stay in the steering head last winter, I had to
raise bumps inside the steering head with a chisel and use red
loctite.  In order to prepare my new frame for racing, I cut off the
frame rails behind upper shock mounts and had Dr. Bob Tolley weld on
some steering dampner tabs and torque plate tabs.

One thing that I found particularly bothersome last year was changing
from the wide low profile slicks while configured as a twins racer to
narrow DOT tires while configured as a vintage racer. Its part of the
price you pay if you want to be able to run AMA Pro Twins, CCS Heavy
Weight Super Twins, WERA Vintage 4 and WERA Vintage 5. If I mount wide
low profile DOT's to my bike, giving up slicks and giving up on Vintage
4 (requires narrow rims), I'll be able to run AMA Pro Twins, CCS Heavy
Weight Super Twins, WERA Vintage 5 and WERA Formula Twins (new for
1992). If I run my 850cc motor, I'll be able to run Light Weight
Super Twins as well.  I plan on running the entire CCS weekend with the
850 (Heavy Weight too), and run my 1000cc motor at WERA weekends and
AMA Pro events. This will give me a nice mix of events to run through
out the year and keep me on the same wheels and rubber the whole time.
I can attribute at least one crash last year to the switch from wide
slicks to narrow DOT's, hopefully that can be avoided.

All this is subject to change as I still might want to run Vintage 4
next year, depending on what happens to the rules and what happens to
the schedule.  As you may recall, I protested the bike that beat me in
the Vintage 4 race at the final in Atlanta for having an illegally wide
rear wheel and an illegal frame. I lost the protest because the tech
inspector and I didn't take the time to examine the documents provided
by the bikes owner thoroughly. On the surface, the documents would
indicate that the bike was legal, but I had a funny feeling about them,
since they were photostats (xerox copies) I knew they could have been
doctored easily. After getting back from the race I obtained the
original magazine (thanks to Manfred at RACECO) from which the document
was suposed to have been taken. Part of it was there, but part was
missing.  Then I searched (at the Library of Congress) every Cycle
magazine from 1972 forward until I found the "rest" of his article.
The team owner had cooked up an article from a 1972 issue of Cycle with
parts from a 1976 issue.  I appealed the denial of my protest, and
provided WERA with originals of the 1972 and 1976 issue. Just last week
I received notice that they overturned the decision and are awarding
the race win (and title) to me.  This is especially sweet as it keeps
alive my streak of winning at least one series championship every year
I've raced. In my 5 years of racing I have won, an AMA District Title
(1987), a CCS Regional Title (1989) and 3 WERA National Titles (1988,
1990, 1991).

I just recently went to see my orthopaedic surgeon for a check up on my
wrist. As of last July, we decided that since I wasn't in a great deal
of pain, that we would wait and see if the broken scaphoid bone in my
wrist would heal on its own. With the onset of winter I started feeling
more pain and was beginning to consider surgery. The X-Rays still show
the bone to be broken. When I do have surgery, I want to leave the
proper ammount of time for the bone to heal before racing. I don't feel
sufficient time exists this winter, so the surgery will have to wait
until next November.

My racing schedule will no doubt be subject to last minute changes as
my wife Sondra is pregnant and is expecting around mid July. I expect
the new addition to the Tiberio family to have a significant impact on
my disposable income and free time. I have been reducing the number of
racing events attended since I hit a peak of 19 in 1989. In 1992 I hope
to limit myself to 16 events. Racing 19 or 16 events a year is unheard
of amongst most racers, many are lucky to make 10 a year.  Cost is the
deciding factor for most racers, sponsorship dollars are a must if my
racing is to continue. If you are a Guzzi dealer and you desire greater
exposure at the national level, please call me for details, as major
and minor sponsorship opportunities are available.