Second weekend in August the Classic Race of the Year ("Årsracet") was held in Linköping, Sweden. As everywhere the classes ranges from pre-war to -90:s Superbikes, 50cc to 1200cc in line fours from the -80:s. Different classes have their cycles with more or less participants, and at the moment the class 7CF2 is one of the bigger ones. It has rules close to the TT2 rules, bikes rangings from 1980 to 1987, production based (more or less) with 600cc fourcylinders vz 750cc twins and 350cc two strokes. This year it featured four Ducati-engined bikes, all different. Thought it could be interesting to share.

I took my F1 there, a trip on smaller roads of around 800kms Friday to Sunday. Weather for riding was perfect but Monday I had a cold. Getting old...

First bike is the most traditional TT1. Verlicchi frame, even though the latest type, aluminium swingarm. Engine partly prepared by Carlo, typical late -80:s motor prepared with the time typical parts, 5-shift gear box, dry clutch. This bike has been developed over the four or five last years and is now constantly winning races in the hand of experienced Isle of Man and Endurance racer Björn Gunnarsson. He won both Saturday and Sunday this year.

Second bike is more newly built by Swdish gentleman Thomas Hauge who also races it. It is in its third season now. Late 30mm tube frame from DM Telai (originally I guess, but purchased elsewhere). Modern swingarm which allows an un-traditional rear cylinder exhaust header behind the engine. Thomas chose to base his engine on a Monster 695 motor, the last one with the correct, small crankcase with origianl six-shift gearbox and 7mm valve stems. Thomas has no problem, unlike myself, with having both carbs between the cylinders. Modern Marvics and with Öhlins both front and rear this bike has potential and is probably the fastest of them, however Thomas is not the fastest rider, so he normally is placed 5-10 in the races.

Third bike is a Cobas replica built by Hans Gustafsson with friends. Hans is the guy behind the 750SS Blue Lunatic racebike that he has raced in Europe, at Daytona and Philip Island. It was sold to the US a couple of years ago. Hans then went to Philip Island again and raced a Sport Motorcycles Cobas Replica. That did not go too well as the bike was not prepared, but he got hooked and instead of ordering a frame from NZ he ordered one from Vitesse Engineering in Spain. Maybe he regretted that since there has been a lot of problems getting the bike race ready. He sent the frame over to Öhlins to have a shock absorber built but they more or less axed the whole thing. Their calculations showed that the spring needed should be so hard that they could not even have it manufactured anywhere. A complete rebuild of the rear suspension was done and a normally configured shock could be used. As always things does not fit as expected so I think it has taken two years longer than it should, but now finally Hans could do the first race on the bike. Under the circumstances it did not go too bad, fifth and fourth in the weekends races. Engine is accordig to period standards except for a sixth-shift gearbox was squeezed into the five-gear crankcase. It will be very interesting to follow the developments next year!

Last bike is a Swedish made F1 replica frame, using a Monster swingarm and rear suspension, produced by Morani (not existing anymore). It maybe does not have the professional touch and appearance, but component-wise it is not too bad. Rider is not that fast, so it is hard to know if the bike itself has potential, but it should have I believe. I do not know the details unfortunately.

Thanks for posting these 3 beautiful bikes!
Paul

I see four, plus the F1. Thanks for this posting, and nice descriptions. It will be fun to look at the details. The first thing i noticed is the very different (really low, really high) placement of the clipons. MikeV

PS: nice “little” ride on an F1.