Take a few extra minutes to savor these gorgeous R1s built by the tobefast.com crew at McCoy Motorsports, because this is the last time you'll ever see them. Just days after Tom Riles snapped these photos at Virginia International Raceway both bikes (along with Mike McCoy's flamed 2003 R1 featured in our September '04 issue) were crushed in a bizarre incident in a Burger King parking lot during Biketoberfest at Daytona Beach. Shane McCoy (owner of the red-and-blue flamed bike) and Jerry McCoy (owner of the red-and-carbon one) were both inside the restaurant while Mike stood guard over the bikes ("We don't leave these bikes unattended anywhere," Shane tells us). While Mike was waiting, some brain-dead bimbo climbed into a jacked-up SUV and, utterly oblivious to Mike's shouting and frantic hand-waving, backed right over all three bikes-doing a remarkable $50K worth of damage in the process!
Shane's flamed flyer bore the brunt of the impact, suffering $25K worth of busted plastic, spoiled paint and powdercoating, crushed pipes and bent swingarms. Jerry's runner clocked in at $15K in damages, followed by Mike's bike with $10K worth of pain. Both of the '04s were written off and returned straight to the McCoy's Pikeville, Kentucky, shop where they were torn down to be reassembled into something new-leaving Jerry and Shane with nothing but their memories and these photos.
And what incredible bikes these were pre-SUV stomping. McCoy Motorsports is one of America's premier R1 tuning shops and claims to offer the largest selection of aftermarket R1 performance parts in the world-so as you might expect, nothing went untouched on either of them. Shane's ride is the tricker of the two, set off with an eye-grabbing, two-tone paint job devised by Color Zone Designs in Huntington Beach, California. Like all the McCoys, Shane's tastes tend toward straight-line racing, so the chassis on his bike was given the full dragrace treatment. Starting with a custom extended swingarm from Trac Dynamics (powdercoated translucent blue, a service available through McCoy Motorsports), Shane added a Hyperpro Type 46 dragracing shock designed specifically to cope with the added leverage of an extended swingarm, combined with McCoy's own lowering triangles to drop the back of the bike three inches.
Shane's R1 rolls on RC Components Bandit forged wheels (chrome with custom translucent red centers), and the rear carries an extra-wide 240-series tire. Up front the fork is factory stock, though it was raised a few inches in the triple clamps to slam the front and topped with a pair of Lockhart Phillips billet preload adjusters. The braking system is blinged out on both ends, however, with a trio of Galfer Wave rotors, Galfer hard lines and Galfer (recognize a pattern?) race-compound brake pads. Extra-close attention reveals a translucent blue Grimeca rear brake caliper dressing up the right side of the rear end, while an RC Components sprocket and Voodoo swingarm tag-bracket take care of the left.
Before motorcycles, McCoy Motorsports made its name in performance circles with a series of record-holding, nitrous-oxide-equipped drag cars, so it's no surprise Shane's R1 carries a 2.5-pound bottle of giggle gas tucked into its swingarm. The Nitrous Express system is controlled by an MPS nitrous management kit. MPS also contributed the on-board air shifting system, bolstered by a Barnetts Carbon clutch kit to better withstand the 198 hp this bike kicks out with the nitrous system armed. McCoy Motorsports has a close working partnership with Graves Motorsports (a name well-known through its involvement in AMA Superbike racing), which explains why the rest of Shane's spec sheet reads like a Graves Motorsports catalog, including a Graves Motorsports full titanium exhaust system, Graves velocity stacks and smog block-off kit and Graves Motorsports billet case covers on both sides.
Jerry's red-and-carbon '04 was fitted with essentially the same mods as Shane's bike, including identical chassis changes (save for Jerry's RC Stingray wheels). The biggest difference is the bike's appearance: Jerry's ride maintains the stock deep-red Yamaha plastics set off with a liberal dose of carbon fiber sourced from Yamaha's house-brand GYT-R aftermarket accessories catalog. These bits include a carbon tank front/airbox cover, carbon side panels and ram air ducts and a carbon front fender.
Underneath those carbon tank panels the Graves connection comes into play again, with Jerry's nitrous-huffing R1 sporting engine specs identical to Shane's bike. Style-wise, another of McCoy's partner brands, Gregg's Customs, is featured prominently on both bikes. Master fabricator Gregg DesJardins is best known for his tubular single-sided swingarms for sportbikes (available at greggscustoms.com) and his super-clean flush-mount LED turn signals seen here on both bikes. In addition to signals, Greggs also makes the mirror caps and countershaft sprocket covers on both of the R1s, as well as the nitrous-bottle brackets. Nice.
As gorgeous as these two R1s were, the bike-busting debacle at Daytona might have been a blessing in disguise, Shane tells us. For one, it couldn't have come at a better time: Biketoberfest is the unofficial end of the riding season and a prelude to the wet and dreary Kentucky winter that is a prime wrenching opportunity for the McCoys. Writing the bikes off gave them the perfect excuse to spend the winter rebuilding each into something even wilder, showing off more of the latest and greatest items from the McCoy Motorsports arsenal. Shane especially has big plans, telling us to expect the second coming of his R1 this spring complete with even more radical paint plus a turbocharger for substantially more horsepower.
Sounds like a plan to us. Maybe we'll set up a second photo shoot later in the spring, taking special care to avoid drive-in parking lots at all costs. After all, we wouldn't want to send Shane and Jerry back to the workshop for the third time-or would we? Judging from the tasty rides here, maybe that isn't such a bad idea. Say, flip me the keys to that Escalade, will ya?