Excellent comments about the stock suspension. Compliments to you on being able to refine and tweak to specific requirements. I know this is an art and talent that we don't all have. I wish I had the sensitivity to recognise what differences a click either way will make. Perhaps I should experiment, but I just can't interpret 'feedback' through the bike as well as others.
Well done mate! I believe with a suspension upgrade, you'll be able to advance your phenomenal progress even further!
I don't want to come across as technical in this area or experienced, as I've only really made a couple of adjustments based on wear patterns of the tire and maybe also feeling. I couldn't feel the difference between a few clicks either but the tires say a lot and maybe a few stability situations may happen and you guess a few tweaks until you think its no longer there A friend of mine helped me set up a base starting point (as he had a bit of previous experience and this made a huge difference) and we set the preload based off measurements on the bike and my weight. Since then I've tweaked the rear damping to help solve some minor stability issues and the preload again due to some tire wear issues. There is a whole world of suspension adjustments possible which I haven't really dived into yet, and I don't want to come off as a pro in this area; but thank you for the compliments The famous words my friend gave are: "you want it as soft as it can possibly be, but as hard as it needs to be". Maybe it doesnt translate well from German, but i've interpreted it as; you want the most amount of compliance to soak up all the imperfections but not so soft that it causes stability issues and vagueness.
Let the riding speak for itself I say.......and judging by what you are doing on track just goes to show what a stock bike is capable of. I'm sure you'll want to make all the usual upgrades in time but this is a great example of what you can achieve without having to throw bucket loads of cash at a bike and thinking it'll make you quicker!
Thanks! I agree, it's nice to have a bling bike and all (which I would happily have if money was no option) but I think there might be only a few really necessary upgrades when tracking a bike.
Hi All, did my last track day of the season last week and headed back to Franciacorta for the final round of their Time Attack championship. First day was an Open pit lane day and then the event on Sunday. Perfect weather, zero issues, couldnt have gone any better. I had an occasional misfire but a jiggle with the connectors seems to temporarily fix it. Very please with my overall performance here as I managed to shave off 5 seconds from by PB, although the track layout has changed slightly. The new layout is supposedly 2 seconds faster so there's approximately 3 seconds of improvement. The bike felt great as usual and I'm always astounded by grip of the Pirellis. Finished somewhere in the 1000cc Expert group, about 5 seconds from the outright best time of the weekend. TC and 200hp would be nice. Best thing about the weekend was being able to run at dusk and finally trying those endurance lights out!!! Enjoy some pics and videos:
Hats off to you I’ve been riding bikes for a long time and never got anywhere near to what you have in a couple of years
Thanks for the comments all. I forgot to mention that I made some captive wheel spacers for the front wheel, to stop them dropping out and making the wheel changes a bit quicker. They are machined from Alu. I only made one set for now, but I tested them out and had no issues so I'll make some now for my rain wheel set. OE: Captive:
As i've got a bit of time over the holidays i've made a carbon kevlar copy of the exhaust heat shield. Quite pleased with how it came out. It saves a whopping 150g !!! Now i only need to that about 100 times for other parts.
That's friggin' brilliant GW. You'll have all the 04 - 07 owners rallying to buy one. Won't be me though; my 04 doesn't travel far enough to get hot!!
Thanks! To be honest, all you need is some good mold release agent, the rest is very easy. I had to spray paint the inside of the OE heat shield because the mold release would not coat the raw stainless heat shield very well, the rest requires a bit of patience but anyone can easily do this at home and nowadays all materials are available online and are very accessible.
I fitted the new carbon kevlar heat shield and it works relatively well. A little bit flexible compared to stock but i'm sure it will work ok and its lighter so: Comparison: I also replace the rear brake reservoir with an old HRC master cylinder tube I had. I've been carrying out quite a few weight reduction modifications so I'm curious to see how much weight has been dropped. I'll re-weigh the bike once it's back together soon.
