fT's New Track Build Green Machine

[fT-z33wor]

Shout out the NR! for getting this sub-forum established and operational! Was going to initially post this in the members journal sub-forum, but it seemed a lot of people on there found my last bike journal rather irrelevant. Only makes sense since this is predominantly a car forum and the fact is I haven't built a car in over 3 years since I jumped ship.

Bike build thread seem a lot more suited for this sub-forum. I'm certain it peaks more interest as more people can relate.

So I just sold the Duc last month. She's treated me well, but its time to move onto others things, especially if these other things will vastly aid me in further improving my riding skills. I didn't waste anytime, within 3 days after the sale of my bike, I picked this one up off craigslist.

A 2009 Kawasaki ZX-6R in the iconic Kawasaki lime green. It just broke 7000kms. I've ridden Suzukis, Hondas and Ducatis, now truth be told I've been wanting to hop on a Kawi for a while. Renown for their peaky screaming motors, and strong brakes out of the box (for a supersport anyways, I think my 1098 raised he bar rather high: 330mm floating discs with Brembo 4 Pot Monoblocks hngg). I wanted to see what all the rave was about.

I had the choice of getting the '13 model, but my heart's been set on this generation (09-12) zx-6r for specific reasons.

I have quite the Christmas list of goodies coming in for this bike, and the small items have just begun to trickle in. I don't want to give out the full list at once, but the bigger "spendy" parts are made to order so I'll post them up as they come in, maybe some teasers most likely end of this month. I've given myself until early May to get this thing ready for the season down South of the border.

In the mean time I'll just post up what I've done so far. I'm keeping it streetable, I'm not a club racer just a very avid track day goer. I may throw race bodywork on it down the road and just graft a headlight onto it if I don't go with cheap Chinese fairings again. Want it streetable so I can still boot around town and enjoy the social aspects of riding. As much of a blast shredding pavement is, who doesn't like going to the beach, picking up chicks and the occasional hard parking at Starbucks.

I purchased the bike with a couple of items on there from the previous owner
-Steel Braided Lines (just saved me the trouble from replacing, ty!)
-Fender eliminator
-Integrated Tail
-Pazzo black shorties w/ red adjusters, which I'm replacing (if anyone's interested in buying they fit 07-14 ZX6R)
-M4 GP slip-on

First time on the operating table


Ugly Halogens gotta go! Just a 35 watt DDM kit, burn rate is 6000k.


Tested out with no issues! Bit a pain to find a permanent place for the ballast though. The ballast is still not completely fitted but I will find a remedy when I take the nose cone section off to install my suspension


Stomp Grips! These things work wonders, I've ran both tech specs and these. Tech specs are great for the street as they adhere better to jeans but I had to switch them out after the first track season. The Stomp grips just work better with my leathers, especially the material located on the inner thigh of my 1 piece.


There actually is a trick to installing these successfully without any air bubbles. The answer is a simple blow dryer and tennis ball. One to heat up the adhesive, and the other to even apply the tank grip while pushing out any potential air bubbles.


Finished! Install roughly took 20-25 minutes each side


Windscreen arrived today. Makes a world difference when you are in full tuck, wind turbulence gets annoying down the straightaway as your helmet just pulls.


Before photo!


After photo for comparison

[?NR]

good stuff!

eager to see what else you have planned for it.

[Vale46Rossi]

Windscreens? Who needs those :P

[fT-z33wor]

not Howard apparently

[Vale46Rossi]

Originally Posted by fT-z33wor

not Howard apparently

[BaoTurbo]

Didn't you have the 1088? How does it feel to ride a lower cc though and a Suzuki

[Raid3n]

suzuki?

[CharlieH]

Originally Posted by BaoTurbo

Didn't you have the 1088? How does it feel to ride a lower cc though and a Suzuki

i think the biggest difference isnt the smaller motor, but the fact that it's a silky smooth i-4 as opposed to a giant lazy v-twin. no power down low on the 4 cyl but its gonna be a beast on the track.

[?NR]

su... Zu... Wut??
Posted via RS Mobile

[fT-z33wor]

Originally Posted by BaoTurbo

Didn't you have the 1088? How does it feel to ride a lower cc though and a Suzuki

I did, the 1098 was the bike I just sold. It's really on par with what CharlieH said, the smaller cc bike is much more agile and my initial impression was how easy and effortless it was to tip the bike in and flick it back and forth. Grant you the 600 provides a different kind of fun, the nimbleness and manageable power makes it a lot less work to ride fast. You're not constantly wrestling the bike like you would on a 1000cc and you're not as easily susceptible to body fatigue as quick. The 600 also provides more usable power so I can be much more generous with the throttle instead of feathering it like I would on a liter bike in fear of breaking traction out the corners. If you give too much gas too quick on a liter bike, the rear tends to squirm on you. It's nice to be able to attentively focus when pushing the bike hard, instead of riding in fear of it.

that being said, on the street it probably matters little. I would prefer to have a 1000cc for the street as they're gobs of fun. The off the line power, and stability of a liter bike at highway speeds make them great for the road.

I thought I would be power hungry after making the switch, but so far this bike's been keeping a grin on my face. I didn't miss the low end torque as much as I thought I would.

The Suzuki I've ridden previously was a '05 gsx-r 750, that also happened to be my first bike. It was a lot of fun, and a happy medium between a full blown 1000cc superbike and a 600cc supersport. Didn't have to downshift to overtake and pass people, and noticeably more stable at high speeds than a 600.

[fT-z33wor]

What a pleasant surprise, weekend's off to a good start


I'm gonna show you guise...just the tip.

[fT-z33wor]

Had the time to do some test fitting tonight, say goodbye to the oem rearsets! Oh and its true that once you go with aftermarket rearsets for the first time it's difficult to go back.

The pair I had on my last bike were Lightechs, decided to try something different this time around, went with a beautifully CNC'd set of rearsets from Sato Racing.

The reason for changing out perfectly functional oem rearsets? For me there's a few major reasons:
-fixed pegs of aftermarket rearsets offer much better rider feel and feed back of what the bike is doing
-the pegs are more aggressively machined, it almost zero's any chance of your foot slipping off when transitioning or setting up for turns
-fixed pegs add extra protection and acts as a secondary slider for when your bike goes down, provides extra ground clearance minimizing body damage
-increased adjustability allows me to position the foot pegs much more aggressively, provides extra ground clearance in full lean.
-utilization of ball bearing joints

^ the last reason also happens to be the most important of the 5. Most aftermarket rearset companies utilize ball bearing joints in the hinge areas of the levers. How is this useful? Well in the event of a crash (I've even seen this happen from a tip over) the stock shift levers, if bent even slightly at the hinge area, will seize. Ball bearing joints on the other hand don't. This could make or break a track if you lay your bike down early on the in morning. Even if you did bring spare parts, it could also be the difference between waiting track side for your bike to get picked up and eventually brought back to the pits for you, or just being able to pick up your bike and ride back to the pit immediately after your crash. They only pick up bikes twice a day, so you're gg'd if you dump your bike early in the morning, or mid-late afternoon.

Here's everything laid out!


Everything has just been hand tightened until I figure out how aggressively I want the pegs to be positioned. Remember, always use loctite!


Rotated my shift arm from bottom to top. Finally took the plunge and went with a GP shift pattern (this reverses the shift pattern). It will take some getting used to initially, but will benefit me in mid corner/out of apex up shifts. To shift up, I simply now step down, and to downshift, I lift the lever up. Up shifts will be even more seamless when I install the Bazzaz Quick Shift unit to use in conjunction with the set up. Essentially clutchless up shifts where I can leave the throttle wide open. It operates through a piggy back unit and a sensor in the shift rod that cuts the ignition for a few milliseconds when it senses movement.

[Naka San]

hmm GP shift, interesting

[Raid3n]

1 up 5 down i have a friend that had that... i dunno if i'd take that plunge on a bike i daily haha

[CharlieH]

that gp shift is gonna be so handy for turn 9 at the ridge

[fT-z33wor]

I stand by woodcraft products, these are hands down the best frame sliders in my opinion. I've tested them on a different bike and do they ever hold up, cut frame sliders all the way. The issue with no-cut frame sliders is the weak point tends to be at brackets. These brackets are designed to offset the slider puck, so you don't have to modify your fairings, but that doesn't come without compromise. I've seen countless bent brackets from no-cut kits even from minor tip overs. In the event of a parking lot tip over, I'm sure no-cuts will hold up fine, but nothing will be as robust as a frame slider that utilizes your engine bolt as the main mounting point. Some of the woodcraft kits are no-cut, but that only comes as coincidence if the engine bolts happen to line up with the vents in your fairings.

Fun fact: the owner Eric Wood is a retired racer, and he developed and engineered his products with priority of racers in mind. It's always been function over form. All of his company's product line is designed to be as robust as possible and to make track side repairs as easy and simple as possible. (hence the bolts that mount the frame sliders are located perpendicular to the puck rather than the conventional through the puck design) When your slider is grind down to a pulp, its much easier to access the bolt from the side of the puck to remove the damaged unit.

[bananana]

Damn those rearsets are sweet. Just curious, what is the purpose of the upside down shift pattern?

[Raid3n]

Easier to shift under race conditions if I understand correctly. Easier to pull up to shift down under breaking, and press down to shift up under acceleration
Posted via RS Mobile

[fT-z33wor]

Benefit comes at being able to up-shift out of corners easier instead of having to dig for the shifter with your foot. Sometimes you run out of rpm's before the bike is completely upright again out the apex of corners and having a gp shift pattern helps.

The bikes in motogp are actually able to up-shift IN mid corner with their seamless transmissions. It doesn't upset the geometry of the bike/unsettle the suspension, its pretty nuts what those machines can do.

[fT-z33wor]

New shoes arrived


Also got some proper sized levers in, I need more leverage than 2 brake fingers down a straight away. Plus they are folding magnesium, lessens the chance of breaking off in a crash.



Clutch side installed!

[?NR]

lots of goodies going onto the mean green machine.

[fT-z33wor]

Frame sliders went on today! Here is the base installed.


Finished product after using a dremel to shave out the space for the slider puck

[z3german]

nice work on the dremel, how long it take?

What would you use for something that you have a cut a hole into (yours is only part cut)

Im thinking just drill smaller hole and dremel the rest, given how clean yours looks

[fT-z33wor]

My mech actually did the installation and dremel work for me this time. I didn't want to touch the engine bolt when installing these sliders cause if the engine shifts out of place, its easy to tear out the threads when reinstalling the bolt.

Last time when I drilled out the holes for my fairings on my 1098 it took me about 20 minutes each side, I think it was on par with what my mech spent on it today. My 1098 fairings are a prime example of what you are asking. I used a sharpened punch to insert into the frame slider base once it was secured, then test fitted the fairing back on the bike, and applied pressure on the area of the fairing that sits over the sharpened punch.

This leaves an impression/mark of exactly where the slider puck will be going on top of, then drill a pilot hole where the indent mark is using a small sized drill bit. Remember to tape up the area you want drill using painters tape (to prevent paint from flaking off) and then find a stead surface to put the fairing down on, and finish the job with this tool.

(these come in many different sizes, so make sure its just slightly larger in diameter than your slider puck)


then it looks like this when you're done. READY TO CRASH! lol jk

[JD¹³]

Bet you wish you had those frame sliders on before you dropped the bike

GP-QS.... once you're used to it you'll never go back.