NBT- I've gone Green!!

[Tricky]

Just wondering why someone would have a brake assembly from a brand new S1000RR available? If they've bought a new bike and swapped it out, what have they replaced it with (and why)? It looks like it has never been used and it's not exactly a cheap and nasty piece of kit.

Other possibility, binned it already and breaking for parts?

It was from a racer, has been replaced with a Brembo

[Dodgy69]

The Trackday for me is just like riding a favourite bit of road as fast as you fancy, without all the cars, vans, hgv's.etc. and usually comes with a very friendly garage or gazebo.

[BBB]

Is that a crack through the brembo racing text on the copy lever or is supposed to be there?

[Tricky]

Is that a crack through the brembo racing text on the copy lever or is supposed to be there?

Is a good question- it looks to me like a shitty casting or pressing mark , don't think it was a crack but I wouldn't bet that it wasn't!

[Tricky]

First ride on it today as a little bit of a shakedown prior to ripping the nice standard plastics and lights off and replacing them with some rattle canned fibreglass ready for shipping to Cartagena net week-end.
The sun was shining so I taxed it and put the Db eater baffle, in the end, can as although I wouldn't have called it really excessively loud without it, it is a 60mm Akrapovic full system so will undoubtedly howl at the top end and I don't need that sort of attention on the road but what a difference- with the (genuine Akra) baffle in, it seemed pretty much as quiet as a standard bike.

I headed out and took it fairly steadily for the first 10 miles or so, as it has brand new discs, pads, master cylinder, newly fitted QS, untried ( by me) suspension set-up and has just sat in someone's garage for the last year.
All seemed great (apart from the sportsbike riding position,- I really don't miss that! ) and belied its age and mileage, so I knocked it down a couple and let the old girl go, and go she really did- fabulous induction noise and 15.5k rpm was pretty addictive and the scenery started moving really quickly, had a great 20 miles or so of silliness, I haven't even properly set the sag with me on it yet but as far as I went it was lovely, and brakes and the quickshifter were tip-top

I stopped in at MSG Racing on the way home to see if Gav could fit me in for an hour or two on the dyno before it goes next week to get a view on power and whether any tweaking or other attention is warranted, they are flat out at the moment with 10 or more engine builds on the go between the two of them for the start of the season so next week was out but he agreed to cut their sandwich break short and do a couple of runs for me today, and this was the result.



A very healthy 112hp and nice AF all the way up with the baffle out but what is really quite impressive is how long it has that for at the top end 110+ HP all the way from 12k to 15.5k- not bad for a 19 year old 600 with over 30k on the clock

We also did some runs with the baffle in, knocked peak down to 105hp, and gave it a noticeable dip in the mid-range ( 7k-8k on this bike), mainly I think as it fecked up the fuelling and was running overly rich with the baffle in, so it's something that could be improved, but TBH there really isn't any point for me as I don't anticipate it will spend much time (if any) time on the road, due to that silly sportsbike riding position




I think Dan there took a real shine to it, despite all of the arguably much more exotic and higher-powered stuff there, he got quite excited about it as have I- roll on Cartegena , two weeks time I'll be there !

[Tricky]

Minor update- the nice new sticky tyres arrived so got those on today




I also started having a look at the trackday fairings I've got for it- they look better in the pics than real life, it's a 5/10 rattle can paint job, but could be a lot worse.



The guy I got them off said he never managed to make them fit, but on first look, I don't think he tried too hard,- I haven't yet as I fancy getting on it on the road once or twice next week if I can before it ships to see how the new tyres feel , but that will depend on the weather.
One way or the other they will be on before the end of the week, as the standard plastics really are too nice condition to risk when I have this stuff in the garage.

[Tricky]

I've got out on the greenie a couple of times over the last week or so, and riding position aside, have to say have been enjoying riding it- it is of course no 890R, but it's fun and brings a different twat out in me than the 890 does.

Anyway, it has to be dropped off at the depot tomorrow in readiness for it's visit to Cartagena next weekend, so yesterday I set about getting the standard platics off and getting the scabby SH race stuff on.
Thankfully, the standard fairing fitment is nothing like similar age ZX10 ( which has to be one of the most frustrating bikes ever to remove/ replace the fairing on ), and it was all on the floor within a few minutes.



The already drilled holes in the race fairing lined up niceley with my standard mounts so all good there, but rather than bolt it straight to the metal brackets I took a few minutes to fabricate some soft mount spacers for the top, as fibreglass is a lot more brittle than plastic and I could see it very easily cracking there if I just bolted it straight up.




The seat took a bit more effort, and I see what the matey I got them from was saying- it's a very tight fit over the subframe, and the way he's fitted the Dzus sockets, it wasn't possible to get the fibreglass undertray to fit when you had the seat on, so I drilled them out and fitted them to the seat unit rather than the undertray, which although still a tight squeeze, allowed the seat to line up and the undertray to be fitted.



I'm not completely happy with having the seat undertray on the outside of the seat underside but to make it really fit how I want it to will require me to take a hacksaw to the standard Kawasaki underseat plastics- not something I'm prepared to do at the moment, but I will find a secondhand one over the coming months and sort it.
In the meantime, it's secure and the underseat gubbins are protected from the elements and flying stones etc, so we're good for next weekend, and now it's just a case of getting my kit and tools etc together in the van and loading it onto the stillage tomorrow.

Looking at the forecasts earlier this week, they were saying there will be a bit of rain there on each of the 3 days, so I rushed onto eBay and as luck would have it found a set of spare wheels for it only an hour or so down the road from me, have just picked them up, albeit from what NL say I won'rt be able to take them as of course they are not on my carnet and it's too late to change that, but I'll throw them in the van anyway and see if I can wangle it somehow tomorrow.
I've also sorted a camera mount, so if I manage to catch any of the action that's not too embarrassing I might post that up too.
Unfortunately the new fixed footrest rearsets haven't turned up which is a bit of a bummer as I really don't like folding ones on trackbikes, but I'll manage

And I am pleased to report that my mate Tim's R6 is all back together and ready for him to try and set another PB on - we ended up replacing the swingarm, rear shock, yokes and forks, bars, rear wheel, clocks, clock brackets, master cylinder, footrests, fairing, crash protection and doubtless a few bits more, but looking on the bright side the seat was fibreglassed and re-used, and he saved a few £££ by buying a fibreglass tank cover rather than a new tank, as although badly battered and probably only 2/3 the capacity it was, it doesn't leak- he loves his stickers too, as you can see....





Roll on next week for hopefully some sunny track time and laughs, and as a nice little bonus, no faffy passenger locator forms or pointless Covid tests either for this trip, hurrah!

[Dodgy69]

Looking forward to some top quality footage.

[IanB]

Liking this a lot! Have a great time en foreign

[weeksy]

Still slightly surprised you'd take this and not 890R

[Tricky]

All packed (including wets on wheeels ) and now on the back of a lorry , shortly to be setting off for Spain

Still slightly surprised you'd take this and not 890R

When I originally booked it that was the plan, and you can probably blame @2xtwins at least in part for me getting another bike for this trip , but if the reality is that it's been for ever since my last bike purchase and so the need to buy another was strong, and this trip provided a good reason for something slightly different ( for me) again

After I bought it I did toy with the idea of taking both but decided that would be extravagant, and if it's just the one then the ZX is it for this adventure on the rationale that I reckon I stand more chance of keeping up with my mate on it than I likely would on the 890- ( not that that is important of course ), but in all seriousness, this will be a slightly different trip for me so I am going to see if I can re-kindle some of the old mojo, the ZX should be a better bike to be on for that and not that I'm expecting to go mad, but if I do have any mishaps, then it's on an old inexpensive bike

But having said that, seeing this whilst loading up today, I welled up with 890 love again and was wishing I was taking it- this was proper lovely close up , had very shagged slicks on it and a very pose-y sharply dressed Japanese owner , so I'll be watching it with interest

[weeksy]

What's that ?

[Tricky]

What's that ?

You've obviously been away from the orange side too long matey - It's an RC 8C- one of these

https://www.bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/n ... sportsbike

[Dodgy69]

It's got a moustache.

[KungFooBob]

I knows the factories have been using aeros on gp bikes for years, but I surely you want the wings on the unsprung bits?

[Tricky]

Well, I've just got back from 3 days at Cartagena with the Greenie, and I have to say, it was brilliant, and is possibly the best value bike ever for me in terms of what I've got for my ££

Nothing fell off, broke, or even needed adjusting- I just rode it and it performed absolutely faultlessly- I didn't touch any aspect of the suspension, engine, quickshifter or in fact anything at all- I must have changed wheels 10 times or more due to the (largely shit) weather, but apart from that, just kept putting fuel in it, that was all it needed.
The motor flies, it steers, handles and brakes great, and for a 600, has stacks of midrange, sounds lovely too IMO

The track itself, now it's tough- reminds me of ALmeria, but squashed into a smaller area, very technical IMO with practically no rest, and a fairly shitty surface, but decent grip even in the wet, except for the paint which was treacherous even in the dry- I've never known paint like it and it had me a bit sideways on a fair few occasions

I did strap a camera on, but it didn't come out great- not sure why but the camera (a Drift) seems to suffer with wibbly images on most things I've tried it on, but here's a couple just to show you how shit it , and I am

Most stable image here mounted to the side of the fairring, but the fairing takes up half the screen and it really isn't a very gripping watch at all, albeit the paint gets me a little slide 6:20 ish mins in on this one so there is one second or so of moderate excitement



And rubber mounted to the steering stem - The picture quality is shit but it does illustrate how well it screams and the lovely airbox noise- ( Oh and the paint gets me again approx 5 secs in on this one )



So, what's next?- Well, no plans to get rid, and I ached so badly after this trip (mainly from my left hip that is now completely fecked) and felt so knackered whenever I tried to get a move on that it's finally made me realise that my days of trying to pretend I was even moderately fast once are now long gone, but I still love it, so I think I'll get one or two UK days booked up- I've even got spare wheels for this one

[Tricky]

My TD/racing obsessed mate's R6 has been in my garage since Cartagena, last Weds he rang up saying he had a free day tomorrow, the weather reports were looking good he fancied doing a day somewhere, had scoured all the available tracks and choice was either Brands Indy (MSV) or Donington (NL).
Distance is roughly the same to either from where we live, cost was the same at £165 so there really was no question- Donington it was, and so I loaded the bikes and kit and 0530 the next morning we headed north and arrived to a very foggy and not particularly warm Donington and set up in a garge alongside a couple of Panigales and a really nicely prepared CBR600RR that even @weeksy wouldn't have been able to make any cleaner


It was a full event and we'd got the last 2 places in with the big boys, I will admit the first session I was feeling very very old and slow, being blitzed everywhere and wondering what I'd done, but by another couple of sessions I'd fully pulled my finger out, regained a little speed and was starting to really enjoy myself.



I still getting shown the way by some proper fast boys, but I was also getting by a fair few in the group too, especially down through Craner and into the old hairpin and Melbourne.
The last session of the day was one of the most enjoyable I can remember for a very long time with me and matey with the CBR in our garage having a real decent ding-dong for the whole session, both pulling each other along in the mid 1:40s- that's not in any danger of troubling too many runners in most 600 club races I would think but it was a step back up for me, and top fun with us both pushing hard and being so evenly matched - I think I've talked him into coming along to Bedford next month too- didn't take much!



And the icing on the cake was looking at some of the lovely old cars that started appearing throughout the day- I think there was a historic type meeting on over the BH weekend, so loads of tasty American muscle cars and some Cortinas and Elans etc that were simply immaculately prepared and gorgeous IMO- I should have taken more pics as there were loads of them, but here's the couple I got

[Taipan]

Mk1 Lotus Cortina!

[Tricky]

Didn't realise how long it's been since I updated this thread, but I guess the updates on it, such as they are, have been in trackday specific threads, as that's all that's happened really- aside from some new oil and filter and a new 60 profile ( made a BIG difference to the feel of this bike) rear tyre last month at Donington , ther's been nothing to report, it's been great.

I was however insipred by @dern 's clocks fetting on his one (see here http://revtothelimit.co.uk/viewtopic.ph ... 38#p173938 ), so thought that I'd do the same, only I went full tarty and picked green rather than white LEDs

Feck me, what a job though- really brought home to me how old my eyes are - I never quite realised from his pics just how diddy the LEDs are-the pics below gives some perspective- they are tiny!





Not a job I would tackle again, as the contact area that the LEDs have on the board is so small, and the LEDs themselve are easy to melt if you're not careful, definitely not a job to attempt if you don't have any previous PCB/soldering experience and/or patience

Anyway, clocks are back on the bike now with a lovely green glow- I too didn't bother doing the speedo area- the revcounter bit took me long enough



And something else that I'll be doing before the next outing is bolting this little lot on



It's the calipers and MC from a 2016 ZX6- as may be seen from earlier in this thread, the (OE) calipers on mine at the moment have been refurbed and braking massively improved with an S1000RR MC, but this lot came up at what I thought was a bargainous price on another forum and the calipers are a definite improvement on my era ones so I thought why not.
The nice thing about it is I have the complete system including lines, so I could take both systems to the next TD and swap them in a couple of minutes if I wanted to do a back-to-back, albeit I suspect once the 2016 lot goes on, it won't be coming off - more to follow after the next TD, which as it stands will be Pembrey in Sept, although I am currently thinking of maybe getting along to the Bedford one in August with @dern and @Dodgy knees -we shall see

[dern]

Cool, like the green hue