Nathan's motorcycles.....

[flyingbrick]

Okay.. last post about these rear sets. Finally all installed with torqued and loctited Ti hardware (cheaper to buy it in silver and just dip them yourself and it's only a few seconds, plus the color matches)

The left side with Ti hoop was a BASTARD to color because the act of heating the Ti to do the riveting creates a layer of oxide that must first be removed. It's a patchy gold/red/purple now which doesn't match the other side, but for now it will do. (Occured to me this morning that I might need to visit @Kimjon for a Hoon on his sand blaster then immediately anodise to fix the problem)

Extremely happy with how it's all come out ☺️. 

 

[flyingbrick]

More titanium turned up to replace the caliper bolts (this saved 80g) and to hold down the front guard.

Got them in silver and then made them dark purple/blue as usual 

 

[flyingbrick]

Had a guy weld some new machined bosses onto the aluminium subframe. This is the final step needed to convert it to gen2 plastics (the light weight subframe is from a gen1). This saves 2.9kg over the steel subframe from the gen2 but shouldn't be used for touring with luggage and pillion (not a problem here as A, I don't know anyone I'd like to have on the back, and B, I didn't bother with the hardware to attach the pillion seat.

So now it's all back together (aside from bars) and it pretty much looks just the same as it did before- which is fine by me.

 

 

[flyingbrick]

Took this out for about four hours yesterday for a really good shakedown run. It couldn't have gone better, I'm REALLY happy with how these mods have gone so far.

-The carbon fibre pegs didn't fall off. They felt rock solid the entire time, and unless I tactually thought about the new rearsets (at one stage I thought, hey, these aren't slippery, that's good)- they felt 100% like the old ones, which is perfect. No additional vibration either (which was a minor concern as the factory ones have rubber isolator bushes plus big rubber foot pads. 

-The carbon bars are amazing. Holy shit was I worried about these. I bought some bloody expensive raised clipons but ended up having to stick with the factory's rubber isolated top yoke to hold them. The CF bars saved over 1kg over the original bars and end weights. I was told that CF is naturally good at dampening vibration but that doesn't work with my brain because to me CF is "springy". Maybe its the rubber isolators doing their job, maybe its the CF, but regardless- have had the bike to some good speeds and the bars remain totally DEAD, zero vibration at all. Infact there might even be less vibration or hum than there was previously with the solid aluminum bars and end weights- but this may have been caused by the heated grips which lack squish. I went with 32mm diameter renthal kevlar grips which look unusual (pale yellow) but feel farking great for my hands (my right wrist is a problem)

-I changed to an early 200's R1 throttle tube. This was a factory part and at 45$ was a real bargain- It reduces throttle movement from 1/4 to 1/5th turn. This is a HUGE deal as it means you don't have to take a second bite with your hand prior to overtaking. Again, I was a bit worried that it might make things twitchy but in reality not a concern in the least. I did not even think about the change in throttle response until after the ride when i thought " hey I didn't need to consciously move my wrist once!"

-The EBC sintered metalic front pads and gen2 (metalman brand from australia) zx10r discs have got a lot more initial bite than my old discs, this caught be a bit off guard a few times when I squeezed on a bit more front brake than expected, but overall thats awesome. Everything works, no vibrations or other problems.

-The weight loss. The half KG off the front wheel by going zx10 plus the other 13KG lost since last ride (I had those pipes on before i pulled it to bits) has made an absolutely huge difference to how it rides. Far far far more than people would assume. I don't know if its because that half KG is rotating mass up front, or if its because a large portion of that weight was up quite high on the bike, but shits incredibly responsive compared to before. I was worried that there was going to be some placebo effect, or maybe i wouldn't notice because I hadn't been on it for a few months, but the first time did a bit of a zig-zag up the road I was like "oh my god". Its extreme enough that for the first hour (and occasionally after that) I was pushing a bit too deep into some corners and was having to straighten back up a little mid corner.

I sat round with a workmate and compared weights yesterday-One source had my year bike at 225kg (lighter than the other gen2's as I don't have ABS). Weight loss would put mine about 200kg, or 20kg more than most of the 1 liter superbikes around (like his big dollar aprilia). So I've I've managed to halve the difference, that's a long way toward making it not a "whale" and really puts things into perspective.

I can't really do much more to chop out any additional weight except fit the ZX rear wheel (might be a job for next winter)...or I could shell out for CF fairings or lose 5kg front and 5kg rear by going with some billet magnesium wheels (shit would be amazing) but right now I'm 10/10 happy.

Cold kiwi this weekend hence the lame roof rack on the rear

 

[kicker]

You gotta EF? Come on man, don't hold out

[flyingbrick]

EF? 

[Nominal]

12 minutes ago, flyingbrick said:

EF? 

 

[kicker]

GSX1100EF, the grandfather of the Hayabusa

 

[flyingbrick]

Oooh, it's actually an es, owned by @64valiant

Quite a special bike and I hope when the times right he starts a project thread for it 

[kicker]

Ah yup, an ESF, confusingly Suzuki had another model called the ES that was a different style.
I've had a few EF/ESF/ESE/EFE/EFF/EFG over the years, in fact I have one in my garage that I have just sold as it was a bit more of a project than I wanted right now.
End thread hijack

[flyingbrick]

[flyingbrick]

I think I included pics and maybe info on the Racebox Mini unit that I purchased on indigogo a few months ago. I have only just started using it.

Great piece of kit, you can use it for recording any speed and distance measurements that you'd like.

I have been practicing 0-100 and 60ft - Both are relatively embarrassing but it is super bloody fun stopping in the middle of a rural road (while on the way to work) and thrashing it off the line. 

I was initially measuring 0-100 only and was doing the bulk of it with the front off the ground for a best time of 3.6 seconds (no rollout correction). Recording 60 ft time showed that I'm simply not getting the clutch out and to full throttle fast enough so that has to be the focus now.

Hopefully in the future I'll be confident enough to maybe run some 13's with @Roman at an OS drag day! 

 

[Roman]

13s would be a piece of cake! 
Even with a soggy launch can just brute force it with some mid track onwards power haha.
If you're doing a 3.6 0-100 then you'd be well into 11s or 12s at the drags already, surely. 

Bring it to this coming OS drags! You've got 3 weeks to practice
And you can get heaps of runs in without any pressure etc.
Dont worry about going slower than expected, honestly I'd be scared just to hop on that bike.
The first time you go, you'll wonder why you didnt sooner. So much fun.

 

[johnnyfive]

Extended swingarm time?

[flyingbrick]

Nah I need bigger balls and practice. There's people in the world that could do 8's on my bike in it's current state 

[flyingbrick]

Now I'm trawling the net for vids of this mad dog doing 8's

[flyingbrick]

 

[Roman]

Holy shit! hahaha.

Unreal
 

[flyingbrick]

1 hour ago, Roman said:

Holy shit! hahaha.

Unreal
 

Yeah. I actually just read through the comments to find specs. It's not actually stock, has a similar amount done to mine. Light weight wheel, alloy subframe, exhaust etc.. but also lowered. 

However stock for these usually just means unopened motor and no gas or turbo (etc)

I have been offered a lowering strap for mine- I think it's basically a ratchet strap that pulls the front down and removes all of your droop. 

 

[flyingbrick]

Happy as I had been wanting a one piece top yoke to replace the HEAVY factory two piece rubber bushed unit for six months. I found one of these (no longer made) on ebay but the guy wouldn't post to NZ and the asking cost plus the estimated youshop cost was huge. 

I asked again over the weekend and came to a very good arrangement, so it's now on the way to me.

This will save over 1kg (could be closer to 1.5kg) and is probably the nicest looking option that has ever been available for the bike. 

I'll throw some titanium bolts in there from Ali express too.