Nathan's motorcycles.....

[tortron]

 

[flyingbrick]

She ain't no custom bobber, but I still get a bit of satisfaction out of this.

Another KG saved off the front end. The factory top yoke is a two piece unit with a bottom plate that ties the forks together and then a top plate that holds the handlebars. The two items are bolted together with big bolts and isolation bushes (I don't seem to have pics of the bottom plate)

So that's now been replaced with the new billet aluminium item which is one piece so saves just over 1kg and looks cool too.

That's well over 2kg saved off the front when you include the CF bars.

The new top yoke also has another benefit. The factory setup does not allow any lowering of the bike by sliding the tubes upwards. The new yoke has relocated bar mounts and holes right through, so to increase steering response I have lowered the front of the bike 7mm. This moves weight to the front and steepens the fork angle.

Some guys lift the rear 1 or 2 inches to do the same thing, but I'd hate to increase the seat height and make it harder to handle with legs down.

Also fitted a hydraulic brake switch banjo bolt on the rear as I had no switch since doing the rearsets.

 

[flyingbrick]

Finally got the bike totally buttoned up and out for a test ride. HUGE difference to how willing it is to change direction- really impressive how a tiny alteration (I thought 7mm down up front was strangely specific) can change so much.

Also gave it a wash, clay bar (It pays not to get confused) and wax. 

 

 

[flyingbrick]

[flyingbrick]

Hah, haven't been here for ages.

*Numbers below may change once I look at spreadsheet but let's hope I'm reading my phone notes right.

Removed the smog stuff and fitted some nice cover plates to save 449g

 

 

[flyingbrick]

Took out the radiator fans, drilled out the welds and removed the steel guarding to save 220g

 

[flyingbrick]

Removed the clutch covers external dampener weight thing to save 228g

It's covered by the fairing anyway so it's a waste of space 

 

[flyingbrick]

Bought a very cheap set of yoshimura stainless extractors. Unfortunately they were missing the head flange things so I cut the pieces off the factory headers, re sized the tubes in the press by pushing through a torpedo so that they slid into the extractors slip joints nicely. 

I was quite proud of how well these cleaned up- I soaked the stainless in a bath of Citric acid for a few days and they went from shit to nearly new.

3900g saved from extractors alone.

 

[flyingbrick]

I bought two old mufflers off trademe cheap. One was full titanium but buggered from a fall (was worse irl than it looked in the photos)

The second one is a super cool old carbon fiber muffler.

Unfortunately the carbon one had a hole from an impact, was too long and was sized to suit a little motor.

I patched the hole with carbon fiber on the inside, cut both ends of the carbon body off to shorten the whole thing (the ends were all messed up) and then put the bigger guts from the titanium muffler into the carbon one. It's on my list to tidy up one day but for now it looks alright and works well.

Since I replaced two heavy (but still lighter than OEM) mufflers with one carbon muffler the weight saving overall is HUGE. gets confusing without checking spreadsheet but approximately 15,000 saved vs factory mufflers ****to edit later.****

 

[flyingbrick]

I had drilled holes in my factory exhaust mounts to try cut some weight out. These were cast aluminium and 680g each.

Holes were cool but when I changed to a single sided exhaust there was another opportunity to drop weight. I used filleting wax to smooth out the cast part and fill in the holes id made, then poured a mold in silicone, then made my own exhaust mount using a mixture of carbon and kevlar. I oriented the strands appropriately so that it was the strongest possible (well, as strong as is possible within my garage) component, with strands wrapping around the full part and around the mounting holes etc. it is STRONG..

The single component weighs 129g, a saving of 551g...but as the left side is no longer needed at all, there is a total saving of 1234g

Really didn't like the look of it so painted black in the end.

 

 

Made a carbon fiber heel guard too.

 

[flyingbrick]

I spend ages thinking about where else I could save some weight and the best way to make this. I wouldn't do it this way again, but it's good enough that there is no reason to change it now.

The factory fuel tank mount incorporates a hinge and is quite heavy steel 

The hinge is cool because it means that you only have to undo two seat bolts and two tank bolts to lift the tank up (to access the airbox)

My new tank mount does not hinge, so rather than four bolts you now have to undo 6..not really a big deal.

This saved ****TBC****

I have done a fair few km with this bracket now, so I am pretty happy with it. I was initially a little concerned about loads (you brace yourself against the tank sometimes) but it's rigid and STRONG.

 

 

[flyingbrick]

I deleted the oil cooler and blocked off the outlets. These bikes do not need the oil cooler even when turbocharged and making 600+HP, so although it's a strange thing to remove- the benefits are numerous.

2055g saved and it's now a whole lot easier to change the oil filter as the oil cooler isn't blocking access 

 

[flyingbrick]

Removed the heavy steel bracket, lower aero tray and voltage regulator mount thing, then relocated the voltage thing up into the tail. 

622g saved

 

[flyingbrick]

Replaced the steel engine mount bush things with aluminium. Shitty job to do for bugger all weight saved.. had to cut a socket into a tool to remove the factory pieces.

150g removed 

[cletus]

How much have you lost in total? 

 

I really like the level of commitment to making it lighter, and doing it the way you have, making trick parts like the carbon Fibre brackets etc

 

I was watching something the other day about dudes in America who remove things like brakes and just have a single front disc for max top speed runs, and another one who had drilled holes in his brake lever so the wind pressure at super high speed doesn't apply the brake slightly 

 

[flyingbrick]

Need to check my spreadsheet but I'm up around 35kg off.

It just gets confusing as many things like exhaust are so many iterations on from factory. Need to weigh the whole bike.

I can say it's massively noticable when riding. Compared to a factory one it's like a whole new bike.

I also cut down my levers and welded new balls on the ends to make them look legit. Mostly just because they looked cooler 

 

 

About 2% of the brake removal crowd does it for the right reasons. Very common for Americans to take off one front caliper and disc, and the rear caliper and disc, just to get the look they want. It's seriously stupid.