New toy, gsxr-750 K7 trackbike.
 

As some of you may have noticed, Feb usually brings to me either a new MTB or a new motorbike.
You will have seen in the R6 thread that i was pondering a swap, but then decided against it, mostly as the right bike wasn't about and i was looking more for the sake of looking.
However, last night the right bike came up and after some discussions on price and the owner wanting to sleep on my offer, we came to a compromise early this morning. This then took me to Clacton-on-sea to pick up my new toy, a GSXR-750 K7.
It's mostly standard apart from a few bits of suspension work, crash bungs, race fairing, race can and a few electrical gubbins.
It was a very long day of driving to Wiltshire to get my trailer and persuading the ever patient GiantPygmy to let me store the new toy in his garage (thanks mate)
We had a minor disaster unloading it with a trailer/plank issue which brought a few marks on the pristine bellypan, oops.... battlescars make it more 'yours' though hey :)
I'm very excited about getting this one cleaned and fettled and then out on track ASAP. I think Mrs Weeksy will LOVE it.
The R6 has been sold to a TRCer and is being picked up on Sat next week.
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droool

Thanks mate,

Me and the wife have quite a busy year on track planned and i fancied somethign a bit newer than the old R6, so when this came up i had to pounce on it.
Just ordered a set of Wets on Wheels for it :)

Can't wait to get spannering on it at the weekend, cleaning, tidying and then hopefully if dry, thrashing the crap out of it on a test ride :)

At least you got better suspension than an xt660.:woo:

How much hassle is it getting an ACU race license nowhere days??

Eye test + exam really. Only slightly harder than back in the day.

Looks great - i have a K5 on the road, best handling bike's ever :icon_cool:




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Well that was an interesting day.... Spent several hours basically cleaning, tidying, checking, sorting and prepping the bike.
Sidestand was fitted which involved getting Pygmys new dremel out to play and getting that in action, it's a great piece of kit for sorting fibreglass, although i had to cut more than i expected.
Wheels removed so i can work out the procedure, the rear is a little nadgery sod, with a locating thing for the rear brake that needs to be correct, other than that though it's all fine on wheel changes.
Caliper bolts all checked, footrests removed and checked, cleaned all the swingarm, underside, rear side etc. All nice and no nasty suprises.
Took it out for a test ride, which was a bit of a bummer, i thought last week it was low on fuel, meaning it was lumpy and horrible at 3000-6000 rpm.... However it was doing the same again today, hesitation and not wanting to rev freely until 7000rpm or so.... I'd put plenty of new clean fuel in there, so it wasn't the level obviously, must be something else.... As the bike had been standing for a year before i bought it, the guess is a blocked injector or fuel filter etc, you can hear it on idle almost sounding like it's running on 3 cylinders as the rpm changes slightly.
Decided to bring the bike home and take to my Suzuki mechanic friend at MSG racing, however he's over in Spain at the moment with a Superbike team testing...
Roll on a couple of hours and i dropped into Halfords to get an oil and filter for it, which i've now done the oil change and they were running an offer on Redex, (petrol injection) for free with your oil... So i've chucked some of that in the tank and run the bike up to temp, it seems to be idling better and took for a 4 mile blast, you can hit up to about 100 on the blast so it gets a good oppertuniy to stretch it's legs... the bike deffo feels a bit better, although at 3000rpm or so it's slightly hesitant to pull... but only very very slightly, this may well be normal to a great extent i guess ? The rest of the rpm range it pulls cleanly and smoothly and cracks on really well.
So i'm a little torn as to what to do now really, wait till Monday and take over to my mates, get him to check and throw on the Dyno etc. Or just leave it and see how it goes in a few weeks at Rockingham.
Only the 1 pic, i was too busy and then more than a little irritated ;)
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Sorry to hear about the lumpiness - not sure what that could be :(



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So today was an interesting afternoon. Got up to MSG racing and the lads were having a nightmare. The spluttery fuelling issue was in full effect on the dyno. The new clutch was working great though.
The lads swapped out the fuel pump. Issue remained.
Swapped out the injectors... Issue remained.
Swapped out the Throttle bodies... Issue remained
Swapped new fuel.... Issue remained.
Swapped out the fuel pump relay... Issue remained.
Swapped out spark plugs.... Issue resolved ! ! ! Bike ran like a dream.
So it was then onto several hours of sorting, mapping and configuring the ECU/fuelling/TPS etc. 4 hours later and here's where we are:
Bike with the baffle out made 134.6bhp
Bike with baffle in made 132.4bhp
Considering this is classed as quite a pessimistic dyno based upon runs elsewhere, I'm VERY happy at 132.4bhp with baffle in. so it's remaining in.
Bike was then put back together, all new shiny bolts, a bit of lockwiring done and some nice new shiny decals on the repaired and painted bellypan.
Took the bike home and gave it a run out... runs sweetly and happy.
Needs a clean and polish over the long weekend.. but I'm excited about Donny next Tues now.
Couple of pics.
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Hey looks great!! I think that the GSXR750 is the ideal fun/track bike as you have the weight of a 600 with the power of a 1000, over 130 horses at the back wheel is amazing!!! Have fun!!

Thank you Simon, I spent some time early this morning with the bike

While you lot were sleeping, I had the spanners, the polishes, the cleaning fluids out and the the bike up on paddock stands. Purely an aesthetic job today, nothing more nothing less. Cleaned up all the fairings, all the 'blacks', the fork legs, calipers, brake disks, lines, hoses, clocks, screen, panels, mudguard, hugger and the wheels... Looks a bit better now :)
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Wow she is really looking good!!!! I would suggest that the R&G crash bungs are a great investment and they really work, I slid off my R1 on the track a while ago and er tested them and they took ALL of the damage and saved my fairing so really well worth it!! See ya.

Donington on Tuesday
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Well I guess the day deserves a write up.

As always, the night before was a truly brilliant night, lots of beers, banter and top class laughs from all of the lads. It's so so tough to beat the banter honestly.

Today was the first time in something like many years since I last went to Cadwell... Although I know the layout and the track pretty well, it's always hard to re-aquaint yourself with tracks, speeds and corners etc. The first 2 sessions for me were a complete well, nightmare really. I was trying honestly I was, but I was being battered by most people, my cornering was slow, my gear selection was all wrong and I came in after session 2 and just sat quietly in the shade and had a few words with myself.

Sessions 3-4 before lunch things improved a LOT, I spent these sessions pushing corners, pushing speeds and holding myself as hard as I dared time and time again. I wouldn't go as far as to say I was flying, but there were more people still behind me than in front of me after the session had ended. I overtake not too many, but only really the quick fellas went past me. I was trying to brake later, let off the brakes earlier and get on the gas earlier.

After lunch was another 2 sessions of stunning sunshine and the format continued, although in all honesty I don't think I picked up much/any speed from the earlier sessions, I'd reached my limits and there was no way I could find the quicker laps/speeds than that. But again, I was holding my own and doing my best, that's all you can do really.

I was totally fried by the end of that session, so I threw the towel in and skipped the final session.

As always I came away from the Trackday, half happy and half gutted at myself.

RP1's ZX10-R, nice cheap trackbike he paid buttons for, bargain, he was cracking on and destroying me.
Legion 748's Uber bling K8 1000
and of course, my 750 K7

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So I guess a bit of a report is due really.

We turned up at Silverstone GP to glorious sun, tyre warmers thrown on and ready and kitted up to go. Usual briefing done etc and out we go.

I was trying the new rubber today too, Bridgestone R10's. I'd heard good reports about them, they run much lower pressures of 28 HOT, so was a bit of a test for them really.

The first 3 sessions you're timed, this sets up the groups for the afternoon after 12pm. I went out with the lads, Legion748 and Rocket Ron following me, trying a bit harder was the order of the day for me, trying to work out the gearing, the rpm, the drive and the cornering. Due to Silverstone being a massive track, it's hard to do everything every lap.

I found into and out of turn 1 was my first weakness, this is as most older riders would know the start finish straight (not the one they used recently in WSB rounds), into a long sweeping right. I was on the straight in 5th, then dropping into 4th for the turn and exit, but found I was getting on the power at 7500rpm, which was bloody rubbish and I was being killed on the next straight. So I worked on getting into 3rd for the exit, getting better drive onto the straight etc.

The sessions and the corners followed in much the same way, dropping into 2nd for the (slightly modified with cones) entry onto the Hanger straight meant I was getting much better drive down the straight than previously in 4th.

Some of the corners remained the same gears but I was trying to ride faster and harder throughout the whole day, the right hand at the end of the new start finish straight, then goes into a left, I was flip-flopping at 73mph first, getting up over 80mph by the same point later in the day.

As stated above, we had a bit of mis-communication where I ended up in novice for a session. Shhheettt ! that was interesting, the lines, the speed, the riding... it showed me that maybe I'm old and past it, but damn not quite dead and buried just yet. Now I'm not meaning to be harsh to Novices here, but it was eye-openening that's for sure being out there. I counted 32 overtakes and that was with me going out near the front, so after the first lap I had 2 laps quiet, then the insanity began with bikes inside, outside, above, below and in places you'd never expect. It wasn't just the speeds, but the lines, the switching lines mid-corner etc. I spoke to Barry and after moving back to Group2, all was well with the world.

I learned the valuable lesson over the day that knee down etc, comes with speed, not just me trying to hang off like an Ape, but simply going at a higher rate of speed leads itself to more lean and knees scraping the deck. Now that may be completely apparent to some/all, but over the years of me being slower, I haven't realised at times how much slower.

I've also not really known how to go quicker... the answer mostly is, just GTF on with it and go faster. I still wasn't scaring myself as such, didn't miss a line all day in honesty, but I was moving the boundaries more and more lap and sessions at a time. Another big chunk of this is riding with people like Legion748, I owe him a heck of a lot for what he's done for me in the last 12 months of riding... more than he'll know actually. This year has just been truly epic.. From riding to Spa, to the laps at Spa, to the riding in the Cochem region to the 12 or so trackdays we've done in the past year. He's been supportive and not as mocking about my riding as perhaps I would have been if the roles were reversed LOL.

The day ended with me doing all the sessions, despite getting tired, I just wanted to be out there.

Silverstone is now my favourite circuit in the UK, by quite some distance, it's just epically fast, flowing, exciting and superb.

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