Happy New Year to all. Hopefully all the hopes you entertain for the coming year are still on track (so to speak).
The lizard successfully survived it's first outing as a race bike, although we both have a long way to go before we can be more than a mobile chicane.
The attached photos show that the Lizard is mostly still stock concerning running gear and exhaust. I'm thinking of somehow attaching knee sliders to the cylinder heads due to a really off-putting graunching noise from them in some of the corners. I recon they'll wear through before I learn how (or become flexible enough) to hang off the side properly.
Secondly, there is lots of talk on this forum as well as others about exhaust selection. Has anyone considered or heard of the result of simply gutting the existing cat Or replacing the guts with minimal smoothing vanes) and vent the exhaust that down low, Buell or MotoGP Style? I mean, the exhausts that we can buy are designed for street use and noise regulations, there is a lot more latitude than that for track use. If exhaust restriction is the enemy, eliminating all the bends and backpressure from an underseat route should be avoided, right?
Photos follow
Thanks for any comments and derisive slammings
If enough is enough and more is better than too much should be just about right.
Can't beleive you are still running the rear shock/ride height in stock trim!!!
Get that baby jacked up.Watch the handling improve drastically and also raises you rocker covers away from ground more.
Forget about the exhaust etc until you get the suspension/height issue sorted.Ain't no use having extra of power you can't use eh?!
Bailey.
Honda VFR750 FV 1997 Red and dirty, 130K miles.
Honda VFR800 Xf Crossrunner 2016 White and dirty, 120K miles.
I had the stock cans with the laser Y section. It made a noticable differnce. Improved mid range and top end without losing the bottom end. I would highly recomend doing it. The noise is much better but is not loud enough to piss off the neighbours or attract the police.
Ground clearance is an issue. Heads and pegs and knee tend to touch down at the same time. Set the preload almost as stiff as it will go (I am a fat B*** so this works for me). Get your inside toe right off the edge of the peg. This will help you gauge the ground clearance. I didn't get a chance to try the raised suspension as the bike was nicked before I got around to fitting it.
Just noticed that you said "Race Bike" rather than track bike. Now your previous post come to mind. Sorry about teaching granny to suck eggs in the last post.
Definately ditto the above, sort the suspension and ride height; shorten the paralever connecting arm if nothing else. Improve on stock shox and tighten them up. Heads are unlikely to touch down after these mods. If they do, you may want titanium slippers!
Exhaust technology has been tested by the manufacturers who have the resources. You need a full pipe + some sort of silencer box for back pressure. The volume of the interior of the exhaust and where the bulges occur are crucial to sympathise with the presure waves that pulse out of the head. These vary according to RPM. So the exhaust will affect where in the rev band power is delivered. Designers have to pick an optimum, usually 70 mph in top and whatever the RPM is at that point. During my time at the drag races I have seen all sorts tried, but that was for redline RPM in the three gears to the finish, most were just header pipes to let the gas out quick. Mr Yoshimura says exhausts up high under the seat are a heavy gimmick, he prefers the weight to be tucked in near the swinging arm.
I have progressively tried a few variations on this bike and can say that ONLY changing the Y pipe is the best performance gain for the money. I would say next improve the suspension. And the brakes. Then the Remus or Laser (or other) race silencer. I have the Laser street silencer now and the performance gain was similar to fitting just the Y pipe, but the noise is shocking. I dread to think what race cans sound like!
As a race bike will want top revs quickly, the inlet tract mods may be of benefit to help fast gas flow. But short, twisty tracks will want low torque, so leaving this stock may be better.
It may sound obvious, but a full service before each race is important. It is sad to see unprepared riders expecting their bikes to go race after race with optimum performance without even checking the tyre pressures.
Jolly good luck to you!
Thanks for all your comments, the ride height is an easy first step. The shocker and aftermarket pipe will take a bit of dosh, though I can easily alter a second spare set of stock pipes.
In my defence, there were significant delays experienced by the shop merely getting this wreck in operating condition leaving me only two days at home to prepare for the first race; also I sort of wanted to leave the bike in stock form the first outing in order to be able quantify whether I was making improvements or not.
Next race meeting is on the 29th, at the least I aim to have the suspension altered and a somewhat better exhaust system.
One thing that discussion threads concerning exhaust do not make really clear, is it generally desireable to retain or eliminate the crossover pipe before the Y-piece?
2Dear
If enough is enough and more is better than too much should be just about right.
The balance pipe in front of the engine is restricted, the internal baffle is drilled with a 1.5 (?) cm hole. I suspect this pipes function is to make a slightly smoother ride, less vibes. Probably not worth the effort of cutting it off and blanking the resultant holes. However, it would be worth plugging the baffle to see what happens!
the photos below document the success of the Lizards second outing.
Lowered personal best laptime from 1:25 something to 1:22.98, two first placings and a second place in Brackets group 2.
I had to rob a head protector from a friends GS to keep from rubbing a hole in the right side valve cover. I'm not yet flexible enough to consistantly hang off of the side far enough to keep this from happening, but at least I got both knees down.
A Y piece is in place, a 3.0:1 final drive from an R1100R and a single muffler box. Next on the agenda are new(er) tyres and work on the ignition system.
good feeling to get a good result you bet.
If enough is enough and more is better than too much should be just about right.
That's a good improvement. Have you got a GS torque arm on there ? If not swap the standard for that as it's about 20mm shorter so it'll raise the rear, give more ground clearance and speed up the steering as well.
What is the fastest lap time and what other bikes are you racing against?
Maybe you could describe how the S wins and loses against other bikes out there.
Keep up the good work.
Bailey.
Honda VFR750 FV 1997 Red and dirty, 130K miles.
Honda VFR800 Xf Crossrunner 2016 White and dirty, 120K miles.
sunglasses instead of dark visor? Why? You get much all round vision without the specs. I usually use contact lenses and a dark visor. I find it much better than sunglasses.
Single race seat to replace the stock two-up touring one. Saves a lot of weight up top.
Carbon fibre valve covers ( I think Sandbar does these for the single spark machines). Saves a lot of weight and more clearnance too.
New paint job! Stock one is way too boring to take racing, and far too slow. Racing paintjob is worth at least a second a lap.
