Torrid_Pace's Track Bike Build Thread

been a while but I have a small update

Im going to do a track day tomorrow (not really a track but a cone course) so I picked my bike up from the guy doing up my race bodywork. The plastics are not done yet but he has the moulds done for the upper, lower and tail piece.

brought the bike home and removed the kickstand, then jumped the switch to bypass the safety feature

This is an excellent video I found that helped with jumping the switch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLxyE0jSrBo

Installed yamahar3racing.com 2nd gen rearset risers and reversed shift pattern, these have changed the ergos of the pegs by a lot, way more aggressive now, they are set on the lowest and furthest back setting

I ran out of daylight so couldn't install the woodcraft 1.5' clipons, t-rex engine covers, graves steering stop

Parts in the mail include spare stock brake and clutch levers, bridgestone 20 evos, r6 throttle tube, service manual, amb260x transponder

after the track day tomorrow I'm returning the bike to have its plastics finished up,while thats happening I will be building myself a workbench and purchasing a table vice, torque wrench and drill to prepare for the safety wiring. (which reminds me to by safety wire pliers now lol).

I'll try to take more pics tomorrow

had my track day yesterday and it was a learning curve to say the least, for starters my left boot is defective it has a small plastic piece protruding on the inside and stabbing my big toe making it a royal pain in the ass to shift, I had to wrap my toe in gauze every time I went out for my sessions so new boots is on my list of items to purchase either that or find someone that can repair my current one

spent the first 4 sessions getting use to the new position of the rearsets and the reverse shift patten (kept upshifting at the end of the straight!) I had major issues with my cornering technique primarily having the weight in my hands and wrist and having a really tough time gripping the tank with my legs (wish the tank was wider!) my issue was that I was keeping my body in a very upright/standard body position the whole time, during the lunch break I started asking a bunch of racers to sit on my r3 and they all told me that the positioning of the rearsets is what they prefer and I noticed as they sat on the bike they were hunched over with the chest much lower and closer to the handle bars

for my fourth and fifth sessions I imitated the racer's body position keeping my chest much lower when cornering and that made a worlds difference I noticed that I could tighten up my core and lock my legs much more effectively and was finally getting confident! half way through the 6th session it started raining and I ended up locking my rear wheel and sliding for about 5-6 feet and lets just say the skidmark on the pavement was not the only one to come to fruition after locking the tire! I quickly exited the track, packed up and called it a day, bike is back at flexiglass now getting its body work finished

I am super excited to continue improving and my next track day is mission racetrack on may 14 this will be my new racer course with the wmrc and then hopefully I will have the bike all prepped for the race on may 15 cant wait! I promise to take tons of photos that day

So I lied... I barely took any photos, we'll wait and see if any of the onsite photographers got me in any >

I was up till 1 am both on thursday and friday getting the bike ready for the saturday track day and sunday race day this meant spending a lot of time getting acquainted with the factory service manual, thursday night took the wheels off and drilled all of the brake caliper fasteners and axles for lock wire

Friday during the day I had my s20s mounted came back from work at around 430 after picking up the uhaul trailer and some extra supplies from home depot it was already 6 pm and my plan was to flush coolant, change oil drill fasteners, mount tires and body work, since it was my first time installing the wheels it took my probably 3x longer than the more experienced wrencher

front wheel was straight forward but had major issues figuring out where the spacers went in the rear, after finally figuring it out I then spent a crap load of time trying to physically get the axle through the adjusters, wheel and spacers, then after torquing everything down I realized I forgot to adjust the chain's slack! 12 am rolls by and now Im starting to get stressed, need to be up at 5 am the following day to load it all up and make the trek out to the track

not enough time to swap out the oil and coolant along with drilling remaining fasteners so racing on sunday was no longer an option, quickly slapped on the fairings with a ton of help from zip ties (those things are awesome!)

In my haste I quickly took off the rearset risers to make the bike back to stock again because when I was at the track I really wanted to work on the basics with my instructor I shouldve taken the time to install these properly

Saturday morning, arrive at the track, meet my instructor, set tire pressures do some light stretching and head out for the first session, first lap is great feeling comfortable on the bike, cross start finish to begin lap 2, hit brake marker for T1 try down shifting and nothing happens, at first I blamed this to user error simply assuming I missed the shifter due to it being moved lower to stock position, so I take T1 in 4th (usually a 3rd gear corner), now comes T2 another 3rd gear corner, so I go to down shift again and I still cant feel my shifter, I Look down and see that it is pointed very low towards the ground... uh oh, so I had to finish my lap stuck in 4th the whole time all the while using the clutch for the lower speed corners, exit track, back in the pits to see whats up...turns out my shift rod had fallen out on that first lap!

Asked every vendor if they had a shift rod that fit, no luck! Last option is to make the 2 hour round trip to home and back to the track with my rearset risers and shift rod! I was so lucky to have the spare rod, if I didnt have any of this my day wouldve been done after the first lap and I wouldve never gotten my race license!

By the time I got back to the track and mounted the risers and shift rod the entire morning was done, but I was still able to sneak in 2 sessions and a mock race in the end

I felt so comfortable on the risers which sucked because I realize I never shouldve swapped them out, I had them on the lowest and most forward setting, I could easily shift my hips to either side of the bike now and lock in with ease! It was awesome! The mock race at the end was the best I still day dream about it, great battle with a cbr300 and a ninja 250

I ended up completing the course and can now officially race with the club, next race weekend is May 21-23, anyone in the vancouver area should come out to the track day on the 21 and come watch the racing its awesome!!

My bikes back getting its body work done it wont be ready for next weekend but my connection said he will have the belly pan on there for me so I will be good to go for the race weekend it just wont look pretty, my body work is expected to be finished by early/mid June I will post pics once I have it

all in all minus the shift rod it was a great day caught up with some friends learned tons from my instructor while I was on track, my downshifting is much smoother and quicker now I just need to work on my vision and conditioning

lesson learned here: HAVE AS MANY SPARE PARTS AS YOU CAN FOR YOUR BIKE ON HAND AND BRING ALL SPARES WITH YOU TO THE TRACK!!

fingers crossed I'll be racing next Sun & Mon, will be out at the track day for sure on the Sat, no promises but I will try to take photos!

big shout outs and thank yous to spears racing for doing the walk around video on their r3 racing bike, this gave me a great reference on drilling and safety wiring and of course a HUGE thank you for yamahar3racing.com's how to blogs along with my service manual I was referencing those the most!

this pic is not from my previous track day but from the one before that