VULGR's race build

I arrived in Newcastle at about 3pm Saturday afternoon (the following all happened over the following 45hrs) and began stripping all of the fairings off the bike

I installed the block off plate, removed the stock exhaust and replaced it with the sexy looking akrapovic full system. As usual, a lot of weight savings from swapping to a full system


Next was the suspension, I laid the bike on its side (on the grass) and removed the rear shock and replaced it with the great looking MUPO kit provided




I then swapped out the stock front fork internals for the aftermarket MUPO kit and re-installed the forks (still look stock from the outside)


I changed the front sprocket -1 as I had spoken with @Aufitt who had told me it is geared a little long for our local track and the track I would be racing on looked like it'ld be roughly the same speeds at the end of the straights.

I didn't need to ride with the ABS to know it'ld be too restrictive and interfere with racing so I replaced it with a HEL SS braided front brake line and bypassed the ABS. I disconnected the rear brake from the ABS unit as well and connected the stock line directly to the master cylinder. New fresh dot 4 brake fluid was also used when bleeding the new system


I drilled and lockwired all of the necessary caps and bolts and relocated the bars below the top triple tree.
It was Sunday afternoon by the time I had gotten the bike to this point and there wasn't much more I could do until the remainder of the parts arrived on Monday morning so I spent some time catching up with the family

Monday morning had arrived and I was waiting an onslaught of parts and accessories to arrive.
A couple of parts were due to arrive from my sponsor www.kaneg.com.au
I was waiting for a head lift front stand and trailer mate to make transporting the bike a million times easier! The shipping company actually tried delivering these Thursday but I hadn't yet arrived and rescheduled the delivery for Monday.
I was also waiting on the second half of the the parts supplied by Yamaha, most importantly:
-fairings
-engine cases
-rearsets


While I was waiting I began setting up the van for the trip (400km away) to the track that afternoon




I waited until 1:30pm and nothing had arrived, I'ld need to put the street fairings back on and use them for the track day
I left the belly pan and most of the black plastics off and loaded the bike up

A little bit of duct tape to hold it together since o only installed half of the fairings


I drove down to Goulburn, 15mins away from the racetrack (Wakefield Park) and stayed the night there. I was looking forward to an early start at a track I knew very little about

I woke up nice and early Tuesday morning, had a cup of coffee and headed to the track. Wakefield Park has great spectator areas where the whole track is visible, the surface looks great and visibility through the corners looks like it will be great
I unloaded the bike and all of my gear and proceeded to sign on for the day. At this point my bike still hadn't travelled a single km


Unfortunately due to the shipping company I still did not have my front stand so I'ld need to run my front tire without a warmer. I was surprised at the lack of scrutineering involved at the track day, they only had a really quick look at the bike just before I left pit lane


I was keeping in mind that I had never been to this track and wasn't familiar with the layout of the circuit, I was also aware that my front tire was stone cold so I wasn't about to go out and push at 100% for the first session
The corner visibility was amazing, you could see how sharp the corners were and your apex and exit before you even arrived at the corner, this instilled a lot of confidence within the first few corners. I was just cruising at about 50% pace, not aggressive with the throttle or brakes and not leaning the bike very far at all. I got to the tightest left hander (turn 8), I had done 90% of my braking before arriving at the corner and was still at a very slow pace, I trail braked ever so slightly as I began to tip in... The front slid and before I had time to react the bike was sliding down the track
Scratched the front upper fairing and left fairing, cracked the left tail fairing, snapped mounting point for the swing arm spools and bent the gear shifter. The bike had less than 2km and looked like a mess! It was a really slow crash and I hoped up without even the slightest soreness or injury




A bit of duct tape and I was ready to head back out for the next session. This time I decided I would place the warmers over the top of the front tire, it wouldn't be perfect but it would get more heat into the carcass and surface of the tire than nothing. I went out for the second session, took it even easier for the first couple of laps before slowly upping the pace (still WAY off race pace). The front and rear tires were sliding everywhere! These tires are possibly the worst tires I have ever ridden on. I made it through the session and pulled in to the pits. I'ld need to change over to the supercorsa's I had brought with me, unfortunately there wasn't a tire changer at the track and I'ld need to head in to town.
There was one more session before lunch so I made the decision to stick with these and drive into town on the lunch break. I started pushing a bit more in some of the faster corners but remained careful on the tighter stuff, I started getting some great pace through these faster sections. About 16mins into the session I was flying down the front straight, full throttle through T1, I had just gotten off the throttle and began to load the front suspension. I was barely leaned over (maybe 10% lean angle) and the front end washed away. I hadn't wiped off any speed at all and this was the fastest part of the track, looking at the data from the previous laps it was a 160km/hr (100mph) corner. As I slid and tumbled along the Tarmac and grassed areas I watched the bike explode into thousands of pieces (a slight exaggeration). I jumped up and moved out of the way as quickly as possible to safety. I had smacked my head, slid for 50m and tumbled a few times, surprisingly I had no soreness or pain anywhere. The bike was destroyed though!
Completely smashed every fairing piece that was on the bike, the headlight was smashed, tail light smashed, right rearset shattered, right handlebar snapped, left handlebar bent, wiring in the right switch block cut, ignition snapped, both seats damaged, engine cases scratched, radiator hoses disconnected, slight damage to the radiator (not leaking), damaged rear line and reservoir, small dent in the swingarm, scratched and dented exhaust and a few other small bits and pieces
(Note this is what was left, I hadn't removed anything at this point)



https://vimeo.com/159297457

10 days to have it ready for the race weekend

Kinda reminds me of this ....

Kojiiro said:

So I take it you wont be endorsing the stock tires? LOL.

I am glad you are ok though. I am pretty excited to read about your race. Will you make it in 10 days?

Click to expand...

Definitely won't be endorsing them, they went in the bin today and the supercorsa's went on

The race glass, rearsets and a few other bits and pieces arrived while I was as the track destroying the bike. There really isn't much damage when I peeled off all of the road parts off. A couple of bent brackets which were easily straightened, new clipons should arrive in a couple of days, new rear brake line should arrive tomorrow, replaced the rear brake reservoir today, replaced the U bolt that holds the front master cylinder to the handlebar. The bike should definitely be ready by next week
With everything stripped off again it doesn't look so bad


I also installed the rearsets, they are awful cheap Chinese rubbish but they came with the race package. I changed to GP shift as well (it'll be the first time I've tried it ).
I also installed the "fairings"... These are the worst set of race glass I have ever seen, they are thin, flimsy, no reinforcement, average fitting, the "gel coat" is paper thin. I'm not sure what brand they are but I would never choose to purchase this particular brand again! However, the bike is starting to look like a bike again

I'm still waiting on the engine cases to be sent out though (sent today apparently).

My leathers ended up with a small hole in the right hip so I took it to a repairer today, I must admit I'm a little nervous because I haven't seen this guys work before
My helmet got dinged up as well

Helmet shopping resulted in a new lid, unfortunately the range was very limited in the few bike shops I visited

Thanks for the support guys
There's not a lot more I can do until the final parts start arriving. So it was time to put some time in to my track van which will also double as accommodation for the race weekends. I'ld love to stay in 5star hotels but this will be a lot more affordable.
This van already has multiple tie down points in the floor which is a huge bonus My sponsor www.kaneg.com.au supplied a 'trailer mate' to make it infinitely easier to load and unload the bike, simply drive the bike into the stand and it remains upright while you tie it down


I also grabbed some 16mm MDF to knock up a "bed" with some storage underneath. There's plenty of room for all of my track gear and plenty of room for parts and spares.