Sunday afternoon in Bangkok

[J.B.]

The rainy season here is finally over and at last the weather permits putting in some serious hours on the track bike. Forgive the lousy mobile phone pics. Here the race harness has been bodged up and after buzzing everything out with a meter I put the carbs back on and fired her up. Everything works



After a bit of deliberation I've kept the stater and charging circuits but ditched the ignition, fan, lights etc. The dash is OEM modified to be just tach & temperature gauges with oil, neutral & shift lights.



Once I've finished taping the harness back up I'll install the GSXR stator & flywheel, yank the quietening gears from the cams and then it's off to the dyno to tweak the fuelling and the Ignitech.

[superlite]

Nice one! It's always good when things works as they should. Keep the progress coming (with pics)!

What rads are you running

[J.B.]

Cheers mate,

The upper rad came from RB Imports in Australia, they have them custom made. The lower I had made here locally in Thailand - basically a copy of the OEM lower but with 32 mm core & tanks. I'm really happy with it. There's still enough room behind it for an NC29 heat exchanger & Honda OEM oil filter. No doubt a "series" rather than "parallel" radiator set up would be more efficient but I'm not planning any engine mods and for my purposes I think these will do just fine.



Jimmy

[J.B.]

Different Sunday ...

Gixxer K7 generator & flywheel installed ...



Quietening gears removed from the cams ...



The chopstick is an essential tool for valve clearance adjustment



Not long now and it should be ready for the dyno.

[gonzothegreat]

What do you really gain by removing the quietening gears please?

[J.B.]

What do you really gain by removing the quietening gears please?

I cannot honestly say as I have never tried it before, likewise the Gixxer flywheel mod. In theory slightly less reciprocating weight. The sound is authentic though lol.

[Neosophist]

What do you really gain by removing the quietening gears please?

0.5hp?

The quietning gears do exactly what it says on the tin. Quieten the valve-train down by putting tension on it, even at low rpm.

This load on the engine zaps a fraction of power that could go elsewhere

Since it is essentially free to do this mod many racers do it who want to squeeze every last drop out of the engine.

It was popular in the CBR250 scene too as they make less power.

I wouldn't recommend it on a road bike, with the gears removed, at idle the bike sounds akin to a dry clutch combined with a bag of spanners floating around in the engine, really does give the bike more of a kawasaki feel.

For this fractional gain of power, if you ever come to sell it and don't reverse the mod you might have a hard time convincing somebody not in the know that it sounds like shite to make more power...

If it's a track / racer then go for it.

[J.B.]

Neosophist do you have any experience with electric water pumps? Worthwhile for a track bike?

[marcus57]

Bike looks lovely, where did you get the kevlar engine cover from?
Is that a Rick k7 kit?

[J.B.]

Bike looks lovely, where did you get the kevlar engine cover from?
Is that a Rick k7 kit?

Cheers. The kevlar cover came from RB Racing in Sydney, I believe they're mandatory in Australian 400 club racing. TYGA make one also.

Yes that's the cover Rick sells for the GSXR generator mod.