Thinking of modifying the Gixxer.

**imdying** · 10th August 2006, 19:38

Originally Posted by onearmedbandit

And I do the odd track day, and am also looking at getting into clubman racing on the old girl. With a young family and my work committments doing a full season including the Nth Island is out of the question at the moment.

Get an old van through work, that'd be a great way to spend the odd weekend

**onearmedbandit** · 10th August 2006, 19:47

Would love to, but getting time away is hard enough let alone taking it away from my daughters.

**imdying** · 10th August 2006, 20:30

If won't tell if you don't

**Brian d marge** · 11th August 2006, 00:54

Sorry threw away the leaflet, with the pretty pictures on it, Here is the fellas business card , may be some help ( he want to get the word out so should be ok to post ! )

and the other is Shocks , a very good Alternative to Ohlins , ( IMHO) anyway .. Hope thats of some assistance

Stephen

**Shaun** · 11th August 2006, 16:00

Carbon front wheels are a huge pain in the arse! You have to modify the suspension a lot to get a good feel from then due to the lack of weight

**onearmedbandit** · 11th August 2006, 16:27

Originally Posted by Shaun

Carbon front wheels are a huge pain in the arse! You have to modify the suspension a lot to get a good feel from then due to the lack of weight

Was wondering about that Shaun, but I've just put in an order for an Ohlins rear shock and steering damper, next to do is doing the internals of the fork, probably be unimaginative and go the ohlins route for them as well.

Now I'm asking for trouble here by even putting this sort of question to a rider of your experience, but hey nothing ventured nothing gained. Are you speaking from personal experience re the carbon front rim? The reason I ask is that while I considered what you said prior I've not read anything in any of my research regarding suspension difficulties. Would that be more applicable to race setup bikes than road bikes? Thanks Shaun.

**Brian d marge** · 11th August 2006, 17:05

No hes right you know, instead of the inertial forces caused by a 200kb lump of Japans finest , the spring, Shim stacks will only have to cope with 50 kg worth of inertial forces ( those numbers are just numbers and dont mean anything )

Harsh would be a term that would be springing to mind,

My guess ( we dont change to lighter wheels in MX , so havent any experience )

would be the spring rates will stay the same ( for your wieght ) and the Compression shim stacks are going to be softer , while the rebound/s will be slightly stiffer

What we need is/are a long sweeping corner, with ripples on the "line" ..into the braking , transition and exit ... ( saturday nite Ruapuna , and a bucket and spade !)

a can of spray paint ... and a weekend free ( well at least saturday , You need the sunday to recover from the beer on saturday )

No all Joking aside. let us know how you get on and what you settle on settings wise !!

Stephen

**onearmedbandit** · 11th August 2006, 17:39

Thanks Stephen and Shaun. I've been set up with a great deal on Ohlins gear through a fellow member here with the rear shock being setup for my weight by Robert Taylor (I think that's his name). I'll do the front forks once I go ahead with the rims. Seems there may be a lot of fine tuning involved but it's something I'm more than happy to get involved with.

**sAsLEX** · 11th August 2006, 18:40

Originally Posted by onearmedbandit

Thanks Stephen and Shaun. I've been set up with a great deal on Ohlins gear through a fellow member here with the rear shock being setup for my weight by Robert Taylor (I think that's his name).

Keep it updated I will follow with interest, and call him roy , rodger or robin everyone knows who your talking about!

EDIT: Heres an article on the subject for peoples perusal.....sshhhh its fair use as it an old mag ....

**sAsLEX** · 12th August 2006, 19:08

Thought I would bump this for the article I added to the post above, delete if wanted mod.

**onearmedbandit** · 12th August 2006, 19:50

Excellent, thanks sAsLEX, I'll read those pages soon.

**texmo** · 13th August 2006, 14:02

A very intresting arctile about wavey disc's that I though you might like to read OAB since your trying to lose that much weight every little bit counts, especially when its unsprung weight.

Many of the current wave rotor designs are downright stupid and border on the comic. For most applications, this is merely a trend that will pass. Note how many pro Rally, Formula One, or IRL cars that are using wave rotors, NONE. Some applications, where unsprung weight is absolutely precious, could consider their use (125 GP). People will say that they cool down quicker. That's fine, but they never point out that they heat up just as quick. This is a very bad thing if you have prolonged breaking sections on rides. They will say that they 'brake' better, that just can't be true. All modern break rotors have adequate drilling and material use, plus they will have more surface area to work with. This claim must be related to the fact that when someone is installing expensive wave rotors, they end up working on other parts of the brake system that does improve performance, like fresh fluid, new pads, lines, or master cylinder. For sport bikes the weight issue is the only real way to look at these, but they come with the disadvantages usually associated with ELS (Expensive Lightweight Shit). (If you ride in real East Coast swamp conditions, these can provide a mud cleaning advantage, but you have to see some serous mud for this to be true)

PVM Racing has about the best example of these rotors available for street bikes. If you do not NEED wave rotors, do not get them. A round rotor with a simple "porsche" drilling will work much better for far longer. Many riders never use the rear brake. If you are one of these riders, you should try to get the lightest rotor possible in the rear. TCM Motorcycle Products has a service for drilling out stock rear rotors to make them light. At $75 this is a major reduction in unsprung weight for very little money.

While I am away on a trip, I am sending my rear rotor to TCM Motorcycle Products to be put on a diet. The price for this service is about $ 85.00. This is pretty cheap considering the estimated 38% weight reduction.

This should help lighten the rear wheel of the bike, reducing unsprung and rotating mass, therefore improving roadhandling.

As much as I have argued against wave rotors, none of that applies to the rear end of the bike. The rear brake of a performance motorcycle is rarely if ever used, therefore, can be made as light as possible at the expense of breaking performance.

As you can see below, my stock rotor weighs in at 820.7g. Assuming that 38% of that is removed with the razorback option, it should weigh in at 508.8g. That is over 1/2 of a pound. A very good investment.

I though it was a good read anyway.

**James Deuce** · 13th August 2006, 14:44

Pity he doesn't know his smashing stuff from his slowing down stuff.

Though I doubt most squids really understand the difference either.

Brake: to reduce velocity.

Break: to render an item unusable.

See? One and the same for the true squid.

**sAsLEX** · 13th August 2006, 14:45

Originally Posted by texmo

Note how many pro Rally, Formula One, or IRL cars that are using wave rotors, NONE. Some applications, where unsprung weight is absolutely precious, could consider their use (125 GP)

That is because they use ceramic or cabon discs.

**texmo** · 13th August 2006, 14:58

Originally Posted by sAsLEX

That is because they use ceramic or cabon discs.

Originally Posted by Jim2

Pity he doesn't know his smashing stuff from his slowing down stuff.

Though I doubt most squids really understand the difference either.

Brake: to reduce velocity.

Break: to render an item unusable.

See? One and the same for the true squid.

When you guys have a CV like this then you can argue http://www.peterverdonedesigns.com/f...one_Resume.pdf