Performance upgrades - what you chose and why?

[R6_kid:Me]

In this day and age where so much racing technology is passed down from the gods to us mere mortals we are blessed with some of the finest two wheelied machinery ever seen on the face of the earth.

Along with the high-spec track designed and tested bikes, we also get oodles of aftermarket bolton/replacement parts, at a fraction of the cost compared to 10 years ago.

It would seem that a lot of people go for more power when we talk about inhancing performance... a full system or just and end can, coupled with a free flow filter and fuelling management system setup with some dyno time. Some people even throw some Ohlins or other brand suspension in there for a bit of better handling.

Other things we do include chaning brake pads and brake lines for braided and race-equivalent stock aswell as replacing the OE fitment tyres with our rubber of choice.

The thing that strikes me, is that i only know of one person that has aftermarket 'race' wheels on their bike. I have seen setups advertised at around $1500-1700 a set, some including brakes aswell, for all sorts of different bikes. Now, these wheels are lighter - this enables better acceleration, braking, traction and of course better handling. Not to mention the fact that some look dead sexy. Although you may only shed 5kg off the total weight of your bike, the effective weight loss at speed in corners has been said to 'feel like the bike lost 30kg'...

What effected the decisions you made when picking aftermarket parts for your bike? Surely the aftermarket exhaust was for some noise and to remove the blandness of the OE part, and to be different from your mate, but why not a set of better brakes, wheels or suspension for the same price or even a little more?

[moT]

i guess its a balance in both power and handeling you cant have one without the other get a power mod test it get used to it see the differences then get a suspention, brake mod and see how that feels so on and so forth

[R6_kid:Me]

it would be my guess that with the a set of lightweight wheels and some aftermarket suspension the handling increase would boost your confidence enough to out-weigh your ability to use the extra 10hp gained from a full system/filter/fuel map

[Nutter34]

Didn't Superbike or Performance bike do a test a few years back with datalogging equipment? Same bike with different riders did a course they set up. For every rider on the bike in each configuration, it was always quicker, handled better, accelerated better, etc than the stock wheels.

[Brian d marge]

Didn't Superbike or Performance bike do a test a few years back with datalogging equipment? Same bike with different riders did a course they set up. For every rider on the bike in each configuration, it was always quicker, handled better, accelerated better, etc than the stock wheels.

Yes they did ( if I remember , but the wheels didnt come out on top by much. Yes they give things an easier life , but apart from bling and a big bill we aint going to notice a lot ,
get the basics right first , chain , wheel bearing , head bearing etc ,

Put the stock stuff in the attic covered in cotton wool , throw on cheaper rebiukdable after market stuff , with the same dimensions as stock

when you sell the bike ,,its mint ( and you can sell the other stuff to a poor starving racer ..

Stephen

ignition systems can fail to ignite the mixture quite often .. and that often is getting more and mre the higher the rpm s !

[Back Fire]

The thing that strikes me, is that i only know of one person that has aftermarket 'race' wheels on their bike. I have seen setups advertised at around $1500-1700 a set, some including brakes aswell, for all sorts of different bikes. Now, these wheels are lighter - this enables better acceleration, braking, traction and of course better handling. Not to mention the fact that some look dead sexy. Although you may only shed 5kg off the total weight of your bike, the effective weight loss at speed in corners has been said to 'feel like the bike lost 30kg'...

generally, unless your talking second hand 2k's worth of A/M wheels wont save you much if any weight... theres a set out by Braking which comes with rotors... about 2k ish new... same weight as stock, but the rotors are part of the wheel casting, so fun getting new discs put on the mounts... but I agree on wheels being a very good modification... but generally for a 5kg saving your looking at $5k for a set of BST carbon fibre or cast Marchesini or their equal.... theres alot of A/M sets out there... but they are not all good

[sAsLEX]

be right back with some pics

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...7&d=1155299906
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...8&d=1155299906
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...9&d=1155299906
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...0&d=1155299906
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/at...1&d=1155299906


there a article on the performance....... by the way learn to search as this is often discussed qrf out.

[sAsLEX]

Didn't Superbike or Performance bike do a test a few years back with datalogging equipment? Same bike with different riders did a course they set up. For every rider on the bike in each configuration, it was always quicker, handled better, accelerated better, etc than the stock wheels.

yes thy did ..... hang on see the pics in my post....

[vifferman]

I think for most of us, we don't have unlimited budgets, and so we buy the best bike we can afford, and then there's not a lot left over for customising. Also, few of us are TrackGods, so there's not a lot of point in spending big bucks on performance bits we won't notice HUGE benefits from.

I've already got an aftermarket pipe and non-stock airfilter, a FactoryPro Evo Star shifter kit (to rectify the stock crap Honda shift action), and disabled the oxygen sensors, but if I could, the mods I'd make in order of importance would be:
1. Power Commander - I've already had a trial of a loaner one, and while it didn't provide BIG horsies, I got the odd Shetland pony or two, and it made the power delivery crisper and smoother.
2. Front end off a 'Blade or SP2, including brakes, and braided brake lines whil I'm at it..
3. HyperPro or Ohlins rear shock.
4. Rotrex supercharger, just for giggles, not because I need the power. (There's a guy in Murka who is currently doing this to the same model of VFR as mine. It's all fitted, he's just gotta fit the Wide Band Commander so he can dial in the PC.)

And that's about it. Anything else would be a waste of time and money.

[sAsLEX]

1. Power Commander - I've already had a trial of a loaner one, and while it didn't provide BIG horsies, I got the odd Shetland pony or two, and it made

but the best way to improve power by seat of the pants dyno is a big flat spot then a rapid ramp up to standard power?

[vifferman]

but the best way to improve power by seat of the pants dyno is a big flat spot then a rapid ramp up to standard power?

Heh heh...
I'm sure that's not what happened, although some of the maps I tried felt like that. The most exciting one though was one that almost killed the engine before taking off. Needless to say, that only lasted about a kilometre...

I found the whole process of fiddling interesting in itself, regardless of the results. F'rinstance - there was a bit of a 'boggy' area around 5200 rpm, where the flapper valve opens on the airbox. I decided it must be because there was a sudden influx of air, so the bike was running too lean, and added some fuel to compensate. It didn't improve, so I added some more, which made it worse! So, I made things much leaner and it was heaps better. It appears Honda san's IT people must've added too much fuel in the standard map. Another thing I did was stick some 98 octane in, and add some fuel and up to 3 degrees of ignition advance at high revs. It sure extended the top end!

[sAsLEX]

Heh heh...
I'm sure that's not what happened, although some of the maps I tried felt like that. The most exciting one though was one that almost killed the engine before taking off. Needless to say, that only lasted about a kilometre...

I found the whole process of fiddling interesting in itself, regardless of the results. F'rinstance - there was a bit of a 'boggy' area around 5200 rpm, where the flapper valve opens on the airbox. I decided it must be because there was a sudden influx of air, so the bike was running too lean, and added some fuel to compensate. It didn't improve, so I added some more, which made it worse! So, I made things much leaner and it was heaps better. It appears Honda san's IT people must've added too much fuel in the standard map. Another thing I did was stick some 98 octane in, and add some fuel and up to 3 degrees of ignition advance at high revs. It sure extended the top end!

They (PCIII) are continuously variable throughout the rev range aint they?

I find it weird that Yamaha, for the sake of it couldn't make a continuously vaiable length intake for their latest, wouldn't take much more computing power or complexity of components than the binary system they put in there.


And can PCIII or similar take external sensors to adjust maps at altitude, temp,humidity changes? Wouldn't be that hard and adds a whole new level of Fiddlability (tm)

[Morcs]

Personally I like to leave a bike alone, maybe except the exhaust if its quite restrictive.

Getting a standard bike (as long as you have a good one to start with) setup perfectly for you - brakes, suspension, ergonomics etc... can sometimes be far beneficial and cheaper than spending heaps on trying to up the hp figure.

The best performance upgrade I ever bought was my one-piece leathers. Gives you that much more confidence and bigger balls to go faster, brake harder, lean more.

[imdying]

I find it weird that Yamaha, for the sake of it couldn't make a continuously vaiable length intake for their latest, wouldn't take much more computing power or complexity of components than the binary system they put in there.

I too pondered that... but when you think about it, it is very typical of the Japanese to do so.

They're not interested in building the best bikes, they interested in selling bikes. Like the brakes on the R1... radial 4 pots... didn't take a genius to see that they were going to 6 pot radials next. You think the engineers couldn't see that 2 years ago? The hell they couldn't! By fitting 4 pots, and then upgrading to 6 pots, they've extended their products life... they don't have to fit new forks etc to trick up the front end, just change the calipers. Next will probably be adding spacers (ain't radials great like that) and larger (but lighter, of course) discs.

In other words, don't be surprised if in one or two years, the R1 has a variable instead of binary length intake system. IMHO.

[Gremlin]

I upgrade whatever I like, partly for the fun of it (buying your bike presents) and partly to make it different from everyone elses, or to improve an area of the bike.

Anyone buying a decent 600+cc bike should be having their suspension set up for their riding style/roads/weight etc. The number (and variety) of people that think you can buy a bike off the showroom floor, and its perfect

Pipes are a must for me, I love a good sound, then comes pretty much anything and everything, either coz I always wanted one, or it was on my list, and the price was too good to miss. If neither of those, if I feel something is lacking on the bike, I'll fix that first. Suspension, brakes, visual stuff, engine (could be add-ons like powercommanders, or internal work)

Only problem is insurance companies... they begin to wonder how you are riding, when the list of modifications grows and grows