Bit about me, aussie based in tokyo. ride tsukuba and motegi circuits regularly. compete in their club level events on my 600. just bought the 1000 and starting to get it set up for next year. hopefully ill be able to get it sorted before the circuits shut down in december. anyone with any advice as to what would required or recommended im only to happy to hear it!
so far--- WP shock, dampner, brembo radial master, fastline stainless lines. ordered yoshimura triple clamp. forks are my dilemma. thanks for your advice graham (wera board) fortunately i have agood friend that ran the GMD computrack shop in tokyo until it shut down, he while being a busy guy is a wealth of good advice(when i can catch him!)
well i can tell you about my weekend hows that??!!
signed up for a TC600 race for saturday at what is probably considered the proving ground for japanese racers, tsukuba circuit. its 2.?km track record 57sec. a winning time in ST600 is 1.00, TC 1.02 it was my first race at tsukuba having only done a handful of sessions previously. i headed up on fri for practice. i was working on lines and running 1.05s and feeling good on the bike. it was giving me trouble however popping out of gear as i deweighted and changed after one particular corner. it didnt do it anywhere else but was beginning to become a regular occurance. i almost ran off once.
i was set for qualifying the morning of the race having had a few breakthroughs in my approach to certain key corners. qualifying i went out fast (for me!!) posted a couple of low fives then a few 1.04s then on that same exit my bike was having trouble dealing with the day before whamo! as i started to brake and apex in the bike slips out of gear throwing the momentum forward and washing the front, i went down hard at about 120km/h. the run offs are short with big sponges on the fence and thats what me and the bike hit at speed. i lay around for a while. checking toes and fingers. the ambulance came and took me off, not that i needed it but i think they called it when they saw me go in.
got the bike back after the session. fairing destroyed, but suprisingly no other real damage!! i was gridded 12th of 25 for the race with a 1.04.8. taped the bike back together(literally!!) and started the race. i was still a bit hesitant to push it too hard until i was sure that everything was straight. my concern was the corner coming off the back straight, its a sweeper but you only drop a gear to 5th and commence braking at about the 50m mark so your entry speed is really fast. not a good place to find out the balance is a little out. it turned out the bike as fine. id been passed by quite a few in the first lap and then i set about making a few back. finnished 16th with a best time of 1.05.2 i wasnt to upset. the bike continued its gearing problems dropping out of gear in the section of the course on about every third lap. fortunately not in the same disasterous spot it did in qualifying.
Well done... being able to get up after a crash and race is the best way of wiping away the crash. Sounds like you might be ready for some gearbox work though It's a cbr600rr?
What are the classes? ST & TC? Somwthing like supersport & superstock?
Are there many people still running 250GP bikes in Japan? I'm thinking of importing a second hand one at the end of the season for next year, before they become collectors' items...
no its an 01 gsxr600. and yes it definately needs gearbox work. its a tired old thing. EVERYBODY pulls me on the straights so ive got to get it all back in the braking zones and corners. good training for when my 1000 is set up!!!! no more power deficit!!!
TC is the slower class. ST600 is probably the most competitive class in the country. the qualifying times were 1.00 to 1.03.4 outside that and you missed out. they are both super stock classes.
there are still quite a few 250gp bikes around but the 125 class is definately much more popular.
It's a cbr600rr?
