rchase

Thanks Jeff! Lots of great info around here. Already completely glad I joined.

What happened in this crash, do you know? Seems like weird place to crash, did someone hit him from behind? I have wondered the same thing myself. My theory is that since he was in the braking zone before the Barber hairpin he locked up the front brakes. When I first got the bike it had the original FZR400 rotors and two piston calipers on it and the original master cylinder was in desperate need of replacement. It had a tendency to resist you when you put on the brakes and then when you put more lever pressure on it occasionally gave you way more brakes than you intended. It may have just started that behavior and surprised him as it had surprised me a few times riding it on the street. Under normal braking it would not lock up the brakes but it was quite unsettling to say the least. Since then I have installed an FZR600 master cylinder, new brake lines, 4 piston FZR600 calipers and EBC Contour Rotors. Now it stops just like a more modern machine does.

Appreciate the info. Last time I bought tires I had to go with the BT090 because I could no longer get the tires that I used previously. I was unaware that the tire situation had become that bad already. I may go ahead and buy a small stash of these tires "just in case". There's also the option I have not yet explored yet of European market and Japanese market non DOT certified tires. I do realize one day keeping the 18 inch rear will probably mean the end of being able use this bike on the track but I am completely ok with that. It's still a an absolute joy to ride on the street and still has valid plates and street registration. Regardless of where I enjoy this bike I do want to get rid of the shake. I really appreciate all of the suggestions. I'll be tearing into it within the next few weeks to get started.

More entertainment value. My bike had a #238 on it when I bought it which I kept on it. Noticed the #602 and the WERA stickers and found some additional info on the rider. http://maps.wera.com/racers/racerprofile.asp?x=1098&rid=181044

Hey. Thanks for the suggestions on stuff to check! I'm compiling a big list. The wheels i suspect are ok because I have two sets and the vibration persists between both sets. I have stripped the paint off of them down to bare aluminum and they appear to not have any damage. As for the forks I'm not sure. I bought these from a friend that upgraded the front end on his FZR to more modern forks. He recently serviced them and weighed the same that I do. I'm not sure if his bike vibrated at 100 because it was a street bike and I'm a goodie two shoes on the road especially on a friend's bike. I'm planning on doing the emulators as an upgrade so it might be worthwhile to talk to the suspension guys when I have that done. I'm far from a purist but I would like to retain the original geometry with the funky 18 inch tire. For me that 18 inch rear wheel is what makes this bike so unique. A lot of people have made improvements with the 17 inch wheels though and have a much easier time finding superior tires as a side benefit. The original owner that raced the bike had a steering damper in place but it was removed before I bought the bike. I still have the damper and that's an idea to try it installed just to see if that improves things. I have some videos of this bike taking some pretty hard hits on the track so I know it's been down. Frame seems fine though other than some gravel trap pecks. If I get desperate I may head out to GMD computrac and at least have it measured and see if it's terribly misaligned. For entertainment value. My FZR getting crashed by it's former owner.

Thanks for the response. Weather does not seem to matter much. Warm, Cold it's about the same. I'll work on getting some photos of the tires.

I chatted with my friend Jeff about this and he suggested posting the question here for some ideas. One of my track bikes is a 1989 Yamaha FZR400/600 hybrid. At around 100mph I get some pretty constant vibration / shaking in the front end that gets progressively worse as you increase speed. I also have some interesting uneven wear patterns on the rear tire. The rain grooves in the tire are becoming raised on one side and lower on the the other side almost like a car tire that desperately needs rotation. The problem that I have is this bike is a bit of a oddball and I'm not sure how well many of the suspension places can deal with it. Here's what I have done so far. The 600 front end swap is pretty common for the FZR400/600 hybrids and has been done by many other owners. All of this work was done before the bike was taken to the track so I have no idea how well my original parts performed at speed other than some road riding. - Rebuilt FZR600 forks with the sag shims correctly cut for my weight. These are the old school style. No external adjustments. The rebuild is about a year old. - FZR600 Calipers. - FZR600 Rotors. (originals warped on my first dry track day and they were replaced with EBC contours) - Rebuilt Fox Twin clicker set to track defaults listed in the manual with sag set correctly. I did make some adjustments to stiffen it up slightly as I was having a rear end "squat" issue under heavy throttle. Rebuild is about 6 months old at this point. I did most of the front end work myself and it's all been checked and double checked and there's no bolts or parts that are loose in the front end. Jeff suggested looking at the steering head bearings which I plan to do but I was wondering if anybody else had any ideas? I'm planning a rather extensive winter overhaul and have to do some repair work to do after breaking something in the drive train at Barber. While I have the bike down I might as well try to figure out whats going on.

Here's my list in order of purchase. Still have them all. 2009 Buell Blast. You have to start somewhere. 1997 Harley Fatboy. Most fun you can have with saddle bags and a windshield. Its FAST for an 800# bike. Engine was stock years ago. 2000 Yamaha R6. First sport bike. Bought from a friend. Sparked my interest in this whole track thing. 2002 MV Agusta F4 Diamante. Love at first sight. I was never the same after hearing this bike scream to redline. 1989 Yamaha FZR400 ex race bike (track). Rode a friends 1988 FZR400 and wanted one ASAP! 2003 Yamaha R6 ex race bike (track). 110 octane fire breathing monster. Been sleeping since 2007. Hopefully I'll change that soon.

I actually still own a Buell Blast myself that was my first bike. Over time I bought several other bikes it and have sort of given it to my brother who enjoys riding it as well. We have done a few upgrades on it and occasionally when I get a wild hair I'll take it out for a spin. It's really a "Blast". (pun intended) At low speeds it's a huge amount of fun with tons of torque and great handling. To be fair though the Ninja 250 is a better bike if you do a lot of highway cruising at higher speeds. The Buell is ok for this but the Ninja seems better geared for lots of highway use. It is a VERY capable canyon bike as Hotfoot mentioned. A friend borrowed the Blast for a trip to The Dragon and had a LOT of fun on it. There's actually a bit of a cult following to the Blast with some of the online forums. They refer to themselves as "blastards". Through the forums we have located an awesome number of upgrades for this bike to make it even more fun. Stuff like the Pirelli Scooter tire trick to jetting and exhaust upgrades are super cheap ways of building a "Fast Blast".

Being a noob rider myself I'll chime in. I have around 3 years total riding experience give or take. I have been through all 4 levels. In retrospect many of the confidence problems that I encountered at the school could be attributed to a general lack of experience. If I could change time and go back would I have waited to go to CSS? Not at all. I made massive improvements the very first day and every single time I have been on track with CSS. You have to start somewhere and I think that learning the "right way" first is very important. I remember the first time I realized i needed some "help" with my riding sitting at the side of the road at the Tail of the Dragon after nearly crashing because of my nearly non existant steering skills. I had owned my first sportbike a Yamaha R6 for about 3 weeks and some friends wanted to go and of course stupidly I tagged along. Somehow I managed to survive the experience of 318 absolutely terrifying corners on a bike I had no business riding at all.

Absolutely. And if it were not for your help specifically I would have missed out on all the fun I am having these days at Barber with the FZR.

My R6 track bike is named "spitfire" because of this. I have a TI exhaust including the header and it's tuned for 110 octane fuel. My guess on this would be the pipe and the tuning as well as well as the fuel. Here's spitfire doing it's thing. Sorry for the poor video quality. The flames actually are a lot larger and brighter in person. My guess on the fuel is based on the fact that I recently drained out some really rancid 110 out of spitfire and replaced it with pump premium with an octane boost so it would run. It still shoots fire but just not as much. My bike sat for a few years when the racer that owned it retired from the sport. Some TI porn.

Hey everyone, New to the forum but not to CSS. I took all 4 levels at Barber Motorsports Park and my friend Jeff who I met at the school told me about the forums so I thought I might pop in and see if I could pick up some additional knowledge in the process. A bit about me. I discovered motorcycles later in life and have only been riding for around 3 years. Those three years have been quite exciting to me because I have accomplished a lot in a very short amount of time. I have bought 6 bikes in my short time of riding. I have a couple of Yamaha R6's (one street one track), Yamaha FZR400, MV Agusta F4 and a couple of Harleys which despite their reputation are simply wonderful to ride. Hopefully my acquisition trend will slow down one of these days because in a few more years I won't have any room left. I have been doing track days with Sportbike Track Time mostly at Barber Motorsports Park due to it being such a wonderful place in general and only being a short hop from Atlanta. I have been learning a ton about myself and about riding in general doing trackdays. My main track bike has been a 1989 Yamaha FZR400. I picked the FZR after I rode a friends 1988 FZR400 and was astonished how wonderful it handled. Next year I'll be trying a 2003 R6 that I recently acquired from a racer that left the sport in 2007 but held onto his cherished track bike until I came along. It's litterally a fire breathing monster tuned for 110 octane fuel with lots of cool add on's. I hope to make some more improvements with a slightly more modern machine that fits my large frame a bit better. I'm planning on doing Level 4 again at Barber next year. Looking forward to seeing next year's schedule. Here's a photo of me and one of my favorite bikes. If you see me at Barber come and say hi.