future mods, need opinions

[falcon23]

My goal is to be as fast as possible (1/4 mile drag) without using a turbo or nitrous. So, here are my plans of future mods:

FCR Downdraft Carbs

Flo-Commander with Filter Difuser and K-1 Remote

Akrapovic Sport Full Exhaust

Swingarm Extensions

JT 16/45 sprockets

Shift kit

These are the parts that I am still researching and haven't found or decided on:

Clutch

Ignition Advancer

Tires/Rims

So, bring on the opinions.

[Iceman_40]

What have you done so far? Would help allot

EDIT:

BTW do you plan on street riding or just drags? What year is your bike?

[bhanxx]

ZX14

[falcon23]

What have you done so far? Would help allot

EDIT:

BTW do you plan on street riding or just drags? What year is your bike?

Well, the only mod that I have now is a Factory Pro Jet Kit...so it's a 98. A lot of people say that instead of putting all this money into a carbed bike, I should just get a EFI bird. That is one thing that I will not do. See, this bike belonged to a good friend's son. His son passed away several years ago. He was very reluctant to sell it to me but I told him what my plans were for the bike and he told me that it would have made his son very happy. So, with that being said, a different bike is out of the question. For now, I am looking at mods that I could use and it would still be street friendly. I am looking into getting an R1 just to have as a daily driver and when I get that then I am going to try to turn the BB into a track monster. Soon I will be getting my NHRA competitors license. I pretty much already know what I am going to do, as listed above, but I just want to make sure I am not forgetting anything. Thanks!

[Furbird]

Just so you know up front, you won't be competitive in a heads up class without going turbo. So that means bracket racing, which is what I do. I've left mine stock as I don't really see the point in a built motor when you are bracket racing, as it is much easier to stay consistent when you are slower. You also get to leave first, so that increases the other guys chances of a redlight. But I digress.

To stay NA, you will need a built motor. Higher compression the better, but once you go so far, it's race gas only from that point. Ported and polished head, bigger valves, new cams, forged pistons, blah blah blah. Tranny will have to be cut, and you will have to have an airshifter, preferably an autoshifter like MPS offers. Extend the swingarm or add a wheelie bar, as bracket racing has no rules against those. Whatever you do, do NOT do a 520 conversion, as it will probably break. For gearing, you need a lot more than 16/45. If you do an autoshifter, you can go 12/49 in the 1/8th and go through at the very top of 5th, and the sprockets won't be outrageous (anything 50 teeth and up go up in price). 1/4 mile, you can probably go around a 14/47 or so and still be able to have gearing left, but don't quote me on that as there is no local 1/4 mile so I don't have a setup for that. You will want a fuel cell, that way you can run on about 1 gallon of gas and save a ton of weight over the stock tank weight. They do make fake fiberglass tank shells so you can make it look stock. You can also do a new upper fairing with a painted on headlight, which will allow you to mount some things in the nose to move weight up front while creating an overall reduction in weight. Mickey Thompson makes a slick that will fit our wheels and you don't have to have a tube. It is much larger than the stock tire though, so you would need to increase your gearing accordingly, not to mention a longer chain will be necessary as the highest you can go on a stock chain length is 12/47 and even that is REAL close.

Don't get mad when a Busa with a 40 shot beats you with 1/2 the investment though, because I'm telling you, nitrous is the easiest way to add horsepower. But even with that, the turbo boys are still going to annihilate you.

[jon haney]

Just so you know up front, you won't be competitive in a heads up class without going turbo. So that means bracket racing, which is what I do. I've left mine stock as I don't really see the point in a built motor when you are bracket racing, as it is much easier to stay consistent when you are slower. You also get to leave first, so that increases the other guys chances of a redlight. But I digress.

To stay NA, you will need a built motor. Higher compression the better, but once you go so far, it's race gas only from that point. Ported and polished head, bigger valves, new cams, forged pistons, blah blah blah. Tranny will have to be cut, and you will have to have an airshifter, preferably an autoshifter like MPS offers. Extend the swingarm or add a wheelie bar, as bracket racing has no rules against those. Whatever you do, do NOT do a 520 conversion, as it will probably break. For gearing, you need a lot more than 16/45. If you do an autoshifter, you can go 12/49 in the 1/8th and go through at the very top of 5th, and the sprockets won't be outrageous (anything 50 teeth and up go up in price). 1/4 mile, you can probably go around a 14/47 or so and still be able to have gearing left, but don't quote me on that as there is no local 1/4 mile so I don't have a setup for that. You will want a fuel cell, that way you can run on about 1 gallon of gas and save a ton of weight over the stock tank weight. They do make fake fiberglass tank shells so you can make it look stock. You can also do a new upper fairing with a painted on headlight, which will allow you to mount some things in the nose to move weight up front while creating an overall reduction in weight. Mickey Thompson makes a slick that will fit our wheels and you don't have to have a tube. It is much larger than the stock tire though, so you would need to increase your gearing accordingly, not to mention a longer chain will be necessary as the highest you can go on a stock chain length is 12/47 and even that is REAL close.

Don't get mad when a Busa with a 40 shot beats you with 1/2 the investment though, because I'm telling you, nitrous is the easiest way to add horsepower. But even with that, the turbo boys are still going to annihilate you.

Smallest front sprocket I've ever seen for the Bird is 15T and I wouldn't recommend anything smaller due to the chain dragging on the rubber guides on the swingarm. I'm running 15/53 on my stock-motored 99 with slick and bar. I hit about 10.5K in top gear when I cross the line. I was running a 54T rear from Sprocket Specialists which I will sell for $30 plus shipping. It only has one season on it and looks almost new. Use the EK DRZ chain if you want durability. Mine has 4 seasons on it now and never needs adjustment.

[Furbird]

I run the 12/49 on mine with the stock tire size on the wheelie bar and it doesn't hit the chain guide. I also have my strut set at maximum safe height (sitting about 4 or 5 threads in). 12 is tough on a chain, but I can run my stock chain length with this gearing so I can go back to whatever/45 when I want to ride it on the street. I can have the bike from drag setup to street setup in about an hour now.

[blackhawkxx]

You also get to leave first, so that increases the other guys chances of a redlight.

Maybe you should reread this. If you leave first, you have the first chance to redlight and in that case, it doesn't matter if the second guys goes red or not.

[Furbird]

When you bracket race as much as I have, you see trends. I have always been one of, if not THE, slowest bike at the track. I have always cut really good lights, and have only redlighted one time in eliminations, and that was a heads-up race. The guy who leaves first has the advantage because the faster bike is sitting there going "he's getting away, he's getting away, come on tree....." RED! The faster bike is also going to do everything he can to catch you, which sometimes means he shifts better or leaves harder or does something and ends up breaking out. Trust me when I say the slow bike has a distinct advantage. All you have to do is cut a halfway decent light then all the pressure is on the other guy.

[jon haney]

When you bracket race as much as I have, you see trends. I have always been one of, if not THE, slowest bike at the track. I have always cut really good lights, and have only redlighted one time in eliminations, and that was a heads-up race. The guy who leaves first has the advantage because the faster bike is sitting there going "he's getting away, he's getting away, come on tree....." RED! The faster bike is also going to do everything he can to catch you, which sometimes means he shifts better or leaves harder or does something and ends up breaking out. Trust me when I say the slow bike has a distinct advantage. All you have to do is cut a halfway decent light then all the pressure is on the other guy.

It all depends on your mental state. I also prefer to leave first, but if the other guy is more than a couple of tenths faster than you its gets tough for both opponents. The biggest sand-bagger is usually the one who breaks out. Bottom Line: Cut a good light and run your number.

[Furbird]

That's what I do. I dial what I actually run, maybe adding a couple hundredths just in case. I used to cut killer lights before they switched to an LED tree, but now my timing is off. It's the sandbaggers that usually do lose, especially the ones that pull that "dial whatever he's dialing" BS. I love those guys, because I get them on the tree, they try that crap where they keep a nose out on you, you can chop the throttle, they hit the brakes, then you throttle back and pass them staying within your dial-in but beating them to the finish! I race clean, but when you try to play games, I'll test to see who's the better gamer.

[shovelstrokeed]

Try this plan instead of looking at engine mods.

Lower and stretch the bike. The more consistent your launches the sooner you will gain the confidence to find out what the bike really needs in terms of clutch management and launch RPM.

Install an air shifter. Not having to move your legs and feet around will make you much more consistent.

Improve traction. A better tire than a sport touring tire, either something like a Pilot Race or a Mickey Thompson street tire or even a slick.

You might consider a lockup clutch at this point, maybe not multistage but, you can, with some experience, leave clutch modulation up to the fingers and just throw the clutch away. This will make the bike much easier to ride and, again, make for a much more consistent motorcycle.

Notice a pattern here? The word consistent. You ain't gonna beat any of the 60" bikes on motor alone. You are gonna be left with bracket racing, unless, of course, your only interest is seeing how fast you can go. That is gonna relegate you to test and tune nights as you won't get past the first round of a bracket unless you learn how to make the bike run whatever number you wish.

I have to suggest that you explore the world of squeeze. I used to run a Top Gas (8.20 index) bike that would, on motor alone, only run 9.30's or so at 135 mph. Added a small, and I mean small (16-20) shot of Nitrous and the thing was an 8.20 at 160 bike. Either way, it would run inside a couple hundredths of that number all night long, thanks to a slider clutch and a progressive nitrous system of my own design. Car tire eliminated wheelspin and a 70" wheelbase and bars made it a baby carriage to ride, even with 1.17 60 foot times!

[jon haney]

I used to run a Top Gas (8.20 index) bike that would, on motor alone, only run 9.30's or so at 135 mph. Added a small, and I mean small (16-20) shot of Nitrous and the thing was an 8.20 at 160 bike.

I assume you meant 16-20 HP per cylinder, right.

[shovelstrokeed]

I used to run a Top Gas (8.20 index) bike that would, on motor alone, only run 9.30's or so at 135 mph. Added a small, and I mean small (16-20) shot of Nitrous and the thing was an 8.20 at 160 bike.

I assume you meant 16-20 HP per cylinder, right.

Nope, 16 Nitrous jets, 20 fuel jets. The smallest setup available from NOS at the time. Given the weight of the bike and the tire I was using, I'd say it probably was an 80 HP improvement. There really wasn't much motor there. 1425 cc 4 valve Suzuiki with turbo pistons (8:1) compression, not much in the way of a cylinder head although the bike would also run 8.40 or so with high comp pistons, and not much in the way of cams. It did have 44 Lectrons and a Dyna 4000 ignition along with 2 different pro stock type headers and a 1,2,3 automatic. The bike was really built to do one thing and one thing only, run 8.20. I have a spread sheet somewhere in my house that shows 30 runs between 8.16 and 8.28 over a 3 week period getting ready for the ProStar meet at Gainesville, all runs done at Moroso. We went up there and the damn thing went 8.00 the first qualifying pass, 7.97 the second taking out some Nitrous, and finally 8.22 shutting it off at the thousand foot cone. Traction and air.

I still have that chassis, body and wheelie bars. One day, when I retire again, I'll stick a stock 'busa motor in it and go play bracket racer.

[Hooplehead]

sounds like 16-20hp per cylinder to me, but I dont know much bout nos