3TJ6 Racing in 2013

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dobbslc
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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by dobbslc » Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:11 pm

Sounds like 3TJ' s are quite hard to find over there,
If it's cheap enough I would grab it with both hands if I were you.
I'm sure the wheel castings are the same on all 3TJ Fzr' s and if you buy this bike you can get some spacers made up with a new set of bearings.

Kurlon
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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by Kurlon » Tue Feb 19, 2013 7:16 pm

dobbslc wrote:Sounds like 3TJ' s are quite hard to find over there,
If it's cheap enough I would grab it with both hands if I were you.
I'm sure the wheel castings are the same on all 3TJ Fzr' s and if you buy this bike you can get some spacers made up with a new set of bearings.
I'm only aware of 5 of them over here at the moment. I'm sure there are a few more well hidden but that doesn't help me much getting parts. At the moment the one I'm looking at hasn't had it's price cross with my available cash line so unfortunately, no purchase yet.

Kurlon
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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by Kurlon » Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:15 pm

Race time! Packing up and heading to the track for my first race weekend in three years, first ever on the 3TJ6! (And first as an AM instead of Novice, so I have no margin for error now either...) Nervous enough to puke but too excited to slow down.

Hopefully I'll have 400 glory to share by Sunday evening.

In the mean time... as noted it looks like I'll be able to adapt an R6 front wheel with minimal effort. Looks like the local machine shop is all about easy one offs so getting a test set of captive bushings is just a matter of determining the right dimensions.

On the tank front, mine is repaired, but I have heard of a viable spare option. Seems at least one of the Yam inline fours in the YZF family has a tank that can work if you've ditched the OEM electric fuel pump, making room room for a deeper sump. I just so happen to have done so.

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Kayla850
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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by Kayla850 » Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:20 pm

Kurlon wrote:Race time! Packing up and heading to the track for my first race weekend in three years, first ever on the 3TJ6! (And first as an AM instead of Novice, so I have no margin for error now either...) Nervous enough to puke but too excited to slow down.

Hopefully I'll have 400 glory to share by Sunday evening.

In the mean time... as noted it looks like I'll be able to adapt an R6 front wheel with minimal effort. Looks like the local machine shop is all about easy one offs so getting a test set of captive bushings is just a matter of determining the right dimensions.

On the tank front, mine is repaired, but I have heard of a viable spare option. Seems at least one of the Yam inline fours in the YZF family has a tank that can work if you've ditched the OEM electric fuel pump, making room room for a deeper sump. I just so happen to have done so.
Good luck with the race :grin:

Using a YZF600 tank should make finding a spare easier too!
Useful project bike parts and stuff and things-

www.projection-racing.com

Titanium and Aluminium nuts & bolts-

www.pjcfasteners.com

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ibby4585
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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by ibby4585 » Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:36 pm

This thread needs some pics!

Good luck.


Kris

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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by Hogdigerdy Dog » Thu Apr 25, 2013 5:58 pm

enjoy the weekend and good luck,

to finish first, first you gotta finish,
coming home last is a good riding experience and something to build on, binning it on lap 3 in 3rd is not, stay safe

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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by Kurlon » Sun Apr 28, 2013 4:31 am

No pics at the moment, and unfortunately bad news to report - TLDR bike is done for the season due to a leaking tank.

Long version - Practice Friday showed my memory of the correct reference points for the track were off, body positioning was still viable, roll speed targets way off, confidence in the bike, WAY off. My first outing with the bike the suspension was 'soft' in my opinion but I never bothered to do a baseline sag and clicker check. Dumb on my part. I sent the suspension out for a respring and refresh and when I got it, I again didn't do a sag / clicker check. Semi-dumb on my part, was told it should be at a viable baseline to begin with but I could have saved some headache ignoring that and checking anyways. Turns out the front is pretty close, the rear is WAY oversprung and valved wrong. The shop resprung it based on the US FZR's linkage geometry, and I'm not 100% certain they used an FZR400 to base on even... Net result the bike felt nervous even at a slow pace and did not inspire confidence when climbing on the throttle out of a turn. After assuming I was just rusty and trying to ride around it for a day I finally rolled up to the suspension guy and asked him to give it the old bouncy-bouncy to see what he thought.

This is when he realized this bike is not what he thought it was when working on my suspension. At that point, he noted that A) it's sprung way too stiff
B) The valving is WAY off (that wasn't touched)
C) He's not 100% certain the shock length is right, aka we don't know that this shock is the one meant for the bike now.

Setting it to full soft got it so I was getting about 1/2" of suspension travel before it bound up, not right, but better than before. I raced it twice like that and it was a whole other machine. My lap times dropped down to competitive ones which rocked. At this point the plan was to drop the shock out and he would find the right spring to match me and the linkage and then adjust the valving to match in time for me to get some practice in tomorrow. (Schedule works out so I end up with all my races today, makes for a lazy cleanup tomorrow.)

I started tearing into the bike to get at the shock and discovered gas on the left side of the tank... starting to crack just below the knee dent. Season done, without a tank I'm dead in the water and I've litte confidence that old unit will take to yet another repair.

Bah.

Kurlon
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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by Kurlon » Tue Apr 30, 2013 2:02 pm

http://photos.otmpix.com/p17874817/h5d6d277e#h5d6d277e

I'm now partially convinced I psyched myself out on the tank leak... the green tell-tale I saw *MAY* have been left from a prior mini-spill fueling the bike up earlier in the day. (Sunoco 260GTX is VERY heavily dyed for easy identification.) I'm going to retest the tank this weekend to see if it's actually leaking or if I'm an idiot.

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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by rockTJ » Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:43 pm

Lol yeah good idea. Surely we can get you something sent over from the UK - give up a years racing for a petrol leak! Pah!

Chris

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Re: 3TJ6 Racing in 2013

Post by Evilchicken0 » Tue Apr 30, 2013 11:26 pm

rockTJ wrote:Lol yeah good idea. Surely we can get you something sent over from the UK - give up a years racing for a petrol leak! Pah!

Chris
Funny you should say that. It was my tank that I sent over.


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