Cheap-ish mods

[Spike16]

South Gloucestershire? do u mean north gloucestershire racing club?

[simmo]

If he was at brands last weekend, he races with Bemsee, i think

First thing you need to do is get your suspension sorted, like its been said, doesnt matter how much power you have, if you cant corner its pointless.
also if it not set up correctly the suspension will wreck your tyres, and we all know that tyres aint cheap.

also if you can get it set up on the dyno as it is, that would be an improvement.

are you #57?

[NoSkill]

Yeah, bemsee and #57, the slow one :p

I'm thinking now that first/main step is to get the exhaust sorted and get it dyno'd, see where I'm at now and decide then what to do, I'll almost definately get one of the fork upgrade kits though (seems rick oliver and graeme france both offer one, dunno what the differences are though, need to look into that),

Had a quick look on ebay for an rs250 rear shock and couldn't see one, is there any other cheap upgrades there (done the jack up via the new holes, does the rick oliver jack up kit work in addition to that or is it the same thing?)

[simmo]

ive only seen pics of the day, they got quite a few of ya tho.
racing line photography always get very good shots.

[NoSkill]

Yeah, I had a look at the racing line website, my favourites were the ones with 32 just ahead of me in the wet, 32 is a guy called chris and that was the best fun of the weekend, he was slower than me round the corners (mainly confidence in the wet as in the dry he seems to be roughly a match round the corners but better on the straights) but he pipped me to the line, something like 2 tenths in it at the end, saw the chequered flag and thought I'd got 2nd in class until he went flying by :p

[simmo]

its always great fun when you are fighting for a position with someone, stuff like that will also make you faster, cos in you head you'll be saying "that mo fo aint getting past me this time" and you'll find yourself goin that little bit faster!

[Cammo]

Had a quick look on ebay for an rs250 rear shock and couldn't see one, is there any other cheap upgrades there (done the jack up via the new holes, does the rick oliver jack up kit work in addition to that or is it the same thing?)

There are plenty of good bang for your buck mods.

Jacked up and a 17" rear might still get you only the standard ride height. Can you get the tyres you use in 18"? That would be the easiest (and cheapest) way to get some more height.

Deffo go for a fork upgrade, combined with an uprated rear spring it's a decent budget suspension combo.

Go for a good half system, forget buying new if you're on a budget! 2nd hand systems often come up in the classified section, then get the bike jetted to suit the system (a reputable dyno would give best results). Don't be tempted to muck around with the airbox/filter yourself, you'll get all sorts of nasty surprises if you're unsure of what you're doing.

Braided lines and race pads will be more than adequate in the braking department, no point spending more money there.

I also agree that weight saving should be a priority, you can save lots of weight by cutting the subframe, smaller battery, etc but it starts to get pricey the more you want to lose.

Go have a ball!

[NoSkill]

With the tyres I'm currently running Dunlop alpha 10's, which I think are available in the 18" size (I'm using the wider 160/60R17), but the reason for going to 17's was for wet tyre choice and also to eventually when I think I'm able to take full advantage of the extra grip spend a bit more and run Pirelli super corsa pro's, which aren't available in 18's...

With the budget, it's not a set in stone thing, just don't want to spend silly money for tiny gains, from what I can see with the Tyga exhaust is that it seems to give decent gains (they're claiming 13% on a stock nc30 after the exhaust and jetting, seems plausible at least) and also has the benefit of being apparantly just over 4Kg lighter than the stock system. From what I've seen getting just end-cans usually costs £150+, and then jetting on top, which if I'm going to do this seriously I'll eventually need a full system anyway which would be jetting again, so is it cheaper in the long run?

Weight saving is definately on the menu as well, starting with the cheap/free stuff and moving up from there.

I guess I need to consider my end plan as well, if it's just to have fun whilst also being a bit 'different', then the nc30 the way to go, but another option (albeit more expensive, initially at least) would be to get a zxr, I dunno really...

[matty_boy]

One thing i would say is that you might as well try and find a race bike to buy.

Abermoto is selling a very nice ZXR400 that is a very good race spec bike. It is up for around £1250 which is a very nice price for the bike.

The thing is it well be cheaper than trying to sort your NC30, i meen £500 for the full system, £200 for the front forks, £100 for the rear if you go down the RS250 shock.

You are not far off the money for his ZXR. Just a idea.

[NoSkill]

Yeah, I've seen that, and I am tempted, but part of me wants to keep the vfr, especially now as I've learnt much more in terms of working on it, but if I was ever to contemplate winning anything in the formula 400's (at least with bemsee) then the vfr isn't going to cut it.

But then would I ever be good enough to win? or will I forever be a mid-pack rider (if I even get to that state :p) in which case the vfr should do nicely, and be a bit different at the same time.

Originally I chose the vfr as I had it and I thought it'd be the cheaper option, I've already spent a fair bit on it but where do you draw the line?

If I can get it to 60bhp ish (which is doable I think, for less than the cost of that zxr, albeit obviously if I got the zxr I could sell the vfr) then there is no excuse for me not to be mid-pack, which would do me for the rest of this season and probably next season as well, then I could considering spending a bit and getting a nice 75+bhp zxr to attempt to get towards the sharp end...

But this all depends, if there is a power issue, and if it's more than just the exhaust/general vfr power 'issue', then a new engine would add to the cost (they seem to be ~£200+?) and might change my mind, or I might change my mind anyway, who knows :p