Prepping your streetbike for the track a.k.a. Project Janis - Motorcycle-Journal Forums

**87gsxrnut** · 09-27-2004, 02:20 AM

OK. So you want to do a trackday eh? Right now Rick and I are preparing a 1998 CBR 600 for a Thunderhill trackday in a couple of weeks. Janis will be piloting the bike.

I will caveat this by saying I will post some of the pics now, but re-edit this page later when I get back to Texas and to MY PC. I am using a MAC right now. So, without further hesitation, here goes "Project Janis":

This bike has 50,000+ miles on it, but was an adult-owned commuter bike. It was kind of grungy from the excessive mileage, so there were a lot of things that I wanted to look out for on this bike before setting her loose on the track. Rick already added a new chain and sprockets about 600 miles ago, so that was a huge bunus.

When getting ready for a trackday, there are several things that you want to do BEFORE you get there.

- Oil/Filter Change
- Remove coolant and change with Watter Wetter/or distilled water (glycol makes the track REALLY slippery if left in the bike and it "gets out" through a crash etc.)
- Inspect brake pads
- Inspect brake fluid
- Inspect/replace fork oil
- Service shock
- Set-up suspension
- Remove mirrors
- Tape up lenses (signals, headlight, taillight)
- Remove bulbs or pull fuses for lights
- inspect/replace tires
- Inspect/replace chain/sprockets and lube chain
- Check bike for leaks. THERE SHOULD BE NO LEAKS ON YOUR MACHINE PERIOD.
- Inspect clutch/throttle cabes
- Inspect air filter
- Check overall bike for loose bolts/screws etc.
- Add an identification number for the photographer

First thing to do was to get the forks and shock serviced. Instead of doing them myself in the interest of time, I made an appointment with Aftershocks in Palo Alto. Rick and I pulled out the suspension Thursday night, and I headed down there Friday. Phil and Company serviced the forks in about an hour with new fluid, seals etc. The fluid in these forks was the ORIGINAL fluid, and stunk to high heaven. The forks would have been fading badly out on the track if this was not replaced.

I wanted to service the shock, but that would have required some serious modifications that they didn't have time to do. So, We added in three clicks of preload (set at 5 out of 7). That should be sufficient for the day. If not, we can always play with it a bit. Phil also gave me soe awesome tips for setting up this bike for both Rick and Janis. I took copious notes and we should be playing with it at T-Hill.

On the way back from Aftershocks, I stopped in to Cycle Gear and picked up some Galfer sintered front pads, K&N oil filter, Motul 3000 dino oil and a new helmet . . . FOR ME!

The front pads were real bad (see photo below). The new Galfers will work real good on this bike according to some of my racing buddies. We reinstalled the suspension Friday Night. I also installed the new pads, bled the cylinder lines and calipers w/fresh DOT 4 fluid, and put the wheels back on. The lever felt a bit mushy, so we did the old "zip tie" trick before closing down for the night (see photo below). That did the trick! Firm lever feel, and the pads aren't bedded in yet!

Since it was dark, I didn't have a chance to inspect too much else by that time. In the morning, I noticed that the clutch cable was original, and was fraying. Hmmm, not good. I called all of the M/C stores around here, nobody had one. Well, OK. I called up to my homies in Fairfield, and they had one. Cool. Instead of the old 5-minutes it took to get there, it now took about an hour thanks to heavy traffic. D'OH!

Got the cable though. Today, I installed the cable, lubed the lever, did the oil change, pulled fuse for the headlight, disconnected the tail lamps, replaced the coolant with Watter Wetter and distilled water and inspected all of the hoses for leaks, wear etc. Everything looked serviceable, and good for the track day. One thing that did bother me was all of the grunge on the sidestand mount bolt. It would cause the sidestand to "hang" and could possibly cause a crash if the rider did not notice. I have seen a guy crash before because he forgot to put the stand up. OOPS! Anyway, cleaned and lubed that too.

We also removed the mirrors, reinstalled the gas tank and seat before calling it a day. Tomorrow I will bolt the bodywork back on, bed the pads in by running up and down the street, and put the bike back on stands to get ready to remove the wheels for a tire installation. I will be getting Pirelli SuperCorsas in a #2 compound at the track this weekend. Those should allow the bike to stick REAL nice

Anyway, I'll add more pics below. Man, I wish I had a good MAC FTP protocol here.

To be continued . . .

- Nut