Modern motorcycles are absolutely at the cutting edge of technical know-how today. Titanium and lightweight alloys are the favoured materials of manufacture, motorcycle tyres are incredibly advanced, composites are regularly used and engines can revolve at speeds that just 10 years ago would have been thought impossible.
But they are also mass-produced, and this means that out of the box your bike is massively compromised. Exhausts are strangled to within an inch of their life, suspension units are cheap and set-up exactly the same for everyone, tyres have to accommodate pillions and offer grip in wet or dry conditions, while the gearing has to work for a myriad of situations. What happens when you ditch these compromises, when you allow the bike to work at 100% of its capabilities instead of holding it back at 80%?
Armed with two stock ZX-10Rs, a huge box of bolt-on parts, the full circuit at Brands Hatch, a stop watch and Niall Mackenzie, we set about investigating what really makes your bike quicker. Every bolt-on part was tested and timed by itself, not with a culmination of parts fitted, so we could see how that part alone affected things. We got a base lap time on completely stock settings, then set the bike up for Brands and took that time as the testbed time. Any improvements you see are set against this set-up lap time. Are you clear? Then we’ll begin...
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Part one - track set-up
Part One –
- Stock lap time: 1:39.512
- Set-up for track use: 1:36.684
- Time saved by set-up = 2.828 seconds
To make sure that everything was as fair as possible, we got our hands on a 2008 ZX-10R, direct from Kawasaki UK. This guaranteed that it was exactly how Kawasaki intended it to be from the showroom. The first modification we made to the bike was a free one - we dropped the pressure of the OE Pirelli Diablo Corsa III tyres to 31PSI front and 28PSI cold in the name of safety.
Niall rode fairly hard considering the tyres and came in having spent most of the session spinning up the rear tyre to try and compensate for a lack of feel from the front. Ostensibly, Niall was using the old slow in, fast out technique to avoid having to push a front end that he had no faith in. On completely stock settings, he hit a time of 1m 39.512 seconds. This was our base lap time, everything from here should be an improvement.
The exhaust shield was taking a beating from the tarmac at the bottom of Paddock Hill as the shock compressed too easily so that was stiffened, while preload was taken off the forks to put more weight on the front tyre for extra feel. We also added a touch more compression and tweaked the rebound damping to hold the front down – as Niall got off the brakes towards the apex, the front end would come back too quickly making the bike run wide.
The net result of several changes made absolutely free with a screwdriver being a shade under three seconds per lap with Niall bettering his initial time to 1.36.684 seconds. If you’re not a former GP rider with extensive experience of bike set-up, a trackside suspension expert will typically charge around £40 per day to look after you. A small investment but one that reaps enormous rewards. So, bike set-up: critical. And almost free.
Niall’s View
In stock trim, the ZX-10R is an animal on road or track. The engine is really strong and the chassis isn’t terrible out of the box, but it is a bit of a handful. I found that I had quite a lot of rear grip considering the bike was on stock tyres (Pirelli Diablo) but I never really found much confidence in the front end. I also had a few stability issues accelerating hard out of fast corners.
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Part two - road legal rubber
Part Two –
- Sticky road legal rubber: 1:35.102
- Time saved with sticky road tyres = 1.582 seconds
Oh how we love sticky tyres. But how much quicker do they really make us over road tyres? Over the last few years, we’ve seen some incredible lap times from the talented young R6 Cup riders. Each bike was shod with sporty road tyres; initially it was Dunlop’s 208RR followed by the Qualifier before Pirelli took over with the Diablo Corsa III.
A good rider can lap a circuit quickly on a decent road tyre as Niall proved in the first session. Where an expert rider can push harder on softer, stickier tyres, quite often a novice rider won’t get anywhere near what the tyre is capable of. Of course, it’s better to have more grip than you’re ever likely to need than not enough, but it’s also worth bearing in mind the downsides of an out-and-out race tyre.
It will take ages to warm up on the road (quite possibly offering less grip than a tyre designed to work on the road) and it will be affected by heat cycles as race tyres are only designed to go from cold to hot and back again once or twice at most. After that they’re not dangerous, but will have lost most of what sets them aside from good sports road tyres.
The difference in Niall’s times between the stock Pirelli Diablo Corsas and the Michelin Pilot Race tyres was 1.5 seconds. In a race, that’s an eternity. Whether the reduced life of a sticky tyre is offset by that extra speed is purely down to you, and how and where you ride. The only fair conclusion is that the extra grip afforded by race rubber will only last for just one track day opposed to the usual three track days for a set of sporty road tyres, working out to an average of around £480 for the extra two sets. But you wanted more speed, and a new set of fairings and a collarbone ain’t exactly cheap, either…
Niall’s View
From the moment I pulled out of pit lane I could feel the difference. The profile of the Michelin Pilot Race front tyre is very steep and at first it felt like I was losing the front end on initial turn in, it dropped in that quickly. Once used to it, it actually felt great and the grip levels were impressive. The biggest problem seemed to be the increase in rear grip. Now it was pushing the front harder, the front felt more flighty than before and got to the point where I daren’t open the throttle properly for fear of smashing my thumbs into the tank in a mighty tank-slapper. Scary!
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Part three - race slicks
Part Three –
- Race slicks fastest Lap: 1:34.789
- Time saved with slicks = 1.895 seconds
Niall was visibly more confident on the Michelin slicks – his body language and the increase in corner entry speed made this quite clear. However, he didn’t record the increase in speed we were expecting, shaving just 3/10s off the sticky road-legal tyres. This was down to a couple of things.
Riding on slicks isn’t the revelation it once was now that road legal (DOT approved) race rubber has moved forward so much, but there is still a noticeable difference. Not so much in outright grip, but in the way the tyre surface moves on the carcass. There’s no tread to move about, so a slick tyre tends to feel more precise and give greater feedback.
There are some drawbacks though. Apart from being illegal on the road and useless in the wet, certain slicks will only work if they’re pushed hard, otherwise they lose heat quickly and offer less grip. Stability can be an issue, as can chatter when fitted to a bike with stock suspension.
Michelin make track day slicks now that are designed for road-biased bikes but you need to make sure you know what you’re getting. The modest improvement in lap times didn’t fully portray just how radical the 10R suddenly felt. With full slicks fitted, the bike feels sharper all round.
Niall’s View
The Michelin slicks were amazing. The front profile was far more neutral than the treaded Pilot Race tyre and the feel and grip from both ends was a big improvement. If I wasn’t riding to the track day, then these would be my first choice without a doubt. The turn-in felt great and unlike the Pilot Race treaded tyres, I chose how far I wanted to turn in rather than being dictated to by an overly steep profile. I had stability issues again too, but it only really went to prove that it’s the bike and not the tyres.
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Part four - gearing
Part Four -
- Fastest Lap with gearing: 1:34.984
- Time saved with gearing = 1.700 seconds
A few years ago, some people somewhere decided that bikes were getting a bit dangerous. So, to keep us all safe and sound, they decreed that no bike should be capable of exceeding 300kph. That’s 186mph in old money.
That’s fast. No, actually that’s bloody fast and hardly a bitter pill to swallow when it comes to legislation. The problem is, it wasn’t the only bit of legislation to head our way, oh no. The Eurocrats also wanted our bikes to be quieter at certain road speeds in certain gears, the net result being over-geared bikes fitted with speed limiters, rather than perfectly geared bikes without.
Listening to Niall’s gear changes and watching him compensate by either running big sweeping lines to keep the corner speed up or squaring corners off to maximise drive in a gear lower than he’d ideally want was testimony to his riding skills and years of experience as a racer. But it still looked awkward and difficult. Once we’d changed the gearing, it was completely different.
For the cost of just £45 for a pair of sprockets, Niall was able to use the gears as he wanted. More time would have meant a near perfect overall final drive ratio and doubtless an even faster lap time. As it was, a rough guess at a tooth off the front and rear sprockets (16/42 to replace 17/41) gave Niall improved drive off the bulk of the turns, giving him higher speeds on the straights and knocking a massive 1.7 seconds off his fastest lap time on a stock bike on stock road tyres. That’s quite a performance increase for very little cash.
Niall’s View
Until we changed the gearing, I was only really using second to fourth gear, which is fairly ridiculous at Brands full circuit. We were a little limited in our range of sprockets but even knocking one tooth off the front and the same off the back, the bike was transformed. Through Druids, Graham Hill and Surtees, second gear worked perfectly, improving the exit drive massively. More time spent trying different combinations would have reaped huge rewards, but this modification alone was worth at least a couple of seconds a lap, if not more.
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Part five - race exhaust and air filter
Part Five –
- Free breathing (exhaust and air filter) - Fastest Lap: 1:36.198
- Time saved with race can = 0.486 seconds
Arguably the most popular modification bar none, the addition of an end can and air filter was a ‘must do’ in this test. Modern air boxes and air filters have improved over the years to the point where the only real benefit of aftermarket filters is that they’ll only ever need cleaning rather than replacing, so we weren’t expecting big gains there. As for the exhaust, well there’s never been an easier way to extract more power from the stifled midrange of a catalysed bike.
The over-engineered Kawasaki end can wasn’t the simplest thing to replace between sessions. The butterfly valve cables needed to be removed from the servo motor, while the catalyst was so hot it induced swearing the likes of which hadn’t been heard in Kent since Bernard Manning’s legendary visit to the Dartford Palladium.
Once fitted, the bike sounded great, if a little fluffy lower down the rev range. Out on track it sounded faster than it really was, popped on the overrun and banged through gear changes like a proper race bike. To make the most of this modification though, a further £300 for a Power Commander plus dyno time would be needed to make the bike not necessarily faster, but easier to ride which in a roundabout way, is the same thing. In terms of value per second the exhaust/air filter combo looks hideously expensive as Niall only went half a second per lap quicker. But then what price can you put on aural pleasure?
Niall’s View
I liked the sound of it, but I didn’t like the look of it! Despite looking like something off an old TRX, getting rid of the catalytic converter made a big difference to how the ZX-10R felt. The midrange drive was immediately improved and while the fuelling on closed and partial throttle would have needed some fine tuning to get rid of a little fluffiness, on an open throttle, the bike felt stronger and pulled more cleanly.
Click next for part six
Part six - showa shocks
Part Six –
- Showa shock - fastest lap: 1.44.212
It’s a fact of life that if you’re a man, cost doesn’t come into it if something looks trick. Aftermarket rear shocks, for example, are often a work of art. Öhlins have all that lovely gold and yellow going on while the likes of WP have lots of shiny anodised bits. And it’s there for all to see, like some arse-supporting status symbol.
Like any other male, both Niall and I were excited as we bolted in the Showa rear shock with its remote preload adjuster and shiny bits. Armed with a stopwatch, I strode off to pit lane only for Niall to come straight back in to the pits. We tried a few quick adjustments, but couldn’t stop the bike from weaving and wallowing – it certainly didn’t instill any confidence in Niall, anyway. With the rain clouds threatening to ruin our day, we wasted no time in bolting the standard shock back in and the problem was cured, with Niall straight back into the 36s.
Unfortunately, all we managed to prove was that a badly set-up shock, or one that hasn’t been set-up at all, is worse than useless regardless of how much it cost. Niall was quick to point out that at no time during the test did he feel uncomfortable with the feel from the rear end – it was the feedback from forks that slowed him down and that re-valved forks would have reaped far bigger rewards on the suspension front.
Niall’s View
I was really disappointed by the shock. I’m sure it was a case of needing to have the forks set up to match, but I couldn’t ride the bike very hard at all with the aftermarket shock bolted in. The bike seemed to pogo around too much and exacerbated the stability problems to the point where I had to pull in after my out lap. Maybe with time we’d have got the shock working. My advice would be to start with the front end – modern standard shocks aren’t too bad at all.
Click next for the conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion
It’s not uncommon for an improvement to highlight a bike’s weakness. The more grip you give a bike, the better the suspension needs to be to cope with the extra cornering, braking and accelerating forces. A good rider will soon run out of adjustment because the manufacturers have made sure that the range of adjustment is limited so that even the biggest fool with a screwdriver can’t make the bike unrideable.
What we proved here was that a simple suspension set-up gave us the biggest and cheapest gains, period. Nearly three seconds off the bat. So that’s what you want to do first. Next, fit sticky tyres or slicks. A race exhaust isn’t really worth it for anything other than saving weight, and trick suspension needs proper balancing and setting up. It’s ironic (and typical) that with so many things you can spend your money on making your bike go faster, it’s the cheapest option that has the most effect. There’s a lesson in it for all of us.
Myths, tweaks and general paddock bullshit…
To the uninitiated, all that glitters in the paddock is gold. But then it depends on which paddock you’re in. Walk around the World, or even the British Superbike paddock and you’ll see forks that cost in excess of £10,000, swinging arms that cost as much as a family hatchback and wheels that cost more than your last two bikes put together.
It’s easy to think that if you had an unlimited budget to kit yourself out, you’d go faster. But that’s not necessarily true – the faster you become the more you need to spend for smaller gains, gains that at the highest level count for Championship points, but on a track day, count for nothing more than man points down the pub.
Walk around a club paddock however, and the limited budgets of the racers spending their hard-earned overtime on racing soon shows up what makes the difference to a lap time. Generally speaking, that’s a set of new tyres. If you want pukka track day advice, get along to a club meeting and have a chat with someone who understands your plight.
