Whats your thoughts ?

[DaveMcR1]

Oh & a KWAK, what does he want with a poor mans cycle.

[arron24]

[quote="DaveMcR1"]My point was to do a track day and use it to improve skills rather than change bike. Bike developement hasn't moved on as much in the last six years as much as it did in the previous six, the huge increases in power are no longer, improvements in suspension, radial brakes blah, blah, blah are no more, thats why manufacturers are throwing gimmicks like power switches at there bikes, yamahas new engines crank has been the biggest developement in years & it want belong before they are all doing it.

got to disagree, the diff betweenn my 01 gixxer thou and 04 zx10r was insane!!...would go into detail but im blurry eyed lol

[DaveMcR1]

My point exactly, could you tell me about the massive improvements from 04 to 09, or even 07 to 09. All bikes improve in performance, but not to such a great degree as they did in the past.

[jam]

Why not update your 600? A later model radial front end will fit in easily, get some work done on the motor, full system filter and custom map, decent rear shock and a radial master cylinder for the front, and some nice sticky tyres, A newer seat unit/subframe will fit without too much difficulty and make the bike look more modern and more importantly make it unique to you, instead of looking like every other [Censored] Gixxer out there.

thats all very well and good but the bike will be worth less than if he leaves it standard. as soon as a bike has a diff front/rear end off a newer bike people question whether its been down the road. i wouldnt buy a bike that wasnt standard, full system etc thats fine but dont throw other bikes at it. imo

It's a simple matter of swapping forks and yokes out, the same discs and wheels are used and if it comes time to sell it's an easy enough job to swap it back again. I do these sorts of mods to customers bikes all the time as well as bigbore motors and frame modifications.
All K series GSXR forks and yokes are interchangable, from K1 to K5 600/750 and K1 to K4 1000 all the wheels are the same and the 300mm and 320mm discs are interchangable with radial calipers. Swingarms will swap easily, 1000 6 inch rears will fit into 600/750 swingarms and vice versa. Shocks can be swapped to either raise or lower the rear end depending on which model you use, 1000 K5 yokes have 2mm less offset to increase trail but will fit into a 600K1/K5. You can even use SRAD wheels with different spacers, and later K series running gear will fit earlier SRADs. None of these changes require anything doing that will prevent the process being reversed if you wanted to put the bike back to stock. Personally I wouldn't own a standard bike, I don't like looking like a clone of every other bike out there, every bike meet looks the same row upon row of identikit bikes with the same bolt on bits from M&P etc

[jason]

My point exactly, could you tell me about the massive improvements from 04 to 09, or even 07 to 09. All bikes improve in performance, but not to such a great degree as they did in the past.

the difference between an 04 Gixer thou (ill use that as an example as its what I have exeperiance of having owned every generation of Gixer thou) and an 09 one is night and day they are completely different bikes; weight, handling, feel, braking, power delivery. In fact never mind that, the difference between an 04 one and an 05 one is night and day. leaps between the 06 to 07 and 07 to 09 (im guessing on the 09 frint as I havent quite got around to buying one yet) are more subtle but they are still easily noticable by most people regardless of how you ride

litre sports bike took a very big leap around 2005. R1s are an even better example as pre 2005 they where slow and down on power (relative to a GSXR thou of the same year) and had distinctly "odd" handling (poor is probably a less polite way of putting it) the more modern ones are much more on a par with the competition (if not better).

Bike manufacturers no what they are doing - in home modifying bikes more often than not they end up worse than a the stock original item anyway.

lets say you have a 2004 gixxer thou and you want to make it handle, go and stop like a 2005. It will take an enormous amount of money, and in reality its probably nigh on impossible. Much easier to just get rid of the K4 and buy a K5 for a few £100 more. which will also retain its value a tny bit more.

[jam]

Any bike can be improved upon easily over the stock item. All factory mass produced bikes are built with many tolerances which all add up to reduce the effectiveness of the package. Cam timing, ignition timing fueling are all not optimum on a bike from the factory, simply by dialing the ignition timing and cam timing in correctly and remapping the fueling will result in net gains over the stock bike, then when you add in other items such as a free flowing well designed complete exhaust system a better intake system, thinner head gasket to raise compression, the gains will be more. The get the crank knife edged and balanced and also the rods and pistons weight matched.
The way to gain power in modern engines is to reduce the internal losses, with older engines it was easier to gain power, nowadays it's a case of minimising the losses within the motor which means more power gets to the wheel.
Lighter valve gear will gain big increases as most oof the losses within a motor are from driving the valve train, and windage losses from the drag created as the crank assembly spins through the oil bath. Pumping losses from the action of the pistons traveling up and down pressurise the crankcases and sap power, by increasing the ability of the motor to breathe you will reduce the losses. All these little modifications add up, the average motor will lose around 15% of it's power between the crank and the road. Not that the average rider will notice these things.
Same goes for handling, the best way to improve the handling of any bike is to simplay change the wheels for lighter items which inturn reduce the amount of effort required to get the suspension working properly.
If you want to improve the braking of your bike then the easiest way is to reduce the amount of friction material on your pads by 50% of their width, this has the effect of increasing the mean radius of the of the braking surface, but your pads will need replacing more often. Similarly having the suspension tailored to suit the weight of the rider will improve things as the bike is set at the factory for the mythical "average rider" which we all know does not exist.
Any bike can be improved upon IF you know what you are doing.

[Scotty]

You make a fair point Jam, but how much will blueprinting an engine cost, and what will be gained? As Jason pointed out the K4 and K5 Gixxer thous were like night and day. Easier way to get more smiles is to buy a newer/better bike in the first place.
In that case, buy the Kawasaki. In Green.