Track Day / Race Day
2003 RC51 Track Day Bike / 2003 SV Superbike
2009 Season Review
In 2009, I made a comeback after taking a year off from racing. I also made a return to the middleweight class, racing a 2003 Suzuki SV650. I started off my racing career on a SV with much success so I was looking forward to racing it again.
In my previous 6 years of racing, I raced a Supersport legal bike. In the Supersport classes, you are limited on the modifications you can make to the bike. This year, with the support from R&D Machine and Vicious Cycle, we decided to build a Superbike SV. In the Superbike class, you are allowed to change almost anything on the bike as long as you stay within the limits of the motor size.
The Superbike project started by purchasing the best Supersport prepped SV in the NW from R&D Machine. I can’t thank R&D Machine enough for all their help. Having the support from a reputable machine shop, that can custom fabricate anything is priceless. The SV already had aluminum sub-frames, lightened rear brake rotor, aluminum wheel spacers, race tachometer panel, shortened exhausted canister, etc.
With a well prepared SV as the baseline, we installed the following:
• 2004 Yamaha R6 front forks, triple clamp, steering stem, brake calipers, front wheel, brake rotors and master cylinder.
• Marvic forged magnesium rear wheel
• Yoyodyne slipper clutch.
• Power Commander quickshifter
Now it was just a matter of getting every setup and working correctly, which took all year to accomplish. The main hurdle was setting up the front suspension. The problem was the front tire would chatter and not hold its line in high speed corners. We made many suspension adjustments but never solved the problem until I had the front forks re-sprung and re-valved, which we should have done at the beginning of the year. But money and time constraints didn’t allow for this upgrade until the summer was over. Now with the suspension dialed in, the only thing remaining to upgrade is the motor.
The plan with the motor is to remove all un-necessary parts to save weight and increase horsepower by 20+%. We are removing the charging system, the starter and all related parts. The motor will be reduced to the absolute minimum needed to run. We are also installing Carrillo rods, 2ml overbore piston kit, lightening the crankshaft and flywheel, port and polishing the heads, multi-angle valve job and more. The motor will be finished up this winter and will be ready for 2010.
During the off-season the bike will be on display in the Vicious Cycle Showroom in Portland Oregon. In 2010, I plan on racing in 3 classes and challenging for the class championship in each one.
