The front bar on my street commodore was completely stuffed so I decided that it was time to replace it. The car had the complete VR GTS bodykit on it but there were so many identical cars getting around I decided to do something a bit different and go for the V8 Supercar front bar that I've always had a soft spot for. I found one on ebay and purchased it without thinking it through very much at all. What I wasn't able to notice on the ad and you may not notice from my photo either is that it's actually fully blown race front bar, not the toned down V8 Supercar style ones that you see on the street.

What's the difference you ask? First of all it hangs down an extra inch or 2 lower than the rest of the bodykit, so combined with my superlows, the front bar now sits lower than a coke can. The next thing is that the front lip of the spoiler sticks out heaps furthur and the sides cut in about 8-10 inches where as the street bars are very shallow (maybe 2 inches).

It looks heaps cool from the front, but it doesn't really suit the rest of the bodykit. The car now sits stupidly low to the point where I have to ride my bike to work every day because I can't get in the driveway! I've also noticed that the highway patrol take a very keen interest in the car now and I've had 2 instances where they've actually turned around to follow me but both times I pulled into private property before they caught up but its only a matter of time before I get canaried.

I wanted to see if I could beat last weeks time, so I took the bike down to WSID again. I managed to reel off my PB on the first run! I got 11.89@120MPH which is a bit of an improvement over last week (11.94@121MPH). After that I started getting worse with every pass. I think I was trying to hard to get a big launch... I kept getting wheelspin off the line and looking back at it maybe I was actually overheating my tyre in the burnout. I'd pull out of the water and give it a practise launch and it would bag up hard and I even hit the limiter a few times. I tried slipping the clutch more on the last run and it was worse than the wheelspin runs so I think I'll try smaller burnouts next time. It's hard because I love my burnouts but I'm sure my $300 rear tyre will apreciate it if I lay off it a bit.

I've been helping my mate put his bike together in my garage for the last few weeks. He bought it for cheap, unregistered and damaged. He decided to turn it into a street fighter style bike since all the fairings were road rashed. We finally got it registered and took it for the maiden voyage yesterday arvo. We've still got a few little problems to iron out but overall its turned out pretty good for a very quick budget build. I knew very little about working on bikes when I started, but luckily they're easy as piss to work on much like a muscle car because of their simplicity. 

The specs are;

• 1998 Kawasaki ZX9R (900cc)
• Painted matt black with farings removed
• Renthal Fat Bars
• Mini bar end mirrors
  
• Buell XB12 headlight and fairing
  
• Braided Brake lines
• Hindle exhaust
  
• Re-jettted carbs

I took it for a ride last night and it's got stacks of power (more than mine I'm ashamed to say) and the Renthal bars make it awesome to ride, you've got so much more leverage due to the wider grip.

I took my blade down to the street meet at WSID last night. I've never ran before so I was pretty nervous. My best run was 11.94@121MPH (thats 195KPH) with a .009 RT! It was actually the best reaction time of the night but I missed out on the prize by 10 mins. I've still got heaps more in it but I need to work on my launches. It was a huge rush and I can't wait to get back out there!

Here's a pic that Andrea took.

 

I've been taking my bike out on the twisties alot and have noticed that it seemed insanely stiff. My low speed cornering on the hairpins has always been pretty bad and I've been working hard on my riding to try and improve it. I decided to check over the suspension. This bike has adjustable preload, compression and rebound for the front and rear. I got out the service manual and reset everything to standard specs. It turns out that the previous owner had everything set to 100% hard or close to it. The previous owner told me that he used to take it to track days a fair bit so I guess he had tuned the suspension for the track.

I took it down the Putty Rd on Saturday and on Sunday I did the Galstone Gorge and the Old Pacific Highway. It's like a completely different bike now! My confidence level has gone through the roof because it feels how it should.

The bike gets a bit of head shake cornering at speed, the old blades were famous for it. From what I've read it's not such a big deal but its one of those things that takes a bit of confidence away. I'm bidding on a steering damper on ebay at the moment which should solve that problem.

The only thing left to do is to change the front tyre. I've completely destroyed it, its practically triangle shaped. I'll be pulling the wheel off this week.

Putty Road Fireplace

My mates hassled me to smoke my bike up for them so I told them only if someone films it. I only did a small one, because it's a $300 tyre which I'd only put on it a few months back. When it's time for a new one I'll give it a proper flogging.

For those who don't know — it's a CBR 900 RR. 

Well I get off my bike Ps in a couple of days so i figured its time to upgrade to something with a little more grunt! 4x the grunt to be exact.

I picked this up today, it's a '96 Honda CBR900RR Fireblade, its been resprayed in a custom yellow, it's got an aftermarket pipe and a 190 rear tyre. Holey crap it's fast! Luckily from driving lots of powerful cars and a few bikes in the past I know how to respect the throttle. I haven't had the balls or enough road to redline the thing in any gear. In first it feels like it wants to pull the wheel up at about 9 grand so I haven't pushed it past that. 

Here's the factory specs of it:

Engine: dohc, 16-valve, inline-Four
Capacity: 918cc (thats 56.02 cubes)
Induction: 4x 38mm carbs
Horsepower: 128hp @ 10,500
Torque: 92 nm @ 8,750
1/4 Mile: 10.56 @ 130MPH
Tyres: 130mm front, 180mm rear
Brakes: Twin 290mm disks with 4 spot calipers (front), single 220mm disc (rear)

 

 

 

It needs a new rear tyre soon so when it's time i'll grab the video camera and finish it off ;)

I picked up a new toy last week. It's a VR series 2 ex chaser. It's been semi turned into a GTS replica by the previous owener. It's a little rough around the edges, but for what I paid for it I'm not complaining! Being a BT1 its got ABS, IRS and an SS interior all standard which is awsome. My plans are to tidy it up and make it a nice clean weekend cruiser. 

I found some pics of my old VR SS. I really miss this car, I sold it when I started my business. All modifications were performed by HSV.

Specs

• 185kw clubsport chip
• 16x8" SV5000 rims
• 5spd manual
• IRS with a LSD
• HSV leather steering wheel
• H&M Headers
• Twin Stainless Exhaust

Here's a few pics. I had to throw a burnout pic in!