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C3L1CA's Street/Strip Wanna Be Build Thread

Gen 4: 2011-15 
63K views 266 replies 40 participants last post by  C3L1CA 
#1 · (Edited)
C3L1CA's Street/Strip Build Thread

Picked up a new bike and figured I'd make a thread to help me keep track of it and what not.

It's a 2012 Kawasaki ZX10R that I brought home on June 26, 2014. It was a new left over that they wanted to move so got a halfway decent deal on it.



After picking it up I bought a right away Zero Gravity Dark Smoke Double Bubble Series Windscreen, mounted/wired my GPS and set out to California. Put a little over 7,500 miles on it and bike did just great.






Link to my blog with more pictures and a few blurbs about the trip:
Blog Archives - Brad's 'cross' country trip


After I got home I threw it on the dyno to get a baseline before I started to mod it.

Bone stock it made 155 hp to the rear tire.






After the baseline I put on a Brock's Alien Head Slip On, got flashed by Archer, and threw it back on the dyno. Also got a Competition Werkes integrated tail light and mounted the plate on the tail with some double sided tape. Really helped clean the bike up.






It made 174.5 after a slip on and flash, a 19.2 increase.





Next up was the Rifleman's insert, which was a breeze as well as the PMR tether kill switch. The throttle insert makes it like a quick turn throttle, but for only $25 and only took about 15 minutes to install because I'm a little slow sometimes. Very easy mod and worth the $25. I also had the PMR switch around from the r1 so that was a free mod. Need one of these to run 9.99 or faster, and I hope it can break into the 9s first time out.




Next up after that was my Evil Swing arm I picked up on the drag racing forums. The evil swing arm is 8-12" over so if I did my math right it should sit be sitting around 67". At the same time installed a Soupy's lowering link, 16 tooth front sprocket and a 44 tooth steel rear sprocket. This is a -1/+5 combo which makes street riding kind of suck but it's nice for the track.

Swing arm was pretty straight forward, what took the most time was trying to get the front sprocket nut off. My impact wouldn't budge it, a breaker bar with the jack handle on the end wouldn't budget it either. Eventually got a buddy to bring over his snap on impact and got it off.








Went with a black 160 link 525 EK MVXZ chain and ended up cutting out 5 links. Could have only cut out 4 links to get another inch out of the swing arm but figured the long chain would probably stretch a bit and then I would run out of adjustment if it did. I'm glad I ended up cutting out 5 links as I have definitely had to adjust the chain a few times.

This bike also uses abs type grooves in the rear rotor to get a speed reading. Since the longer swing arm, the wiring would have reached but would have looked like poo and been really stretched. I cut into the harness and extended it about 12 inches and tucks in nice on the swing arm and looks pretty good I think.






Had a productive weekend once and replaced a handful of things.
First thing I started to tackle was to replace the spark plugs, install Graves Block Off Plates and change the air filter



The air filter was just plain nasty...



There was even a good amount of bugs in the frame leading to the air box.


Then installed a MPS Engine Kill box for the air shifter. It fits perfectly where the stock exhaust servo sat. Probably throw some velcro down once I finish wiring up the air shifter solenoid.

^Can also see the Power Commander 5 installed on the side of the battery too!

Was able to get the air shifter cylinder installed as well. Used a DME mount, made it stupid easy, and parts I had left over from the r1. Using parts from gainger ... 5ZEE4 - Air Cyl for the air cylinder, 6JJ52 for the Solenoid and 4TAE9 which is a new longer clevis/yoke. Will most likely run it off nitrous so I can use it on the street and not worry about running out.


The guy that flashed my ecu said he modified his ram air and the bike went crazy lean and he said it felt faster after messing with the tune. Figured I might as well follow suit and give it a try.

The stock ram air has a lot of foam and what they call a 'birdcage' in there. Interwebz says its to help keep noise down but I just want to make the most powa I can. So time to get all that extra stuff out of there!

Took out all the foam, birdcage and a little flap that looked like it'd reduce air flow. Finished picture:

Will finish tomorrow as I wanted to get 2 screws to block off little holes to help keep as much air flow as possible

Installed the Brock's clutch mod to get rid of the slipper clutch and also installed their heavy duty clutch springs. Hopefully helps the clutch last longer on the track.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Installed Power Commander's auto tune which you set a desired target a/f ratio and the piggy back tries to shoot for the targeted ratio while riding and then offers suggested changes to the map when you come back from the ride and download the trims. Seems to work pretty slick and bike feels a bit faster after the tune. Also trying out 87 octane on it and all seems well.

Also installed Driven Bar Ends and a GB Racing Alternator Cover.


Got the Pit Bull Trailer restraint all mounted up on the trailer. It's pretty slick as it doesn't compress the suspension or anything and can take the mounting parts off so if you want to use the trailer for something else you don't have a big motorcycle stand in the way.



Pit Bull Trailer Restraint System worked pretty slick, threw a strap around the front tire to help to keep it from moving around when hitting bumps. GTO pulled and camping gear just fine this weekend up to BIR, rear end was squated a bit low when loaded up but drove no problemo.



Bike did pretty good at the track. Got close to my 150 trap goal, best of 149, and hit my goal of doing better than the r1 first time out.



Best time was 9.247 @ 148.76.





The only issue at the track was the air shifter deciding not to work. Ended up taking off the bottle and whole setup and just foot shifting all weekend. Giving up on using nitrous for the air shifter for now and going to try just using air from the swing arm.

Went back to the track the next weekend and was pretty determined to get back on the track and do better with a working air shifter. After my first pass and spinning really hard I think I got a little gun shy and was cutting pretty bad 1.6 60' times. I was able to get one or two into the 1.5's again and figured I'd go for broke and try to turn down my kill time a bit. Turn down for 9.0s?!?

Ended up turning the kill time down too much and it didn't have enough kill time to make the 1-2 shift. Pretty much wrecked most of the decent launches I had trying to get it dialed back in.




I was able to beat my personal best by .004 and the trap speeds were in the 149's all day long on a full pass where I didn't screw something up.



Currently have a MT75 90/80/17 front tire on the way as well as some DME front fender lowering brackets. Hopeful that it will help lower the front end a bit more and help me launch a bit better.

I'll keep updating as new goodies/times come about :thumbsup:
 
#3 ·
Subscribed. Nice work man
 
#6 ·
Nice run . Hope to get mine on the strip soon. Swb for me thoe.

Keep posting pics and vids we love that shit.
 
#9 ·
Thanks. :notworthy:to racing this thing swb, I think its a hand full stretched lol

Freakin awesome!
Thank you!

I got lucky with those on a trade in plus cash for my 2008 750 lol! I still use the factory rim and a shinko for the dragstrip though.
Not a bad deal at all!



I think I'm going to try cheating though and run some mr12 in the bike for the next track day. I'm crossing my fingers that between that and the grudge tire that it'll let me crack into the 8s
 
#10 ·
!

Was able to get the air shifter cylinder installed as well. Used a DME mount, made it stupid easy, and parts I had left over from the r1. Using parts from gainger ... 5ZEE4 - Air Cyl for the air cylinder, 6JJ52 for the Solenoid and 4TAE9 which is a new longer clevis/yoke. Will most likely run it off nitrous so I can use it on the street and not worry about running out.

Great build thread man!!! :thumbsup:

Looking forward to seeing how this nitrous air shifter development goes. I bought all the parts for a Nitrous shifter, just not assembled it yet.
 
#11 ·
Thank you!:eek:ccasion1

I actually gave up on using nitrous for the air shifter. I was having nothing but problems on the track with it so just went to using air from the swing arm.

Not sure if it was how I had my regulator mounted or because the regulator was a couple years old now or if it was where I had my gauge mounted.

I had my regulator mounted to the solenoid mounted to the shifter cylinder. When I would hit the button the pressure would fluctuate and after messing up 3 runs I just said fuck it and went to air. Maybe I'll try it again some day and do some different tests to see what wasn't working right but air is a lot simpler. I just would like to figure out where to mount a mini compressor. The harbor freight one that everybody normally uses was to big to fit in the tail of the gen 4 without some modification to the tail. So just filled the swing arm up via a compressor at the track last time out
 
#14 ·
^I posted up in your video buddy, but it sounds like that clutch is going bye bye. Hopefully it's just out of adjustment.
 
#15 ·
Got my DME fender lower brackets in the mail yesterday and threw them on.




Also a comparison of the new tire vs a regular tire I had laying around




Picked up some mr12 yesterday too. Thinking I'll hit up the track one more time and hope for the best.




It kind of sounded that way but I think it's still good, at least I hope so. I think it might have just been the way the screwed up shifting made it sound.

Maybe I should go put some more pump gas in it and try it out before I dump the mr12 in it and go back to the track. The gas light was on the whole time and the 3rd pull the bike fell on its face in 1st and it didn't have enough gas, I didn't include that video :lol:
 
#21 ·
Thanks man! I had it off for maybe a picture or two when I first put the swing arm on, but put one on to make sure I didn't have any problems passing tech. Never had one on my r1 and passed tech but it wasn't as fast

It can be... although it will only make ~1/2 as much power as it would be without a specific tune. Just dumping it in you'll gain ~5WHP. With specific tuning, it will net you another ~3-5WHP.
:eek:ccasion1

Nice passes man! Definitely getting there!
Thanks!! Trying to do a rider weight mod over the winter too. Got a little bit of gut, maybe 10lbs, that I could lose before I can justify spending money on light weight stuff
 
#27 ·
I think that would work but I don't know if it'd be worth it. I kind of want to remove one of the front rotors/calipers as those are bigger and seem like it'd cut a bit more weight than removing the back. If I did that I'd want a rear brake as a back up just in case

Nice ride!!!
Thank you!

Yeup! I did a dump in test today. Ended up gaining pretty much 5whp across the whole rpm range lol! Leaned the AFR almost half a point. Not bad at all.
Damn, thats awesome!!
 
#28 · (Edited)
I think BOOSTED was right about my clutch slipping on that video against the busa.

Put mr12 in it on Friday night and took it around for some tuning via my auto tuner. One pull it seemed to slip in 4th but I freaked out and adjusted the clutch lever right away. Then couldn't replicate it and seemed to be ok. So I loaded it up on the trailer and went to the track on Saturday (9/27/14) to see what it could do with the race gas, lower profile front tire and less kill time in the air shifter. I had high hopes for at least better than my 9.2's i've been running.:helmet:

Passes go from right to left as time goes on. First two are on the right and last two where the clutch seemed to slip but still made a halfway decent pass are the left


I know my 60' suck on all of them, especially the first two but I claim that was the first two passes of the day lol. 3rd pass was a really impressive wheelie from what my two buddies said that saw it halfway down the track and a few people that came up to talk to me after the pass lol. Then when I thought the launches felt decent, left two slips, the bike had worse et's and mph.

Guess my two questions:
Could my clutch slip enough to still let me run 9.22 @ 150 on mr12? Best before was 9.24 @ 149 with similar 60'. Trap speed didn't even increase a whole mph between 87 pump gas and mr12. It trapped high 149 and low 150, thought that difference could've been from lower kill time and different shifting points

What is a good clutch to go with? APE? KG? Cycle Concepts?

On the trailer going home with a toasted clutch. At least it was still the fastest thing out at the track that day
 
#29 ·
Lookin at the slips,mph dont look like your clutch is slipin maybe just got hot between runs are needs adjusted. Lil trick i do between runs is zip tie clutch lever to bar, unscrew oil filler cap and put key there so you no tighten cap up this will let air enter between plates while your waitin also run lil more slack in clutch cable when your at the track to prevent clutch failure.
 
#30 ·
I do the zip tie trick but didnt take off the oil cap. Should do that next time though as I always did that with my r1. Tried to let it cool down for at least 20min between runs too.

Last pass felt ok on the launch but 3rd seemed to go by really fast so as soon as I got out of it, the rpms dropped 2k, did the same in 4th so I just have up on that run and loaded it up. I got home and took it out to put regular pump gas in it I tried a 4th gear pull and it slipped real bad. Could still get it home but slipped in the high rpms at wot.
 
#34 ·
I had no change in performance either man with the Mr12 pour in. Going to get a map selector and do a tune with it for next season. Only thing I noticed was better throttle response.

Did you do pump gas runs at all that day? Then took out the pump and ran mr12?
 
#35 · (Edited)
When I looked at the logs my autotune added a good amount of fuel on top of my 87 map. I could post up my before and after map numbers if you'd want.

I didn't run any pump gas through it that day at the track, but I do like that idea to run both gases to see if it actually increased trap speed or helped et. I'll have to try that next time I go to the track :eek:ccasion1

Ordered up a cycle concepts clutch on Monday but don't think I'll be able to make it out to a track this weekend due to other plans. I do plan on going to the track on the 11th or 12th though. And if that doesn't go well there is one on the 18th down in Iowa that I could always make if it doesn't snow by then lol.



Might try dropping the forks a bit more since it looks stock with the low profile front tire and fender lowered without strapped. If it's strapped pretty hard it looks pretty good/low. Think the lower the better for launching.

I think I'm going to try a different launching technique next time too. I've been slipping the clutch just a hair and using my feet to hold the bike back then launching. Might try a few launching with my feet back and try to get more weight over the front since I have the air shifter I don't have to worry about getting my feet up right away.
 
#36 ·
^Oh you were running autotune. I went from 12.9-13.1 afr to 13.5+AFR with the Mr12 in.

Good luck again man. Look forward to seeing the new results.
 
#37 · (Edited)
^Thanks, hopefully can improve on the time a bit!

Tried installing my Cycle Concepts clutch last night. By the time I got done it was too late to start it up and make sure everything worked. I'll try starting it as soon as I get home from work today and I'm crossing my fingers it's good to go.

Stock it seemed to have two 2.2mm steels and the rest 2.9mm in it vs the clutch kit I got was one 2.6mm and the rest were 2.9mm. When I put the new plates/fibers together outside of the basket they measured out to 53.6mm, so I think I'm good to go. At least I hope so.



Also got some Yoshi mirror block off from Riders Discount for a calendar photoshoot I was able to get in.

]


As long as the clutch works I plan on going back to the track on Saturday and hope for another personal best.


Edit: Clutch seems to work just fine.

Most of the steels were pretty burnt up and beat looking and so were the fibers


I think this might be clutch material?

Good thing I changed out the oil and got some nice Motul 7100 in there!

Nice tools makes everything easier. I got these clutch pick tools from Schnitz a few years ago when I had my r1. The pick is nice to get the fibers out and the other end is a magnet to it pulls the steels out nice and easy too.
 
#38 ·
^My clutch looked similar when I changed it lol
 
#39 · (Edited)
Made it out to the local track on Saturday and clutch worked great! It was a test and tune day so racing started around 9 and ended around 4:40ish. All the cars left early but the few bikes stuck it out till the end and I'm glad I did :mrgreen:



Ended up hooking after dumping the clutch a little too quick on one run and sent the thing straight to the sky lol


Was pretty much stuck in the 9.0 range for a good chunk of the day. Towards the end I tried a different technique of laying on the tank more with my feet behind me and it worked a lot better for me. First pass with that it cracked off a 8.99. 2nd pass it did 8.98 to back it up and the 3rd pass it was too low on gas and bucked on the launch lol.



I yelled a big yaaaaaaahooooooooo when I got my slip and did a uncoordinated dance on the bike on the way back to the pits lol.

With some mr12 left and not wanting to waste it, bike tried to find a race and found one with some chevelle that beats liter bike all the time...


Cleaned it up the next day and a buddy did a little photoshoot with it and then had another buddy doing rolling shots





Bike is now in storage at a buddys place about a hour and a half away. Might get a drag shock over the winter depending how much I can be a hermit and save money. Also going to try and lose 15lbs over the winter, rather get rid of my gut than spend money taking weight off the bike lol

Let me know if the pictures are too big and I can save them and upload them to photobucket or something. Just stole the url's from facebook
 
#40 ·
Hell ya man! Congrats on that 8 second pass. That's awesome.

Love that rolling shot, and nice kill with the Chevelle :)
 
#41 ·
Thanks!! You going out any more this year to try and get that 8 second pass?



I was looking at the few videos I had from my gopro and my friend took. Videos aren't all that great but try to upload them in the next day or two to keep me busy. Did get a funny screen shot out of one of the videos though lol

 
#42 ·
^That's a wicked shot lol! Saw the video you uploaded today with a CBR, that was a nice wheelie lol.

Going to try again for this weekend, but the weather has been shit the past 2 months here. It sucks.
 
#45 ·
Thanks! Lol I was kind of bummed I let it come down so hard. I did the same thing two weeks ago at the same track but was able to ride it out and let it come down nice and smooth.

Good luck when you do go back to the track, always nice to have a little colder temps when going racing, as long as the track hooks! :thumbsup:


First time I've seen this thread. Congrats on the 8 second passes. Im hoping to make it out to BIR one of these days, but I prefer the road course over the strip.

Next spring, I'm hoping to get the bike tuned because its running lean and the power seems lower then it should be. Had the dyno break-in done at Boni motorsports and the dyno pull afterwards was a bit on the low side. I think it was around 157hp at 12k rpms. I dont think the last 2k rpm's would have seen that typical 175-180hp that we normally see. Bike had ECU flash, link pipe and akra exhaust on it at 0 miles for dyno break-in.

I will have to catch up with you some time at BIR next summer (if we ever get one with this weather).
Thank you! I think I would love to road race it but it seems like its a lot more expensive and kind of wrecks street riding from a few buddies who have gotten into racing.

Yea that does seem a bit low for those mods. I thought John and Cass made mid 180's on St. Boni's dyno with very similar mods. Guess those were numbers after being tuned which probably helped a bit. I'd be curious to see what you make after being tuned in the spring. I kind of want to throw mine back on the dyno with a clean air filter and the tune from the autotune and see if I picked up any power.

I usually only head up to BIR for the Proving Grounds event, if you're up there definitely share a beer and zx10 stories lol :eek:ccasion1

Nice numbers Brad!
Thanks John! Too bad we never got the chance to go for a ride this year
 
#43 ·
First time I've seen this thread. Congrats on the 8 second passes. Im hoping to make it out to BIR one of these days, but I prefer the road course over the strip.

Next spring, I'm hoping to get the bike tuned because its running lean and the power seems lower then it should be. Had the dyno break-in done at Boni motorsports and the dyno pull afterwards was a bit on the low side. I think it was around 157hp at 12k rpms. I dont think the last 2k rpm's would have seen that typical 175-180hp that we normally see. Bike had ECU flash, link pipe and akra exhaust on it at 0 miles for dyno break-in.

I will have to catch up with you some time at BIR next summer (if we ever get one with this weather).
 
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