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ZX10RR Superstock racebuild!!

Gen 5: 2016-20 
68K views 178 replies 44 participants last post by  CLCRacingLos 
#1 ·
New zx10rr finally got delivered today after a long wait. Just a couple days too late to prep for the Thai WSBK support race this weekend but plan to start the breakin/race build next week and prepare for the 1st round of Thailand Superbike championship on April 1-2nd.

Will race my 2012 BMW S1000rr this weekend instead but look to get a good comparison of both bikes once I get the zx10rr race ready.

A few pics of earlier today when the bike arrived..

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#96 ·
Had planned to wait until the end of this year before opening up the engine but after last weekends race I've decided to get some work done now to try and improve the midrange a little.

Taking it to the kawasaki Thailand race Team mechanic and he's going to put a thinner headgasket on and whatever else he can do thats Superstock legal then tune it on the dyno also. Next race weekend will be last weekend in Aug, so hopefully get some testing in before then.


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#99 ·
Im just guessing but after riding a s1000 i recon you will struggle to match the midrange grunt. I take it the extra corner entry speed gain over the s1000 isnt enough to make up for the loss down the straights?
You see it in moto gp. Get to a track with long straights and long time wide open throttle then the ducati is romping past all over bikes but on tighter track the better handling bikes are quicker.
If you ride tracks with long straights then pour everything into power and corner exit.
Just out of interest what bikes are beating you? Any kawasakis?
 
#100 ·
Im just guessing but after riding a s1000 i recon you will struggle to match the midrange grunt. I take it the extra corner entry speed gain over the s1000 isnt enough to make up for the loss down the straights?

You see it in moto gp. Get to a track with long straights and long time wide open throttle then the ducati is romping past all over bikes but on tighter track the better handling bikes are quicker.

If you ride tracks with long straights then pour everything into power and corner exit.

Just out of interest what bikes are beating you? Any kawasakis?

It's weird cause the zx10 feels a lot better on corner entry but the biggest place I lose at Chang international circuit compared to the BMW is the 3 hard braking areas and I really needed to look at the datalogger to see it cause it doesn't feel that way on track.
Two other Kawasaki and a Yamaha are quicker than me and I'm losing a lot on corner exit compared to the two other zx10. Both are Gen5 with thinner headgaskets and 20kg lighter riders.


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#104 ·
Yeah, I wouldn't give up on the bike already.

Part of improving as a rider is to figure out a way to work WITH the bike by sometimes modifying your own riding. But I think you still have a lot of tuning and setup to cover before you start modifying your own riding style.

Since you are heavier, it's a given that you will have to use your weight to your advantage on corner entry and maintaining higher midcorner speed especially, because those are the only two times you can capitalize on your weight. Work on your roll on because it will virtually have to be perfect; just on the threshold to use all the drive grip you can get to minimize the time you are losing out of corners and on the straights. The crossplane configuration of the Yamaha allow it to serve up the best corner exit, so focus on sticking with the top Kawasakis on this aspect more than the Yamaha.

Good luck man, really hoping you get a breakthrough; gradual or sudden, it's all good.
 
#107 ·
Awesome, how did it go?



Love the black/red/white fairings, I see you're running Melandri's exact number plates.

A little update in post#89. In need of more track time to get the front suspension sorted, its better midcorner and exit compared to the std carts but I could brake later before I installed the Ktech. So, it's just finding the right spring/airgap to where I get the feeling I want. Just fine tuning the setup is what's needed before next race.


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#109 ·
Was a busy Aug with work so didn't get much time on the bike and missed one of the race weekends but managed to make the Sept 16-17th round of BRIC Superbike Championship.

Mixed conditions during the thurs/fri trackdays before the event so didn't get a bunch of laps in but enough to test some gearing, engine brake and fuel mapping. Had already equaled my best lap from the previous race on old tires so was looking forward to see what I could do on new rubber.

With the thinner head gasket, adjusted valve clearance and new fuel mapping the bike definitely pulls harder on corner exit and my top speeds were up 4-5km/hr compare to previous round. But I'm still struggling in mainly one area of the track and I think it comes down to the shock not being valved correctly for a heavy rider (hard spring) and i'm getting a lot of pump on corner exit when I have a lot of lean angle. This is making the bike really hard to change directions also and that one section T10-12 I'm losing 1-1.5s compared to when I last raced my S1000rr.

Decided to use a set of Metzeler K1/K1 for qualifying and dropped my times to 1m40.1 which was 0.4s quicker than last round on supercorsa SC1/SC0, think I could have been quicker on my first flying lap but caught some slower riders at the end of the lap.

The race was a disappointment as on the second lap my chain stretched enough that on left hand corners it felt like it was going to jump off the sprocket so I had to be careful and try to stand the bike up quicker before accelerating. I was on for a mid 39s lap before that happened and ended up having a long race losing out to 3rd by less than 0.5s/lap which would have been easy to do if not for the chain issues. All in I ended up 4th with a best lap of 1m40.08.






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#116 ·
Rrrrippin man, I about shat myself when I heard/saw how fast and hard you were getting on the throttle at that final turn before the finish line in that practice video.

On another note, you got any pics how you wired your kit harness on the rear part of the bike? I was thinking of relocating the tip over sensor to the rear subframe instead of having it in the stock location, would seem like the harness would get chafed after a couple tail fairing removals, etc.
 
#112 ·
Just want to drop in and say thanks for all the detailed posts! Great watching your progress on this build and how you worked out kinks on the RR. Also awesome to see ya race!

I just picked up a RR myself and going to break it in on track maybe next weekend. [emoji51]

Also, thanks for the tip on lockstop. After my last crash I know what you mean on how you can crack the frame.

Picked these up today from R&G



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#114 ·
Little update from last weekends race, it was the last round of BRIC Superbike championship so plan was to atleast get into the 1m39 before year end. First session Thursday morning on old tires i went straight to 1m40.4, so it was looking good but from the second session on i started to have a vibration/hesistation on corner exit while at lean that i tried everything to solve and diagnose but just couldn't seem to get it figured out. Come qualifying and the hesistation was getting worse but even with a couple mistakes i managed a 1m39.4 lap and 5th on the grid for Sundays race.

Was awake by 4am on Sunday morning thinking about what could be the problem with the bike but nothing was really standing out in the data from the datalogger and no fault codes. 7am at the track and went over the bike to check all the electrical connections, suspension link and shock but everything looked fine, passed along my qualifying session data to the Kawasaki thailand team techs to see if they could give me an idea on what was wrong. Their Japanese mechanic suggested i change the crank sensor as some of the data (rpm movement) suggested that it could be intermittent and its a known issue if the bike has been crashed for them to lose connection.

So, bike was stripped down and throttle bodies off to fit the new sensor but by this time it started pissing down, so time to change the tires to wets also. Spare wheels had some old used wets on them ready to go, so i was so tired from working on the bike i just tossed them on instead of changing to new.

Right away on the sighting lap the bike sounded alot crisper on the straight at high rpm and although i couldnt really push hard on corner exit its seems as the crank sensor was the problem all weekend, even my top speeds were virtualy the same in the wet with the new sensor as what they were in the full dry qualifying session. But the old wets on a cold and very wet track proved to be not the right choice as i couldn't push at all and pretty much rode around waiting for everyone to pass me, that didnt happen as many of the other riders ended up throwing their bikes down the road and i came home in 3rd!!

A couple little changes i made before this last round really made the bike easier to ride and i'm really enjoying riding the bike now, i think the laptimes will continue to drop. Now i'll have a little break until a club race in Jan and depending how that goes i will decide which bike i'll ride at the WSBK support race in March.. BMW or ZX10RR???
 
#122 ·
A few pics from last race weekend. New suit and helmet matches the bike pretty well but packed on a few kg over the year that will need to be lost if I want to be quicker next year. In qualifying my top speed was 271km/hr compared to the top Yamaha hitting 291, I did have an issue with my crank position sensor but still that’s too much of a difference.

Because I finished top 3, the bike had to be stripped after the race to check Camshaft lift and they put a camera down each port to check everything was stock.




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#126 ·
Hey dunno if you're still having issues with the K-Tech but from what you're describing you may want to look into a preload compression piston for your shock. You'll be able to drop the spring rate down and the preloaded piston will help control the movement and give some support. The stiff rear spring could also be causing issues on your braking too. What springs are you running in the front?
 
#127 ·
I went upto a 110Nmm rear spring last round and it felt alot better but had another small issue with the bike that didn't allow me to fully understand if the rear pumping is completly gone. On Sunday warmup i switched to a 100Nmm spring with more preload just to test but i ended up putting too much preload and the rear was actually harder than with the 110Nmm spring. Will try to get some test days in the next couple months but i'm actually really happy with the bike now.

Up front i run 10.5/11 with 160mm airgap.
 
#137 ·
Ready to do some test/tuning on the zx10rr and s1000rr the next 2 days. Installed o2 bungs on cylinder 1 & 2 so I can make separate maps in the race ecu and will also test e85 in both bikes. No dyno runs just on track datalogging... testing at BIRA circuit which is a small track with 240km/hr top speed so not a full tune for top end but should save me a little time in 2 weeks when I race at Chang international!!!



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#138 ·
Ready to do some test/tuning on the zx10rr and s1000rr the next 2 days. Installed o2 bungs on cylinder 1 & 2 so I can make separate maps in the race ecu and will also test e85 in both bikes. No dyno runs just on track datalogging... testing at BIRA circuit which is a small track with 240km/hr top speed so not a full tune for top end but should save me a little time in 2 weeks when I race at Chang international!!!

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Does your chrome dash accept multiple o2 sensors? Also did your headers come with bungs in each head pipe or is that something you had added? I ordered a chrome plus as well, interested to hear your feedback on the tuning process for A/F ratio, etc. I'm hoping mine will help dialing in the off/on throttle transition and smoothening out the power delivery coming off corners.
 
#144 ·
Followed around one of the other Superstock racers on his zx10 for a couple laps to compare. Previous rounds at Chang International he would leave me pretty bad down the long straights but looks like the tuning plus e85 has helped out a lot with straight line speed. We switched bikes the following session and both noticed a big difference in how much more pull my bike had in 4th-5th. He left me for dead down the straight when he was on my bike (rider is 20kg lighter).

https://youtu.be/oGi7XDs7GV4


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