The Ramblings Of An Amateur Racer

2004 GSXR 750 Race Bike For Sale

2009-11-30T10:45:00.000-08:00

04 GSXR 750 race bike with the following goodies:

1. Completely titanium Leo Vince Full Exhaust system. (Was unobtanium in 04. This was manufactured for a AMA FX in 04/05.)
2. Power Commander USB III mapped by Jim Elinger at Max Speed Cycles. Max hp to rear wheel is 142 with 60.7 ft-lbs of torque. You can see the dyno chart here.
3. K & N air filter.
4. Forks re-sprung and valved by Kent at G.M.D. Computrack. Seals replaced and oil freshened by Jon at CTR suspension at the beginning of this year.
5. Penske 8900 rear shock with manual.
6. Brembo 19 x 18 master cylinder
7. Regina 520 chain.
8. Vortex rear sprocket (+2 teeth).
9. After market front sprocket with 1 less tooth (can't remember the brand).
10. Vortex billet aluminum case covers.
11. Foot peg risers. (move the feet 1 inch back and 1 inch up)
12. Cheetah racing bodies.
13. Zero gravity wind screen (may be double bubble).
14. After market fairing stay (Graves/Vortex?? cant' remember)
15. Vesrah SRJL pads
16. Shogun frame sliders
17. Bridgestone BT003 race tires with 1 light weekend on them.
18. Everything is already drilled for both CCS and WERA. Most drilling was done by a professional mill. Has passed tech in both orgs.
19. XT lap timer
20. Kept in doors most of its life. as seen in bottom picture. When it wasn't in doors it was sheltered.

This bike is a great bike and is really fast. It has brought me several top 10s and a couple of top 5s. It needs a little paint and a bath but other than that it is ready to race. If you want to see racing pics of it let me know.

Title in Hand
$4500

Contact Peter at [email]jpeter.faulkner@gmail.com[/email] or call 336 - 253 - 5104.

2009-10-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

Blogging blows.....no its not blogging that blows...its the fact that I have gone through a whole freaking race season and haven't executed what I intended. It kinda sucks because I have learned a metric fuck ton (that's a British unit BTW)...not just about racing/riding...but about life, love, relationships, pushing through your limits, pushing through fears, and trying to be the best person you can be. I wish I had documented more.

Stay Tuned

2009-06-30T20:23:00.000-07:00

I've had two race weekends since my last post and allot has transpired...I keep thinking about writing about it but I get so lazy with all the happenings of life....Nonetheless, stay tuned...

Addiction

2009-04-03T11:17:00.000-07:00

I saw this quote on someone elses page and it gave me a little chuckle:

"Racing makes heroin addiction look like a vague longing for something salty."
- Peter Egan

Dyno Chart

2009-04-02T18:51:00.001-07:00

In standard fashion, Jim at Max Speed Cycles did as he said he would and mailed me the dyno charts for the custom mapping that he created a couple of weeks ago. The left Y axis is horse power, the right Y axis is torque and the X axis is miles per hour. Its kinda hard to tell from this chart but the max hp ended up to be around 142. The max torque ended up being 60.7 ft-lbs. The green curve is the graph before the custom mapping was done. The red curve is the graph after the custom mapping was done.

142.81

2009-03-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Okay so here is the deal. I had this very intricate and wordy post halfway written, but I just couldn't get myself to finish it. I've had a ton going on lately. I did ,however, want to relay the small bit of progress that was made in my last track day .

To me it really is ALL about progress. See....I was the guy in the Cornerspeed class that needed to be escorted around the track. Seriously, I NEVER had any intentions of racing. All I wanted to do was get my knee on the ground. Then I got bitten by the bug and all of my expendable income has since vanished.

Back to progress. Since the day of my first class, I have had to use small markers to keep me going. Sometimes it has just been that I got my knee down in a corner that I hadn't before. If progress wasn't the marker, I would have quit a long time ago.

At any rate, here is the deal. Last year, my very fastest lap time (at RACE pace) was a 141.395. The progress is, that on the first day of back at the track, my fastest time was a 142.81. Now I ain't saying that's super fast or that I am the shit or anything. All I am saying is that at one point I would have been hard pressed to turn that time in practice.....kudos to Cornerspin, weight loss, titanium exhaust systems and custom power commander mappings.....

Oh yeah...these times are all with respect to the north course at Virginia International Raceway. I compared my fastest time to the fastest times of the WERA races the previous weekend, and it looks like I may have had a chance at being top ten.

Tattoos For Support

2009-03-26T11:36:00.000-07:00

So I have been trying to drum up traffic to my new blog....I've gone to some of my favorite forums and posted the link and asked people to view it regularly. The results have been mixed. One post in particular got my attention though. It effectively said "Why should myself or my company give you money?". I am still forumlating my answer but it got me thinking of a variety of gorilla marketing techniques that I have to offer.....The craziest one that I considered was getting a name brand tattooed in exchange for race support....what do you think? Would you get Pirelli tattooed on your ass if they bought you a season of tires? What would it take for you to really get branded? Please feel free to comment!

Braving The Winter

2009-03-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

Winter for a road racer can be rough. Last year and the year before that, I would start getting the itch somewhere around December, and by the time March rolled around, I wouldn't be able to sleep due to the mental laps turned in my head. For whatever reason, I have entered this season a little less adrenalized. Maybe that's a good thing? I am not saying that I haven't been putting effort in during the off season. In fact, the opposite is true.

The first thing that I did this winter was focus on my physical health. During the peak of the season last year, I was at my heaviest. Not only was my 04 GSX-R 750 carrying around an extra 20 - 25 pounds, but as my friend Gweezy put it, "Dude....you did kinda look like a sausage in those leathers". I was so out of shape that I couldn't stay up to pace during a solo. I was uncomfortable and had no energy. So it was off to the pool. I have gotten to the point where I am now swimming about a mile a day. The net result is that I am down to 186, which is about 20 pounds less than this summer. I don't know if its true, but someone told me that you get roughly 1 horse power for ever 7 pounds of weight removed from the rider/bike equation. I would have swam yesterday, but some kid pooped in the pool.

The next thing that I did during the off season was train in the dirt. Ever heard of Cornerspin? Well if you haven't you should really check it out. We use flat track and motard techniques to teach balance, throttle control, body positioning, traction, weight bias, peg weighting, vision, references, and a ton of other aspects or riding/racing. Aaron Stevenson was kind enough to employ me with an assitantship at Cornerspin and I have been able to use my time there to help out and stay fresh during the winter. I think this is part of the reason why I wasn't climbing the walls earlier in the winter. Aaron and his staff are second to none in their professionalism and talent. They truly have taught me everything I know about riding and racing.

Bike modifications are also a great tool to help stave off the winter blues. My biggest modification consisted of the installation of a new titanium Leo Vince full exhaust system. There have been times in my life where I would have looked at you funny if you would have said that a peace of machinery or a motorcycle part were artful. From the spotless titanium weld points, to the pre-drilled holes for safety wiring, it was easy to tell that this exhaust system was high design. After getting a few tips from the WERA board, my buddy, one of his munchkins, and myself found installation to be fairly easy.

The next step was to get the fuel injection system properly mapped. I took the bike over to Jim at Max Speed Cycles to make a custom map for my power commander. Jim really took care of me. He was flexible, fair, and honest. Not only did he work with me in such a way that I would be able to pick up my bike at 8:00 am on a Friday (two hours before their shop opened) but he was able to squeeze out an extra 7 horse power through out the rev range. I'm going to post the graphs soon.

Changing the break pads, break fluid, new oil and filter, new water + water wetter in the radiator and a couple of other small modifications to make my bike less ghetto was all I needed to make sure that my first track day of the season went off without a hitch. Stay tuned to see how all of the work payed off.