This project began with the lucky find of a crashed bike. We had originally planned to overhaul Jason's 748 race bike, but because this 848 presented us with a VERY inexpensive starting point, he decided to go ahead with a whole new project.

Project Goals -

1 - Check over the motor but keep it stock
2 - Tune the bike to make power but also to make it as easy to ride as possible
3 - Reduce weight wherever possible
4 - Upgrade the suspension to make it handle perfectly on the track

These four goals should produce a bike that is reliable, and easy to ride. Having only been racing for a year, this should help Jason go faster than simply building him a high performance motor.

Here's the bike as it arrived to us -

Once we checked out the bike to make sure it was a good and safe project candidate, we decided to strip off all the damaged street parts. The damage was spread over both sides but the main impact of the crash seemed to be on the right, and as is common with the 848 / 1098 an impact on a solid foot peg bent the frame tabs. They were only slightly bent, and we straightened them out, and made sure there were no cracks or other issues.

Next up was to fit the bodywork so it could be sent out for paint. But, before we could do that we needed to install the new exhaust mid pipe so we coulud check clearance etc. You want to have the bodywork perfectly fitted and drilled before it gets painted - trimming and modifying things afterwards is not the way to do things. The bike arrived with Arrow slipons, so we decided to keep them and select a new mid pipe. The QD pipe we chose goes from narrow header pipes to a very large mid section crossover then back down to the stock size to join the slipons - 52mm/60mm/54mm. This should help keep up the midrange torque without limiting top end power too much. It will also save a bit of weight over the stock piece.

Next, it was time for a light weight subframe from our Friends at Yoydyne. We'll loose that heavy plastic undertail too.

Now we are moving the 30mm Kyle Racing Triples and Ohlins forks from Jay's bike to Jason's.

Note the coolant overflow bottle!

Jay's fork seals were leaking a bit - we had just replaced a couple sets, so new seals are on order - we'll sort them out in a few days. In the meantime, this is what you need to watch for: Oil on the slider, and oil on the brake caliper mount.

Jay has modified these Ohlins to what we call our "Stroker Fork" specification. We modify the internals to give an extra 10mm of travel - 130mm instead of 120mm which really helps out on bumpy north east tracks like Louden and Summit.

And, with Jay pulling on the wheel, we can show you the travel of the top out spring on these puppies:

Pulling the old forks, starting with the top triple.

Sad Jay, happy Jason:

The lower head bearings on Jays bike were bad - likely from moisture getting down into the steering stem - Jay notches the lower bearing race so we can pound it up off the stem.

Stock forks coming off Jason's bike

The Ohlins forks each weigh a full pound less than the stock Showa forks, but we wanted to see if what the complete assemblies weighed including the triples. They were the same down to an ounce or so. So any weight advantage of the Ohlins is offset by the additional weight of the stronger triples.

Cutting off the stock steering stops and touch up with a little Ducati Red.

Why we always wear safety goggles!

And, on go the new forks!

And, to pay respects to the closing of BCM, today Jay wears his old shop shirt, and remembers the good times up in NH!

And, after a small break, we are back at it, beginning with the rear suspension.

Here's the old stuff, and then the new stuff!

We've got a Dan Kyle modified TTX - setup for Dan's linkage, the linkage itself, which is designed for a more linear rate as we don't need to worry about typical street riding two up stuff, and a Ducati Corse ride height adjuster. This adjuster is going to be a bit on the long side when used with the rest of the components - Dan has a shorter one that allows adjustment all the way down to a stock ride height, so we'll probably be trying that one as well eventually. Jason liked a lot of ride height on the 748 so he wanted to try this corse one first.

Here it all is going in - the bearings in the linkage get a little lube and the seal from the stock one goes right in.

Lastly we put a little zip tie in there so we can see how much travel we are using up when we start to get it all set up.

Next we spent the day pulling everything off the bike that we don't need, and doing some general fixes and left side cover work.

First thing is these coolant connectors - their o rings don't sit proud enough and they leak. A little sealant takes care of it.

Left side coming off, and notice the lightweight flywheel - a nice thing to have as stock!

This tab lock washer isn't up to the task, so we replace it with a serrated belleville one, and then loctite and torque down the nut.

Next up is the shifter mechanism. These usually are a bit off as set from the factory. The pins should both align well with the tab, and produce an even wear pattern. When they are this far out it can miss the pin and jam. You can see there's only one wear line on the face - the other contact point is so far off it's hitting the edge of the tab instead of the face.

It should look like this (this junk piece is seriously worn, but shows where they should be hitting):

Here you can see how far off the pins are:

The alignment of the faces should be equal and spec at .375" You can see they don't quite fit. So, we adjust the spacing and are good to go!

Next week we are going to finish prepping the bike, dyno it with the stock ECU, install the Nemesis and quick shifter and re-tune it on the dyno and see what it'll do!

TO BE CONTINUED...