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I had been meaning to do a build thread for about 6 months as I remove the stock parts and turn it into a bike that will be just as good on the track as it would on the road. Over the last 6 months I have bought and added some aftermarket parts and some racing parts but 1 month ago I low sided the bike and have had to start again. Because of this I thought I would just start the build thread from now and detail the work I do on it to get it back on the road and ready for the track. Before I get into rebuilding the bike I thought I would give you a bit of an explanation of what happened leading up to the crash.
This is what the bike looked like when I first bought it. It is a 2006 Honda CBR600RR that I ended up paying $8,000 for. It had done about 29,000km and rego was due, so after a bit of research on prices I was happy with this. The bike was completely stock except for a Two Brothers exhaust.
I already owned a cruiser and the main reason I bought this bike was because I wanted to get into doing track days and eventually work up to racing in a year or two. I had completed a RAC Advanced Ride Day to help improve my skills on a sports bike and then I started to book myself in to whatever track days were available when I was wasn’t away for work. Things were progressing at a steady pace. I had a great time at my first level 1 Trakdayz and everything was running smoothly until the second last session of the day when one of the riders in front of me crashed at turn 7 and I got target fixation and lost my line. I made the conscious decision to run off into the sand not realising how boggy it was and once I hit it at speed I couldn’t control the bike and got slammed down pretty hard side ways into the dirt. The bike was fine because it was in the sand but my confidence was a bit shot. It ended up with a broken indicator, some minor scratches, and clogged up chain and sprockets.
Over the next few months I completed an RAC Tunning Session which was a major boost in getting my confidence back because the track is slower but more technical, a Level 1 racecraft and another Level 1 Trakdayz. After my final Trackdayz I was riding quite well for my group (I still had plenty to learn though) and was ready to move up to group 2 Trakdayz. I booked in for group 2 and it was only 4 days away but it looked like the weather was going to be crap again so I also booked in for a level 1 racecraft that was 2 days earlier to brush up on my lines and breaking before moving up to their next level. Racecraft comes around and the weather is beautiful and I cant wait to get out onto the track. The first session was just a familiarisation session back on the track and we spent the whole time just sitting behind 1 of the instructors checking the track condition and looking for oil patches, sand and debri and turning markers.
By the time this was finished I was so keen for the next session when we would finally have a chance to get out there and cut some laps at our own pace. Even though I have now done 3 track days I still wouldnt call myself a great rider and still had a lot to learn. I had been given several different pieces of advice from a few people and I wanted to try and incorporate these tips into my riding. I think the problem was I tried learning too many things at once instead of focusing on one aspect at a time. So we headed out onto the track and after a couple of warm up laps I decided to open her up and try and some of these new ideas. I only lasted 2 more laps before I low sided in the basin
While Im not sure exactly why I crashed, one of the main parts was that I didnt put my knee out. I was having a few issues with the position of my new rear sets and just kept on trying to lean it over without my knee out until i low sided it at or just after the apex. Sometimes I have been told that it looks like that I try and stick my knee out to far like thats all Im trying to do so I was trying not to do it but I think that was a mistake. In the past having my knee down too hard has pushed me wide in the corners so thats something I have to work on some how. Looking back I think getting my knee down is a good indication for me as to how far I should probably lean as Im a heavy boy at around 100kg. I think if I try and lean it over to far and I dont have perfect body positioning I unbalance the centre of gravity of the bike and over I went. While not the only reason I think that was one of the main reasons as to what happened here and I went over to far and lost the front end. Another contributing factor could of possible been that I was off the brakes before I hit the basin and accelerating through it and without the front suspenion still compressed properly I didnt have the contact patch I needed and combined with my other issues contributed to my off.
I am not an very experienced track rider and cant read what the bike is doing under me properly yet so these are only my thoughts and guesses. The only problem is there was no one behind me to see it happen and help with the explanation as the next rider didnt come past until after I had finished sliding across the track and had picked my bike up.
I was fine with nothing broken just a little bruised and sore but my day was over after the second session. On the other hand the bike was a mess. Structurally the rear sub frame was twisted, the front fairing stay bracket was cracked, the right hand side rearset was flat like a pancake, and the right hand side handle bar and throttle tube were damaged. Cosmetically the front, tail, right side and bottom fairing were all destroyed, the clutch cover was all grated up from the road and my leathers and helmet were a bit of a mess. So this is what it looked like after the crash.
To be continued...
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Originally Posted by jasle 
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