WTTT (Welcome To Team Tightarse)

[chief wiggum]

OK, so that title may be bit misleading as i'm not actually starting a race team or even committing to racing. what we've got here is the story of me trying to build a track bike as cheaply as possible.
to start off, there was this Stolen Bike
poor luminal's misfortune turned into my good luck, and i managed to get her '05 r6 for $1700, which was an absolute steal (pun intended). when i picked it up, it was looking a bit sad. tyres were fucked, fairings were fucked or missing, had a front mudguard off a different make altogether (it's green under the black and yellow paint), the dash had been removed, it had mismatched footpegs (one was a pillion peg i think) and even had a dodgy fake numberplate (printed paper stuck on a piece of ali). but i gave the battery a good charge, she started first pop and purred nicely. that battery is still in it and hasnt needed to be charged since.




at this point i have to mention that Kat (luminal) is one of those people who cant do enough to help, and i had to argue with her that i would actually pick the bike up, rather than get her dad to drop it off


with all the bad bits ripped off, it was time to start searching for good bits. as all the bits arrived, i took photos like every good project bike builder does. but as this has taken 18 months to sort out, i've lost most of those pics of things in their packaging, so you'll just have to imagine that as you see the bits in-situ.

this is going to be a track bike, so it needs a loud exhaust. hello ebay, what's my cheapest option? and the winner is.....danmoto? yup, good quality chinese carbon fibre motogp style cans delivered to your door for $185. done deal. i gotta say that loud is an understatement, especially at 15.5krpm. i didnt like the look of the pillion peg as a support, so i made my own out of an old aluminium blanking plate i found in the shed






and being a track bike, i needed to be able to see what revs i'm doing and have some idiot lights. scoured ebay to no avail, but then find-a-part came to the rescue. cheapest clocks in oz were to be found at our very own motorcycle masters, for the grand sum of $240 (i think). they werent the prettiest, and they showed plenty of k's, but they worked. the dash mount/fairing stay was missing as well, found new ones from hong kong on ebay for about $100 delivered (no pic, too boring)

[chief wiggum]

and now we need something to make it look pretty. scoured the net for race glass, and the cheapest i found was from ozzy motorcycle fairings, $600 delivered. i had some issues with making it all fit, bit with a bit of nip and tuck it all happened. of course, you get what you pay for, and some bits weren't the best finish. especially after i finished with them. there was a fiberglass piece that could only fit under the tail unit as a kind of seat support, but it was way too flimsy to support my weight, nearly broke it just sitting on it gently, let alone thrashing round a track, so i got one of the boilermakers at work to whip up an aluminium item. that cost me a 6-pack, but as i'd just got a 6-pack from someone else for a little job i did, i handed that over and it was essentially free. the fairing kit comes with a piece of foam rubber about 40mm thick for a seat pad. it was too hard, and difficult to cut, so i just cut a piece out of a left over mat (one of those ones that slot together to make a bigger mat) and glued it on, it worked fine on the weekend.




once again, no pix of race glass by itself, you'll just have to be patient

so now i want to stop. fast. a set of HEL braided lines set me back $120, ebc HH pads were $134. front only, cos we all know you dont use your back brakes much on the track. the original levers were looking a bit ratty, ground down and bent, found some lovely folding shorty (or longy, they're extendable) levers on ebay for $65 from hong kong. as a package, the brakes are fucking awesome. the remote reservoir mounting tab had been broken off the top triple clamp, so i had to make a bracket out of the same ali as the exhaust support, with a bit of drilling and tapping into the clipon





as mentioned, the footpegs were all fucked up, one standard, one from a different bike. hit up ebay again, and got some nice $20 pegs, which looked pretty but wouldnt go into the standard rearset, as they use a pin with a mushroomed end. so i made me some new pins, just machined some 8mm stainless bolts down to make a nice pin, drilled and cottered pinned in place. i'm very proud of those pins, as i only did some basic lathe work at high school and tafe

[chief wiggum]

after all this hard work of putting little extra bits on and making body work fit, i got to thinking about colour schemes. the missus wanted purple and black cos they've always been her favourite colours. i thought of maybe copying the original rossi rep colour scheme, without all the really fancy bits. in the end, the winner was just what i'd already been using for the bits i was making




yup, i know it looks shit, but this is a cheap build, and if it had a $1000 paintjob on it, i'd be too scared to go hard.
so here it is, in all it's finery.





as it stands, it owes me just under $3,000, which includes $16 for the paint cans, and a few fasteners etc. i also picked up a cheap set of barely used pirelli supercorsas, which doug sant had kindly scrubbed in for me, changed the oil and filters. havent really counted regular consumables in the cost though
as far as achieving what i wanted, i think i did pretty well with bang for buck. i've done 1 track day on her so far, and it went really well, handled like a dream.
i just wanted to prove i could do it cheap, and i think i succeeded. now to spend a bit more dough and make it a bit better, it really needs a steering damper which should be on it's way soon. maybe score some ramair ducts and prettier raceglass. and there's a couple of people pushing me to go racing......

[kale]

Love your work! Hope you get plenty of giggles out of it.

[Squash]

Wow, awesome stuff man

Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using Tapatalk

[Captain Starfish]

Deal with that hokey yellow tank, mang.

But the price tag is excellent

[ninjaa]

Yeah nice work mate! Don't worry too much about prettier race glass if you're looking at it from a cost perspective. Eyes peeled for second hand sets then $$$ goes on brakes, fuel, oil & tyres

[scotch]

Really good build and getting a 600cc race bike for $3000 is brilliant. Want to go on the track myself at some stage next year and this build has given me options as i was set on buying a used race bike. The idea of getting a wrecked/stolen bike is more appealing now.

[Barfridge]

top stuff!
Now will you ever be in town to ride the bloody thing?

[Mr John]

Good effort, have fun & try to keep it rubber side down.

[speed3]

Love your work mate, hope to see you at Collie again soon.

Oh and get your race license.

[Luminal]

I'm stoked you linked me up with this! I miss that bike SOOOOOOOOO bad but i'm glad it's no longer on the wrong side of the law and it's in hands which actually use it in a meaningful way! Thanks for the acknowledgement too haha you know I would have had it delivered! Hope she wins you every race you're in!
Kat

[DrewC]

Very nice!

[chief wiggum]

Deal with that hokey yellow tank, mang.

the tanks in perfect condition and i didnt want to mess it up. know anyone who needs a good condition rossi rep tank who wants to swap?

top stuff!
Now will you ever be in town to ride the bloody thing?

i've been checking all the calendars, and it looks like i'd only miss 2 rounds of hcmc and none of the mcrc rounds
now stop saying silly things which might lead me astray

Good effort, have fun & try to keep it rubber side down.

i'll be trying on both counts!

Oh and get your race license.

stop it! just stop it! i'm already thinking too many silly things

I'm stoked you linked me up with this! I miss that bike SOOOOOOOOO bad but i'm glad it's no longer on the wrong side of the law and it's in hands which actually use it in a meaningful way! Thanks for the acknowledgement too haha you know I would have had it delivered! Hope she wins you every race you're in!
Kat

no probs, it was pleasure dealing with you

[Drasius]

Nice job, especially for the budget. I reckon you could get it so the yellow tank doesn't out of place at all with some vinyl or stickers. Very impressed.

[2 pot screamer]

Hey dude, Love what you've done for the price.
Try this place you might find some cheap plastics.
eBay My World - sugus-come

[ninjaa]

You can get tank covers. Might stop them exploding

[chief wiggum]

You can get tank covers. Might stop them exploding

tell me more?

[ninjaa]

Just havin a dig Few r6's have gone up in flames (at barbs) when the tank has pierced

[marras]

Nice work cheif, looks the good's. I'm doing the axact same thing as you, see you up the track soon.