General Cleanup... What have we here?

When we got the bike into the shop and started tearing into it, we were pleasantly surprised...and occasionally perplexed. The bike was in near-new shape, and it has a few goodies we wanted to add eventually, including a full exhaust system—a Yoshimura TRS four-into-one with alloy silencer. Whoever did the original installation, however, left the servo controlling the Suzuki's SET valve. (This is the butterfly valve in the exhaust that improves midrange response or helps reduce noise, depending upon who you believe.) It's a simple matter to remove the servo and the cables, and then remove a wire from the ECU harness to keep from getting the FI warning light.

We also removed the silly aftermarket windscreen—a mirror finish outside that you can't actually see through-that was mounted only by the fairing ears. Naturally, the expensive rubber well nuts were nowhere to be found. A Lockhart Speedscreen purchased on eBay was put in its place.

The previous owner-or perhaps his inebriated friends-had chopped off part of the plastic rear fender and removed the turnsignals and both mirrors. Hmmm... that's kinda squidly. We finished the fender job and won a simple metal angle bracket on eBay that carries the license plate and rear turnsignals, which were taken from a pile of lights we have around for just such occasions.

Then came a general checking of hardware and a thorough fluid change. Intending to flush the original brake fluid, we went ahead and installed a set of Galfer steel-braided brake lines up front. At the time, we couldn't find the same brand of brake line for the rear-one of the ways eBay can be hit or miss for parts. Those ministrations gave us the baseline bike, still largely stock but heading in the right direction.

Defining the Project

All along, it's been our intent to make Team Bi-Polar's entry more than a one-trick pony. (Unlike, say, our friends over at Hot Rod, who are building a rail dragster. That'll look neat on the San Diego Freeway, guys...) The concept is to improve the bike for street work-and by this we mean taking a crack at making it more comfortable, mostly-while working on the bike's track prowess. There's lot of knowledge and plenty of hardware for the latter.

First stop: improved ergonomics. We installed a set of Scary Fast Racing's R bars. These adjustable-riser bars allow continuous angle and reach adjustments-within the limits of banging into the fairing, of course-and provide approximately 20mm more rise than stock. We had to remove the Galfer braided brake lines originally purchased for the project and fit a set designed for an SV650 to make it all fit-so be warned. [brake lines.jpg] We'd love the bars even more if the rubber vibration isolators didn't allow the grips to move so much, even when thoroughly tightened down.

Assuming that the stock seat is plenty good-and it turns out to be, thankfully-we decided to add a set of cool rearsets from Vortex racing. We "won" a set of Vortex's nonadjustable rearsets. The quotes around won are there because, by this stage of the spendfest, we were using the Buy It Now button like a laboratory animal looking for the next feelgood pill. Hmmm, that part looks right-push the BIN button!-and the consumerist urge is sated.

We noticed a couple of interesting things about the Vortex set. First, they're not really rearsets. The nonfolding pegs are in exactly the same spot as the stockers. (We looked for a set of adjustable rearsets on eBay, but couldn't find any at this stage of the project.) Second, the right side pieces could use a bit more development: There's no provision for keeping the stock brake light switch, and the brake lever mounts to the master cylinder in such a way that it's hard to get the pedal in just the right spot without grinding a bit off the actuator end. Still, we like the shiny aluminum gleam of the Vortex setup and appreciate getting rid of the stock pegs with their annoying-to some-up tilt at the outer edges.

Overall, we consider taming of the GSX-R for street work to be mission accomplished. With the excellent stock seat, utterly smooth engine and-now-reasonable ergonomics, it's a surprisingly comfortable bike.

Engine work

As mentioned, the Team Bi-Polar bike came with some goodies already installed, including a full Yoshimura TRS exhaust system. Here is our complete list of power-enhancing modifications to the big Zook: The Yosh pipe and a Power Commander. That's it. Together, with some tweaking of the fuel maps, the GSX-R puts down just a bit more than 150 horsepower with generally good drivability. The Yosh system eliminates the SET valve in the exhaust, which can help bolster midrange; despite tweaking, we never really got the response at 4500 rpm to be as smooth or crisp as stock. (We're still working on it, though.) Truth be told, if we weren't doing the track portion of this project, we'd consider staying with the stock exhaust. Just for good measure, we checked the Suzuki's valve clearances-all fine, thanks for asking-and synched the throttle bodies. Fresh oil and a Suzuki filter took care of the vital fluids. While installing a Factory Pro Shift Star and Detent kit, we inspected the clutch assembly, but went ahead and did the Buy It Now routine for a full Barnett kit-including new steel and fiber plates as well as stiffer springs. The Barnett pieces are insurance for our man Kunitisugu's dragstrip runs in the Editors' Charity Challenge. We're sure the stock items will make it, but this is war and winning is largely about preparedness.

The Factory Shift Star installation took approximately 2 hours and gives the big Suzuki much more precise shift action at the expense of slightly more lever effort. A better deal all around.

In addition, we fitted a new chain and sprocket set. The chain is a lovely Regina ORS and the sprockets are from Vortex; stock gearing but now in a 520 size, down from the stocker's bulky #530.

Also, for safety's sake, we fitted new Factory Pro billet engine end cases-generator and starter adapter-that are more durable than the stock items and come with integral skid blocks.