Right guys just got off the phone to my mate Simon Knowlson who is palnning on entering his 748RS in the NG Formula 600 championship.
He phoned to get advice on what alterations would be most effective for the money spent.
He has a few issues with the bike that need addressing Its weight Its brakes The tall first gear Getting it off the line with the slipper clutch.
As its not supersport rules he can do a few more changes than normal. He wanted to know if fitting the mag arm would be worth while. I mentioned fitting mag wheels, 4-pad callipers and a ball bearing type slipper clutch.
So with all the knowledge we have in this club your suggestions would be appreciated. And if anybody knows the where abouts of any of the bits worth adding we would be delighted to hear from them.
If it's a full house RS and he's up to the job then it's more than adequate!
Remember an RS won the BSS championship in 2003 with Easton on board. And he was in 2nd or 3rd in 2004 IIRC.
What's wrong with the brakes? They're easily up to the task normally. He could of course fit p4 calipers off a late R. His main issue is keeping the top end properly serviced.
Simon is well aware of what he is up against, he has won the NG 600 Championship twice been runner up in the Open class, this year he raced in the Metzeler Superstock championship at BSB meets he also took the 748RS to 2nd place in the SoT race at Castle Combe when we were there racing the DD bikes. in 2004 he quallified on the 2nd row of the Castle Combe Superbike Grand National but was ruled out following a high side in quallifying, but not after he had out quallifired Rutter, Emmett etc in the wet session which was followed by him being haulded off for a chat by Rob Mac. Simon has also done a few MRO rounds and the odd BSS round, so he knows how good modern 600s are. He has had the 748RS for a few years buying it from Mark Williams the Year Mark beat Phil Bevan to the North Glos SoT title. If he says it needs improving then I for one believe him. The engine department is taken care of as he lives just up the road from Alan Shirley who will hopefully find a bit of time to help look after the bike even though he has shut his business down to go and work for a race team again.
Now its time to turn a 2000 Supersport spec 748RS into a Open 600 class race bike, to try and compete against the latest from the land of the rising sun and with Tim Radley's tuning thats 135bhp out of a CBR600 with 51.8ft lbs of torque.
My list would probably look something like this: - fit GP calipers and run 290 mm Brembo race disks - definitely fit the mag arm with matching rear hub, rear race brake disk setup - replace as many of the bits that you can (afford) from a 996RS - turn up the idle to reduce tall first gear problem, presuming it already runs a corsa box
Felix its the grabby clutch problem, I've suffered it before as have a few others. Having a after market slipper clutch with the right dished plates setup usually improves things. The afford bit is a bit of a lmiting factor as Simon is meant to tie the knott with Sally in 2006 which is one of the reasons he's stepping down from the more costly national series. He likes the idea of the GP calipers its just finding a set at the right price, a cheaper upgrade is the 4-pads, depends what he can get a mag arm for to how much he will have left to upgrade other items. Certainly doesn't take long to burn through a couple of grand when shopping for a racing Ducati
I've known of mag arms to go for £750, JHP or similar slipper clutches for £350 to £400, 4-pads for £125 (Bike Enders has some at the moment) And to upgrade to mag wheels around £150 on average. So we are looking at a minimum of around £1400 but could easily be a few hundred pound more.
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