First project... Thunderbike!

Longstory short, after seeing an SV in Aprillia Corse factory bodywork, reading through this thread and then going over the rules for the Thunderbike championship, I want a project.

Also, after having a few trips round Cadwell and seeing how much fun you can actually have on a bike, I can no longer seem to enjoy road riding. I know people will disagree but it has destroyed road riding for me. It's time for a track bike.

I like how the bikes are evenly matched with the power to rate ratio ruling and I really like the idea of 'technically interesting' bikes being entered. It seems an excellent way to go. A championship that lets engineers do what they do and something that doesn't just involve in line 4's.

So over the next few years at Uni I want to at least make a start on a prototype Thunderbike. I wont have enough money to buy a brand new bike to start with. And, any money for nice parts will most likely have to come from the sale of the standard parts.

So it will probably be the sorriest looking Thunderbike around.




First questions:

1) My bike has done around 15,000 miles or more. How suitable/ unsuitable is this bike for track/ racing and how will the engine handle the tuning necessary?

-Boring out and gas flowing etc etc.

2) First steps will be turn this in to a basic track bike before it becomes a Thunderbike. My issue is that in the first stages this bike needs to stay road legal so I can actually get it to the track as I wont have a van. What can I loose from the bike and still keep it legal?

[Winder]

Road/track isn't the best idea. Cheap car with towbar and trailer would do rather than a van. What happens if you bin it on track, you'll be stuck. Plus you would have to remove headlight etc everytime because you don't want to risk breaking expensive parts you need for the road.

Didn't you fancy the minitwins rather than thunder bike? As the rules mean you would need to get rid of that GSXR front end, that plus fairings etc you'll have near a grand to spend on making a mint bike so your part funding problem is no more!
I did enjoy watching thunderbikes though, few SV's, few 400's, think there was even an RS250 in there.

[yorkie_chris]

You'd be better off buying a dead cheap curvy as a basic minitwin, IMO.

[Teejayexc]

Originally Posted by Winder

Road/track isn't the best idea. Cheap car with towbar and trailer would do rather than a van. What happens if you bin it on track, you'll be stuck. Plus you would have to remove headlight etc everytime because you don't want to risk breaking expensive parts you need for the road.

Didn't you fancy the minitwins rather than thunder bike? As the rules mean you would need to get rid of that GSXR front end, that plus fairings etc you'll have near a grand to spend on making a mint bike so your part funding problem is no more!
I did enjoy watching thunderbikes though, few SV's, few 400's, think there was even an RS250 in there.

^^^Wot he said, with the bonus of exchanging/selling that front end to me

It's is going to be several years before I can get an ACU licence and actually get into racing. But I will one day. With regards to removing headlights, I'm sure I've seen bikes on the road with full race bodywork and no lights at all. I'm hoping you can use a bike like that on the road in good weather and daylight hours. When it comes time to get into some form of competitive event then I'll have it as just a track bike. For know it will just be local track days.


Minitwins would most definitely be the more suitable, the cheapest, and possibly the easiest event to build a bike for but, I really really like my GSXR front end and I love my bike more than my family! I recently had to toil with the idea of having to sell it and it was killing me. Luckily though I get to keep it.

I'm more interested in the work at the moment more than the end game. That RSV2 SV700 looks like something I would love to tackle and scratch my head over...

I understand I would really struggle to get anywhere near a bike of that spec with the funding available but I can be very patient when needed to. And it is just a project idea at the moment. Something to learn on.

My, very hopeful plan of attack for a starting point relies entirely on the chance that the uni will allow me to use their giant pressure cooker (carbon fibre making... thing) to construct some carbon fibre bodywork and then I can flog my OEM body work... I also hope I may be able to use my own bike as a guinea pig for some or any projects and assignments etc etc.

That and a lot of scrimping and scraping will allow me to very slowly build up the bike to stage 1) and then from there to develop it to as close as is realistically possible for a prototype thunderbike.

Stage 1 being a good track bike.

- New subframe
- Rear shock
- Full race exhaust system
- PC
- Fully stripped of any unnecessaries.

[Winder]

Sounds like you've made your mind up mate, so good luck. Make sure you have some other form of transport though. It's gonna spend alot of time in pieces if your serious about the spec and I doubt a full race exhaust will pass an MOT and you'll fail at stage 1.

Get plenty of pictures up too, everyone likes a build thread.

Yeah the full race system will be the turning point into it just being a track bike. I have my eye on an M4 system as I've heard they give the best end result...

please forgive me but you have really not thought about it.
Day time MOT yes you can run with no lights just a reflector how ever unless you live on the door step of your local track travelling there could be a problem with lighting up times and/or if it rains/poor visibility. Plod will be all over you like a spotty rash. Plus of course you will be limiting your self to road legal tires and you would have to be careful that you had enough tread left to get you home. Better with a trailer or a mate that you could team up with. Only trying to be helpful.

Originally Posted by davegixer1300r

please forgive me but you have really not thought about it.
Day time MOT yes you can run with no lights just a reflector how ever unless you live on the door step of your local track travelling there could be a problem with lighting up times and/or if it rains/poor visibility. Plod will be all over you like a spotty rash. Plus of course you will be limiting your self to road legal tires and you would have to be careful that you had enough tread left to get you home. Better with a trailer or a mate that you could team up with. Only trying to be helpful.

You are forgiven and I do appreciate any opinions or views. However, I have been giving it some thought. Everything is going to happen in slow time for now. I have some fairly new tyres on at the moment and for the crappy weather days I will enlist the help of a man with a van.

Im at Donnington on Thursday if you want to have a look at the mods on my SV trackbike