Superbike Swingarm 2.0

Rob and his shop (Evolution Suspension) recently celebrated another one of many years in their business by offering discounted service to customers about a week ago. Needless to say, their calendar has filled up with work since then.

Yet how cool is the guy to let me use some of his work area in his shop, and have one of his employees assist me in getting the finished swingarm on my bike, despite their busy schedule? I could've done it myself, but I actually needed Rob's expertise to break apart my chain, then put it back together once the swap was done, which is something I had neither the tools or experience to do.


Andy, one of Rob's techs, lending me a hand
and his workbench to swap the swingarms.
Off the bike, Rob's welding and smoothing came out ten times better than what anyone could have expected, even despite the imperfections from the powdercoating, considering this was Rob's first shot at it. Once we got the swingarm on the bike, it was very clear why I wanted a swingarm like it. I've personally always thought that a bike's swingarm, if beautifully done, further makes an outstanding looking bike look even more extraordinary.




Rob throws a shocker, cause even
he was impressed.


Couldn't even help himself,
and had to spit-polish it.
Just as a reminder, this is how it looked original from the factory:



And here it is after the fabrication:









Not bad for less than a handful of benjamins, considering an authentic Superbike swingarm for this bike from the UK would've tallied over $4k in costs.

Just because my R1's also a daily beater (more or less), doesn't mean it can't look like a world-caliber championship contender.

Whoever said you can't have your cake and eat it too never met me.

All Stitched Up.....or "War Machine"

Just before my last trackday, I had decided that the day after I would pull the wheels off the R6 and have them powdercoated gold, just to rock the Iron Man motif that it already had going with its colors.

Then I wadded the bike, so that was out the window.


Zip ties. They put duct tapes to shame.
As of two nights ago, I am more or less done putting the R6 back together. I had to take a saw to the bottom race fairing and cut out a piece at the chin so that the front fender would clear. I was test-riding the bike at my personal "test track," and next thing I know coming out of a corner, the bike was stuck straight ahead, and there was resistance in turning them left to right along with a strange noise everytime I did. I pulled over and saw that the back of the front fender had caught on to the chin of the race lowers. It must have happened after hard braking just before the corner, slipping the race lower underneath the front fender, then coming back up to lock on as the forks decompressed. Imagine if I found that out DURING a track day.


Front fender cleared.
Now I'm just left with a handful of fasteners to connect the race upper to the race lower (or maybe just zip-tie those too), fit the undertail, then clean up the bike and get some of the Infineon dirt off of it.

Other than having replaced the full Graves Titanium exhaust system (and losing that distinctive exhaust note as a consequence) and gaining about 10 lbs. of weight by putting the stock exhaust system on, it's still the same R6 that I've grown to adore using for the track. Still rails like that's all it knows how to do exceptionally well.





I'm leaving it gnarly looking like that for now. I just can't have bikes that are too "pretty" for the track. I just end up fucking them up!

So the Iron Man motif is out, it's just War Machine now.

Make Go Some More

Got to spend some more time on the R6 yesterday and today, after I came home from a ride on Friday to find the used tank I bought for it.


Hit a bit of snag when I had put the tank on the bike as I didn't realize the fuel pump it came with was missing a gasket. A pool of petrol underneath the bike a few hours later gave it away. Simply snagged the gasket off of my smashed tank's pump and fitted on to the replacement. Recycling is good!

Also got to work on removing the Graves exhaust system I had and replaced it with the stock. While I have no problem running the stock system I had laying around (it's a good thing they didn't sell when I was trying to get rid of them!), it's a bit of shame to add some more pounds on the bike, and lose the more personable exhaust note of the Graves system.


Lovingly crafted welds that yielded light weight and a heavy snarl.



The stock system. A bit more heavy without the
magnificent sound, but they'll get the job done.
Now I just have to re-map the Power Commander on the bike to run the stock system at optimal settings. Or maybe just remove the Power Commander altogether and sell it.


Rob managed to bend the fairing stay a bit closer into alignment, but had to stop when the unit cracked, which was already expected. I managed to find a way to make it work though, by simply removing one of the rubber dampers on the higher arm, allowing me to mount the upper fairing without too much of a discrepancy in symmetry.


I'm about as relieved at this point as I am amazed at how quickly I've gotten the bike back together. I'm actually tempted to bring it out on May 22nd back to Infineon for another proper trackday, and shake off the bitter after-taste of the last time. The bike will be ready by then anyway, without a doubt, and could probably use some breaking in with its new lease on life.

We'll see.


Still alive and well.


Just waiting on its new skin.

Superbike Swingarm 1.3 (or "Make Pretty")

Concurrent with me trying to bring the R6 back since I took it home from Rob's shop, Rob then finished up his fill-welding and smoothing on the spare R1 swingarm, and has also sent it for powdercoating. He called me today to say that the swingarm was back from powdercoating, but that he wasn't quite satisfied with the [number of] coats done as some imperfections were showing. He told me I could come over to have a look at it while he waited for a callback from the powdercoater. I did, and snapped a couple of [phone] pics.




The imperfections were tiny dimples on the fill-pieces, and Rob was hoping to have the powdercoater run another coat in hopes to completely smooth it out. Quite frankly, I just want the damn thing on the bike already cause it's already come out tenfold better than what I had set out to expect.

Besides, once we put this one on the bike, we're left with another swingarm for Rob to practice with until perfection. If the 2nd time around produces an even better one, we'll just switch again. :)

There is one cause of sort of concern I had thought of after first seeing the good job that Rob did. A big reason I wanted to have this project done was to yield the look that I wanted on my bike's swingarm without breaking the bank. I think that a motorcycle's swingarm is one of the underrated components of its aesthetic, and that having a remarkable swingarm can make the bike. I've always loved the look of the Superbike or MotoGP swingarms; they look the business with their nigh-monolithic look. Rob did such a good job on mine, he's already got other people lined up to have the same done to their swingarms depending on the outcome of mine. I also thought that this was a great customization to my bike unlike the common chrome or extension mods that others have mostly done.

This was Rob's first crack at it, and he already did so well beyond my expectations. I firmly believe he will have a slew of other folks wanting a superbike-style mod on their own, which sucks for me if I'm right, cause there goes my claim to a "one-of" swingarm mod around my metro.

Damn me and my ambitions, hehehe.

"Make Go"

My very first crash happened a month after I started riding three years ago. It was on the street, on my then first bike the EX500. I ended up tweaking the entire front end; the entire triple clamps and both the forks bent out of alignment. Upon the advice of more seasoned riders, I had set out to fix it myself, and along the way somebody imparted a very memorable nugget of wisdom, which was that it would be easier and cheaper for me to fix a bike to make it go than to make it pretty. They were right. Less than a month after my crash, the bike was up and running again, on used parts I found, all without breaking the bank.

The same is what I've set out to do with the R6.



Rob was quick enough to get around to measuring the important parts of the bike's chassis to let me know ASAP where I would stand. When I dropped off the bike to Rob, the possibility of parting with the bike was on equal footing with fixing it. Two work days later, and Rob gave me a call to tell me where the bike stood, and suffice it to say, the miracle of walking away relatively well from my crash didn't just stop with me. Here's the lowdown for the R6:

The tank was smashed.
A steering stop broke off.
The lower triple clamp was tweaked.
The subframe was decimated.
The fairing stay was smashed off.
The front brake lever was bent.
The exhaust silencer was smashed.
The gauge harness are damaged.

The frame is straight. The swingarm is straight. The forks are straight. The front and rear wheels are straight. The rotors are straight. The engine starts, and everything else was relatively unscathed. Hell, even the key was bent, but it still worked!


Even the tank, if I really wanted to, was still usable. I did, however, find a used albeit slightly scratched blue tank to replace it with.


The subframe shattered in multiple pieces, basically held together by the tail (that I've now scrapped) and the undertray. Speaking of the latter, replacing the bike's tail was a piece of cake as the undertray remained in one piece, so I was just able to slip it right in with the subframe I found.



Rob was able to weld a new steering stop, so I also commissioned him to weld the fairing stay whole again, as the break was clean and the pieces were still bolted onto the bike, while I had the rest of the stay with me.


What neither Rob and I realized was that the fairing stay was actually bent, no doubt from the impact, bending the "arms" inward.


We could probably force it back into proper alignment for proper mounting of the upper fairing, but if that doesn't work out, I'll just have to shell out some more green for a used one, or for an aftermarket replacement one.

The gauge cluster still works as well, and I was able to test it by plugging the damaged gauge harness back on the cluster, but it was short lived as when I tinkered with it while the bike was running, the exposed leads touched each other, shorted the bike, and popped the ignition fuse. I replaced the fuse and took the gauge harness off. I'm now also in the market to replace the gauge harness.



Along with some of the bodywork I was able to salvage to reuse again (front fender, rear hugger, undertail), I found another set of practically unused, rattle-canned set of plastics, eerily similar to what I used to have, although a different color.


So far the subframe's back on so the entire tail end is done and ready. I just need to either get the fairing stay back in proper alignment, or find a replacement one. I still need to remove the entire Graves exhaust system to fit the bike with the stock system I have sitting around, then remap the Power Commander for the stock system. It's funny, I sold off a lot of the street parts for the bike that I didn't need, but some of the items I still have left behind that I haven't been able to sell are actualy doing me some good at this point. How's that for irony?



It's coming along well, coming back together and a lot sooner than I was expecting. For now, I'm going to make it go as soon as possible, and I'll worry about turning it back to a looker later.

Superbike Swingarm 1.2

No picture, and that's entirely my fault.

Rob was reluctant to show me the swingarm over the weekend, said that he didn't want me to see it again until AFTER it's all done and powdercoated. I managed to twist his arm and lift off the veil, and it was amazing.

I can't believe I didn't take a picture, but with Rob's welding all but done, the swingarm is looking more and more absurdly better than what I initially expected.

The next update ought to include pictures of the finished and powdercoated swingarm, if not already installed on the bike.