building a streetable track track bike

hello to all once again i havnt posted on here in a few years. i have sold my vfr, and bought a 07 triumph daytona 675, but i recently taked my buddie into a super clean 98 vfr which he purchased a few weeks back and he is loving it. his plans for the bike is to make it into a street leagal track bike. so i was wondering where to start, and where and what parts to buy (suspension, exhasust, breaks, rear sets, tires, and anything you guys know honestly). any help will be greatly appreciated.

thanks, brandon

 

If he wants to ride on the track, my advice would be to sell it and buy a real sportsbike for the track Sorry but in all seriousness the amount it would take to make the VFR into a decent competitive track bike would be far better spent on buying a bike that is meant to be ridden on the track. Just the suspension upgrade alone would be 2-3k. You can pick up a decent F4i, SV650, a bunch of 600cc FI track ready bikes for the price of the suspension alone, but if he want's to do it anyway, figure about 1k as a bare minimum to get a marginally decent track suspension, 2k for a good setup.

 

Thaks it seems like you know quite a bit about these bikes, but we are wanting to build his VFR into a track bike that is street legal. I have a 675 daytona for the track and it is amazing out there, but were looking to build something different. Honestly we really like the frame geometry of the the bike and VFR's motor is really nice its like a sv motor with more power......and weight lol. so what im looking to find out is, is the suspension buildable, or does it need to be replaced with some from a different bike, what is a decent inexpensive exhaust, brakes?, and can i use tune ecu to tune it or do i have to buy a power commander, and is there aftermarket rear sets avaible for this bike? (the stock ones are god awful). I understand its gonna take quiet a bit of money and time, and more less not a practical thing to do but this is the bike he choose to do this with. thanks for the help!

 

Are you talking track bike for racing or a track bike for track days?

 

Mainly track days, sorry i should have clairified that. But mabey the occasional race if doible

 

A street legal "track day" or riding school bike will or should have to pass an inspection by the sanctioning body unless it's some fly by night outfit that is only there to relieve you of your hard earned bucks. A racebike is a whole different story.

Depending on the sanctioning body a racebike must be race ready and again unless it's outlaw racing the bike will have to be inspected and passed. Many tracks have race schools that are mandatory..

The VFR is a great bike. For track days they are fine but as a racebike, questionable about being competitive and could be a very expensive proposition to undertake.

 

yes, it will have to pass tech inspection before being allowed on the track, the track days will be at VIR and CMP. Do you have any advice on suspension, breaks, rear sets, or tuning?. The suspension is obviously too soft up front its dam near bottomed out in the twisties, and it is adjusted properly, the rear shock can be easily over ridden as well. Is it buildable as far as re valving, and re springing?

 

Start with the basics and work your way up - suspension first and foremost, don't do anything unless until you get that dialed in, work on that abortion of a braking system, then the rearsets, and other items on the list.. again don't do anything until you get the suspension done, I would recommend RaceTech springs and Ohlins rear shock if the budget permits. BTW - it will be next to impossible to race it, just finding track fairings with a approved belly pan would be next to impossible not to mention you would have to replace ALL the brake lines with braided lines and a bunch of other stuff that would be next to impossible to get or would be very expensive. Again, I think it is a huge mistake to spend the bucks on it, if it was practicle you would see a bunch more of them on the track, theres a reason they aren't out there afterall bear in mind that I love my VFR and am not trashing it for the sake of trashing it.

 

Thanks for the info, suspension is the first place we are goin to start, and like is said i completely agree with you it is not a practical bike to do this with, but that is why we want to do and its going to make for a good winter time project for me. The more i look into it i can see about not being able to race it, which is fine that just would have just been a plus. any other tips would be appreciated

 

If you are going to use the bike for track days you can get the suspension reworked for under $1k.

Just give Jamie Daugherty a shout at: jamie@daughertymotorsports.com

 

Oh, I rode mine on the track at Little Talladega and it was just OK. The suspension is pretty damned soft for track riding and my 200 pounds.