The Great R6 (re)Build

[CEO]

So as many of you know the bike was wrecked at a track day in June and I've decided to keep it and put it back together for double duty: street and track. GMD Computrack measured the bike up and it was surprisingly straight... so all cosmetic pretty much besides a radiator and a couple other little things.

Well, after some arguing with insurance, I was able to keep the bike clean-titled (aka not totaled or salvaged or any of that hassle), and I have been paid the full repair estimate amount as well as paid for a replacement helmet.

This allows me to get enough parts to have two full sets of gear for the bike: a full set of street plastics and lights and such that will stay in mint condition, and a set of track bodywork. Also, I'll be putting on lots of goodies for crash-worthiness, ergonomics, and performance.

The following things have been or are soon to be ordered / acquired / received:

ArmourBodies (woodcraft) track plastics
Woodcraft GP shift rearsets with both pedals, rear brake switch, and some spare parts
Woodcraft Case covers left and right and a couple spare skidplates
Woodcraft frame sliders and spare pucks
Woodcraft spool sliders
Also grabbed some klucky pucks and a tshirt
(basically the bike now has everything woodcraft makes for it)
BMC Race Air Filter
Akrapovic full race exhaust with CF can
PCIII
New stock radiator (might patch current and keep as a spare)
CRG clutch lever (pazzo on there is damaged and will remain as a spare)
Full set of black Dzus fasteners
Another set of tank sliders

Also on the way is a full set of oem raven bodywork in mint condition, along with gas tank and headlights and various other parts (got a great deal) (current gas tank will be freshened up and kept as a spare)

Gloves are at Held getting a mild freshening-up
Suit is getting repaired as well
Paint will be done on the track bodywork in a couple weeks
PCIII will be tuned after all the work is done and parts installed

There's other things I'm getting and need to get that I've forgotten, but that's the gist of it.

[CEO]

So today I picked up the bike and all the parts that had shown up. All the woodcraft goodies except a couple things but including the bodywork were there. The exhaust and pcIII aren't here yet

I brought it home and gave it a quick rinse and dry to figure out what was turn6 dirt and what was damage. It really isn't bad now that all the plastics are off.

A couple of the plastics are actually still alright so I will probably sell those or keep them as spares.


I didn't have much time (after getting the bike, then a family party, then a nice nap), so what I did today was mostly organizational and cleaning, and also since I'm still waiting for a couple parts.


Here's a few photos:


Cleaned her up:





The ArmourBodies plastics are VERY nice. After seeing a set on another bike, the quality is really up there with Sharkskinz but much cheaper. This is not cheap eracings fiberglass... this is really nice shit. Good primer, kevlar weave, nice and light, very strong.







I took off more of the street plastics and started sorting through what's trash, what's worth keeping, what's sellable, etc etc... then I got it all out of the garage and onto shelves in the main basement so I could have room to work. The undertail and one of the side mid fairings and one of the front uppers are pretty mint, those will sell for decent money. The rest I might just sell as one big package to someone who wants trackday street plastics and doesn't want to go the track plastic route.





Next I got out all the stuff that's shown up so far and got it ready for installation:





Then it was late and time to go home for dinner.

Tomorrow I'm going to drain the coolant and the oil, pull the radiator, pull the stock exhaust, pull and drain the gas tank, etc etc... and throw on a couple of the woodcraft goodies. I don't want to put something on and need to take it off though.

After that I'll make a list of everything I need but haven't accounted for or ordered yet, and get that stuff moving. I'm sure there will be a decent-sized order from mrcycles.com for little stock missing parts and stuff that are somewhere in the boonies of the turn6 runoff

This is going to be fun.

[Jim]

o god, here's another "Garage Guy" thread with 656565474165741 pictures

[schleppy]

I'm sure they just cut him a check for the assessed amount, and left him to order what he needed. If it were me I'd have left the R6 naked and bought another bike

Chris, if you do want a hand with anything let me know. MWF after work I'm free...

[CEO]

o god, here's another "Garage Guy" thread with 656565474165741 pictures

So union posts a build thread with pictures and you're all up on his dick... I post a build thread with pictures and you're a wise guy. I hate you.

lol chris, remember when you were all pissed off on the 3rd and i muttered something about a blessing in disguise?

hey let me know if you get to something where you need a second pair of hands and i'll help ya out.

so how did it work with the insurance getting woodcraft parts instead of stock? the rearsets for example... was it that the woodcrafts were the same price, or a little bit more, and you just paid the difference right then and there?

Yeah it's workin' out well

Thanks for the offer I'll let you know if I run into a time crunch before the TTDs.

Yeah basically they say the bike repairs would cost this much... then you can say alright I'm going to fix it some myself, some by a shop, some here, etc etc... they just cut you a check for the estimate amount. When you're done you have to use receipts and pictures to show that the bike is back in safe streetable condition and that all the parts were replaced... that is in order for them to keep the value of the bike at what it was before the accident.

I'm sure they just cut him a check for the assessed amount, and left him to order what he needed. If it were me I'd have left the R6 naked and bought another bike

Chris, if you do want a hand with anything let me know. MWF after work I'm free...

Thanks dude. Will do. If things get tight you and l3uddha might be called upon

[Mr. Kurtz]

Thanks for the offer I'll let you know if I run into a time crunch before the TTDs.

Time crunch? We could put that together before tech inspection on the 15th...

[Jim]

So union posts a build thread with pictures and you're all up on his dick... I post a build thread with pictures and you're a wise guy. I hate you.

and what was the 1st thing i said when you text me that picture?

[Hoss]

o god, here's another "Garage Guy" thread with 656565474165741 pictures and no chrome or swingarm mounted plate to speak of

Fixed

[CEO]

Time crunch? We could put that together before tech inspection on the 15th...

Yeah it's not too bad...

... but have you seen how anal/OCD I am?

Fixed

Zing!

[Crash Dummy Denno]

can we get a 56k warning on this thing?

[CEO]

can we get a 56k warning on this thing?

You have 56K? Sucker.

And I haven't even typed up today's progress yet

[CEO]

Sunday I finished taking everything apart and getting all the fluids out. Since I was still waiting on a couple parts and wanted to get back into the city not too late, I stopped there.


I drained the coolant completely and pulled the radiator off:



I can tell the area where the leak is coming from, but I can't tell exactly where the leak is. I still think if I can get it done cheap that I'll get it welded/plugged/whatever and keep it as a spare. I'm not sure if it's clear in this pic, but it looks like the whole thing is tweaked pretty good... i.e. the head-on profile is not as much a rectangle anymore but slightly a paralellogram:



Pulled the can off... looks like it got squished against the swingarm pretty good and made some scratches... I'm hoping the new exhaust will cover them and/or they can be cleaned up a bit:



Pulled the headers off as well, and pulled the exup cables out of the servo motor. Does anyone know if there is an easy way to pull the servo motor without the bike throwing a code? I.e. is there some kind of terminator that you could connect to the wires that go to the servo motor? Here's a pic:



Radiator and exhaust systems:



Pulled the gas tank off:





Pulled the gas cap and fuel pump and cleaned the tank:



Then decided to drain the oil in preparation for doing the case covers and since it needed changing anyways. Also threw a new filter and hose clamp on there.

Jesus christ! I brought half of the turn 6 runoff gravel home with me...:



MMmmmmmm dirty track day oil:



Then I pulled the old frame sliders and installed the bases for the Woodcraft sliders. The bases will help me to line up where I'm going to have to make cutouts in the bodywork for the sliders.

Also organized the garage a bit.

Here's how she sits as of now, completely devoid of all fluids, plastics, radiator, exhaust, rearsets, etc etc...:






This coming weekend I think I should be able to get a lot of things done: install the case covers, rearsets, exhaust, pcIII, bmc filter, etc etc... then mount up the bodywork and drill holes and all that good stuff, which I want to do real slow and careful. Then I need to get moving on taking the bike to the dyno to get a custom map and taking the race plastics to a painter.

Also all the plastics and lights/parts and gas tank and other street stuff I bought from a guy will be showing up Friday so I can get the gas tank together and install the tank sliders and such, and figure out what parts I'm missing, selling, keeping, etc.

[Crash Dummy Denno]

get some renthal firm grips you wanker

[Jim]

chris, if you're looking to find the leak in your old radiator, can you fill it with water & angle it to see where it's leaking from?

[R1]

awwww

look at the little bike in the little garage.

i bet it belongs to a little person.



lookin good chris.

10 billion more pictures please

[Hardleft]

Nice! I cant wait to see more!

[Crash Dummy Denno]

chris, if you're looking to find the leak in your old radiator, can you fill it with water & angle it to see where it's leaking from?

YOU ARE CORRECT SIR!

[CEO]

get some renthal firm grips you wanker

Wanna buy em for me then? My current grips are fine... progrips.

chris, if you're looking to find the leak in your old radiator, can you fill it with water & angle it to see where it's leaking from?

Sounds good to me... I'll try it.

[Degsy]

Find the leak, then make a square on the radiator with duct tape about 2" all around the leak.

Mix up some JB weld and smear it over the 2" square and smooth it out. Try to squish it in as far as you can. Wait overnight, repeat. Wait over night and repeat again. Then pull the duct tape off and you have a nice JB weld square that will not leak water. Done it twice now with great results.

[CEO]

Find the leak, then make a square on the radiator with duct tape about 2" all around the leak.

Mix up some JB weld and smear it over the 2" square and smooth it out. Try to squish it in as far as you can. Wait overnight, repeat. Wait over night and repeat again. Then pull the duct tape off and you have a nice JB weld square that will not leak water. Done it twice now with great results.

Sounds like a good idea, Derek.

The subsequent applications of JBweld, what do they serve to do? It seems like getting the initial one nice and thick and trying to push it in through all the fins is what's most important, no?

This radiator is definitely going to be a backup so I don't mind if it's an ugly job as long as it holds.

[union]

Servo motor. Just pull the cables, plug it back in and put it back where it came from. Bike doesnt care of the cables are there or not. It just wants to think its doing something

You dont have to drain the oil to change the case covers I know youre going to change it anyway but for future reference. Just toss a pan under the bike when swaping covers. You will only lose a little.

[CEO]

Servo motor. Just pull the cables, plug it back in and put it back where it came from. Bike doesnt care of the cables are there or not. It just wants to think its doing something

You dont have to drain the oil to change the case covers I know youre going to change it anyway but for future reference. Just toss a pan under the bike when swaping covers. You will only lose a little.

Yeah I pulled the cables out and put the servo motor back... but I was wondering if there is some way to do a little electrical work to make the bike not throw a code and then get that motor out of there since it's dead weight... oh well whatever.



I did some work this weekend but haven't had a chance to type it up yet... will soon.

[Jim]

[CEO]

Over the weekend I came to the garage to find more parts had shown up and was able to get some work done.

More toys...

Fresh set of tank sliders for the new tank:



Dzus fasteners and windshield nuts/bolts:



PCIII USB:



Full akrapovic SS exhaust system with CF can:



Decals for race plastics... replicas of the MotoGP 2007 Valencia scheme:



Fresh radiator:



There was a HUGE box with all the fairings and everything. I got a killer deal from a real nice guy on this stuff... he didn't want to part it out so there is a bunch of stuff I don't need so I will just sell it off. But the box contained ALL the stock fairings, a fresh gas tank, headlight, taillight, both seats, ppegs, signals, hotbodies undertail, windscreen etc etc... got everything for a grand, and everything is absolutely perfect and mint condition:










Then I got started working... peeled off the yammy emblems from the gas tank and then spent a long ass time getting all the glue residue off from underneath... all prepped for tank slider installation:



Installed the fuel pump and gas gap... decided to wait on installing the tank sliders until the tank is on the bike:



Fixed that pesky tank side cover with the broken tab by plasticwelding with an old soldering iron... came out pretty good:



Pulled the stock air filter:



Threw in the BMC race filter:



Then, I went to install the woodcraft case covers. Pulled off the right side cover:



Then, installed the woodcraft unit and one bolt ripped the threads out of the engine. FUCK!



Long story short, lesson learned is that a torque wrench meant for 10-80 ftlbs is not accurate at all at 10 ftlbs. Ended up using this as an excuse to check out the new harbor freight in Worcester, where I ended up getting two torque wrenches for 40 bucks total... One for a higher torque range than my current, and one for lower. Also picked up a 115-piece drill indexf or 40 bucks, a pneumatic roller stool for 25 bucks, and a bunch of other shit.

Also grabbed a helicoil kit to do the repair.



Drilled that fucker out:



Installed the helicoil with some red loctite and let sit overnight:



Sunday my good buddy Jim (dbconz) came by to hang out and lend a hand, which was nice. Threw the right side cover on... no problems this time:



Pulled the stator cover... it was nice having the second set of hands pulling the stator out of the cover. Got that bitch thrown on:



Ended up pulling the rear wheel to clean both sprockets and the chain REALLY well... there was so much sand and shit in there that it really needed to be done thoroughly. Annoying, but I feel pretty good about how clean it came out:



I disassembled the right rearset to pull off the brake lever and the master cylinder and heelguard. Attached that stuff to the woodcraft rearset. Pulled off nthe stock brak switch and cut the wires, and spliced in the new woodcraft banjo pressure switch (activated by fluid pressure). Bled the rear brake completely and installed the new banjo.



Meanwhile Jim was installing the left rearset. He then put a gixxer sticker on my bike to be funny, saying it would add horsepower. Notice in this picture that yes, there is a gixxer sticker... but also, there is an incorrectly installed shift linkage and arm. Fuckin' gixxah riders!!!!!



Then Jim left and I fixed the linkage:



Then, I started installing the exhaust system. The header tubes were already partially assembled and the collectors as well right out of the box, as you can see in the photo up above of the system... well, I was having a bitch of a time getting the header tubes to fit into the engine and couldn't get things to mount up right. I was worried I was going to damage things such that it wouldn't be returnable and wanted to be sure I didn't have a wrong/messed kit... so I took the bike back to GMD to install it.

Well, it was the right kit, it was just that the pieces that were pre-assembled needed to be taken apart and the springs removed to allow all the pipes to turn/slide around in eachother in order for things to fit. Once that was done, just attached all the springs and everything fit great.

I guess I shouldn't have assumed pulling the thing out of the box that all the pre-assembly was right... Lesson learned. Anyways, the system looks fucking sick and I'm sure it's going to be LAF and add some good power.









Now just have to:

- Install tank sliders
- Remove O2 sensor
- Install Radiator
- Fill gas tank, fill cooling system with engine ice, put oil in the bike, fill and bleed rear brake
- Install PCIII (with downloaded map just to see if bike runs well)
- Mount and fit the race plastics, drill all the holes for fasteners and frame sliders
- Monday the 7th take the bike to the dyno for custom map and tune, and take the race plastics and a few other things up to the painter (and hope they both finish that stuff in time for track days the 15th and 16th)
- Throw the decals on there
- Install a couple other things (replacement pazzo lever, stompgrip, tank pad, etc) when they show up

Shit's gonna be so sick

[Jim]

Meanwhile Jim was installing the left rearset. He then put a gixxer sticker on my bike to be funny, saying it would add horsepower. Notice in this picture that yes, there is a gixxer sticker... but also, there is an incorrectly installed shift linkage and arm. Fuckin' gixxah riders!!!!!

best damn picture in this entire thread. no wait, in any of your picture threads!

Then Jim left and I fixed the linkage:

so i take it you couldnt just get 1 tank slider as a replacement? that sucks dude.