Project XR-RR. It took on a life of its own in early January this year. You probably read the original stories, part one and part two: it was my foray into a street legal motard assembled from the best of the best in terms of top shelf equipment. Problem was, Mr EPA stood in between my perfect street bike based assault weapon and me. So there I was, no tag, no title - all talk and no action. And with no local supermotard racing going on I was stuck between a rock and a dirt trail… What to do?

This answer came swiftly in the form of one of our associate editors, AlexF who kept coming back from Amateur CCS races with highly charged lurid tales of daring do and large gaudy plastic and wood trophies (some taller than he). Third parties also told of seeing the odd motard prepped ex motocrosser or two kicking sportbike arse at some of Florida's road-race tracks. In no time at all I cashed in on one of my many race school certificates sent off my check for $100 to the CCS folks and permission to race was granted.

I also tied the front end together quite nicely using a Summers Racing Components fork brace. The stock forks are light, but a tad flimsy. The forks would flex around the left hand fork leg and caliper on hard braking. Once I added the Summers brace the forks were as flex free as a pair of inverted, were still light (obviously) and totally transformed the handling in one go. Best handling mod for the money - period.