|
Posted by Robert Mealey
|
|
Sunday, 20 September 1998 |
|
Page 2 of 2
| The quest for a perfect 10
Well, seeing that Drag Racing was the next course of action, we decided to leave it alone until we made it down to Moroso for our road racing test. Now for you readers who have been around for a while, you know we like to have our buddy Kirk do our drag racing, but we figured Barney could do it, after all he drag races once every race weekend.
|
As we pulled up to Orlando Speed World, and met with our friend Randy (who wants us to remind everyone they can come out every Wednesday & Friday night, and run whatever they've got for $10) we knew what we we're looking for. Based on our past experience we felt strongly that the 6R had a ten second pass in it. "O.K. Mike, go out there and get us a ten, and we all go home early." |
 |
| On his first pass he pulled down an 11.11 at 124mph; not bad but we needed a little better. So because Barney was competing in the "Bithlo Biathlon", dirt tracking and drag racing at the same time, he missed 2 passes. And on his second and last pass he got a bit too aggressive with the clutch and wheelied half way down the track. |
|
That left the job of getting the 10 second pass up to our man, Kirk. So the following Wednesday we loaded up the truck and headed off to Bit-a-low. "O.K. man, it's up to you. Go out there and get us a ten so we can go home." First pass, a little difficulty getting the clutch slip right, and he pulls an 11.08 at 123. "Oh, this bike's got a ten second pass in it no problem!" Kirk stated emphatically. No problem huh? If we only knew. Next pass (about 20 minutes latter), pretty good start and an 11.05 at 123. "O.K. I'm still getting used to the clutch, it feels a little funny, but I'll get it," he assures me.
Well guys this is where the story takes an ugly turn. 'A little funny' turned out to be 'a lot broken' as the clutched slipped all the way down the track on the way to mid 11's. |
looking at our all gear dyno run, performed a few days earlier, we could see the clutch was already going bad, this is with less than 750 miles on it. That being the case, we wonder how much horsepower it really had. Our racing buddy got 98hp out of his new 6R on the same dyno only days later.
|
In another stupid move, we decided to buy an entire new clutch pack and springs for around $200, and give it another try. On the first pass it grabbed hard out of the hole and slipped the rest of the way down. Great! Another burned up clutch! So we tore it apart and started looking for the real culprit.
Marty, the very helpful service manager for Cycle Sports Center, in Orlando, told us about the ZX9R service bulletin showing new parts for the actuator and rod. Now considering that the 6R and 9R have virtually the same clutch, we thought we might be on to something. Now this was just 2 days before our arranged track time at Moroso. In addition, Mike drove all the way back from CA to be here for the test. So in a panic we went to order all the parts, priority overnight, to fix it, only to find the parts are all on back order (I wonder why K ).
|
 |
| No track time. No top speed test. No ten second pass. This absolutely sucks! ZX6R's have earned a reputation for going through clutches, but this seems extreme. We wish that when Kawasaki was busy redesigning everything on the new bike, they would have spent more time beefing up the clutch.
So in the end, we have a bit of a sour taste from our clutch problems, but I feel that once we get everything back together and running smoothly we will fall in love with the bike all over again. Besides the clutch, the bike really is that good and just as happy either spending its Sundays in the garage being polished, or on the racetrack polishing the competition.
Robert Mealey
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>
|
