Nine Second Street Bike Part 2

Part Two of our Nine Second Street Bike is here! We went back to the dragstrip in an attempt to go faster. We did, kinda….read more….

If you havent read it yet, the Previous part ONE of this story is HERE

Part One of this story is HERE

After only getting the one full run on the bike at the last Streetbike Shootout, we were intending to get an ANDRA license for the next one. However a combination of lack of time, and the costs involved, meant we returned without a license. The plan was to  run the bike hard for the first part of the track as this is the most important  – and most difficult – but attempt to keep the times over the 10.00 second limit imposed on non ANDRA license holders.

No changes were made to the bike at all,  as the 9.86 already run was nowhere near the limit of its potential. The day was quite hot, so we started out with nearly road pressure in the rear tyre at 35psi.

The air temperature was around 26C degrees, and the track temperature was about 37C.

The first couple of runs were hard launches to around half track then coast to the end.  This resulted in a couple of  1.66 second sixty foot times. (The track measures 60′, 330′, 660′ 1000′ and the whole 1/4 mile of course. Unless the bike wheelies, a good run to 60 and then 330 will almost always end with a pleasing time slip. )

However as the track heated up and more street tyres cut into the track surface, the traction decided to pack up and leave, resulting in some wild fishtailing tyre-smoking runs for quite a few racers.

We decided it was pointless in the conditions and left it till the last run to try again, resulting in another tyre spinning effort.

As always the Bike Shootouts are followed by a normal Test and Tune session with cars and bikes, so we decided to try again when conditions cooled.

Sure enough, as night fell the bike went quicker and quicker as the air cooled and the traction returned. The very last run of the night resulted in our best ever, a 1.63 sixty foot time and a 6.31 second ET to half track.

For those that know the maths, that is a pretty decent  pass for a lowered stock busa, into the 9.6 region if it had been run out the back half of the track. As it was, the time slip read an off throttle 10.05 at only 105 mph.

Where to now?  We are not sure at the moment, to actually get the 9.5 or 9.6 sec time slip the bike will run, the approximate costs are outlined below:

Once licensed, options include, being able to actually run faster than 10.00 seconds at a dragstrip, and competing in the ANDRA class of Modified bike, which is based on a handicap system of starts, called Dial your Own (DYO) which means you nominate a time you think you will run, if you run faster than that you lose, the idea basically being that a bike that “dials” a 10.00 sec time, will get a one second head start over a bike that nominates a 9.00 second time. This class allows almost any type of modification, including car tyre rear wheel, wheelie bars, auto shifters etc. So not really ideal to compete in with a standard length street bike.

Or, you could step up to “Competition Bike” this is divided into various classes that race each other on a handicap dependant on the class you are in, the Hayabusa would fit into the A/Street bike class, unfortunately the handicap is down near the 8 second zone, again probably out of reach of a near standard bike.

Lastly, the Sport Compact Group run a handful of meetings across the East coast each year, and offer a class called Sports Bike, which limits modifications to essentially exhaust, Power Commander, and lowering. Although run on the DYO system, it probably offers the most suitable option for this bike, however, there is only 2 meetings per year in Queensland at this time.

Part Three of the Nine Second Street Bike is here

Part One of this story is HERE