So I noticed a considerable dearth in drag racing going on in the Hawk GT world, and figured I'd help out.
I already posted up my thread about wanting to rejet the bike since I bought it with pods installed but apparently it only had stock mains.
So after careful consideration I went to the local dealer and bought 145 mains for both cylinders.
Then I went drag racing. This is my story:
There were an awful lot of bikes in line as I rolled up to the staging lanes, and I couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. Everything was wrapped in plastic, and it all advertised ten second passes. All of course except mine. I had by a three second gap the slowest bike at the track.
Not that I wasn't used to bringing less than dragworthy vehicles. I'd been an avid drag racer with my Volvo wagon for years. I'd managed to rip off a [email protected] in that before.
I remember always feeling like I was gonna pee my pants I was so excited to race my cars. Imagine how it was on the bike.
So they called for the bike lanes to mount up, and I passed the clothing inspector with flying colors. I was probably the most heavily leathered there, save my protruding butt and crotch from my patchwork chaps.
I had no idea how to launch the bike because, well, I'd never launched at a track before. I'd done this almost every time I left a stoplight, but the track had VHT, aka very high traction. I knew it'd want to stand up. If only I'd known how much.
The 636 staging next to me probably was just as confused as I was about what the Hawk was doing there. God knows what the crowd of 2,000 people was thinking. I was about to give them a hell of a show.
I went for it. Tree'd up and lit to triple yellow, I nailed the gas to about 3/4 throttle, leaned over the tank as far as I could, and barely feathered the clutch, just as the nose took to the air.
The bike immediately raised upward way beyond 45 degrees, listing slightly left, as my friends would attest, as I actually quite comfortably set it back down with the drop of the throttle, then nailed it again and took off. The 636 next to me managed to botch the launch too, so we stayed surprisingly even until, ya know, horsepower came into effect.
I shifted into second HARD and the bars wiggled in my hands. It had gotten up again. I kept on it and kept banging shifts and curling my body against the tank as the Ninja sped into the distance.
I grabbed my slip and wasn't too shocked when I saw [email protected] on it. That wild attempt at a 12 o'clock launch netted me a 2.31 60', and the rest tells the tale.
"I thought you were gonna fall over," my friend Andres said.
Of course I had no idea why my bike, which traps almost 100mph STOCK with a 40lb heavier rider, would trap 5mph slower in modified form with only 13,000 miles on it.
I went for a second pass, this time determined not to flip over backward. Of course they staged me against a Gixxer 1000 with an extended swingarm. You can imagine how that went.
I part throttled it as the tree dropped to full green, feathering it out and nailing it hard once the clutch bit. No flying nose. No wild acrobatics. Just rip, boom, and I was gone.
The nose once again raised up a couple inches on the second gear shift, and I pressed my body against the tank to keep the wind off me as I banged out clutchless shifts, this time clicking it into 5th just as I hit the traps.
The Gixxer ate me by a mile, but I didn't care. I was having fun.
The second slip was an improvement: 2.06 60', [email protected] - better, but not good enough.
I decided to call it a night at that point, because the bike wasn't trapping any higher. I'll probably experiment with slightly leaner jetting, since the bike wasn't making that popping sound at 6,000rpm+, and felt a little slower than it should be up there.
That's it.
I already posted up my thread about wanting to rejet the bike since I bought it with pods installed but apparently it only had stock mains.
So after careful consideration I went to the local dealer and bought 145 mains for both cylinders.
Then I went drag racing. This is my story:
There were an awful lot of bikes in line as I rolled up to the staging lanes, and I couldn't help but feel a little intimidated. Everything was wrapped in plastic, and it all advertised ten second passes. All of course except mine. I had by a three second gap the slowest bike at the track.
Not that I wasn't used to bringing less than dragworthy vehicles. I'd been an avid drag racer with my Volvo wagon for years. I'd managed to rip off a [email protected] in that before.
I remember always feeling like I was gonna pee my pants I was so excited to race my cars. Imagine how it was on the bike.
So they called for the bike lanes to mount up, and I passed the clothing inspector with flying colors. I was probably the most heavily leathered there, save my protruding butt and crotch from my patchwork chaps.
I had no idea how to launch the bike because, well, I'd never launched at a track before. I'd done this almost every time I left a stoplight, but the track had VHT, aka very high traction. I knew it'd want to stand up. If only I'd known how much.
The 636 staging next to me probably was just as confused as I was about what the Hawk was doing there. God knows what the crowd of 2,000 people was thinking. I was about to give them a hell of a show.
I went for it. Tree'd up and lit to triple yellow, I nailed the gas to about 3/4 throttle, leaned over the tank as far as I could, and barely feathered the clutch, just as the nose took to the air.
The bike immediately raised upward way beyond 45 degrees, listing slightly left, as my friends would attest, as I actually quite comfortably set it back down with the drop of the throttle, then nailed it again and took off. The 636 next to me managed to botch the launch too, so we stayed surprisingly even until, ya know, horsepower came into effect.
I shifted into second HARD and the bars wiggled in my hands. It had gotten up again. I kept on it and kept banging shifts and curling my body against the tank as the Ninja sped into the distance.
I grabbed my slip and wasn't too shocked when I saw [email protected] on it. That wild attempt at a 12 o'clock launch netted me a 2.31 60', and the rest tells the tale.
"I thought you were gonna fall over," my friend Andres said.
Of course I had no idea why my bike, which traps almost 100mph STOCK with a 40lb heavier rider, would trap 5mph slower in modified form with only 13,000 miles on it.
I went for a second pass, this time determined not to flip over backward. Of course they staged me against a Gixxer 1000 with an extended swingarm. You can imagine how that went.
I part throttled it as the tree dropped to full green, feathering it out and nailing it hard once the clutch bit. No flying nose. No wild acrobatics. Just rip, boom, and I was gone.
The nose once again raised up a couple inches on the second gear shift, and I pressed my body against the tank to keep the wind off me as I banged out clutchless shifts, this time clicking it into 5th just as I hit the traps.
The Gixxer ate me by a mile, but I didn't care. I was having fun.
The second slip was an improvement: 2.06 60', [email protected] - better, but not good enough.
I decided to call it a night at that point, because the bike wasn't trapping any higher. I'll probably experiment with slightly leaner jetting, since the bike wasn't making that popping sound at 6,000rpm+, and felt a little slower than it should be up there.
That's it.
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