How to: Basic track prep ('05)

DISCLAIMER: Please consult the track organization's rulebook before heading to the track. Every organization has one on their website and I would hate for someone to get to the track and not pass tech because they went solely off this How to. This is a very basic how to but I prepped my bike this way for the first time and ran 2 beginner level track days this way. If your at all interested in riding on the track you'll see you don't have to spend a lot of time on bike prep and it's quite simple.

There are many different Trackday organizations. The two on the east coast that I have used the past 3 years is:

East Coast:
Team Pro-Motion Sportbike Club
NESBA : Northeast Sports Bike Association

If you're on the West Coast check out:

TrackDaZ
(Hit up username "Trackpimp" or "DangerDog" if you have any questions)

~~General Bike Prep~~ First and foremost your bike should be in good working order. You don't want a leaky, dropping parts bike on the track. It's not only dangerous to you but the people on the track with you. Brakes are essential, it's the only thing stopping you from running off the track or worse into some one else. You want plenty of pad material and a healthy brake system. They will check both pad life and give your brake lever a squeeze at tech. Be sure your foot controls are in good working order and the shifter bolts are tight. I've had the shift rod bolt drop out while riding, not fun. Double check your oil dipstick, drain plug, filter and fill cap. If any of these let go while riding it will shut the track down for up to an hour and half. You don't want to be that guy.

So time to turn this:



Into this:



~~Taping Turnsignals, Headlight, tail light, mirrors, speedometer, reflectors~~

There are two things you want to do here. One is you want to tape up these items so that if you go down the glass/plastic won't shatter across the track and cause a hazard to other riders. You also don't want any signal/head/tail lights because they can be distracting to other riders and once you tape them up you can create a gluey mess if the lights are left on.

This is the tape you want. It's blue painters tape. I've seen people use electrical tape but this tape cuts easily and more importantly is easy to pull off and leaves no adhesive residue.



So you start with this:


Start laying on the tape making sure to smooth it over with my hand so that it adheres to everything underneath. You can be a little sloppy because you're going to cut it in the next step and you want to make sure you wrap a little up under by the air intake.



Now time to cut the tape. A plastic putty knife or if you have a long thumbnail you can use that. You can use a razor blade or knife but you run the risk of cutting into the plastic or headlight underneath. I had neither so I used a broken piece of my sister's Space Jam CD.




Peel off the excess and do the same thing for the other side and when done it should look something like this:



While you still have the tape out you can do the tail light; same technique as the headlight:





~~ I take my signals off and mirrors. It's just one less thing to break if I go down and takes only a few minutes to remove. If you decide not to remove the mirrors and signals then you will need to tape over them also.~~

Now you can put away the painters tape and start pulling fuses and disconnecting your tail light.

EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that disconnecting the tail light is not required, once the headlight/signal fuse is pulled the tail light is dead. I will leave the following pictures in for general information

If you leave everything the way it is now this is what you'll see with the bike running:




Not only will they ask you to fix it in tech check in but you'll make a gooey mess of the adhesive on the tape from the heat of the lights.

For the headlights and signals you can pull the fuse located on the clutch side under the ram air cover:



Two #4 allen key screws are all that hold the cover on and underneath you'll see the fusebox. Flip the cover up and you'll see a list of what fuse does what. You want to pull the "Head 20A" and the "Signal 15A" fuse. Put the fuses somewhere safe.



EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that disconnecting the tail light is not required, once the headlight/signal fuse is pulled the tail light is dead. I will leave the following pictures in for general information

Now the headlight and the signal won't come on. You still need to kill the tail light. To do this you need to drop the draft shield/undertail to get to the connector for the tail light. Start by popping off your seat. You should see 4 bolts for your license plate holder. I somehow lost two but loosen up however many you have to drop the license plate holder.



Now go to the draft shield/undertail and remove the rivets to pull the shield down enough to be able to get the connector. There are two plastic push rivets at the front and total of 6 plastic pop rivets, 3 up each side of the draft shield.

~~If you are not familiar with the plastic pop rivets you'll see there is a little slot on the perimeter of the rivet. Take an appropriate sized flat blade screwdriver and slide it into this slot and twist. The center of the rivet will pop up and the rivet will release.






This is the connector you are looking for. It has a simple locking tab that you need to pull up to get the two parts separated.



Button up the draft shield and you're all done.

I recommend removing your mirrors also. It's one less thing in your line of sight and also one less thing to break if you go down. They take less than 5mins to remove too so why not.

There are two nuts to remove for each mirror.


Once the mirrors are off use some zipties to hold the fairing to the fairing stay.



As far as prepping a streetbike, that is the bare bones basics too it. The following are some additional pointers and recommendations.

Tires

Make sure you have good rubber on the bike. They will eyeball it in tech and you don't want to be racing around on tires that are beat up. Below are pictures of Pilot Power 2ct's. The first is tread depth of fresh never seen pavement tires and the second are tires that have quite a few miles on them. Visually they both look pretty good but even I was pretty surprised when I measured them.

TPM asks for 85% treadlife.
Nesba asks for 50% treadlife.
Trackdaz asks for new or near new tires.




Safety Wiring

Sport Rider-Hands On: Safety Wiring

Always a great idea but usually not required for entry class. Personally I just like the piece of mind of knowing critical fasteners aren't going to back out on me. If anything do the oil drain plug and filler cap. Some examples:








Taping wheel weights

Not always required but definitely a good idea and very simple to do. I like the Gorilla tape, same people that make gorilla glue. Clean up the area around the wheel weight and then tape over it.




Coolant Change

Consider swapping your stock coolant out for something a little more track friendly. Different organizations have different requirements here but consider something like distilled water/waterwetter. It won't protect against freezing but the stock coolant is slick as snot on a track and if you burst the radiator or pop a hose you won't be responsible for the downtime for the clean up or worse a crashed rider. Coolant is a quick easy swap.


Any comments, tips, suggestions are welcomed. If anyone has any questions please post up and some one will help you out.

Disclaimer: Please check your track organizations rulebook for their requirements which can be found on their website. This is just a general guide and everyone has their specific set of rules. I would hate for anyone to show up and fail tech after following this.

Excellent writeup there Nas! Good to see this How-To here for the first timers!

In addition to that I might make mention that you should give your bike a basic run-through on critical torques, such as axle nuts, pinch bolts, brake calipers. Also check chain slack for about 1-1/2" total slack at about the midpoint between the two sprockets. Check items like rearsets, clipons, levers, exhaust, bodywork, damper, and frame sliders to make sure they're all tight.

[EDIT] AND MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR OIL DRAIN PLUG, FILTER, DIPSTICK, AND FILL CAPS!!! We've seen a few let go and it's usually about an hour and a half downtime while we clean it up. [/EDIT]

You may also want to tape off your speedo, (tach is OK.) You dont need to be paying attention to that.

Although not a requirement by most orgs as mentioned, it's most definitely recommended to swap out the coolant as mentioned. Glycol based coolants are a MAJOR pain in the ass to clean up off the track, and if you're still able to walk and arent talkin random jibberish after your spill, myself and the other TrackDaz staff clowns WILL hand you a broom to help clean that shit up. Another benefit is your bike will run cooler with Water Wetter. Be careful during winter time and colder temp regions, as your bike can freeze up since Water Wetter and other coolants like Engine Ice are NOT antifreeze.

And remember, the more uneeded crap that comes off your bike prepping for a track day, the less parts you gotta replace if you're unfortunate enough to wad it up.

As mentioned, hit Trackpimp or myself up if you have any other questions about TrackDaz events or track day preparedness in general.

Trackdaz (and others) requires you to safety wire both your plug(oil) and oil filter...


dude nas,, you are on a roll

^TrackDaz does not actually. Asscrack Riders, I mean Fastrack Riders, is currently the only So Cal track org that requires this.

^really? wow, I though you guys do... esp after that one incident where that guy had a loose plug that fell out and spilled all his oil on the track and made like 2500 people crash.

^We talked about it at dinner that night after BDub, and decided it would inhibit potential or existing customers, just because it makes it that much harder to get ready for the track, especially for those not mechnically inclined. I do check everything I can on bikes' oil systems during tech inspection though.

(Sorry to litter the thread Nas, although it is pertinent insight to an extent. Feel free to clean up as needed Mod doods! )

^that makes sense, you don't want to turn away customers

I personally think every trackday org should do this.. Even though some people wont go to trackdays because of this, I think the pros will outweigh the cons. And half of some people's days wont be ruined because somebody spilled oil all over the omega..

I tried to reference the three mentioned organizations rule book as best I could when I wrote it up. Since I have a track specific bike it's been a few years since I've had to take a street bike and make it track worthy. If anyone has a good shot of a safety wired drain plug and fill cap I'd love to add it to the OP. The only safety wiring picture I have is off my Suzuki which I'll put up but I'd prefer a shot of an R6.

^Of course, the ones I dont have good pictures of being wired.

Here's my filter. You can see in the picture, a hose clamp around the filter, and safety wire going from the filter to a fixed point on the bike.