People often wonder why racers risk life and limb to put the rubber on the road and ride as fast as they can in the pursuit of…what? Money? Fame? Only a minute fraction of the country’s motorcycle racers will ever make enough money to be rich. The lucky ones are able to secure enough sponsorship to help subsidize the costs of their extravagant, dangerous hobby. The rest of us, well, we must just be plain crazy to be throwing money away on tires, motors, suspension, leathers, helmets, fuel, entry fees, hotel rooms, hospital bills, the list goes on.
So it must be fun. Above all else, it must be fun.
Krystyna Kubran, a racer from Arroyo Grande, California, wasn’t having any fun anymore, so in the fall of 2008 she made a crucial decision: to abandon her “clapped out†GSXR600 and give her 2006 R1 street bike a serious makeover.
What follows is her WERA West Round 1 race report. Enjoy!
Krystyna and her R1 pose for a photo, pre-transformation
So for the past few years I’ve been racing an old, beat up GSXR600, and it was starting to not be fun anymore. I’d also been dabbling with my street bike at the track, a 2006 R1, and as I started to realize how much more fun it was to have that much power in the palm of my hand, I eventually made the decision to race it in 2009! It seemed like quite a few of my friends were concerned for me, and maybe kind of tried to talk me out of it, but I was too excited to think about doing anything else!
In November 2008 I began stripping my R1 down to the motor, frame and subframe. Being newly single, I was a little nervous about doing this level of work alone. My ex-hubby was a motorcycle mechanic, and he taught me a great many things about working on the bike. But now I was alone, although thankfully not completely alone, as I have many great friends who would – and did – help out as needed. But for the most part I was doing the work alone, at night, in my overalls.
Although many of the jobs critical to converting a street bike to a race bike were ones I had done in the past, I’d never done them all at once! I had never removed the front sprocket, or changed out a rear shock, for example.
Here’s a list of everything I had to get done before the first race January 3, 2009 at California Speedway in Fontana, CA:
- forks removed for valving
- clip ons
- levers
- fuel tank
- body work
- rear shock
- chain and sprockets
- safety wire
- oil change
- rear sets
- steel braided brake lines
- track day for testing
By December I was ready to take it for its first track day with all the new goodies. I wanted to ride it and make sure my clip-ons were set straight and that I had remembered to tighten everything!
The Track Club was at Buttonwillow mid-December, and man was it cold! I had made arrangements with a few friends – Dave Moss of Catalyst Reaction Suspension, and Dean Mizdal of M Racing – to give my bike a tech inspection and verify my craftsmanship.
They helped me fix a few small items, but overall I got the thumbs up!
That weekend proved to be invaluable, as I gained sponsorship – with Dave’s blessing – from Lenny at RaceTech. Dean also discussed sponsorship as well, but it was a few weeks later, after meeting all the owners of M Racing that I was granted sponsorship from M Racing too!
Although it was less than 55 degrees out there at Buttonwillow, riding my race-ready R1 was like a dream come true. It felt so incredible. I cannot even describe how amazing that bike felt to ride. I struggled with some of the differences between a 600 and a 1000, like the excessive engine braking, but I knew it would take time for me to get used to it.
So with the bike ready and tested, I got to work on my own training – I needed to strengthen my upper body so I could muscle the big bike through California Speedway’s wicked fast chicanes. Finally January 3 rolled around, and the first session out during the track day was spent just feeling out the bike and re-learning the track on a different machine. My only goal with this bike is to one day match my race times from when I was on the 600.
As the day wore on, my comfort and confidence grew leaps and bounds. A simple gearing change at the end of the day helped me reach my old lap times. My beautiful machine felt so incredible to ride and I was doing well on it!
Race day dawned, and I was so excited and couldn’t wait to race this bike. Unfortunately I didn’t get a whole lot of good practice because the track was so cold in the morning that I just did one lap to verify my transponder and scrub in my tires. There was no way the morning practice was going to replicate my afternoon session, so I was not about to deter my confidence by fighting to make that happen.
When I went to check my grid positions, and I saw Yam 1000 under my name I began to freak out. There it was, in black and white, reminding me of what I was about to do. I almost threw up! The first race was such a wash. I was
