Looking for a sidekick

Looking for a sidekick

This year I have started racing a Yamaha RD250 in the CRMC.

Racing as a whole is new to me so the more time I can get on the track the better.

The RD however would much rather sit in the garage and rust quietly without being bothered by anyone.  

I hadn't owned the RD long before I realised it needed a sidekick for track days and training.

Before the RD was ready I had booked my ACU licence day at Cadwell park circuit. With the RD and NSR 250's both incomplete I was left with the options of borrowing a track bike or riding the VFR800 RC46. Having more than one bike to chose from is a luxury I admit but I didn't much fancy the risk of binning my main commuter bike especially when I planned to remove my VW T5 from the road soon for some fairly major modifications.

As it happened the VFR did a fine job with no 

mishaps but it firmed up my need for an affordable and reliable track bike. 

I would have the option of the NSR250 MC28 when it was finished in the future but this machine was just too expensive to risk. Also a four stroke would be simpler to just drag out of the garage, throw in the van and hit the track over the more exotic two stroke.

Oh and I had a massive hankering for a 400....

Shopping time

Ever since I did some pit work and photographed at the 2013 Belgian TT Gedinne, I had revived my want for a 400. Not only would it be useful for track days and training but it could race at Gedinne and would, one day, be eligible at the CRMC.

Back in the early days of my riding I look back on my 400s as the most fun I had on motorcycles. They were fast enough, light, fairly exotic and in the right hands could really embarrass bigger bikes.

I began my search for a 400 prioritising for the right bike.

The best I had ridden was the CBR400 NC29 Gullarm Baby Blade on the right. They are sweet little machines that ooze quality.

The bike I had owned the longest in these 400 days was a GK76A GSXR400. I look at this bike with a lot of nostalgia but the memories of crap electrics and just generally being rough were still fresh enough to keep me away. 

 Other bikes were options too. The FZR400 was a great track bike in its time and I had liked the look of a friends 250 back in the day. The ZXR400 is still very popular and spares are more plentiful due to being built till much later than it's competitors. The problem with these bikes was that I had no love for them and this 400 thing was partially for a class that I loved so it seemed silly to get a bike I wasn't overly keen on. There is also the VFR400. A truly affordable masterpiece of engineering by Honda. If the CBR ozzes quality this bike gushes it but the down side of this is that it is less easy to get up to race standard without a fair bit of cash and faffing.
Regardless of what I thought of any of these bikes, all options were open at the right price.
NC29 CBR400's were fetching pretty respectable money so when I got an offer on 2 GSXR400's accepted for only £600 I found myself owning my second and third GK73A in one balance transfer. My first, on the right, was a lemon I had bought for it's exhaust for £250 and had ended up fixing and selling on. I wasn't mad about owning another GSXR but at that price I would have been silly not to.

The Gixer(s)

so what did I get then?

Well I knew I was getting two GSXR400's. One was a nearly finished track bike, the other was basically a spares frame. There was also a stack of spares. 

All of which had to be collected from Melton Mowbray. Thankfully this was a breeze with the T5 even with a slight detour to buy a rear blower unit for the van.

I was shown the bike running and over a few of the more interesting spares like a completely rebuilt set of spare carbs, 3 rear wheels and a spare set of "sp" forks that I later figured out were just normal VJ21 RGV250 forks.
The second bike was a nail but it did have registration and I was assured it had been running within a year ago.

More interestingly though I learned that the bike had a rear swing arm conversion form a GK76A sp so had a remote reservoir rear shock and 17 inch wheel.

There was much to do to get this bike ridable but it was mostly there and what was missing aught to be in a box or on it's stable mate.
It didn't look bed either in the factory race colours and a nice fibreglass race rear seat unit. The bikes and spares were garaged and other more pressing jobs were got on with. It would be a number of weeks before I dragged the GSXR out in preparation for its first outing. In the mean time I gradually warmed to the idea of owning another Gixer.