Revisited: Safety First’s AMA Supersport Bikes: The Function and the Feel.

By David “Doc” Boll 

Those of us that ride and follow racing know these things:

“Racing improves the breed”……..“Race on Sunday, sell on Monday” ……and

“AMA Supersport bikes are supposed to be basically the same bike you get off the showroom floor”.   

All of the above have varying levels of truth to them, but let’s find out just how much reality there is to the last comment.  

In mid October, John and Fred from Sportbikes.net got to feel like lottery winners (ok,  large ticket scratch off winners) and ride AMA Supersport Spec bikes from the Safety First Suzuki Race team at the Autobahn Country Club outside Joliet, IL.  You can read an account of John’s experiences here: http://www.sportbikes.net/dangerousline.html.  Let’s find out the process of what actually goes into preparing a bike from the showroom floor to sitting on the grid at the top level of racing in North America……and then how it feels compared to the stock cycle.  

First off, the bike Safety First Suzuki utilized was the 2006 Suzuki GSXR 600 for last season.  After you procure the bike, you make the changes that are allowed for the Supersport series. Suspension mods, pipe, safety equipment, bodywork (and boy will you need bodywork when you are racing!) and other additions that make working on the bikes that much easier.  See, these bikes get tore down and rebuilt more than a politician’s public perception in late October.   

Below are the retail costs of assembling an AMA Supersport spec motorcycle. 

2006 Suzuki GSXR 600- $8899 msrp

See, you have to start somewhere. So, lets pluck this bike from Chicago Cycle’s showroom to start our project. For those who have never visited Chicago Cycle,this place is gigantic….almost 100,000 square feet of showroom for every color, make and model of motorcycle you could ever dream of owning! 

Engine Work- $2,000+

You can’t show up at AMA race with a stock motorcycle.  Therefore, plan on spending over $2,000 for parts/labor on Supersporting a motor. 

Quarter Turn Throttle- $240

Racers need to be able to get on the gas as quick and as hard as possible.  The Yoyodyne ¼ turn throttle allows just that fraction of a savings of time getting to full throttle and also come with three adjustments on how short you want the throttle to be.  

Exhaust- Full Hindle Race System- $1000

What’s the first thing we do to the bikes? Chuck the stock can and get either a slip on or full system. In the world of Supersport, where every little .5 horsepower matters, you need to go with the full system. In Safety First’s case, they look north of the border to Canada for the Hindle exhausts.  Since the 2006 GSXR 600 had a new style exhaust and the start of the season was right around the corner, many aftermarket pipe manufactures don’t have any pipes available. Therefore, the team personally drove a stock GSXR 600 right from the Fed-Ex freight loading dock up on a Friday night to Hindle’s headquarters in Port Perry, Ontario so they could begin making up an exhaust system. In a time span only two days, a fresh Hindle full exhaust system was sitting on the doorstep Wednesday at 4&6 Racing (who build/maintain all of Safety First’s racebikes) in Skokie, IL.  Try that turn around with any other company!!  

As the 2006 pipe style was new and Hindle likes to be at the cutting edge, Safety First received four different generations of the pipes as the season went along. (Insert pics of each generation).  What is really amazing is that the first header Hindle produced in two days in the first generation pipe was unable to be bettered through repeated testing throughout the year.  It just goes to show you if you’ve been in the business as long as Hindle has been, you can get it right the first time right out of the box.   

The location of the latest pipe is so good that the bike can crash without ever damaging any of the exhaust system. Again, always thinking of dollars saved for race teams and the privateer/track day guys out there! 

Dunlop 209s- $360/set

Supersport runs on street legal DOT tires. In this case, Safety First Suzuki team runs on the AMA Paddock favorite Dunlop 209s. On the track where traction is paramount, plan on running six sets a weekend in two AMA classes. You won’t be getting the four-figure mileage you are used to on your commute or canyon routes.    

Gp Suspension 25mm cartridges-$1500          Penske Triple Clicker shock-$1195

Now, for the bits that keep the tires on the deck and moving you forward.  You can replace the internals of the front forks. Safety First uses top of the line GP suspension 25 mm cartridges.  A Penske Triple Adjustable for High Speed/Low Speed Compression damping and rebound damping finds its way onto the rear.  

Hotbodies bodywork with a Superbike tail- $600

Forget touring style comfort. There is no foam cell seat here, we use a simple seat pad for better feel of what the bike is doing underneath you. You’re not sitting on this bike to take in the scenery.   Add another $500 per set for custom painting. 

Hotbodies Supersport windscreen- $70 

Vortex Rearsets- $400

You have to look at crash damage and toughness. Vortex allows changing of just the pegs and the multiple adjustment plates to give the rider that “Just right fit.”  

Moto-R left case cover- $459         Woodcraft partial right side cover-$100

The AMA mandated as the year went along that case covers need to be crash worthy. These fit the bill nicely and have replaceable skid pads, like knee pucks for the engine. Replacement skid pads will run you $22.  

Performance Friction brake pads-$90/set

What’s more important than going fast? Being able to stop just as fast. Throw on a set of these pads and you will be able to loft the rear wheel at will with incredible control. 

Galfer Superbike brake lines front/rear- $155

You can’t use good pads and have spongy lines. These brake lines make the best out of the Performance Friction pads. 

Pit Bull steering damper- $425

This keeps the front end from tank slapping. Some of the extreme set-ups necessary for racing mandate you have a steering damper. More on that later. The new Pit Bull rotary style looks as good as it works.  

Lightened rear rotor- $85

Tsubaki Alpha Gold chain-520 gearing- $140

Captive Wheel Spacers- $300, mainly for R&D

It’s all about weight and rotating mass.  To avoid any detailed talk about physics, just remember that lighter rotating and unsprung mass is important. Very important.   The captive rear spacers come into play with the numerous gearing changes. You don’t want to forget the spacer on the back of the carrier when you make a sprocket change. 

Techtronic quickshifter-$650

Racing is a sport of thousandths of a second. You see pole position and wins sometimes come down to this unperceivable fraction.  If a quickshifter can save you a few tenths per lap, you can bet racers are using them.  Full throttle, no lift, positive shifting.  

GMD Computrack- $150/session

After each race, the bikes are rigged up on this device to check straightness. No string line at this level! 

Motion Pro quick release fuel line/Fuel Line Drain- $30

This jazzy little quick connect and drain allows the mechanics to effortlessly drain the tank and/or remove it when work below is necessary.  Such a little piece but so much benefit.  

If my high school math teacher, Mr. Vergow, taught me right, that I would not have much change back from a $20,000 bill, if there was such a thing….because at $19,348 is the total retail cost to build an AMA Supersport racebike. 

Ok, now that you drained your savings account, your two-year olds college fund and searched the sofa cushions, you can finally take it to the track.  Don’t forget to put some fuel in the bike……oh yeah, think you have sticker shock at the pumps, try $20 a gallon for top of the line AMA legal race fuel, like VP-MR9.  And don’t forget to fuel up your pickup, Suburban or other single digit mpg tow vehicle to even get to the track.  

Once you are on the line, how does it feel?? Let’s ask the guys who were there.  

As John noted, both riders for Safety First, Tony “The Tiger” Meiring and Shane Narbonne, came from a dirt track background.  With that common background you may think the bikes are set up similar……but you would be wrong. 

Tony likes his bike “sitting on its nose”. Coming into a corner, Tony will use a lot of rear brake.  By doing so, the bike then “flattens out” a bit more, but still gets the wheelbase that he feels comfortable with for the turn in and cornering.  Some racers use the rear brake, others don’t and go equally as fast.  

Fred:

“First thing that really stood out from a stock bike was the suspension. You could tell straight away that something was different from the stock stuff. Autobahn is not known to be billiard table smooth, but this bike just floated over the bumps. I didn’t really notice any irregularities in the surface at all. I tend to use the rear brake to settle the bike and trail brake and I had no complaints there.  The front brakes though, whoa! I had to be careful, I didn’t think they were going to be as strong as they were. I really had to think about how much brake I was grabbing so I wouldn’t do a stoppie going into the corners.  Entering the turn, the bike just “glided”, that’s the best word I can think of for how it reacted. Coming out of the corners, I really had to get used to the ¼ turn throttle.  There was no margin for error with it.  The acceleration was not normal for a 600. I was passing liter bikes coming out of corners and Autobahn does not have long straights, so many of them did not catch back up to me. Suzuki really got it right with the 06 engines.  They made power throughout.  Yeah, the motors did like to scream and be in the higher rev range, but the lower parts didn’t have you wishing you kicked it down another gear.   

Being 6’1”, I found the rear sets a bit high, but that is to be expected when I have a half a foot on the riders. The Hindle exhaust set it apart from other in-line fours. It just sounded “different”, good different. It really made the bike purr.  I was on used tires, but after the first lap, I felt hooked up and it was good straight away.  

Really, this 600 is more than enough bike. There was no need for a 1000 with the way this bike was set up.” 

So, back to our original question, “how much is an AMA Supersport bike like a showroom floor bike? Well, lets put it this way, it’s like an older brother.  Same family, but still can be quite different. They look the same, but underneath, the AMA bike is so much more. In every area you can sense. Acceleration, braking, turning in and even how it feels sitting still.  It’s different enough that any casual rider will immediately know the difference.  And love it! 

Special thanks to:

Safety First Racing, American Suzuki, 4&6 Racing, Komodo Dunlop, GP Suspension, Hindle, Flipside Graphics, Vortex, Performance Friction, Pit Bull, Penske, Motul, Tsubaki, Microblue Racing and Hotbodies.