I'm riding my zx14 less than I thought, since I'm always waiting for parts...

So I was talking to my tuner today about standing mile and half mile racing. He suggested a light weight clutch and removing one of the engine balancers.. Which of the block offs out there is the best? Anything to look for in a balancer block off?

Sae Outlaw

Ape/schnitz

OSR (looks heaviest?)

* Last updated by: CoolBrzBlu on 6/21/2019 @ 12:20 AM *

Ask yourself this:
A. Am I going to make this bike race specific.
B. Am I going to ride and race.

With A, you start pulling off body work, start drilling whatever will not lose integrity, change out to ti hardware, OEM tires or whatever are the lightest tires, etc. If you find a lighter clutch basket, balancers removed, and those kind of moves, go for it. This is race short of popping off the valve cover? Because at this point, you're missing the cam degree move, if not changing to higher lift cams; port polishing; flash; or dj mapping; dyno tuning; pipe; no air cleaner; no ram effect(obviously plastic removed); total loss (stator removed),etc.; and now you are race specific. No longer a dual purpose bike.

B. With dual purpose, there is no real commitment to mod the bike and run without balancers, because it's not going to be comfortable for you for one. The more aftermarket [on some things like a basket] the more you replace with so many hours on the part before it lets go inside the engine. The centrifugal on the lighter part says minutes not hours. It might bust in the street adding those hours of time on it. The one way down the track are the fibers/steels in one direction. You lift, that clocks the pack in the other direction. So that constant swap on that one vulnerable fork scares me vs a beefier production part. Short of keeping the nose on for headlights, you can pop it off when the bike is on the trailer for each session.

So basically what I'm saying is to remain stock, throw the basket money towards ti hardware, mini-winkers, remove as much as you can and remain street legal. Otherwise you dive in full bore and stop fucking around.

Thanks Hub. I'm trying to keep it a dual purpose bike, only looking at removing one of the balancers.. But I'm already keyless, carbon fiber everything, exhaust, wheels, tires, new brake rotors, new calipers, lines, fender, subframes, woolich setup. I'd like to keep the reliability of the stock internals, if possible, just trying to lose weight and improve aeros to start with. If that's not enough then I'd get the engine built next year.

I'm not going to ever run a turbo, if the engine is built next year I doubt it would make more than 270. Most of the people running billet clutches have a turbo or serious nitro setups and I haven't heard of them breaking billet baskets..

I'm looking for advice, how much will the removal of a single balancer and a switch to alight clutch basket affect the reliability and feel of the bike?

At most this will be a special occasion bike for a quick 200 mile trip, not going to be my commuter.

The cut billet clutch should weigh about 1.5# less than stock, and should be stronger than stock.. Other than getting used to less flywheel effect there can't be much of a downside..

* Last updated by: CoolBrzBlu on 6/21/2019 @ 10:49 AM *

Better you make pass after pass with the OE, take your trip, then next year take out the balancers, add the basket. Yes, all those moves help to spin up the mass faster. But the balancers removed, you're not going to like the buzz in the mirrors, up your arms, etc. For example, I can hold my hand on a lightweight frame that has an engine out of a rubber mounted frame. The vibration coming from that engine would numb my ass. I can just imagine no balancers in the 14 and feel the same effect.

Let's reality check this... You're no going after points, purse, nor tour the rounds around the country to win a championship or break track records. You're an amateur racer, long in the tooth no doubt, reflexes not as sharp as the competition or a field of semi-pro's or pro's. The bike is dual purpose so the wise thing is to perfect the light with what you have. Then next year see if the bug is still there. Meantime you go out for practice as much as you can this season and burn out the brain this way.

Signed,
NOLTT

Lol, good points. I have only 550 miles so far on my 2016 zx14. I'm waiting to get a lot of parts, ecu and throttle bodies the most important ones that are missing..

I'm trying to incorporate as much carbon fiber as possible to try to reduce vibrations (subframe, rearsets, clip-ons, motor mounts). From what I've read it seems to be possible to pull one balancer without tearing down the engine, while replacing the clutch basket, changing the shifter, and doing the oil mods I figured this might be the time to pull one balancer.

My thought was that if the vibes are too bad without the one balancer I'd just have it put back in when the engine is built..

See if this sounds logical. Say you run with one balancer. Wouldn't this now be out of balance? Two pistons in the cylinders are up, two in the middle are down. One balancer for the up pistons, the other balancer for the other set of pistons and that crank throw that are down. In other words you could look at two engines with two different but equal movements of its 4 strokes. Personally I'd pull both for said reason. Wouldn't that defeat counter balancing but now induce the effect using the one only?

There's nothing I can do but watch the counter moves on a dependable bike all stock; as some make the move on the bike, but do not sit on the bike to make it move. Pipe and light do not make a racer. Green at the grip sort of gives it the black and white answer to move on to more performance. If say you're spinning your head getting dizzy for the reach around, the wallet crease is beginning to smoke from friction; one mod after the other; then you look over at some rider with the same bike but only stock. Leaves the light and wins on clutch feed and a little r/t. All that money...

Signed,
NOLTT (nothinglike overly loaded track time)

Then again, I'd at least try to balance the crank if I'm down that far. You can imagine how things are weighed, like ground and drill away material to match the match for balance. Where are you going to go to have that done? You could tool up and make an attempt-rather than wait in line if you could find someplace to take it on in the first place. I hear it's getting hard to find an experienced crank company. So say you're stuck if you take a chance and leave it alone without both balancers.

Say you hammered the bike at the track, road on whatever trips, you'd have to look at the crank inserts and swap those out across the board. You'd be buying new rod bolts or take the crapshoot on the used ones.

Run racing fuel for sure. Not that it matters, but flip the can to look for the latest date. VP has a lot of different flavors. You'd want whatever mix, but make sure the rubber is not affected by the formula. I've seen the wrong blend kill a set of rubber assist carbs. So with that said, I'd be concerned with the fuel tank's pump assembly; fuel line rubbers; rubber orings on cross tubes and at the injector; and for sure the epoxy used inside the injector itself.

It's being tuned for Mr12. Plan to flush it after every race.. I'm more worried about the cf gas tank with ethanol blended fuel.

I'll bet the APE and the Outlaw are exactly the same thing manufactured in China. Yes, the OSR does look a lot heavier. By the looks of it, maybe 6 or 7 oz heavier if that is aluminum. Might be worth it to buy both and choose the lightest. You're out $50.

Hub, I know practice would make more of a difference than any single part that I'm talking about. However I enjoy modifying the bike and planning the mods as much as practice.

The only drag strip around here is half an hour away, its very hot, very dirty, and the track has gravel and bumps on it. Not great practice except for the start, but the start is much less crucial with standing mile runs anyway. To actually practice the mile I'd have to be on the roads, and I can't afford a ticket or accident at those speeds, at least that's what my brain says when adrenaline isn't involved..

Cool, wasn't it you who had a guy who machined Ti parts for you? I thought you mentioned a Ti engine sprocket nut that you had copied from the OEM.

I'm replacing sprockets now and would like a Ti Gen1 engine sprocket nut copied.

Also, does the Gen2 motor have the same engine sprocket nut as the Gen1? Part number is the same for gen 1 and Gen2 (92210-0237) but neither drawing shows the 4 flats for the speed sensor like my sprocket nut has.

* Last updated by: Rook on 1/25/2020 @ 3:27 PM *