I have a 03 600 f4i. I bought the bike with these mods already done. It has a -1 front sprocket, pcIII tuned for exhaust, high mount m4 exhaust. I plan on going to the track in about 2 months and was wondering if you guys could give me a general insight into what I should expect. I know that I have alot to learn as far as launching goes. But give me your .02 cents.
Thanks

 

Not knowing where your 60 ft. times are going to be, it's almost impossible to nail that down. If you've never been to the dragstrip, don't show up "expecting" to get a certain time. Always stay within your comfort zone, and ignore whoever is in the other lane. That VHT on starting line is sticky as h@ll. Where you were smoking the tire on the street, it's going to stand up on you. Just take off as aggressive as you're comfortable with. Then slowly start working on areas where you can improve...clutch, shift points, etc. Go have fun. You can always be competitive later.

 

High 12's.

 

+1 to that
Forget almost everything you know about riding on the street once you hit the track. You have to learn it all over again.

Unless you have a slipper clutch, which I don't think you do, ease that clutch out and you will do better than dumping it. I run mine up to 5K then scoot forward into the lights. keeps the front down pretty good.

 

My first run on my F4i was mid 12s. It took me 4 trips to the strip and 6 months of riding the bike to break into 11s. F4i was a big step up from the 250 nighthawk. The nighthawk ran 19s @ 65mph in the 1/4.

 

Know I am a little late, but there are a few things you can do.

practicing getting that 60' and 330' down is your number 1 priority. anyone can click some gears down the track, being a 600 i dont see you having a hard time keeping it down in 2nd or 3rd so the launch will be where you will begin to learn.

1. If you can, strap down the front end. This modifies the fulcrum and creates unsprung weight..if i can paint a picture, the more the front end comes up, the less power that is required for it to come up more. IE a small blip of the throttle normally riding will barely unload the front suspension, that same small blip of the throttle while the bike is at 11 o'clock, will put you on your ***. Strapping it down now requires the bike to pull up the tire immediately and it also gives you a few more degrees that the bike has to lift the most weight possible. It also forces you to sit forward on the tank, moving even more weight forward.

2. Practice your launches from where you feel comfortable. Experiment with clutch release and rpms. I personally rev my 954 to about 6500, and then slowly engage the clutch and move forward to trip the beams and have the clutch grab just enough that i can hold the bike with my feet until its go time.

3. Don't get frustrated with mistakes, it happens, even the best of us still mess things up occaisionally.

4. Once you have that all down pat, you can work on the tiny things, like deep or shallow staging. Deep staging is where you pull so far forward that you turn off the 1st light on the tree. People do this for better R/T, problem is you dont have any roll out, but you are usually a foot closer to the finish than the other guy, and sometimes a race is won by less than that. I personally suggest shallow staging if ET/MPH are your goals. You can adjust your launch timing to get a good RT here as well, but you are moving just far enough forward to barely get both bulbs lit. Your time doesnt start until the 2nd bulb goes out, so you have an entire foot ( i know, it doesnt seem like much) to get your momentum rolling. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal at all, but the difference from deep to shallow can be in upwards of 2-3 tenths and 1-2mph for most of us for an identical run.

Side note: Don't focus too much on the 60's, the 330' is the priority..A lot of people never realize that they are actually tripping the 60' beams with their rear wheel if they typically cant keep the front end down. With bikes this is pretty common, with the fast street tire cars, its very common. When 1st got my 954 I was launching and not able to keep it completely down...had a tenth slower 60', 2 tenths quicker 330' and 4 tenths quicker on the big end. the launch is very crucial as illustrated here, in reality if you can drop a tenth at the line, you will drop 2-3 tenths at the big end.

Hope I have not confused you, but if you have any further questions, please ask, i will try to help as best I can. I do not think i am a god at racing by any means, I have just done it a while with cars boats and bikes, and have an aquired knowledge for proper suspension geometry and launch techniques