Springs HAVE to be right before you can futz with damping in any meaningful way. If this is going to be a track machine, front and rear need to be very stiff.

+1. I have to swap rotors on the front and rear every 2-3 tires and pads every 1-2 tires with the EBC HH pads. The feel and power is worth it.

As far as tires, how fast are you going? 'Hypersport' tires like bridgestone bt-016s or Pirelli Corsa IIIs will work well if you aren't pushing the heck out of your bike. Otherwise, get DOT race tires like BT-003rs or Dunlop D211gp. You wont be able to use the race tires without both raising the rear and raising your rear sets. Run that F4 shock, you'll get ~2"/50mm in the rear. You will get .5"/12.5mm in the front if you run the 120/70 tire you have no business on the track without. I'd leave ride height stock in the front. You're decreasing your rake and trail a lot with the f4i shock, and the normal strategy of raising the tubes to make these bikes fast is probably overkill.

Personally, I'd put on tires, pads, springs, and risers, run it and see what I like and don't like and do a second round of mods. It takes a lot of time to get adjustments as big as you're suggesting dialed in. With as many changes as you are proposing, I think you might get a little lost and it will be hard to identify what you like.

 

Hi Gacho!
Thanks for the reply buddy. I was thinking about the metzelers as they are cheap. On looking through a few threads I can see this may not be the best option. I will look into the tyres you mention in your posts. And yes crash protection will be added to my list. Thanks


Hey jtkardel, thanks for the reply!

I certainly will sort out tyres so we are looking at 120/70 front and a 160 rear? The reason I ask is the bike is currently running a 180 on stock wheels and it doesn't look safe at all. I was considering a set of michelin pilot sporty 2ct as I will have to ride to the track on occasions I need something with a hard compound down the centre

So you think I should not swap the forks and just respring the front and of course fit the f4i rear? Any particular brand of spring? I will of course change the fork oil too.

Thanks for the list of mods you suggest, I will have to add to that a chain and pair of sprockets as they are worn and I have links all stuck together - bit of a mess. According to my reading -1 front +2 rear might be best for the track.

 

Yeah, the free mods I'm thinking of are very track specific. You'd be amazed how much weight you can strip off of a bike making it track specific. You could probably shave down a good 20lbs or scrap weight.

 

Toss the 180/55, run a 160/60. The F2 doesn't have the power to spin up that big tire, and the profile will hurt you with the little rear wheel it has. The 120/70-17 gives you more contact patch at the edge and more lean possible. The F2 has some of the heaviest bodywork imaginable. You can drop like 10lbs by throwing away the bodywork and replacing it with fiberglass. toss the pipes and can and run some nice aftermarket stuff and can and you can save ~10. The fender, hugger, and chain on the bike are really really heavy. There's a lot of weight to save but I'd save that for later. Suspension before weight reduction.

The rear shock is much more important than the forks, and honestly the front end on the F2 is pretty good stock. Spring it, and if you really want to improve toss an F3 front end with racetech valving on it. The F3 is a really competent front end. The rebound damping will be insufficient for track use or hard street riding so it will need a revalve. The rear shock is pure crap, you won't be able to break or put the power down on corner exit as hard as you need to. The F4 unit is much much better, but still not great stock. It'll get your geometry much better though, and that matters a lot. If you're serious, I'd go aftermarket or get a revalve done on a F4 unit. But then again, do it one piece at a time or else you'll be swimming in changes.

I think all the springs are good, people say racetech has a lot of variability in their spring rates (haven't bought enough springs to notice) so Ohlins or Eibach is probably a better buy. Their rate calulator is pretty cool, and so is their valving.

 

I've always been happy with Eibach, but never had any issues with racetech either.

 

Excellent replies. Thanks for taking the time to explain. I will update the first post with more information! The fork springs are about £100 in the UK and I can get a pair of F3 forks for around the same so maybe better to take the dive and just go for F3 shocks as stock for now and upgrade later
Many thanks! Can't wait to get to work on her
I will be running her on track end of June after all of the mods and a full service have been carried out so I guess that will be the first time I get to see how it handles. I have done track days on my street triple R so I know this isn't going to compare to the modern, light flickable triumph with uprated suspension and brakes. Just want to have some fun, learn the lines and improve myself as a rider without the expense of dropping my street triple.

 

Finally had a chance to do some work on her today.

Started off looking for the VIN on the engine, see this thread:
Here

Had a nice delivery from the postman:

This is definitely an F4 shock right? MAL-601 is on it. Searching in just brings up info about F3 shocks.

However, I am unable to fit it until I find the VIN number to match up with my paper work. Should have done it when I bought her but ah well live and learn. Frame and forks match though.

 

You'll know if it's an F4/I rear shock. The rear will be 1.5 inches taller.

 

Also the remote cable will be considerably shorter, I thought the f4 f4i springs are stock yellow but that doesn't mean much. Some one may have mentioned it already but you will need/want a longer kickstand with the new shock

 

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