Making the Roadster lighter..

[Anders]

Handlebars - big lump of pointlessly heavy ferrous alloy.. anyone fitted lightweight aluminium ones like Renthals or the like - what about riding position?


I fitted gold Renthalls to my speed triple back in San Francisco, looked very very cool indeed, tho I say so myself, take a look at this Japanese chappie's bike, it is gorgeous, he has braced bars and a lot of electronic kit, the CF body, and a custom exhaust, bst wheels too ??? ...

YouTube - TRIUMPH ROCKET 3?ROCKET??MOTORCYCLE?2,300CC

 

[cheekygrin]

Handlebars - big lump of pointlessly heavy ferrous alloy.. anyone fitted lightweight aluminium ones like Renthals or the like - what about riding position?
I fitted gold Renthalls to my speed triple back in San Francisco, looked very very cool indeed, tho I say so myself, take a look at this Japanese chappie's bike, it is gorgeous, he has braced bars and a lot of electronic kit, the CF body, and a custom exhaust, bst wheels too ??? ...

YouTube - TRIUMPH ROCKET 3?ROCKET??MOTORCYCLE?2,300CC

I just shot my bolt - did that rocket 3 have a carbon fibre petrol tank? Oh. My. God.

Dont like the blue bars, but black or silver / grey anodized would not be too out of place.. mind you goes with the titanium anodized custom exhaust he has there...

Mmm lots of ideas there, I like the sleek rear light cluster and "Aero" rear plate design..

Reminds me of a similar Japanese kit I had on my large turbo'd Nissan 200SX back in the day. Curiously, it had a smaller engine than my new bike has (but then again, 2 litres pushing near 500bhp is not too shabby) for goodness sake..

Principle - rear plate is on a hinge - with a spring. Different springs give different hinge rates - i.e. speeds over 70mph (speed limit in the UK) will mean the plate is nearly flat - whereas at up to 70 it is flat and.... more nanny stateish - road legal..

Fantastic link that. It appears this is *the* bike of choice for customization really - from big horsepower to street sleeper, or anything you like really.

Fantastic!

I will enjoy it as standard for a little while first though

 

[Anders]

I just shot my bolt - did that rocket 3 have a carbon fibre petrol tank? Oh. My. God.



Yes, with a clock , I tracked down who made it but have lost the link, the site was mostly in japanese, I think the tank alone was something like 1500 us dollars, I may be wrong tho, it was v pricey but I guess do-able if you could get reasonable money for the original tank, which you should be able to ...


Dont like the blue bars, but black or silver / grey anodized would not be too out of place.. mind you goes with the titanium anodized custom exhaust he has there...



Yep, very nice, I like the blueing on the exhaust tips, but someone mentioned the guy was wearing a red bandana around his knee, presumably to help him with the exhaust heat!



Mmm lots of ideas there, I like the sleek rear light cluster and "Aero" rear plate design..



Yup, very nice indeed!



Reminds me of a similar Japanese kit I had on my large turbo'd Nissan 200SX back in the day. Curiously, it had a smaller engine than my new bike has (but then again, 2 litres pushing near 500bhp is not too shabby) for goodness sake..


I had a 2 litre all steel FI cosworth in my Caterham 7, about 280bhp, tbh any more power and i wouldn't be able to get the power down, oh, those were the days, no speed cameras for a start!



Principle - rear plate is on a hinge - with a spring. Different springs give different hinge rates - i.e. speeds over 70mph (speed limit in the UK) will mean the plate is nearly flat - whereas at up to 70 it is flat and.... more nanny stateish - road legal..



I once toyed with the idea of a triangular revolving number plate a la james bond's aston db!!!



Fantastic link that. It appears this is *the* bike of choice for customization really - from big horsepower to street sleeper, or anything you like really.

Fantastic!

I will enjoy it as standard for a little while first though


Yup, maybe run it until the weather turns to crap and bling it out over the winter

 

[IMFASTTOO]

I know that changing to a Zard gives a bonkers insane amount of lightness added to the Roadster - I know that BST make gorgeous carbon fibre wheels (wheels are best place to lose weight)

But what else can you do to chop weight out of this gorgeous brick shi*house of a bike..

Handlebars - big lump of pointlessly heavy ferrous alloy.. anyone fitted lightweight aluminium ones like Renthals or the like - what about riding position?

My street Triple was VERY light after I had finished with it, it was just fantastic, handled very well indeed (even better than it did already!) after losing about 15kg.

I dont believe customising the roadster to handle better (by making it lighter) will be defeating the point of a roadster. If you look at it this way - a true street fighter is all about customisation anyway isnt it..?

Here we go again... sorry wallet.. I have been very mean to you in the past, and I fear you are going to feel a bit violated, like when the tax man bends you over..

So - wheels - BST wheelset saves about 7kg.
Zard or similar shortie exhaust save about 9KG
Handlebars, save about a KG at least, and get benefit of vibration absorbtion from decent handlebars
Brake and clutch lever - save about 2-400 grammes over stock with Pazzos or similar

Cost.... omigod dont even want to think about it..

anything else? I am only going for the big ticket things rather than nerdy stuff like titanium bolts with poor cost/value ratio..

Any ideas?

GET rid of the stock exhaust thats very heavy and youll pick up LOTS of HP in the process BUT use a pipe that makes power

 

[Pig9r]

Those are all from Motoplan, CarbonDry Japan. Here is their site.

CarbonDryJapan.com - ??????????? -

The gas tank is just a cover. The tail section is a replacement. Pretty pricey.

 

[Anders]

Those are all from Motoplan, CarbonDry Japan. Here is their site.

CarbonDryJapan.com - ??????????? -

The gas tank is just a cover. The tail section is a replacement. Pretty pricey.

Cheers! I will check it all out again, drooling...

 

[cheekygrin]

Im fast too..

What exhaust do you recommend?

Can we list exhausts - and lightweight ones too, we don't all want challenger tank pipes please..

Zard would be my preferred sort of idea - but its pricey and saps power, or do Arrow do one?

 

[HellFire]

What exhaust do you recommend?

Can we list exhausts - and lightweight ones too, we don't all want challenger tank pipes please..

Zard would be my preferred sort of idea - but its pricey and saps power, or do Arrow do one?

Best performance money no object = Jardine
Best sound for the money = TOR
Best performance for lowest cost and weight = D&D
Best performance, looks and sound for the money = TOR
Best looks based on performance = Jardine and TOR (D&D if you don't mind the left side left naked)
Most annoying sound around = Zard/Shorties
Closest to sounding like a Cessna = D&D
Most likely to be disagreed with = This thread reply

 

[Pig9r]

Arrow doesn't do one. Pretty much any of the aftermarket systems are going to be lighter and with the exception of the Zards, offer more power. It really boils down to what look and sound you want. I have had Maddogs and currently run Jardines. Travelguy used to make a sweet custom set, Predators, but he has stopped. Rumor has it he is making a shorty system.

 

[Joker]

Ooo goody, an excuse to post pics.

You're right, the best place to lose weight is the wheels. BST are light and look gorgeous;



Next is probably the rear mudguard;



The tank is a cover, but looks good;



Imfastoo is right, the Zards can cost you up to 20bhp.

I disagree with Hellfire, I would put Predators at the top of the performance table, but they cost about $1800 I think. They gave me an increase of 27bhp over ToRs and CAT delete (same day, same dyno, same tuner) on my supercharged bike. They look pretty good too;



If you like the short look of the Zards, Sam, who makes the Predators, is in the late stages of developing a shorty which will out perform the Zards and the other shorty available, they have a single pipe on the other side.