Project Superstock Gixer Part Four!

Pretty Boy finds out that building a race bike isn’t always a walk in the park, but gets one of the most important jobs for a new build ticked off…

When life gives youlemons, make lemonade. That’s been the mantra for this month after running into some slight logistical issues, but then again life is never straightforward, is it? The original plan was to get the Gixer race trimmed before sticking it on track, however after a few things took longer than anticipated, I had to make a choice – leave testing until the suspension is all sorted, or get used to riding the big thou’ on the standard kit. It’s not ideal in both respects, but I’m bloody thankful I went for the latter – which meant three days at Calafat was the order of the month for Project Gixer…

It’s a marathon, not a sprint Having read ‘How to Run Your Bike In’ in last month’s mag, I was eager to give Project Gixer the best life possible which meant starting with a solid running-in period – after all a happy engine is a fast engine. Although it can be done on the dyno (it already had a few miles under its belt) after a quick phone call to the lovely lot at Suzuki UK it was decided to take it easy for 100 miles up and down the box before giving it some ragging. For this reason I booked three days on track at Calafat in Spain; a day for running in, a day to get used to the bike and then a day to try some bits. We opted to run standard gearing, brake pads and fluid and suspension settings to start with. The fast group was pretty rapid, which was good, with a tonne of BSB lads from the different classes, meaning it would be the perfect place to dial both the bike and myself in, check that nothing I’d bolted on was going to fall off and see exactly what we need to improve before the season starts in a month’s time. So with everything together, I loaded the bike up and sent it on its first holiday…