Owned by a young lad who’s just got into racing (he’s had enough of track days and wants a proper go…) his road going R6 is set to be his track tool for the first season. He bought it in for some preparation and our advice – which we always dish out to new racers – is “Yes, we’ll do the initial set-up of fuelling, suspension and tyres and once the pace is somewhere near superstock level, we’ll look at engine work.”
So we set-up his PC V on the Dyno and serviced his forks only; if he genuinely runs out of suspension up front he’ll need the cartridges sorted. In a first season most of the improvement in lap times and race position come from the rider as he or she learns, and at most changing springs and oil weight will suffice. It’s easy to chase equipment mods as an excuse – the truth is there’s a lot to digest and keeping it simple in a novice year makes a good foundation.