What would you do immediately after buying a brand new 2011 literbike from the dealership? Spend a few hours cleaning it? Take some nice pics for Facebook? Maybe head out for a brisk-but-gentle ride to get the break-in miles out of the way?
Imagine if, before you even got a chance to do any of the aforementioned, tragedy strikes. Not because the bike fell over in the driveway or was scratched by your kid's Frisbee, but because the manufacturer called to say there was a problem with the top end of the motor before asking you (nicely) to return it. You'd certainly be pissed, to say the least.
If your name's Shawn Malanaphy and the bike was a 2011 Kawasaki ZX-10R, then what you'd do is pretty simple; tell the dealer you're not giving the bike back and start modding it-heavily.
We're not just talking about some rim stripes and a smoked windscreen either. Shawn's swapped out the wheels, fitted an exhaust, dumped the exhaust valve servo and spliced in an old Suzuki GSX-R750 Power Commander. Then he bypassed the speed limiter, changed some bodywork, slammed the suspension
and took the beast out for a 200 mph-plus speed run-all in the first week.
Leo Vince was the first company...
Leo Vince was the first company to have a consumer exhaust available for the 2011 ZX-10R, and Shawn wasted no time tracking one down.
Something's out of place here;...
Something's out of place here; a PC III on a 2011 model year bike? That can't be right. And it's not-a GSX-R750 PC III was adapted to fit.
The priority on Shawn's list was to increase the bike's top speed. That's a pretty tough task on something like a ZX-10R. Literbikes don't have the same aerodynamic performance as 'Busas or ZX-14s, so it's all down to pure horsepower.
First thing, though, was to dump the silly 186 mph speed limiter that it comes with from the factory. That's getting harder and harder to do on newer models, but Shawn's done some good work here. "I put together a special electronic circuit board. It's a little timer board that sends a 25 mph signal to the ECU, so it just bypasses the 186 mph limiter entirely."
We guess Shawn's not too bothered with the accuracy of his speedometer...
Next up, he's finagled a Power Commander III onto the bike, but with no 2011 ZX-10R parts available yet, he used a Suzuki GSX-R750 unit instead. It was hardly a plug-and-play install, but Shawn's been wrenching on his bikes for nearly ten years now so he's got a handle on how to make things work-even when they aren't supposed to. The Power Commander is just a temporary patch anyways: "I'm having my stock ECU flashed by the guys at Guhl Motors, which will be a longterm solution."