10-Year Anniversary Freshen-up

fallenarch

THE SLOW RIDER
Registered
Well, the 10YAFU is rolling along. I have ordered the main parts. I don't think I have mentioned this but almost all my Busa parts have been sourced through sponsors. All good people, specifically Powerhouse & Pashnit. There is a lot of Revzilla too admittedly, but the big stuff all is from sponsors. Anyway, so far we will be adding the following:

1. Brembo HP rotors (front).
2. Brembo GP4 RX calipers (front) with spacers.
3. Brembo RCS 19 Corsa Corta (can't weight to play with this!)
4. Core moto Apex Wheels
5. Amplink power block (not sure, BMW may get this)
6. PH Flash

I am still considering some cosmetic changes. Even though you guys hate every paint scheme I come up with, I am still looking at new plastic. I love looking at a show quality bike as much as the next guy, but I hate flashy for me personally. Basically love either straight up racer look (sponser patches and all) or plain and stealthy. I love it when I roll into a shop and even Ducati guys walk up and say "Wow, man that is one well setup Busa!" Anyway I have to do something because the OEM skins look like they have been through 10 years of abuse.

I already have a Corbin seat, Ohlins front and back, full Yoshi full exhaust, PC5, Puig CF hugger, back-off brake lights, Vortex Rearsets, Garmin GPS with TPMS, cruise (although I my remove his to save weight). So when done, she will be quite the rolling top-shelf parts bend. Won't challenge a RoadToad effort, but nice. More to come - waiting for the Apex wheels to get things going.
 
with the BMW, my Busa riding is exclusive to local fun rides, very little slabbing. I actually rarely use it now. I had to really analyze things on this round of mods. I will probably not do anymore track time. And with what I have in a 10 year old bike, all the money I put in it is hobby money, I'll never recover any of it.
 
Leave cruise control
its weight is worth
the creature comfort .

The wheels save
you big weight .






:)

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Well, the 10YAFU is rolling along. I have ordered the main parts. I don't think I have mentioned this but almost all my Busa parts have been sourced through sponsors. All good people, specifically Powerhouse & Pashnit. There is a lot of Revzilla too admittedly, but the big stuff all is from sponsors. Anyway, so far we will be adding the following:

1. Brembo HP rotors (front).
2. Brembo GP4 RX calipers (front) with spacers.
3. Brembo RCS 19 Corsa Corta (can't weight to play with this!)
4. Core moto Apex Wheels
5. Amplink power block (not sure, BMW may get this)
6. PH Flash

I am still considering some cosmetic changes. Even though you guys hate every paint scheme I come up with, I am still looking at new plastic. I love looking at a show quality bike as much as the next guy, but I hate flashy for me personally. Basically love either straight up racer look (sponser patches and all) or plain and stealthy. I love it when I roll into a shop and even Ducati guys walk up and say "Wow, man that is one well setup Busa!" Anyway I have to do something because the OEM skins look like they have been through 10 years of abuse.

I already have a Corbin seat, Ohlins front and back, full Yoshi full exhaust, PC5, Puig CF hugger, back-off brake lights, Vortex Rearsets, Garmin GPS with TPMS, cruise (although I my remove his to save weight). So when done, she will be quite the rolling top-shelf parts bend. Won't challenge a RoadToad effort, but nice. More to come - waiting for the Apex wheels to get things going.
Nice list Willie! Can’t wait to see pictures and some of your great reviews!
 
Long post so I added subtitles so you can just read what you are interested in. I really believe you should have a vision in mind with your mods, that 's what makes a modded bike better than stock, and prevents the sell off when you've gone too far in the wrong direction.

Well this 10YAFU thing has been in the works for about 5 years now. It started out as making the Busa a serious race bike with no expense spared. Then I had health issues which threatened riding at all. After getting through that for the time being, I let my wife talk me into a more age appropriate motorcycle. The BMW is a pretty good bike now that it’s eaten a huge chunk of money to fix it, but I’ll never love it like the Busa. So, I am back focused on my true garage love. But I’m sure you’re wondering what really drove this aren’t you? Well the wife said I couldn’t get a Ford Raptor and after pouting a few days I called Frank and started ordering stupid expensive parts!

What is The Goal: The BMW really scrambled my riding brain. I got it mainly to ride distances, only to learn I’m not a distance guy. I like riding roads I know like the back of my hand, very fast (ok, pretty fast?). When I get home from a ride on the BMW I feel like ok, that was cute. Every time I have started the Busa, in 10 years, I think to myself OMG this is the coolest thing in the whole fricken universe. But the BMW has given me clarity on the Busa. It is the finest back road blaster ever made. It’s stupid fast, as reliable as an anvil, comfortable, rock stable at stupid speed, distance capable, a much better handler than it gets credit for, and has an eager puppy personality (a pit puppy, watch the teeth!). I decided that my goal was the ultimate back road blaster, nothing else.

General Checkup: First is a checkup. She goes to a local shop in a couple weeks for a look over. She will get a compression test, throttle body sync, valve check, radiator flush, new plugs, new fuel filter, oil and a new K&N air filter. I’ll do the oil and air filter. I’m staying with K&N because her custom map was made on this configuration. I did the thermostat at 25K, so that should be fine for another 30K. Shop will also check and lube everything including cables. Yes, I can do a lot of this stuff myself but if I do it, it won’t all get done until next year! Assuming everything looks good, let the games begin!

Engine: Whether or not the Busa is king is debatable on many points except one: it has the best engine in the business. It is a remarkable accomplishment for Suzuki. Smooth enough for a first-time rider, ferocious enough for a drag racer, and strong enough for almost any modification short of adding a Saturn V boosters. I added a full, 4 into 1 Yoshimura header with an R77 CF can with a PC5 & Autotune (never used the AT). I love the Yoshi system and only wish it was Ti. I considered switching to lighter, better performers like Brocks CT megs or Akrapovic. In the end I decided that the gains were not mission critical and I could spend smarter, so the Yoshi stays.

Suspension: The Ohlins I put on this bike a few years ago lifted it to another level. The OEM suspenders were struggling at everything, the Ohlins are unflappable. I also added the 1” riser dogbones and they made the bike absolutely rock stable. There are higher end Ohlins, but not sure how to improve on these, so they stay as is. Only thing I will do here is inspect them closely, clean/lube connections where I’m supposed to and have them re-adjusted for the new, lighter wheels. I don’t think you must do the adjustments (after all the wheels are unsprung so they don’t ride on the suspension), however I have been told by the Ohlins tech that there might be a need to adjust the rebound.

Brakes: Well I currently have the 108 mm M4 Brembo calipers. They work great, big improvement over OEM’s “put your feet down and pray” brakes. I’m running stock Brembo pads and OEM rotors. I have Kevlar lines and Brembo RCS pumps on the clutch & brakes. I have Rizoma reservoirs. All good there right? Nope. I’m going all the way to the GP4 RX calipers, the Brembo HP front rotors, and the RCS 19 Corta https://www.brembo.com/en/company/news/19-rcs-corsa-corta-brembo-brakes . I was drawn into the calipers by RoadToad. What I was interested in was the huge pistons, which should mean amazing feel. They are lighter than the M4’s but not the lightest Brembo sells. The RCS 19 Master Cylinder has an adjuster on it for normal, street and track that adjusts bite and feel. So, I’ll have the best brakes I can fit to this bike, up front anyway. Brembo has nothing for rear brakes on a gen 2 Busa. Oh well I rarely use the rears. I won’t lie to you, I’m buying all this brake stuff because it’s cool, pretty, and I can at this particular time. It’s bling plain and simple – I don’t need it and the M4’s are great for about a third the price. Doesn’t get more honest than that now does it?

Electricals: PC5 will stay, as will the AutoTune. I never used the Autotune and won’t, but I don’t feel like getting into the wires to remove it. I considered a Bazzazz with QS & TC, but I can’t find too much information on them and no one seems to know how to deal with them around here. I’m not looking for problems to solve. Sending the ECU to Powerhouse finally. I had a friend’s harness and raised the redline 500 rpm and removed the limiters myself. That along with the very good custom tune made the bike run amazing. But I figured maybe some more freshening up would be nice. Was thinking about increasing the power system, but I don’t really ride the bike now in bad or cold weather – that’s what the BMW is for. I am looking at changing my fuse block to an Amplink from ROWE electronics. You can read about it here https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/rowe-electronics-amplink-power-distribution-module. This is cool and usable stuff, beside already bought it last year may as well use it. I’m thinking of removing the cruise control. Now that the BMW does the distance stuff, I never use it. I also need to reroute the cable as the take up has become notchy. I will have to either remove it and add c10’s excellent install, or just remove it. Also still debating a quick-shifter. That is something I really need, especially after being spoiled with the absolutely fabulous one on the Beemer. I keep snatching the Busa shifter up without a clutch (yes, I know you can do that)

Wheels: Man, I have learned so much about wheels that my head is spinning, get it? Basically, what you do with a wheel makes all the difference in the world. I was amazed to find out that the strongest wheels are spoked. This is because with all the spokes their redundancy is crazy, and it takes a really serious blow to induce a catastrophic failure. The new tubeless spoked wheels are crazy reliable. I found out that carbon fiber rims outperform anything out there by far. One reason is not their overall lightness, but how light they are out at the rim edges. This dramatically reduces the gyroscopic effect of the wheel which is what a super wheel needs to do. So, if you think a CF wheel is only a little lighter than some other wheels, it’s actually a lot lighter where it counts. I sort of new that but what I didn’t know is that the deflection characteristics of CF make for superior road feel. So, CF is the ultimate wheel except for strength. While CF is significantly stronger than steel pound for pound, it’s out-of-plane strength can be weak. Also, a CF wheel is only as good as the builder’s handling of the layers building the wheels. Any damage to a CF wheel can be catastrophic, and potential serious damage can be difficult to spot without a lengthy inspection. To make a long story short, forged aluminum is the best combination of strength and lightness for road applications. As I have said before my Busa handles amazing well. Even a 55 series tire through it off for me. So, I was very worried about going to CF wheels. After c10’s excellent technical investigation into the Core Moto wheels, I was sold on the price/engineering of the Apex wheels from Core Moto. I also wanted to upgrade my brakes, and if I spent $4K on BST wheels I would not have the new calipers. It’ll be interesting to see how this decision works out.

Ergonomics: I have a Corbin seat. I love it. I loved it the first day I sat on it even before it was broken in. I also have a Gel seat I use at the track because my leathers slide around on it better. Nothing to change there. I have Vortex rear sets. They work well even though they are a bit agricultural. I considered upgrading these, still thinking on that. I have 1” rise Helibars and they are perfect. The triple clamp setup Suzuki devised for the Busa is shamefully awful engineering, but it does work. I always ride solo with the hump in place. I like the grab bar mod, would do it again. Not sure why anyone would hate on the Frankenstein bolts, they are so handy. Basically, this bike feels like they measured me before building it, it’s my home.

Aesthetics: I’m not a guy who worries about a perfect looking bike. Cracks and chips are character for me. But my fairings are the original 09’s and they have been through several pain schemes and a lot of mods, so they’re about done. I’m looking at plastic simple because OEMs are crazy. I thought about 100% CF fairings, but that’s not me. So, it’s plastic with maybe nothing, just a color.

Well that’s it for now. Sorry for boring you but I was looking through my sketch book and thought it would be sort of cool to pull all my thoughts together in one place.
 
Under your What is the goal topic, I can relate. I feel the same way about my Concours. Its a great bike, does everything well, but it doesn't give me that feeling like I get when I'm on the Busa. After 14 years, I still get that feeling. :) Looking forward to seeing your bike progress.
 
Under your What is the goal topic, I can relate. I feel the same way about my Concours. Its a great bike, does everything well, but it doesn't give me that feeling like I get when I'm on the Busa. After 14 years, I still get that feeling. :) Looking forward to seeing your bike progress.
I had a FJR1300 that was triple tits , but it never gave me the feeling the bird does :) Doing 161 mph @ white sands NM I was looking for more .
 
Nice write up Arch, I reckon you will be a re-invigorated Busa guy with all this focused energy you are putting in to your bike!
Lookin' forward to seeing the pics and reading the reviews on it . . . :bowdown:
 
Under your What is the goal topic, I can relate. I feel the same way about my Concours. Its a great bike, does everything well, but it doesn't give me that feeling like I get when I'm on the Busa. After 14 years, I still get that feeling. :) Looking forward to seeing your bike progress.
Tim you need to try my Connie with the suspension done,,,
 
Tim you need to try my Connie with the suspension done,,,
Still not the same as my Busa. May sound kinda weird but the Busa has been with me on so many memorable trips, with my daughters and some really good friends. Just couldn't ever replace what it means to me or the feeling I get while I'm on it. And Hayabusa.org, without this great site and the people I have met here most of those memories would never have been. Thanks Doug ( Cap ) for keeping this site up and running. :)
 
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