Hardening our ZX10R for battle.

The latest crop of  sportbikes is mind boggling in its performance capabilities. As always, the mantra for their designers is, "Smaller, lighter and more powerful." Electronics are the big news, with fly by wire throttles, ABS and traction control making their way to the showroom floor with increasing regularity. What hasn't changed is how susceptible these machines are to crash damage. As delivered, your average sporting motorcycle is potentially just a gentle lob away from being totaled.
TrackdayMag.com associate Bart Schuster's zero-mile Kawasaki ZX10R is as beautiful a machine as we've had the privilege to roll into our shop. Within a few hours of its arrival, we'd stripped this virgin beauty of its lights, bodywork and muffler/catalytic converter.  Since that collection of unneeded street parts is worth several thousand dollars, it was carefully wrapped and stored.  The next step would be to harden the Kaw's chassis and engine against the perils of racetrack duty.

Woodcraft
The crash survivability of a motorcycle can be substantially improved by armoring its most vulnerable areas.  Woodcraft is a company which specializes in this type of protective equipment.  We installed literally every part they offer for a ZX10R onto Bart's bike.  Most obvious would be the frame sliders and swingarm slider spools.  Woodcraft's frame sliders are unique in that they come with rugged billet aluminum bases and replaceable pucks made from a durable plastic compound.  The puck itself is solid, rather than the hollow plastic tube commonly used for this purpose.  Woodcraft's design is substantially more durable, as we've experienced personally on several occasions.  (Testimonial: Following a block-long slide which began at triple digit speed, we observed less than 50% puck material loss and zero damage to the mounting base of our GSXR 1000's Woodcraft frame slider.) Honestly, they're among the best sliders we've seen at any price.  The cost for these frame sliders is $39.99 for the bases plus $15.00 for the pucks.  Woodcraft's $29.99 swingarm slider spools aren't especially flashy; however, they do the double duty of giving you a place to lift the bike from behind and also providing the swingarm some abrasion protection.

Next, we went for engine armor. When a bike goes down, its fragile cast aluminum engine covers are usually damaged.  At the minimum, this will allow oil to come out onto the racetrack and let debris get into the motor.  In the worst case scenario, your bike's engine cases might also be damaged in a crash, causing you to need a new motor!  Woodcraft's stator and ignition covers, priced at $199.99 and 139.99 for our ZX10R, are machined from billet aluminum and wear replaceable stainless steel skid plates.  These covers truly are multi-crash survivable.  Often, they make the difference between a machine which can be rebuilt and a pile of muddy scrap metal, so we don't take a bike to the track without them.

Woodcraft's $154.99 Clip-ons and $409.99 rearsets serve two purposes.  Aside from allowing you to create a more race-oriented riding position, they also protect the motorcycle from crash damage.  These parts are made from sturdy billet aluminum, which bends to absorb impact and then sacrificially grinds along on the asphalt.  Stock parts are fragile cast items that break off upon contact with the ground, allowing your motorcycle's frame to do the sacrificial grinding.  Again, these parts can spell the difference between a damaged bike and one that is totaled.

The final Woodcraft components that we added to our Perfect Ten were their $179.99 hand guards and $41.99 toe guard.  These parts are all about safety.  The hand guards can prevent accidental brake lever application and a resultant crash when two bikes come into contact.  They can also keep your fingers from becoming trapped between the bar end and the track when you fall.   The toe guard is designed to keep your digits out of the rear sprocket in a crash.  Both are parts you'll sorely regret not having if the worst happens.

Armour Bodies

With our chassis protected, it was time for some Armour Bodies bodywork.  The company offers two levels of product.  We chose their less-expensive Pro Series, which is priced at a very reasonable $649.99 for a set that uses the stock seat or $699.99 for the kit that includes a Superbike tail. So how's the quality of this "low end" Armour Bodies? Honestly, you'd be forgiven if you checked out a set of Signature Series and declared it to be, "Good as it gets."  We're totally impressed with the quality of this product, both because it is so easy to mount and especially by the way it survives crashes.  With Armour Bodies, there's almost always something left to repair, even after the second or third toss.  So what about their more expensive product?  Armour Bodies Signature Series bodywork is priced at $999.99 for standard tail or $1049.99 for the Superbike kit.  This is the stuff that AMA and WSB teams use and if you tried a set, you wouldn't believe it.  You can crush Signature Series like a plastic bottle and when you let go, it just "pops" right back!  Much as we love their higher end stuff, we opted to use the less expensive Pro Series for this Kawasaki.  Hey, Bart started this project by buying a brand new motorcycle.  We've got to economize somewhere!

SamcoSport Radiator Hoses

Longtime readers know that we're quite in love with SamcoSport hoses.  They're twice as strong as stock and offer a slicker inner surface to increase coolant flow.  Additionally, these rubbers retain heat better, which keeps your engine bay cooler.  That promotes horsepower.  SamcoSport can be found transferring coolant in Formula One, MotoGP, Moto2, WSB, AMA and most other motorsports series.  These hoses are the real thing.  They'll make your bike a safer, better performing ride.  Never mind that they come in all sorts of hot colors (including Kawasaki Green!) and will give your baby a professional look that will be the envy of everyone else in the tech line....  SamcoSport hoses for our 2011 ZX10R cost $203.95.  We also chose (and highly recommend) their $40 clamp kit.  Why?  These hoses are double-thick and incredibly slick inside.  Stock clamps are quite adequate for stock hoses but offer only marginal clamping force when paired with the SamcoSport product.  Hey, when travelling at full throttle, it's always best to keep a firm grip on your hot, throbbing hoses, right?

Hindle Evolution Slip-On Exhaust

Clearly, we'd be saying, "Bye Bye," to the heavy, ugly and quiet stock muffler/catalytic convertor that this track-only project bike was born with.  Kawasaki made it very clear in their pre-production press releases that the factory header was of full-race quality and would need only a low-restriction slip-on system to achieve maximum performance.  For this duty, we chose a Hindle Evolution muffler and mid-pipe.  This company takes an "Ala Carte" approach to satisfying the desires of its customers.  They offer an extensive variety of muffler configurations, with something to please any taste or budget.  Once you've chosen your silencer, you simply specify the bike you're fitting it to and Hindle adds the rest of the parts necessary to make up a kit.  We chose a $374.95 Titanium Evolution Muffler, mated to a $99.95 stainless steel mid-pipe.  The parts were incredibly light and beautiful to behold.  We can't wait to hear this setup at redline!

Showtime

Veteran readers know where this article has been headed.  For the past several years, TrackdayMag.com has provided a show bike for the Woodcraft/Armour Bodies booth at the Indianapolis Powersports Dealer Expo.  On February 17/18/19, this ZX10R is destined to serve in that role for 2012.  Why is it still in primer?  That's so everyone at the show can see just how nice the bodywork is right out of the box.  When we get the Kawasaki home, we'll be looking to break the motor in on a dyno, give the bike a sweet paintjob and perform numerous additional upgrades.  Such as?  You'll just have to wait and see!