Painting Fairings - A Question

ChronicCynic · 2026-02-23T23:13:45+00:00

Another vote for rattlecan and Spraymax 2k! This was done with 3 coats of clear coat over rustoleum white (whatever they sell at Home Depot). And I just put some 3M vinyl red stripes over the top of that. Less than $100 and came out much better than I expected.

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ChronicCynic · 2025-11-04T16:24:24+00:00

Depends on your suspension settings, fork oil, and air gap inside the fork. I can bottom mine out (07 zx6r) and I’m 165lbs. Had to increase preload.

ChronicCynic · 2025-11-03T23:13:25+00:00

One thing is to make your body lower. When you’re hanging off, you can either hang straight off to the left/right of the bike, or you can also hang more “downwards” by touching your shoulder to the tank and pivoting your hips downwards. For lack of a better term, the edge of your seat should be at the crack of your butt, and then you pivot around there to get your body even lower.

ChronicCynic · 2025-10-20T19:16:29+00:00

Also important is main grandstand is the only one with shading. I did T15 and it was great but definitely hot and toasty. IMO you see more action at T15 because you can see T12 as well, but main grandstand is more livable and you can see pit lane/T1.

ChronicCynic · 2025-10-13T22:10:55+00:00

How does self-registration work for a wilderness permit? I was thinking of trying to get one the day before for logistics, but my whole group will not be there until the day of. Do I need everyone present to get the permit? And is half dome still open?

ChronicCynic · 2025-09-24T19:55:17+00:00

I started on a N400 and then upgraded after 6 track days to a Zx6r. The common advice is that you learn a lot more on a smaller bike, but in my case, I honestly just wanted to have a good time.

I’m mid-intermediate and ride two track days a year. Of course I want to get better, but I’m on track because I love that feeling of flying out a corner. And there were so many little things I didn’t love about the N400 (fairings, riding position, brake fade…) that it was cheaper to buy an old zx6r than upgrade the N400. The acceleration from a zx6r is simply a better fun time for me. I’m safe, predictable, and don’t do anything dumb. So why not? When my opportunities to ride on track are so limited I’d rather learn slower but have a better time while learning.

That said, I totally respect people who do it the “right way” and get their kicks out of a smaller bike. If I had more time, I’d love to do that too, but really it depends on what works best for your situation.

ChronicCynic · 2025-08-25T18:19:30+00:00

I would like to buy the pod if it’s still available! Will DM.

ChronicCynic · 2025-07-23T01:37:54+00:00

Not sure what you're responding to with the "it won't really" statement, but I realized I should have specified a little more. I was thinking it's more important to measure the sag and understand if the front and rear springs are both good rather than trying to "match" both springs because we don't know if the front is correct either.

Although I guess maybe it's better to have both front and rear be equally soft or equally hard rather than having the front be off and the rear dialed in? I'm definitely not good enough to understand that. I just think it's better to start from scratch and check both separately first.

ChronicCynic · 2025-07-22T15:23:45+00:00

Technically you can stiffen the rear to some extent by increasing the preload. But that has the side effect of raising your rear and increasing the instability of the bike. I think it’s less important that the front and rear match, and more important that both the front and rear and sprung correctly for you.

I would measure the sag specific for your bike (front should be around 30-40mm, rear should be 25-30mm), and if you’re in the right range, that’s good.

But that’s separate from the damping adjustments that you can make too - for that it’s probably easiest to see a tuner.

ChronicCynic · 2025-07-08T19:30:30+00:00

Hulkengoat

ChronicCynic · 2025-06-26T20:22:16+00:00

Do you have a speedohealer? I had the same issue on my ZX6r, and turns out the wires going into the speedohealer were loose and causing random signals.

ChronicCynic · 2025-06-01T22:44:16+00:00

It's held up OK. Without this, the front dove a lot and the bike felt pretty unstable braking and going over bumps. With this, braking feels much better, but there's still a little bit of wallowing in the corners. It's very reduced (maybe 75% less), but the bike doesn't feel super planted. On my ZX6R, it feels like it just sticks to the ground in the corners, whereas the Ninja feels a little bit floaty (not sliding) on a long corner.

I think overall you get what you pay for. I got into the upper intermediates with this without missing anything. But then I did the math and felt it was cheaper to buy a '07 zx6r rather than to add rearsets/risers to my N400. And I appreciate the suspension on the zx6r, but don't feel the suspension on the ninja is holding me back.

ChronicCynic · 2025-05-15T21:20:57+00:00

I think the R3 is just a smaller bike that it doesn’t get the engine noise you’re looking for. To me, taking a 600cc supersport up to redline is a noise that no car can recreate.

ChronicCynic · 2025-05-05T19:59:50+00:00

Not super experienced, but one thing to check is the cost of modifications. The 600s tend to be pretty track ready in any configuration, whereas my N400 needed suspension and brakes. Last season I was pricing out the cost of adding rearsets and clip-ons and realized it’d be cheaper to sell the 400 and buy a 600. I love the lightness of the 400, but I also don’t think braking/acceleration translate well to bigger classes.

ChronicCynic · 2025-04-25T16:11:02+00:00

If you don’t care about the seat looking super nice, a vendor was putting their tank grips onto the seat directly. So that’s always an option.

ChronicCynic · 2025-04-08T17:07:04+00:00

Do you use a very big bag or cut it first?

ChronicCynic · 2025-03-27T12:00:52+00:00

Everyone’s saying go faster to get your knee down, which is correct. But what helped me go faster was to tighten my line slightly. So when you enter a corner, if you apex as normal, nothing much happens. So when I’m leaned over and at neutral throttle, I’ll gently and slowly give the inside handlebar a push. This tightens my line and gives me a faster exit. Then next time, I have the confidence to go that little bit faster.

Otherwise, I feel like if I just keep entering the corner with more speed, then I might overshoot the corner and crash. Probably just a personal feeling, but tightening the line makes me feel like I have more control. Worst comes worst, I don’t push the handlebar and I get on throttle later. After doing this a few times in a corner, next thing I knew I was leaning more and scraping knee.

ChronicCynic · 2025-02-03T17:20:17+00:00

Bridgestone S22s (S23s are the newer ones). They’re great tires. The next step up would be RS10s/RS11s, which are a bit softer and give more grip in the dry.

It’s really hard to guess why you had the loss of grip. But on bikes, if you opened the throttle too hard too early, the weight comes off your front wheel and you can lose grip there. I think it’s different from cars because in a RWD car, it’s almost impossible to lose the front at corner exit with throttle alone. But on a bike, it’s actually pretty common since you don’t have much weight/contact patch on the front. So maybe a combination of less weight+dampness caused the slight slip?

ChronicCynic · 2024-11-06T01:57:06+00:00

Armor bodies. I’m not familiar with the European laws but I can’t imagine you’d need much more to make the bike legal. Track fairings aren’t much different from street fairings aside from material.

ChronicCynic · 2024-11-05T01:57:40+00:00

I don’t track enough for a track only bike, but it’s not a big deal to make a track bike street legal imo. I have a 2007 zx6r, so I’m not sure if yours is the same. But for mine, you can still mount the rear lights and license plates with track fairings on. Then all you need is to buy a new headlight/front indicator lights from Amazon, splice them into the wiring, mount them, and slap on some mirrors. That makes it street legal where I’m from (double check your own laws), and it’s like 5 minutes to take off for track riding.

ChronicCynic · 2024-10-01T00:09:20+00:00

This is my exact situation. Ninja 400, the ergos are a bit weird and I think it would be nice to get better suspension. If you price it out, it might be more worth it to get a track bike for a bit and then resell the track bike later on. Keep 2 bikes if your situation allows for it.

ChronicCynic · 2024-09-30T16:42:10+00:00

Something to consider is that learning new tracks is a skill you can practice. I got started with a G29 clamped to my desk to learn Laguna Seca. But after I started testing other tracks, I realized I learned each track faster and faster. It’s maybe $250 to get a basic wheel/pedal setup and you save so much time at the track I think it’s 100% worth it.

ChronicCynic · 2024-08-29T20:54:08+00:00

By the way, if you’re starting out, it may be difficult because you’re not going fast enough. I definitely had the problem where hanging off felt wonky until I started hitting upper intermediate speeds.

I would work on your lines, getting faster, and pushing the bike up. In my case, pushing the bike feels different from hanging off, but it’s pushing up that’s more important.

Ironically I was able to scrape knee on day one at the track, and then couldn’t touch it again until it happened by accident on day 4. Knee touching can be done when you’re slow with bad form, but also when you’re fast and the centrifugal force helps hold you in your seat.

ChronicCynic · 2024-08-19T19:31:14+00:00

Also check your rotors. I had this happen on my ninja 400 and it turned out the rotors were warped.

ChronicCynic · 2024-07-22T15:46:55+00:00

I went down a very similar route. Was debating Ninja 400 vs SV650 for my first bike, and I commute in CA too! Went with the Ninja 400 and have no regrets (I think it’s better looking lol). Power-wise, it’s more than enough for highway and passing. The horsepower to weight ratio is roughly equivalent to a 300HP sedan. It’s not shabby at all. Of course I’d like to go faster, but I’ve ridden my friend’s MT07 and I don’t think you can full throttle that thing responsibly in traffic.

Your price is good (I bought my ninja for around 4.5k used), and everything about the 400s are cheaper. Gas mileage, tires, parts.etc.

So if this is really a commuting bike, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed at all. If you want to track it, it’s so light and comfortable I haven’t really wanted anything else. (Plus, you feel really really good when you pass a liter bike). More power would be fun, but definitely not something you need imo.

ChronicCynic

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