#1

#2

« BEFORE THE TOTAL MAKE OVER

Photo #1 was shot at Streets of Willow, Willow Springs Raceway, California, with me on the bike.

Photo #2 was taken at the shop where I purchased the bike from, just a few days before I shell out the cash.

After owning this NSR for two wonderful years, I decided to make a little project out of this bike. So with some research and planing, I made the following purchases:

- all new bodywork from AirTech (Thank goodness I didn't have to deal with them directly. Dave at Marina Suzuki, Marina Del Ray, California, purchased the parts and fitted them for me.)
- JHA pipe and chambers
- rear sets
- clip-ons from Graves motorsports
- steel braided brake lines
- HRC race kit
- steering damper from Streets 'n' Competition
- rear tire hugger/fender purchased through Jo at Apex Leisure Track Days & Performance (...a dream to do business with)

#3

#4

« THE PAINT JOB

Paint scheme design process:
A photo of the bike's profile was scanned and traced into Adobe Illustrator for color scheme explorations. Picture #3 is the final design.

A color printout of the design was then taken to Jim Murillo at Jim's Cycle Painting in San Pedro, California. Jim first taped up the design on one side of the bodywork and provided paint samples for approval. Then he masterfully finished this beautiful paint job in 7 days.

Additional decal pieces were designed and cut to be applied. Here are some sample decal designs:

The Bike in photo #4 here (taken when the paint was still wet in a photo studio) is shown fitted with Dunlop D207. Thanks to the Aprilla Challenge Cup, Dunlop brought those tires to the United States. I was able to get those tires on track days. They worked really well.

« THE MACHINE INSIDE

While the paint scheme was being applied to the bodywork, the rest of the bike was taken to Steve Biganski at Extreme Lean Motorsports, located in Lawndale, California for tuning.

Steve is by far the best 2-stroke tuner accessible to racers and commoners alike. He is very friendly and poses excellent work ethic.

Steve made lots of improvements to the bike, from little details such as overflow catcher and weight trimming to custom rejetting, he guided me though those process tirelessly. He also has lots of stories to tell about the good old racing days as well as his ongoing connection with GP racing today.

Simply put, Steve takes care of you! He knows what he is doing. And he is honest with you. Period!

« TUNING THE BIKE

Steve's philosophy about tuning, according to my interpretation, is: "The guys in development (at Honda) knew what's best for the bike they designed, and made them the best way they could. We can not improve the performance by reinventing their invention. But we can refine what the factory had left off in its production process."

So he refined my NSR. The bike runs a lot different from its stock form. I am an amateur rider, lots of the information / feedback from the bike speaks a different language now which took me a while to adapt. I have to say though, with its new paint job, I withhold a lot from pushing it on the track.

« FRONT VIEW

Yes, I am, most of the time, a Mac nerd and the number 64 could also be read as "G4."

« REAR VIEW

No, this bike is not endorsed by Apple computers. I just needed something to cover up a little chip at the tail piece.

« REAR SETS

Note the gradation of the paint from metallic blue to silver on the tail piece and the tank.