jan01

JANUARY 2001

I am sure you have seen this bike on my page before. The owner of this amazing machine is Tak, he is one of my NSR riding friends and he is from Nagoya, the city that I live in Japan. Tak was my first and best riding friend.

His bike really is an amazing machine !! It started off as a 1994 SE model in blue and white colors. Tak has always been a huge fan of Rothmans colored GP bikes.

One of the first things you notice is the great bodywork on this bike. All of it is from Silhouette Japan. The upper cowl has a removable fiberglass light cover that is easily removed when it gets dark. The cowl is about 6 cm wider than the standard upper cowl and it has cool looking air ducts which are made of real carbon fiber. The lower cowl is lighter in weight than the original and also longer which gives the bike a truer GP appearance.

A view of the rear seat cowl that lots of people have been talking about. It's a one piece unit. You do lose your small storage space but make up for it with a substantial savings in weight.

From the back of Tak's bike you can clearly see the twin small brake lights which are included with the seat cowl from Silhouette Japan. Tak relocated the turn signals and constructed his own fenderless kit for the bike which cleans up the back of the bike, saves weight, looks cool and moves the license plate up closer to the seat. He also added a device that allows you to quickly change the angle of the license plate for improved aerodynamics : - )

Another view of the front of his bike. The quality of the bodywork is excellent. Tak made all the graphics himself with some vinyl and a hobby knife. The wind screen is the original unit. A smaller mirror helps to clean up the image of his bike. Check out how much deeper the Silhouette Japan front fender is compared to the original.

Tak has spent numerous hours and cash to finish his bike. All of these stickers are exact replicas based on real GP machines. Tak's bike looks great, but looks wasn't everything. He wanted power and performance to make the bike go as fast as it looks !!

The first thing to be replaced on his bike were the restrictive and heavy factory chambers and silencers. He choose the 500V type from Jha with carbon kevlar silencers. After that he was impressed but still needed more. Also added were carbon reed valves and a turbo filter from Daytona. As well as reed valve spacers and stuffers from HRC.

Japanese back roads in the mountains are notorious for their rough speed bump like surfaces to slow down drivers, so Tak got himself one of those nice looking NHK steering dampers to smooth things out. Tak claims it makes a huge difference.

A view from the top of his bike. Tak also added a FCC heavy duty clutch kit to handle the extra power as well as heavy duty springs. Braking has been improved with Daytona race pads.

If you look closely you can see the front fork stabilizer from Coerce. It is extremely light in weight and improves your turn in response which means faster and more confident cornering.

A nice shot of the rear tire from Michelin. Check out how the tire is used right to the edges. Tak spends most of his time riding fast in the corners than he does going straight.

This is Tak !! The man behind this NSR !! Tak has been riding and racing for quite some time now. His skills are amazing. He is always experimenting with his bike and finding new ways to improve it. Tak always takes time to help out other riders who need help and always lends a hand to anyone in need. Thanks Tak !!

Every month I try to feature a different NSR in this section. Above you can check out the featured Bike of the Month and past Bikes of the Month. Do you think your NSR belongs here ? Then send a few pictures and some information and maybe we can feature it here. Mail me here. Cheers !!