IMAGES: CHAPPO
In this day and age most track-focused bikes have a few interesting modifications, which from our point of view (as rubber-burning journos) can sometimes require a bit of fluffing up to ensure it captures the attention of the avid reader. Mark Beeze’s Suzuki K4 GSXR600 however needs no such fluffing. In fact, to ensure that we don’t need to hire two world’sstrongest man competitors to individually post this month’s mag to your doors due to the additional paper required to print such information, I’m going to get straight into the weapon that this bike is, and save the planet some paper! Let’s start off with a short history lesson on the bike. The project started off when Mark bought the bike from a chap called Lee Foxhall in Birmingham (next to Air nightclub, which Mark assures me he didn’t venture into pre or post purchase…). Mark had a road GSX-R600 K4 already which kick-started his plan to get another for the track. Familiarity when you start racing canbethe difference between success and failure when you already have a lot to learn! For one reason or another in 2009 the road bike got written off, and Mark decided to make the race bike chassis into the road bike. The race bike frame is a Cat D but like a genius he part-exchanged the freshly converted road bike after that with a nice Aprilia Factory. This stemmed the build into what it is today. “I'll never sell the bike. The sum of all its parts is what makes this bike a keeper for me. It rides brilliantly. I go in the advanced group on trackdays and harass litre bikes with it.” Yes chaps, he’s one of those annoying corner nibblers! So what makes this little ripper so special? It’s worth mentioning that since he bought the bike, the only components that remain are the outer fork tubes, the Akrapovic exhaust, the original wheels for wets and the swingarm… which isn’t bad at all. Let’s start by looking at the chassis, which consists of a 2005 frame, with R&G toe guard and sliders, and a lovely set of OZ Piega racing wheels with titanium fasteners throughout. As well as looking the dog’s bollocks, they weigh about the same too and really help with the bike’s handling and flickability. Everything on this bike is aimed at lightness, performance, or both. To that end the chain is a DID ERV4 race chain 520, running 15F and 45R gearing, using AFAM hard anodised sprockets. Unsurprisingly the suspension has been fully replaced with K-Tech full internals, with Öhlins springs using 10w Motul fork oil, and a K-Tech compression adjuster. All of this is then attached with titanium fasteners and protected by R&G fork sliders. Propping up the rear end is an Öhlins S46 shock with remote hydraulic preload adjuster, which comes in handy for the UK’s ever-changing weather conditions. While we’re rocking the damping subject, only the best is used again in the form of an Öhlins unit, fitted with titanium fasteners and ally headstock nut. Mark chooses to use Kais Suspension which is an official Öhlins dealer and service centre to look after his gold pogo sticks, ensuring they get a gold blood transfusion every two years as a minimum. The next bit of bling to talk about is his carbon front mudguard which is ex-Yukio Kagayama GSXR 1000 K4 Crescent Suzuki, alongside carbon air ducts which not only look amazing, but make the bike noise howl that little louder when you’re sitting on top. In terms of bolt-on chassis components, Mark’s predominantly gone for SES, in terms of the rear sets and front subframe, with the rear subframe staying standard. He says: “I like having a comfy seat. What else can I say? I could lose another 10kg here alone if I wanted to be uncomfortable,” and who arewetoargue with that? This is all finished off with a race fairing from PRF Racekits. But what next? Well now we’re on to some properly sexy pieces of kit: the brakes. The front calipers are Accossato monobloc full billetPZ001s, as these two calipers together weigh as much as one standard caliper plus about 300 grams! They’re awesome bits of kit withfour34mm drilled titanium pistons. Even the pad pins are titanium and are drilled, and so is the flipping titanium circlip! The pads are SBS PZ001 dual carbon to ensure decent braking efficiency in any weather, though admittedlycarbonofany description isn’t fantastic in the wet.
Everything is held on with titanium fasteners. The brake discs themselves are Suzuki Anniversary discs off a later bike, which have been drilled and grooved. The hoses are braided Goodridge using Motul 660 RBF fluid. “It’s worth knowing that this brake fluid is so good it helps eliminate brake fade even on the standard calipers. However, with the Accossato calipers, brake fade is now non-existent which is hugely confidence inspiring. As with all brake fluid it’s hydroscopic, meaning it attracts water, so irrelevant of how good it feels, the fluid has to be changed every six months as you can see the fluid go foggy.” Pushing this fluid through is an Accossato 19x20 radial front master cylinder which he tells us is the mutt’s nuts: “With this brake set-up the braking performance compared to stock is beyond ridiculous!” The rear brake is a standard caliper with titanium pistons, stock OEM pads and Suzuki Anniversary discs, which are grooved and drilled much like the front. All are held together with Ti fasteners and using an HRC (don’t tell anyone) tube reservoir with the stock master cylinder. As well as the brake lever, the clutch lever is also Accossato, the foldy type, which is handy for any potential mishaps which we all do our best to avoid. As with most 600 trackbikes,toavoid having to turn your wrist 720 degrees, a Domino quick action throttle has been fitted on to a set of Harris billet offset clip-on risers with SES tubes. Right! Now that the bolt-on bits are covered let’s get ontothe powerhouse, which is running a kit head gasket and DF West titanium factory valves as specced by Crescent Suzuki when they built motors for BSS and WSS. The head has been gas-flowed by Mark himself with a die-grinder, but the GSX-R still runs standard cams, as apparently “it becomes a hand grenade otherwise”. The crank, rods and pistons are stock, but were dynamically rebalanced at Quasar in Stockport years ago. The gearbox is a Yoshimura B kit gearbox. The ratios are interchangeable, but as the gearbox is not a cassette type it requires a full engine strip down to mess around with the ratios; but it is set up for the track.