Yamaha R3 Track Ride Review at Chuckwalla Raceway
I have a lot of upgrade plans for this R3, but in order to give proper feedback about the changes, it was pertinent that I get some track time with the bike stock (well, mostly stock at least), so I signed up for a track day with Track Xperience at Chuckwalla raceway on June 14th. The suspension is stock, the rearsets are stock, the clipons and levers are stock, I swapped out the throttle tube for an R6 throttle tube which shortened the throw a little and didn’t require any modification (I’ll do a write up on this soon), and the bike has the Akrapovic SS full exhaust installed and tuned with a Bazzaz Z-Fi fuel controller.
I arrived at Chuckwalla Saturday night at 8:30, it was still 100 degrees lol! I quickly setup camp, then pulled my wheels off and dropped them off with Dale to get my new tires. I was putting on a Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa 110/70 R17 front and Diablo Rosso II 140/70 R17 rear. I wanted to make sure he had them to start first thing since they were running beat the heat schedule and the track goes hot at 7AM. Sunday morning I learned how terrible of a design the rear wheel mount/chain adjuster is. Holy crap, has anyone else tried to put the rear wheel back on by themself? Biggest pain in the ass ever, not exaggerating… I will be making a captive brake/chain adjuster setup sooner than I originally planned, I hope I never have to use the stock system again. The front was no big deal.
By the time I got my damn wheels back on, it was time to gear up so I roughly set tire pressure cold and did a quick change to the rear shock and increased the preload up to the 3rd from the stiffest which felt closer to balanced with the front, then went out for my first session to get a feel for the bike. Right off the bat, I noticed four things. The rear immediately felt soft, so I made a mental note to go up one more click on the shock preload. The seat needs to be an inch or two higher for track riding. I plan to make precut race seats, so when I get the bodywork from hotbodies, I’ll choose the race seat thickness accordingly. I definitely need a shorter throttle, especially since I’m used to the 1/8 turn on my R6. And, of course, the bike needs rearsets for track riding, but everyone already knew that. All that being said, the R3 is an awesome little bike that handles great and inspires confidence, even right out of the box. It’s SOOOO fun! My knee was on the ground before I’d even completed my second lap to warm up the tires (it was already 85 degrees so they weren’t really cold, but still).
When I got back to the pits, I inspected the tires. Both front and rear showed some hot tearing indicating I needed a little more air in both. I threw the tire warmers on to keep the temp up and checked pressure. Rear was at 27 so I bumped it up to 28, front was at 30 so I bumped it up to 31. I added 1 more click to the shock preload. The second session was even more fun than the first, and I started pushing the suspension and corner speed to see how the stock setup could take it. It’s SOOO fun passing bigger bikes around the outside mid corner 🙂 The suspension showed it’s flaws just before I reached the sweet spot on the Pirellis and the the front would start dancing mid corner at lean. The rebound is just too fast (thicker fork oil may help this if you plan to stick with stock suspension), but the rear shock actually felt fine, or at least, I couldn’t push the rear hard enough to find it’s flaws because of the front.
After the session, I checked the tires again, rear was pretty good, still a slight hot tear, so I increased it to 28.5. Front also showed some tearing still so I went up to 32 and put the warmers back on. The last session was the best. The shock was dialed, the tires were dialed. I pushed the bike as far as it felt comfortable before the front suspension danced around and my boots dragged dangerously hard on the ground. Mission accomplished, time to upgrade the suspension and start installing hard parts like rearsets.
11 Comments to “ Yamaha R3 Track Ride Review at Chuckwalla Raceway”
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Yes the rear wheel setup is stupid.. I just taped the adjuster holder things to the back of the swing arm with a little duct tape. ugly but effective as a quick short term fix. the rear brake caliper is a little bit of a pain but with the adjusters taped in place, not to hard to manage. and as for the rear axle bolt I replaced it with a castle nut and drilled the axle for a cotter key
Yeah, duct tape was my solution too.
Myself find the rear shock on my R3 about as good as a pogo stick but then I was racing at Arroyo Seco in Deming NM which is a lot rougher then Chuckwalla.
Hi
Why did you use diablo supercorsa on the front and not the diablo 2’s on front as well.
Wont the wear rate differ as compounds are different on these tires.
I know the diablo supercorsa does not make a 140 size.
I also see that the new diablo 3 ‘s dont have a 140 size or a 110 size .
So is it best then to just put diablo 2 on front and rear for street/ track runs.
I chose the Rosso 2 rear and Supercorsa front after a lengthy chat with the Pirelli rep. Most of the small bike racers around here were having good luck with one of two setups, either the 125GP slicks, or the Rosso 2 140 rear and Supercorsa 110 front. At the time, last spring, there was no Supercorsa avaiable in a 140 rear, however, he let me know that one would be available this fall (it’s available now). So I decided to go with the Rosso 2 rear with plans of getting used to the bike and testing suspension, then changing out the rear once it was worn out for a Supercorsa 140 rear to see the difference. I may still do this, although, I picked up a set of the 125GP slicks from Bridgestone to test as well.
For doing street and track riding, the Rosso 2 may be a better bet, I’m not certain about that.
Hi , its bigbayr3. I checked here in south africa for the bridgestone S02 evos, they dont have them in the R3 sizes, only much larger sizes. They say the smaller sizes are only available overseas.
The Shinko, they dont have that model in the bike review test.
The pirelli diablo rosso 2 they do have in the R3 size.
THe pirelli diablo supercorsa v2 , they only have in 120 front and 140 or 150 rear.
So i think i am just going to go for the Rosso 2 as the rosso 3 does not have the r3 sizing as well.
Surely these pirelli must be alot better than the michelin pilots as the OEM pilots are bias ply.
Hi
I am not keen on changing front tyre from 110 to 120, it will definetely affect turn in on the larger size
Ya, I wouldn’t change the front tire to a 120 either. There’s one guy here running a 120 front on his Ninja 300 but he runs a 160 rear so the geometry is still balanced. I’m using a Supercorsa 110 front and Rosso 2 140 rear.
Nice write up on the track days, very interesting to read.
You mentioned bad habits in technique from when you raced larger bikes. What are these bad habits so i know what to look for and dont make them a habit
Over braking/panic braking on corner entry, and making up time on the gas coming out of the corner, not being smooth when transitioning weight around on the bike. Momentum is critical on a smaller bike, so your lines have to be very good or you lose a lot of time. A larger bike is more stable so your movements don’t affect the bike as much. On a smaller bike, your movements are more noticeable and you have to be smoother when shifting weight around side to side or front to back. There are others, that’s what comes to mind right off the bat.
Thanks a lot . Really helpful .