Hi all Looking for anyone’s experience of running an early carb Yamaha R6 as a track bike. Issues and problems. Best mods. Things to watch for. Avoid the obvious please such as crash damage etc. I also know about the gearbox and liner issues for the earlier bikes. Cheers. EPJ
Been running an EB5B on track for 2 or 3 years, I won’t claim it’s bullet proof but it’s been reliable with regular maintenance. Main mod was to vent the crankcase into a separate bottle and I always use a stabiliser in the fuel. I also routinely cycle petrol through the carburettors to stop them gumming up. One thing I added was an aftermarket gear indicator. Andy
Had one for about 5 years as a track bike, only sold as I just wasnt using it since getting the pani as a new track hack and was costing money to maintain just sitting there basically. So, there is the obvious stories about the engine liners cracking. Think if you only use it in warmer temps/summer for track use and let it warm up before hitting hte red line I never had a problem. Only person I know it happened to was using a 5eb in winter as a road bike and it did it when was 0 degrees so think the temp difference outside the casing versus inside and the fact he gave it full beans 3 seconds after starting caused it. Its easy to tell if it has this problem, start the engine from cold, will start easy enough but need to get it ot about 50-60 degrees on the temp. If you stop it, if it doesnt restart on the button its a possible cracked one. Will also feel a bit lumpy/down on power once hot. I had similar symptom, but turned out as it hits the red line all the time the plugs start to shake themselves loose a bit. I got two helicoiled as the outer ones were the worst affected, never had the issue with the inner one. Oil - its semi oil, so needs to be changed every 3 days at most (I used hiflo filters, always a better fit and easier to swap than K+N or others I tried). Can feel it if not - Every time I did oil, I checked plugs so became habit. The only other thing about 2 years into owning it, got someone who knew what they were doing to check the throttle body, the moved some things and got the power up a bit more and never had to touch it after that. Mechanically, never let me down really other than that. Other things, some possibly just preferences/personal things: Front suspension - the stock ones just have no feel on bumps round somewhere like cadwell but fine on flatter/faster tracks. Rear suspension - get an after market shock, any bike now will be 20+ years old and made a massive difference to me in terms of tyre life and feel. Carbon cleaning - got that done a couple of times, made a big difference on that bike. Battery would drain for no reason sometimes, fitted a manual switch to disconnect fully over winter in the end when I didnt have plugs where it was stored.
Only other mods I did/can think of: Braided hoses (or replacing stock ones at least) for front brakes - had more feel as a result but might of just been due to the original ones being stretched/old Domino Quick action throttle
Yeah that pic's a 5sl, 5EB with fuel injection which gave it about 20hp more I think - also a great bike
Going to give the PI600 class a go this year on this also got another one in bits that needs building as a wet bike
wtf mate it was my first big bike after my dearly departed (crashed) cagiva mito evo im excited for you mate - catch up so long overdue. i was gonna pop in the other day was in your hood but thought i might get chased off the property by the guard dogs. i know they dont like me
Check the date of my first post. This was the week before the day that was. I had one “on reserve” but it’s difficult to buy a bike from an intensive care bed.
