With the build of our new Kawasaki Supersport machine now complete, the next step was to take it to a rolling road dyno to check that everything was healthy and well.
Once strapped up on the dyno, the bike was started but would intermittently stop running on a cylinder or two. Fearing a fuel pump issue, the fuel tank was drained and the pump was removed and inspected. The fuel pump was proven to be operating correctly, so then the fuel itself was substituted (despite being fresh from the local Tesco station only a couple of days earlier). New fuel didn't make much difference, so the investigation continued, with the underlying cause eventually being traced to the surface discharge spark plugs that were fitted. With some new spark plugs fitted, the bike was running smoothly on all four cylinders once again and was ready for action!
During the investigation a few electrical issues were uncovered - the primary and secondary throttle position sensors were connected the wrong way around, and the Bazzaz Fuel Controller had a broken wire on the RPM pickup lead. With those issues resolved, a base run was performed to show that we had ~121bhp at the rear wheel. The initial run also confirmed that the new quickshifter sensor we installed (for road rather than race shift) was working correctly.
After updating the fuel maps, we ended up with 123.69bhp at rear wheel with 47.11 ft/lb torque. We also performed a subsequent power run using the Pipewerx baffle and that resulted in a ~1bhp being removed all along the curve, with a maximum power figure of 122.1bhp - which means that if we ever need to use the baffle it shouldn't affect us much!
After updating the fuel maps, we ended up with 123.69bhp at rear wheel with 47.11 ft/lb torque. We also performed a subsequent power run using the Pipewerx baffle and that resulted in a ~1bhp being removed all along the curve, with a maximum power figure of 122.1bhp - which means that if we ever need to use the baffle it shouldn't affect us much!
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The final power curve is shown above on the left, with a comparison against our Kawasaki Supertwin machine shown on the right. With only a month to wait until we get to ride the Kawasaki ZX6R Supersport machine (at the opening round of the NG championships at Brands Hatch), we now only need to do a couple of final jobs to be ready for the grid! :-)
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