Orangeville, Ontario, Canada

[fj1289]

Welcome!

Toronto area?  Surely you know and have met CanDman (Kev)!

Are you looking to do 1/8 mile of 1/4 mile?  

As long as you are looking to have fun a stock-ish FJ is great on the drag strip.  If you want to be beating people, it'll be slow!  600 cc sportbikes (even 10 year old ones) have enough HP advantage to blow by you after the 1/8 mile point.  

That said, here's my advice to having fun and going fast without breaking the bank.  

Use an air shifter with a good kill box — this is to keep from bending the shift forks and rounding off the shift dogs.  If not, you MUST get the gears under cut first!  (and should even with an air shifter).  

Chassis set up - strap the front forks - great drag strip mod and doesn't compromise streetability.  Keeps the forks from acting like a slide hammer and "yanking" the front end off the ground at launch.  

Don't worry about an extended swing arm for a while.   FJ chassis is long enough it's not critical until you get a lot faster - and can cause traction problems unless your suspension setup is dialed in really well (this is what kicked my butt!).  

I would do a 17 inch rear wheel conversion to have better selection in tires.   Won't need to go to a shinko right away - a lot of madden tires are sticky enough for the FJ - especially if the surface is somewhat prepped.  

Add a second spring to the clutch - and swap in new plates.  

CHANGE TO OIL OFTEN!!!!!  Slipping the clutch for launch adds a bunch of clutch material to the oil - major cause of spun bearings in any bike that is drag raced (been there, done that).

Before taking a bike to the track, drop the oil pan and clean out the oil pump pickup screen (good thing to do on ANY used FJ...you'll be shocked how much crap you'll find blocking half the screen or more.  

I had a lot of warnings about breaking crankshafts on drag bikes.  I've never had an issue — I think it becomes an issue with high rpm clutch drops on car tire slick/wheelie-bar bikes.  If you are on a street tire launching hard. It still having to "ride it" I don't think you'll have any issues.  

Look up Barry Edwards old fjmods UK site - Dan Doran on there ran a setup very similar to what you are looking to do.  

It is a lot of fun taking the FJ down the drag strip - and very rewarding. It is easy to make progress at first - it will reward you riding improvements with measurable gains initially.  And easy setup improvements on the bike show good gains too.  After that, like most things, you have to fight harder for those improvements!

Good luck!

Chris