Chuck Graves has been one of the top privateer / semi-factory riders in American superbike racing over the past 10 years. His credits include having been a part of the winning Team Valvoline Suzuki Endurance Team, and presently he spearheads his own Graves Motorsports Team with factory support from Yamaha, campaigning Yamaha R1s in the AMA Formula Extreme Series and and R6s in the AMA 600cc Supersport Championship. At his home track, Willow Springs Raceway outside Los Angeles, Chuck and his team rides including Paul Harrell (pictured above on the Team's R6) are pretty much invincible.

If you want to make a Yamaha R6 work right, Chuck is the guy to talk to. His shop, Graves Motorsports, offers a full line of performance products for the Yamaha R Series bikes and other popular brandes of sportbikes. They have their own Dyno Jet Dyno tuning services, and are the west coast distributor for Michelin racing tires.

IMPROVING The R6's HANDLING
Like its big brother the R1, the R6 suffers from a very twitchy front end. It has a tendency to shake its head while accelerating hard, especially or bumps.

"Our first recommendation for improving the R6," says Chuck Graves, "is to correct the very twitchy front end. A steering dampner is really needed, and the type we recommend and use on our race bikes is the Scotts Rotary Steering Damper which, of course, we sell. I like the Scotts because its damping is easily changed with the knob right on top, so you can adjust it easily while riding. And because it's mounted over the triple clamp, it won't be damaged in a crash when the bike falls, like a side mounted damper would be."

Another disconcerning handling trait of the R6 is that it tends to run wide and chatter when pushed hard in a corner -the much chronicled R6 understeer. The fist step to correct this is to quicken up the steering geometry by lowering the fork triple clamps about 10mm from the top of the fork tubes.

Next, proper setup of the suspension preload and damping is critical. The front forks and rear shock should not be topped out or bottoming, but always working freely within their range of travel. Use plastic zip ties wrapped on a front fork tube and on the rear shock shaft to indicate suspension travel from topped out; in the Static (bikebalanced straight up without rider; Loaded (bike balanced straight up with rider in full gear); and Ridden (to see that it is using almost all its suspension travel without bottoming out. The following settings are the best place to start for the R6:

STOCK FRONT SUSPENSION SETTINGS
Preload: 4 groves from top
Sag: 24mm
Compression: 4 turns out
Rebound: 3 clicks out
Tire pressure: 30psi track, 36 psi road

STOCK REAR SUSPENSION SETTINGS
Preload: 2nd Turn from maximum
Unloaded sag: 5mm
Loaded sag: 23mm
Preload:2nd click from maximum
Rebound 13 clicks out
Tire pressure: 28psi track, 40psi road

IMPROVING POWER
"For street riding the Yamaha R6, changing the rear silencer with carburetor jetting to match is is the first place to improve power and reduce some weight. We offer slip-on straight-through silencers in both aluminum an carbon fiber which add about 4 HP throughout the powerband.

For racers we offer the same complete GMS Exhaust Systems that we run on our AMA 600occ Supersport bikes.

And because this displacement size bike is only competitive in the 600cc Suportsport class where internal engine modifications aren''t allowed, there just aren't many additional internal performance parts available for it.

GRAVES MOTOR SPORTS ENGINE PARTS:

• GMS Exhaust w/Alloy Silencer $$599.00
• GMS Exhaust System w/Carbon Silencer $699.00
  specify High or Low Mount systems
• GMS Slip-On Alloy Silencer $299.00
• GMS Slip-On Carbon Silencer $399.00
• Dyno Jet Kit $126.00
• Adjustable Ignition Advancer $75.00
  

GRAVES MOTOR SPORTS CHASSIS PARTS:

• Rear Braided Brakeline Kit $40.00
• Front Braided Brakeline Kit $79.95
• Scott's Rotary Steering dampner $350.00
• Scotts damper mount $175.00
• GMS Triple Clamp Kit $550.00
• GMS Clip-On Handlebar kit $155.00
• GMS Adj. Rearset Footpeg Kit w/brake line $575.00
• Europen Tail Section, Blue or White $299.95
• Alloy Fairing Bracket / Tachometer Mount $151.00
• GMS Replacement Alloy Footpegs $52.00
• Frame Saver Kit, White or Black $49.95
• Hyper-Pro Damper kit $395.00
• Fox TCR Racing Shox $$695.00
• Ohlins Racing Shock $1039.00

GRAVES MOTORSPORTS, USA
7045 Dunsmore Avenue, Van Nuys, CA 91406 USA
Phone (010) 818.902.1942 • Fax 818.902.3821
grave@roadracing.com

Below: The Graves Motorsports R6 racebike.