The best routes to more power
Now you’ve got your Kawasaki handling, stopping and looking great, you can look at getting more power from it. The proven motor responds readily to tuning, and there’s a plethora of parts available for it, too. We spoke to two of Britain’s best-known ZX-7R tuners to find out what routes they think offer the most rewards for your cash, and asked them for dyno charts to reveal how much more power they can liberate:
Brands Hatch Performance Centre (BHPC)
The guys at the circuit reckon internal engine tuning is almost unheard of on road-going ZX-7Rs.
” Fitting hotter parts isn’t the usual route, ” says the firm’s Adam Redding. ” Most owners simply want a bit more go, which we can find by bolting bits on and setting it up well.
” That takes half-a-day, while more serious work can see the bike off the road for a week or more. But ZX-7R owners seem to be the kind that can’t live without their bikes for more than a day. ”
Though the firm has access to all performance accessories, Redding says he almost always ends up fitting the same parts – a conical four-into-one Akrapovic system, a Dynojet kit and K&N filter.
” They give great results for a reasonable amount of cash, ” he says. BHPC supplies and fits the parts, including proper setting up on a rolling road, for £934. It takes around four hours and gives around 12bhp, raising the average ZX-7R from a true 105bhp at the wheel to 117bhp. For details, call: 01474-879331.
Towcester Tuning Shop (TTS)
TTS also believes an Akrapovic four-into-one race system is the best option because, as well as liberating huge power, it’s also fairly quiet, though it’s not road-legal.
But the firm’s Dave Mabbutt reckons owners should seriously consider a big-bore kit as well. The TTS version takes the stock bore from 73mm to 74mm, and capacity from 748cc to 804cc. Work involves fitting high-compression pistons and their rings, clips and gudgeon pins, boring and honing the barrels, and fitting a bigger, high-compression head gasket.
The firm recommends using super unleaded fuel at that point and says there’s masses more mid-range torque. Expect around 14bhp more if you leave the stock exhaust on, and around 22bhp more than standard if the kit is fitted in tandem with a race can and air filter.
TTS charges £1000 for a ride-in, ride-out fitting service on the big-bore kit, including dyno set-up time, and will charge an extra £689 for the Akrapovic pipe. Fitting the latter on its own for MCN achieved 118bhp on the dyno. Details: 01327-858212.
