Cold weather is upon us (Since this is California, anything under 70 I’m going to call cold) and the track season is winding down, which means the bike will have to go into hibernation until next year. Even if I’m not riding, I can still build. Today’s agenda was to install a beautiful Ohlins TTX36 […]

The “Annitori RL” quickshifter kits are a new product from HM Racing, makers of arguably the best quickshifter in the world (the HM Plus). The Annitori RL lacks the advanced “race” features of its bigger brother, such as full adjustability and an LCD screen. Otherwise, the actual technology in the shifting is shared, utilizing a […]

Threw on these tank grips to see if they’ll help improve control of body motion. It’s good to grip the tank with your legs under braking in order to anchor your body weight away from your arms. Gripping a smoothly painted tank can be tricky. I decided to try out TechSpec’s newer “C3” pads, which […]

The clutch-side case cover had a small leak from what appeared to be a gasket failure. I yanked the cover off today and cleaned up the old RTV silicone. I threw on a new gasket and snugged down all the bolts. Bonus picture: the headers are turning a nice, RICH blue… the level of quality […]

First, I’ll have to start this by admitting a sad story, (I should probably have my ability to turn a wrench revoked) I failed at installing the Akrapovic exhaust. I had the headers fitted, but getting the link pipe to connect with the collectors proved to be an impossible feat. I literally spent hours wrestling […]

Since the beginning, I held great interest in this particular exhaust. I thought I was lucky and found a great deal on one used, but after weeks of waiting for something to happen, I figured the seller wasn’t going to come through. Which is what lead me to the next alternative, the TiForce system. A […]

So why did I swap out my perfectly functional Woodcraft rearsets? Long story short, I caved in and was won over by the exquisitely machined, German-made, and highly detailed Gilles VCR38GT’s. Since I’ve always fancied having gold rearsets, I took extended measures to obtain these Gilles in all-gold. This meant waiting over a month to […]

What an ordeal… I had to buy 2 R spoilers and go through 3 paint jobs before I was happy. On the third paint job, I ended up taking the spoiler to a different, painter-owned shop where the guy sanded down the clear coat and redid it. He did a great job and was able […]

As noted previously, installation of the first Nardi steering wheel concluded disastrously. Not only did I break the horn button, I also botched up the actual spokes of the wheel. Courtesy of Nardi, the wheel came new with a couple light scratches. So of course I attempted to buff it out, which only yielded even […]

After a quick Palomares road ride today, I pulled off the bike’s wheels. It was recommended to me that the outer edges of the rear tire were nearing their expiration, so I took the opportunity to get the bike ready for a pair of fresh rubber. This is in preparation for hopefully one more trackday […]

Ideally, I would have kept using the Woodcraft Frame Sliders, but making the necessary cuts is too difficult to get right. Since I already messed up a set of OEM lowers because of this, I decided to revert back to the inferior no-cut style sliders. I debated not omitting the use of frame sliders entirely, […]

If you’re even thinking about modding a car, here’s my word of advice: DON’T. Fight the temptations, no matter how good of an idea it may seem in the beginning… in the end, it’s not worth it. I’m definitely second guessing myself right now about this whole Miata thing. I thought it would be a […]