You remind me of my current project. A 1977 gsx400 that I
'm totally rebuilding ^.^

That'd be a fun project! I don't have a street bike yet, I was planning on getting a 1990 Katana 600 awhile back but I ran out of money. Story of my life. LOL

I probably should've gotten a 450, but my friend shot me a deal on the 250. I'm definitely not small, so I'm thinking about getting a little more juice out of her. I've heard big bore kits are unreliable, and it's already piped, so I'm thinking of going with Hot Cams.

Powerbowl, power wing, deep sump plug, water pump, rad hoses, engine ice, super unleaded fuel, good tyres and some serious corner speed and you'll be winning in no time.

Don't tamper with the internals too much. Go for bolt ons and make sure you set them up because if you change one thing inside the engine, it is best to change it all. No point having good cams and standard cranks and conrods:)

Keep in mind i blew a YZF250 to bits by tampering with the internals and not setting it up properly;)

Spend money keeping the engine as cool as possible so it runs strong for longer periods, add some bolt ons and set up your carb to reduce bogging and improve fuel delivery to the engine. Make sure you pick up any slack on the throttle barrel by adjusting the cable so that there is instant throttle response and speed when you twist and go. Better to know exactly where the power comes in than to keep turning the grip and have the power explode out of nowhere. Do the same for your clutch. Gotta make sure everything is nice and smooth especially where starts are involved;)

Setup it essential dude as i am sure you already know. A well maintained bike is faster and lasts a lot longer. Especially where the engine is concerned.

Thanks. It has a few bolt-ons here and there... Boyesen Supercooler, I think it has a Boyesen Quickshot accelerator pump, and of course a Pro Circuit T4 full system. Sprockets are set up about right, I had a -1 front on it for awhile but it killed the top end, and the bike already has a ton of power off idle so I need it more in the mid-to-top. You have a good point about changing everything at once... it's had very regular oil changes for most of its life and hasn't been raced all that much so I'll have to have the crank/rod looked at if I change any internals.

I'm running Rotella T 15W40 in it right now... I'd be running Maxima Maxum4 in it but it's hard to get around here and I don't like ordering online every time I need to replace fluids, so I'm just using the Rotella for now. I have a quart of the Maxum4 that I got cheap, but I want to wait to use it until I have a decent supply so that I don't have to switch from Rotella only to have to go right back to it after the next oil change.

As for gas, I use 110 octane 99% of the time. It'll run premium okay, but it's jetted for race fuel and I wouldn't feel like I was racing without the smell of the spent race gas fumes in the air anyway.

I had a Banshee that was like that a few years ago. I was running custom 19cc domes with a Chariot Racing cool head, and if I'd have tried to run pump gas in it she'd have blown sky-high. I miss the old shee, it was a wild machine. Nothing on it was stock, it was pushing about 80HP, and it was built for motocross.

That's the nice thing about a 450. Other than *maybe* putting a pipe on it, you really don't have to do anything to it to have all the power you need. Very few amateur racers can use 100% of a 450's power.