‘It’s fricking awesome!’
Race legend Colin Edwards explains why his 2013 Motogp bike is ideal for some trackday adventures…
Want a trackday machine to see off those fancydan Ducati V4RS? How about this: Colin Edwards’ 2013 FTR Kawasaki GP bike. The 245bhp, 157kg weapon was for sale at the MCN Show on 18 February with an estimate of £35-40,000. ‘Honestly, that bike was fricking awesome,’ Colin tells Bike from his Bootcamp riding school in Texas. ‘The motor was a bit heavy compared with the factory bikes – it had a heavy crank – but the chassis and electronics were great and everything worked.’
The FTR was developed for the Claiming Rules Team (CRT) regs, which allowed wildly tuned production engines – from a ZX-10R in this case – to be fitted in one-off frames in an attempt to cut costs and fill up the Motogp grid. ‘Everyone was thinking “oh it’s just a superbike engine to fill grid spots.” But the FTR was good,’ says Colin. ‘In 2012 I was on the BMW with Bosch electronics and we chased our ass trying to get that to work at all. The FTR was way better than that.
‘There was a rumour that Yamaha would have a couple of bikes available in 2014 so the FTR was a kind of interim machine for me, but looking back I would much rather ride the FTR than the 2014 Yamaha I ended up on. That bike just didn’t work for me like the FTR. Aleix [Espagaro] got the Yamaha to work, but I’d have preferred to be on the FTR. I remember at Malaysia I lost the front and almost crashed and dropped back a little bit but the FTR was hauling ass and that was one of our most consistent races.’ Colin’s best result on the FTR was ninth at Catalunya. ‘That track was so hit and miss. The factory guys would be fast everywhere,
‘Half way between a WSB bike and a factory Motogp bike’
but on a satellite bike or a CRT you might have five good laps and then the tyre goes away and it’s shit. But we picked the right tyre that day and it stayed underneath me for a top ten finish.
‘Compared with the factory bikes I was losing out a little bit everywhere because it was a bit heavier and didn’t have quite the acceleration. It was fast though – kind of half way between a World Superbike and a factory Motogp bike. It might not have had all the trick shit and lightweight stuff the factory Motogp bikes had, but it was a lot quicker than a superbike.
‘The electronics were pretty good at that time too. I remember it was straightforward, so we didn’t get lost. It’s easy with electronics to chase your ass around but that bike was pretty simple.’ The bike now runs different electronics because CRT rules meant Magneti Marelli took back the control ECU and dash at the end of the season. They’ve been replaced by a Kawasaki kit ECU and HM dash.
Colin wasn’t going to bid in the auction. ‘Shit no! I’ve got motorcycles coming out of my ears because my son’s racing now so I’ve got bikes for him too. But it’s a fun bike and someone could use it as a track bike ok. I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners, and you have to understand that it’ll be a lot stiffer than anything you’ll have ridden before. But it’s not that bad – the BMW
I rode the year before was so stiff it was almost unrideable.
‘I had a good time on the FTR, but if you’re going to use it on track I guess you should really know what you’re doing.’
Bike went to press just ahead of the show. If you bought the FTR, very well bid...
ELECTRONICS
The Kawasaki kit ECU has variable traction control, power modes, a pitlane speed limiter and launch control. It only lacks an autoblipper, which the original Marelli system had.