Are you interested in revving up your bike to its true potential? With the right tweaks you can definitely change its handling and speed. Here are 10 tweaks and adjustments that will make your two-wheeled beast run faster.

Swap the exhaust

Swapping your bike’s exhaust with an aftermarket exhaust is one of the best things you can do to unlock your bike’s full potential. You need to upgrade your bike’s entire exhaust system from the muffler to the header.

It is advisable to install the best exhaust system available to get the most performance out of your engine.

The aftermarket exhausts allow a quicker and efficient escape path for the gases during emission. The quick escape allows your engine to breathe better, which also prolongs the engine life and gives you a significant speed boost.

You will also need to get your bike’s fuel mapped with a new aftermarket Power Commander too.

Aftermarket exhaust systems are much lighter than the stock ones. Shoving off pounds off your bike will cause enhanced drivability, throttle response along with a slight increase in the horsepower and the torque.

As some riders prefer riding a silent bike where some prefer a growling beast, an excellent quality exhaust system will give you the option to choose the bike sound of your liking.

Tip: DynoJet offers the best quality fuel commanders. I am using a Dynojet power commander for quite a while now; I would definitely recommend it.

Here a Dynojet power commander buying guide:

Use lighter parts

As all the motorcycle riders know, losing weight is one of the most important factors you can do to increase speed. As we know, losing your bike’s weight can decrease your bike’s stability, handling, and road grip. But, if the swapping is done right, you will notice significant changes in your rides.

Replacing the heavier parts with the lighter ones will not increase your bike’s horsepower. But you are cutting down the weight your engine has to carry around. The stock parts are made up or strength and durability, but you can buy the generally lighter aftermarket parts, and some are even more durable.

I’d suggest you replace your bike parts with carbon fiber made. Apart from price, these carbon fiber parts offer you optimal performance and durability.

If you want to get the most out of your bike, I’d suggest you consider replacing the brake calibers, the hubs, fork legs, rims, frame, wheels, swing arm, linkages, and even your tires.

Get lighter tires

Tires play an important role in your motorcycle’s performance. Have you ever noticed an increase in fuel consumption when you have a worn-out tire let alone a punctured one?

If you want to boost your bike’s torque and acceleration, go for the sporty tires. Sport tires are much lighter than other types of tires and are made of softer components that ensure more road grip and enhanced stability.

Tires come in 5 different types following different construction tread and would often have a unique mix of compounds to suit their purpose. All tires serve a different purpose, some are for sport, some for off-roading, some are better for cruising.

Don’t buy tires because they are cheaper, or they offer 10000 miles before wearing off. Buy the tires based on your requirements.
Tires that serve your purpose.

Learn more: When to Change Your Motorcycle Tires (Full Guide)

Upgrade the brakes

Braking is even more essential than accelerating. There is no point in driving your bike at 200kmph or even 300kmph even when you cannot even trust your braking system.

Having a reliable set of brakes makes you feel much more comfortable while driving because they make you feel that everything’s under control while revving your bike at high speeds.

Before trying to make further adjustments to increase your engine performance, try upgrading your brakes. Try getting new brake pads along with all new steel braided lines. But from a safety perspective, I’d suggest you upgrade your entire braking system from braking pads to new discs and calipers. Aftermarket braking systems tend to perform way better than stock braking systems.

• The aftermarket brakes provide good longevity and performance.
• They’re usually much lighter, which will also help to shove some weight off your bike and give you a speed boost.

TIP: Never save money when it comes to a braking system. Try getting the best ones for your bike. Even increase your budget range if you must. You can save money off anything but never compromise on your braking system. As far as brands are concerned, my recommendation for brake pads is always Brembo, while Galfer offers great rotor replacements for your bike.

Suspension adjustments

The suspension also plays an important role in controlling your bike’s drive and comfort. Better suspension won’t increase your bike’s performance, but it can alter the way your bike acts at high speeds. All it has to do is to improve the aerodynamics of your bike.

If your bike doesn’t come with an adjustable suspension, then it is way better to invest a few bucks in buying a new one. I prefer buying a fancy new suspension setup from Race Tech.

I’d advise you to hire a professional and pay the service fee when it comes to installing a new suspension. Doing this will completely change how your bike handles and trust me, you will love it. As you will be able to fine-tune everything starting from the compression ratio to the damping settings according to your weight. This will help to improve the way your bike responds to your input perfectly.

The suspension matters a lot because if your bike does not respond well to your body commands and the weight the bike is carrying, you will lose speed and comfort.

Since suspension matters this much, you should always prefer hiring or asking professionals. Because if it does not fit correctly you will lose speed, balance or your bike can slip, which can cause a fatality or can do some serious damage to your bike. Hence, you will invest all the bucks you intended to save in repairs. So, it is always better to hire a professional as they have intended ways to get the last ounce of speed off your bike.

Here’s a detailed video on how to adjust your bike suspension:

Changing the air filter

Changing or cleaning your bike’s air filter is one of the cheapest and effective ways to boost your bike’s speed. It will help improve your bike’s overall acceleration to top speed gains and will even prolong your engine’s life.

As the name suggests, the basic purpose of your air filter is to improve the air quality that is being fed to the engine during combustion. The air filter filters out the unwanted air particles long before they can enter the engine. It then supplies the pure and clean air to the engine for better combustion.

There are two types of commonly used air filters:

The paper type air filter is the most basic air filters out there. Even the most basic or the high-performance superbikes use the paper type air filter. This air filter comprises a paper that is much denser than the common paper used in our households, but this paper has enough pores that ensure the airflow at an optimal level and enables efficient pollution-free breathing patterns for the engine. Paper air filter generally comes in the form of a single or many paper layers folded together in the form of a maze that ensures the air to be filtered across many times before entering the engine.

There are some aftermarkets air filters available that use multiple layers of cotton gauze layered between the aluminum wired sheets. The hundreds of the cotton gauze fibers naturally hold the suspension oil and other air pollutants to create a much more effective filtering medium. Compared to the stock paper-based filter, this cotton-based filter does a better job of keeping the pollution out of the engine.

Some air filters also come in a mushroom head shape that increases the partial overall intake. Hence, improving the engine’s efficiency.

Try assuming the air filter as your engine’s lungs, whose job is to block the unwanted air pollutants from getting into the engine. Upgrading the stock air filter to a performance air filter to provide your engine with unpolluted clean air will cause more combustion. Hence, your engine’s performance will increase drastically, resulting in making your bike much faster.

Keep that in mind if you are living in a less polluted or a pollution-free area, you might notice a slight difference as compared to an engine in a polluted area. For the bikes in the less polluted area, cleaning your air filter from the attached dust particles will do the job.

Here’s an Amazon link to the air filter that I am using, and I recommend to my fellow riders.

Note: Your bike might need some carburetor adjustments to accommodate such changes. Do this by monitoring the combustion color of the spark plug.

Use high octane fuel

High-octane fuel is referred to as the premium fuel. Fuel based quality is measured in terms of RON (Research Octane Number) globally and AKI (Anti-Knock Index) in some countries. AKI is generally 4-6 octane numbers lower than RON. Always prefer buying premium fuel for your vehicles (not only for your motorcycles but for your cars as well).

High octane fuel burns at a lower rate as compared to the normal fuel which can improve your engine’s mileage and lower the CO2 gas emissions of your vehicle. This low burner fuel can help improve your engine’s efficiency, acceleration, and even increase your engine’s top speed.

Personally, when I compared both the inferior quality and the premium high-octane fuel (RON 97), I felt like my motorcycle was turbocharged or something. Not to mention as this engine runs at a higher compression ratio, I felt a speed boost of around 25-30 mph in terms of speed.

WARNING: Listen to your engine. If you hear a bit of knocking or a rattling sound coming out of your engine, then you should stop using high-octane fuel. Your engine isn’t exactly designed to work according to the high compression ratio that the high-octane fuel intends to burn on. Hence, switching to a low-quality fuel is a better option if you experience any problems. Or you can read the user’s manual to get the idea if it’s right for your bike or not.

Adjust the gearing

Have you ever driven a BMX bike with the front and rear changeable gears? If you have messed with its gears, you might have noticed several changes in its performance. Some make your paddles smoother, but your bicycle slows, or some make your bike paddles hard but your bicycle faster.

Adjusting the gearing could determine how your motorcycle behaves as well. It is a quick and easy way to improve your bike acceleration or top speed.

There are two sprockets on your motorbike. Tweaking the gear teeth by adding or subtracting them can make a significant difference in your bike’s performance. You can even replace your bike stock sprockets with the aftermarket ones, which are also lighter. Your bike will appreciate it with increased acceleration.

First, you need to know the exact gear ratios for your bike and your intended purpose. Here’s a 101 guide to the chain and sprocket:

Join a track school

As plausible as it seems but joining a superbike school can help you rev your bike at top speeds. These schools teach you how to drive at top speeds. They generally have trained professionals, professional Moto GP drivers who will teach you how to drive at top speeds. The pro will teach you valuable skills, from shifting gears to how to distribute your weight at intended speeds to everything you need to know.

I’d suggest you join one or two-track school before you even start revving your beast up to its full potential. They will make you much confident at driving high speeds than you are. Join such courses to learn control, cornering, gearing, shifting, throttling and so much more to see yourself become a human speeding bullet.

Train your body

Training your mind and body for high speed can improve the way your bike handles at top speeds. If you want to improve speed, try developing self-confidence. You need to train your mind to decide what to do in a matter of a split second; if you can’t do that, then forget about driving fast.

I also told you to lower the weight off your bike starting from rims to carbon fiber structure; but what about the rider’s weight? It plays the same amount of importance. Some things you can do in this area include:

• Shedding off some weight
• Hit the gym and get stronger

Keep in mind that losing weight can help you go faster, but you need to be strong too. A strong muscular body, legs, back, and shoulders are the key to great maneuvering. Your body needs to be capable of high performance as your motorbike. Good endurance and peak stamina are also essential.

Install drum chargers

Installing drum chargers in your bike is one of the most effective ways of boosting your bike’s top speed. Drum chargers are much like a superficial turbocharger. They boost the engine efficiency by exerting air pressure in the combustion chamber. Better combustions lead to more speed.

We can say that drum chambers are turbochargers but comparatively, drum chargers are much simpler and are commercially available for any bike. The Italian company Alter Ego offers the best drum chargers out there. Their Impulse Drum Charger is a small cylinder that pressurizes the air intake by harnessing the exhaust gases.

• The impulse drum charger is much cheaper than turbochargers.
• It can be easily installed on any motorcycle.
• It’s easily available.
• Can give you up to a 20 percent speed boost.

Keep in mind that apart from being less expensive than turbochargers it is still the most expensive way to make your bike faster.

Although, it is better suited to single-cylinder machines for maximum efficiency, it can be used with bigger bikes too. Here a video of how an Impulse Drum Charger looks and works and why it is better suited to single-cylinder machines:

Final Word on Making a Bike Faster

Your motorcycle is probably designed with safety and comfort as top priorities. It’s not designed to be a speed bullet defying the laws of physics on the road. But there are ways to make it run faster while staying safe and comfortable. Upgrades that can lead up to 20% or even 30% greater speed. This is a list of those upgrades.

If you make the bike lighter by using carbon fiber and other light materials it will definitely have a positive impact. Shedding off some extra weight from your own body will generate the same effect. Improving air filtration will improve engine function and overall speed.

Finally, don’t forget to improve your skills so that you can ride faster with earned self-confidence, hopefully in a class environment run by a professional.