STOCK POT
“It’s crazy that people still think like that; building a stocker isn’t the gig it used to be,” explained Crowe Performance’s front man and TT racer Phil Crowe. “Yeah, you can cut corners, you can cap costs, but to build a pukka stocker takes some serious graft, parts and a whole lot of knowledge.” Phil’s built his company’s name on transforming road bikes for the track, building for trackday customers and international racers alike. On paper, he slots in among an elite group of UK tuners, but where he bucks the trend is in that he races what he builds! Or as Phil likes to put it: “We test, race, and can fit most of the products that we recommend and sell to our customers.
“Part of the reason I kicked the company off was I wanted to make my bike better than anyone else’s; to go faster, handle better and deliver me with the scope to win races. If you’ve got enough money and you know what parts to buy, you can build a pretty fast superbike, but getting the most out of a stocker is a whole different challenge.”
In championships the world over superstock machines are capped by cost, minimum weights and the retention of certain production parts. Quite often, the rulebooks are so thick they’ll make a library’s packed shelves look like light reading. And then there are all the grey areas to explore; the intricate, off-piste tweaks here and
