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I treated my cruiser like a dual-sport, I'm treating my dual-sport like a sportbike . . . the logical progression here is that I'm going to get a sportbike, and bumble up and down the street from bar to bar on it.
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Apr 12, 2010 18:55
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Tsaven Nava posted:I treated my cruiser like a dual-sport, I'm treating my dual-sport like a sportbike . . . the logical progression here is that I'm going to get a sportbike, and bumble up and down the street from bar to bar on it. No, get a sportbike and do this:  and that Simba is the circle of life.
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Apr 12, 2010 20:55
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It looks like it might rain next weekend for my second time on the track ever  . I still plan on riding regardless of weather, but I'm wondering what people do about the rain, gear-wise. Is it worth getting something like this:http://stores.sportbiketrackgear.com/Detail.bok?no=5545 to hopefully keep yourself slightly dry? Just ride in your leathers and get soaked? Other alternatives? We're still 10 days away and in the midwest, so it very likely could change but who knows
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Apr 15, 2010 20:49
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That's actually a question I had too. Makes sense to use a tight rainsuit of some kind and waterproof boots. How does MotoGP handle rain? Do riders have separate waterproof poo poo for crappy races? That seems pretty expensive for something that could instantly shred when you touch the ground. Personally, I would get waterproof racing boots and just hope that my leather was sufficient to block out water. If you have perforated leather, sucks for you. FuzzyWuzzyBear fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Apr 15, 2010 |
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Apr 15, 2010 21:25
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The problem is leather gets heavy when it's wet. Top level racers have clear rainsuits they use...can't give up that sponsership air time!
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Apr 15, 2010 21:43
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My suit is perforated . I've ridden in the rain in my Dainese two piece suit a number of times and it wasn't terrible, but like Z3n mentioned they get awfully heavy. That suit is solid leather too, so I more or less stayed dry. I agree, that suit is insanely expensive for what basically amounts to a giant condom  . I need to look around some more but in a quick search I haven't found much that looks like it would actually hold up to decent speeds without flapping all over the place, potentially destroying itself in the process. I guess I could duct tape a lesser suit down or something.
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Apr 15, 2010 21:50
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needknees posted:My suit is perforated Why duct tape a lesser suit? Just make a suit out of duct tape.
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Apr 15, 2010 21:58
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Reminds me of a funny story from December at Road Atlanta. It was really cold out so there were a bunch of people wearing stuff over leathers (I think I had a sweater over mine for all the morning sessions). I come out of T7 right before the back straight and see the debris flag and yellow flag waving wildly. A couple seconds later a bunch of yellow shards littered across the track suddenly appear -- I'm like, whoa, dial back and straighten up, expecting a bike to have had a violent fall and shattered plastics all over the place. No sign of a downed bike, and just the debris flag on the subsequent laps. After pitting in, we hear an announcement over the PA telling people not to wear loose clothing on the track. Apparently the CR that was gridded up with the yellow raincoat as a windbreaker didn't come back with it.
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Apr 16, 2010 03:19
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needknees posted:It looks like it might rain next weekend for my second time on the track ever [vader]NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO[/vader]
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Apr 16, 2010 05:00
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I can tell you right now: Riding in the rain is pretty much the best thing you can do to improve as a rider. You have to focus on being super smooth, but you'll be able to get much closer to the limit at much lower levels of speed. It's an excellent learning tool. On a track it's great because there's a lot more consistent traction and conditions, so you can really start to develop a feel for limited traction situations. It's perhaps not as cool to go ripping out of the corners, but as a rider you will feel hugely accomplished as long as you managed to keep it upright
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Apr 16, 2010 05:26
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Tsaven Nava posted:[vader]NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO[/vader] I know man  . It is the midwest though, so who the gently caress knows what's going to happen this far out. Already in under 12hrs they've moved it back to thursday and friday, with a chance slight chance on saturday and clear sunday. Riding in the rain at the track certainly wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'd prefer a weekend of semi-decent weather...Ok, another video for you guys to pick apart! It's about a lap and a half out of the 5th session shot from the rear of the bike. The tailsection is so flimsy there's a lot of camera shudder, but it's still watchable. Behold! My leather-clad rear end! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSnksH4Z_X8
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Apr 16, 2010 13:28
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Had my first race today. It was a weird supermoto track, an arena cross course had been built in the infield of a 1/4 mile paved oval. Some tires were set up to make a few chicanes and hairpin turns on the asphalt, and we used a little bit of the parking lot, but it was probably 70% dirt. I DNF'd every moto I ran (4) due to crashing -> dead battery, stalling-> dead battery, and leaving the petcock in the off position-> dead battery. But I had a great time, did my first double in a rhythm section, and only highsided on the pavement once.
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Apr 19, 2010 06:02
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What the gently caress is with the dead batteries lately? Also congrats.
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Apr 19, 2010 16:27
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I just picked up an extra set of F4i wheels with front rotors and a rear sprocket (no rear rotor) for $100, score! I got these to put race tires on for track days so I can step up to some real rubber and not wipe out. Any suggestions on decent race tires to get for someone just moving up to them for the first time? Hopefully I'll do 3-5 track days this season.
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Apr 22, 2010 00:20
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aventari posted:I just picked up an extra set of F4i wheels with front rotors and a rear sprocket (no rear rotor) for $100, score! I like Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas and the Dunlop 211NTecs. But all of them are drat good, can't really go wrong with any of them.
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Apr 22, 2010 00:24
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Started prepping the DRZ for Monday's track day. Changed the oil, will replace the coolant with H2O and water wetter as well as bleed the brakes. Also planning on checking it over for loose hardware, chain maintenance then loading it up. Anything important that is overlooked by new track day riders?
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Apr 22, 2010 01:00
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NitroSpazzz posted:Anything important that is overlooked by new track day riders? Spoke tension, probably won't be an issue unless you've been jumping. Hit each spoke lightly with a small wrench, if it makes a dull sound you need to tighten it. Bring sunblock, snacks, lots of water, and a camping chair.
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Apr 22, 2010 01:10
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Zool posted:Spoke tension, probably won't be an issue unless you've been jumping. Hit each spoke lightly with a small wrench, if it makes a dull sound you need to tighten it. Bring sunblock, snacks, lots of water, and a camping chair. Also, don't ride like this guy does.
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Apr 22, 2010 01:20
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NitroSpazzz posted:Started prepping the DRZ for Monday's track day. Changed the oil, will replace the coolant with H2O and water wetter as well as bleed the brakes. Also planning on checking it over for loose hardware, chain maintenance then loading it up. Make sure you check your tire pressures at the track.
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Apr 22, 2010 02:56
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Spiffness posted:Also, don't ride like this guy does. Oh Yeah, if you do that be sure to bring duct tape, extra handlebars, and vicodin. *Pro-tip find out where the nearest hospital is before hand, you only have a few minutes of shock before you're in too much pain to drive. At that point you have to pony up for an ambulance ride.
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Apr 22, 2010 05:56
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Shaping up to be pretty lovely for the weekend at Autobahn. Heavy rain and thunderstorms bascially non-stop from Friday afternoon through Monday
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Apr 22, 2010 13:36
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Tsaven Nava posted:Shaping up to be pretty lovely for the weekend at Autobahn. Heavy rain and thunderstorms bascially non-stop from Friday afternoon through Monday Yeah, not too pleased  It *SOUNDS* like Saturday morning might be decent. Rain is supposed to roll through here (Des Moines area) around noon on Saturday so that would put it at Joliet pretty drat late in the day. So it's likely with the rain they're supposed to get on friday we're going to have a wet track and fog in the morning, but maybe maybe it'll dry out at some point. Sunday, well...  Edit - Any tips for track riding in the rain? I'm a bit concerned, went through a bit of rain last night with the new pilot powers and they were interesting at best. It seemed like the Qualifiers handled water better, maybe. Not only is it going to be raining, it's not going to be very warm on sunday either. Temps in the low to mid 50s. needknees fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Apr 22, 2010 |
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Apr 22, 2010 14:41
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Qucick status update of the track day so far at Autobahn; Needknee's friend went down, might have busted his collarbone, heading to the hospital to check it out. Our neighbor went down and DID break his collarbone, I went off the track once but held it up dispite the wet grass. Track's tried out since the morning, and our instructor is kind of a MILF.
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Apr 24, 2010 20:38
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Tsaven Nava posted:Qucick status update of the track day so far at Autobahn; Needknee's friend went down, might have busted his collarbone, heading to the hospital to check it out. Our neighbor went down and DID break his collarbone, I went off the track once but held it up dispite the wet grass. Track's tried out since the morning, and our instructor is kind of a MILF. Yikes, I remember reading somewhere that collarbones take like 8lbs of pressure to break. Hope they both recover soon. How is it Zool can crash five times a day and keep riding? Seriously tell me, if there is some kinda yoga you do or something I wanna try it out.
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Apr 24, 2010 21:35
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Gnaghi posted:How is it Zool can crash five times a day and keep riding? Seriously tell me, if there is some kinda yoga you do or something I wanna try it out. He only eats Tofurkey and sleeps hanging upside down. Naw, it's because he's really slow.
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Apr 24, 2010 21:43
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Spiffness posted:He only eats Tofurkey and sleeps hanging upside down. Also supermoto. Sucks to hear about people crashing, but that's why you take it slow at wet trackdays.
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Apr 24, 2010 21:48
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Gnaghi posted:Yikes, I remember reading somewhere that collarbones take like 8lbs of pressure to break. Hope they both recover soon. You need to be able to relax your limbs when you crash, I practice by riding a mechanical bull, and I take a shot of makers just before I head out for a hot lap. Also, top speed on the track I usually run is about 70mph, the fastest corner I take at maybe 45. So yeah, slow.
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Apr 24, 2010 23:29
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So, end result of the day. NeedKnee's friend broke his clavicle in two places after he high-sided coming out of turn 5 after giving it too much throttle. Our neighbor broke his collarbone after going on the same corner I went off on, but he wasn't able to keep it up and lost it on the wet grass. The track dried out pretty well in the last few sessions, especially my last session I was able to get my toe/footpeg to scrape the ground fairly consistently and smoothly through the whole corner. I was doing better at entry speeds, and started to figure out the turn-in for corner 2, which I was having problems with all day. I also realized that I don't know JACK poo poo about riding a motorcycle. Pictures and videos aplenty will be coming in the next couple days (including me running off the track!)
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Apr 25, 2010 01:47
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Tsaven Nava posted:So, end result of the day.
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Apr 25, 2010 02:11
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Don't think I have any pictures of her, but here is a video from her bike of me doing my best to get my Wee over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yum6CcTcDoc
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Apr 25, 2010 02:29
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Photographer posted some pictures from my race on Sunday, none of me, but I thought this one was too awesome not to post 
Zool fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Apr 25, 2010 |
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Apr 25, 2010 02:31
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Z3n posted:Also supermoto. Need to get to an actual computer but here are a few observations. My buddy is doing ok. Sore, but more or less fine (other than the broke collarbone... ) . I honestly could mot belive the amount of crashes today. There were not many sessions, in any group,that were clean with no wrecks. It was nuts. Still had enough fun though. More id am update tomorrow.
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Apr 25, 2010 05:59
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needknees posted:
All loaded up and ready to go. Guess which one makes less power...There is likely less that 85hp in this picture.  Click here for the full 1125x844 image. NitroSpazzz fucked around with this message at 14:50 on Apr 25, 2010 |
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Apr 25, 2010 14:39
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NitroSpazzz posted:All loaded up and ready to go. Guess which one makes less power...There is likely less that 85hp in this picture.
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Apr 25, 2010 22:13
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needknees posted:Need to get to an actual computer but here are a few observations. My buddy is doing ok. Sore, but more or less fine (other than the broke collarbone... ) . I honestly could mot belive the amount of crashes today. There were not many sessions, in any group,that were clean with no wrecks. It was nuts. Still had enough fun though. I went to a track day in November at NJMP, 16 red flags. Cold track, rained the night before, cold day, 2 CR's and one in the A group went down.
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Apr 25, 2010 23:17
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schreibs posted:I went to a track day in November at NJMP, 16 red flags. Cold track, rained the night before, cold day, 2 CR's and one in the A group went down. The biggest crash of the yesterday happened in A group -- looked like someone took another rider out. Two bikes wrecked, one guy transported to the hospital in the ambulance. They had the track closed down (and our group waiting in the hot pits) for quite some time while they waited for another ambulance to arrive so the track was covered. Due to the ultra-lovely weather that was forecast, and the fact my friend was busted up pretty bad we decided to head back last night, and I determined it wasn't worth adding another 6 hours onto my trip to go back just to ride in thunderstorms today. I'm glad I did even though I took a hit on the track time, to be honest. I'll be working on a more throughout writeup including pics and video later on, but here are a few pics from the track photographer. Kinda sucks, all of these are from the morning sessions when the track was still in spotty shape Our CR in the front, me just behind her, my buddy before he highsided into oblivion, and Tsaven Nava's neon yellow suit visible behind him:   So serious    Things finally started to dry out after lunch   
needknees fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 00:57
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Me being my hardcore/stupid self, I found in necessary to ride to the track, and managed to cram most of what I needed onto my bike. Of course, I still forgot some critical stuff (leatherman, cup, spork), but I got all the important bits. I got there Friday night during a break in the rain, and took the time to set up the tent. It rained really heavily that night, with some fairly epic wind, and in the morning my tent was the only one that hadn't leaked or completely collapsed (on the left)  Got registered and got my sticker! lol newb.  And then through Tech inspection, which wasn't nearly as rigerous as I was worried it would be. Maybe it is for the I/A classes, but they basically glanced at the tires and said "Have fun!"  All taped up!  Baaaaaw doggie! This was Louie, he was the tire changing station's dog. He and I were BFFs by the end of the weekend.   Gotta get 'em started when they're young  In-classroom instruction for the novices. It started pretty basic, counter-steering and such, but ended up getting better. And given that there were people from all skill levels in the novice group (some total newbs like me, some who'd done many track days) Saturday, the rain the night before had left the track soaking, and it dried slowly through the day. The first N sessions of the day were follow-the-leader types, going slowly around the track to get an idea of the layout, and pointing out turn-in points and lines and such. The track started to dry slowly, but after the second or third session myself, Needknees, and his friend asked our instructor, as a group, if we could turn up the pace a bit, we were all getting bored poking around the track so slowly. And then NeedKnee's friend went down. Coming out of turn 5 he thinks he gave it too much gas, and highsided his Buell. Not too much damage to the bike, actually.  $600 Shoei helmet that he got three weeks ago  He was wearing an Aerostich two-piece, which served him well but got pretty torn up.  In initially, he said he was feeling sore, but otherwise okay. After a few hours of walking around, he said he felt good enough to give it another go, and got the bike re-teched. But then our neighbor went off the track (at the same corner I went off) and wasn't able to keep it up, and went down. He was an EMT and knew that he'd broken his collarbone from the weird bump on his shoulder . . . and then NeedKnee's friend said "Oh, poo poo, my shoulder looks like that too". A couple hours and a trip to the ER later, it was confirmed, clavial broken in two places. Should have know, he was standing kind of funny with his shoulders.  (Left to Right: NeedKnee's friend, Tsaven, Needknees) Needknees:  Anyway! Photos from the first day itself. The photographer was cheap, only $10 for all the photos of you on a CD right then, but didn't seem to have very good equipment and a lot of the shots are out of focus. Ah well, the price was good. The first day started out with the track mostly damp, and there were a couple showers in the morning, but later in the day it tried out and we were better able to get our lean on (without dieing)  Me pretending to be much cooler then I actually am.   Please excuse the lousy BP, this was one of the morning follow-the-instructor laps to learn the lines and things  Slightly better BP. Slightly. One of the CRs had a GoPro, and waved me in front of her so she could check out my BP and lines. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yum6CcTcDoc Tires at the end of the first day. Anything you rubber experts can tell me from 'em?     That night, I made a new friend when I went to the bathroom at 11pm or so. He was so cute! But lazy. I had to poke him so that he'd move so I could open the door.   The first session of the Sunday was pretty dry, you can see the mostly dry pavement up there was we were waiting in the Hot Pit lane, but then the rain stared around 10am and didn't let up much. Notice the rain gloves; many people seemed quite envious of my suit   It basically rained through lunch on Sunday. On the upside, my girlfriend (Modify Evolution) had stopped by, so I got tent-in-the-rain sex. By the time we crawled out of the tent around 1pm, roughly 80% of the people cleared out. I waffled a bit on if I'd stay and stick it out. Now that Modify Evolution had gotten what she wanted, she was bored, but . . . then something funny happened. About 1pm, the rain stopped, and the sun poked through a couple times. By 2pm, the racing line was starting to dry. At this point, there were so few people that it made no sense to continue with class groupings, so they just ran an open track with Intermediate passing rules. There were perhaps 4-5 people out at any time. Including me. IT. WAS. BRILLIANT. Most people were running a fairly moderate pace, and I used the time to focus on my transitions and lines, doing the whole course in just one or two gears. I even managed to pass a couple of people on 600cc bikes under braking. As the day wore on, the track continued to dry out, and I just kept going around and around and around. I put on almost 120 miles just on Sunday afternoon It started to sprinkle again at 5:30, so I headed in to find a slightly annoyed Modify_Evolution. She'd been wonderfully patient, napping in her car for a few hours but was now standing around the track side bored out of her skull while I continued seeing how consistently I could scrape my toes along the ground. I came in to her signs of "OH FINALLY", and we managed to get all my stuff tossed into her car before the skies really opened. She drove and I rode back to my place, fifty miles of riding through a pretty epic thunderstorm. I arrived back home very tired, sore, cold and wet. But then I got shower sex, which made up for it. In conclusion, Modify_Evolution is an awesome girlfriend who puts up with me being a silly motorcycle addict even though it means she has to stand around a cold trackside bored out of her mind. (I promised her I would mention that). Anyway, tires after the 2nd day and 40 miles of highway home. Thoughts?   
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Apr 26, 2010 21:03
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Your tires look fine. Did you check PSI from cold to hot? Get your g/f out on the track. Then she'll be the one dragging you to trackdays.
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Apr 26, 2010 22:19
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No, I neglected to check the PSI hot. Cold was 29 front, 30 rear. She REALLY wants to do trackdays, badly, but it's unlikely money will allow it. Also she's only on her Ninja 250, and that much of a power/speed differential on the track would be sketchy.
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Apr 26, 2010 22:41
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Tsaven Nava posted:No, I neglected to check the PSI hot. Cold was 29 front, 30 rear. In the C group, it doesn't really matter. When you get into groups where people are really starting to get up to speed, it's a bigger deal. Also you do a good job of committing to the corners but you really need to uh, apex at some point. You spend a lot of time way out in the middle of the track for no good reason.
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Apr 26, 2010 22:43
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