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Jabs posted:No, I wouldn't believe it, unless the 5 bikes and 1 car average 14 HP. Actually 7 bikes and 2 cars in that shot. I was going to take it facing the other way but then it would have been 2 bikes and 5 cars. Just got back, great track (talladega gran prix) and the DRZ did pretty good on it. Ran in the novice group, worked on my lines and smoothness. Was one of the quicker riders in the group and the CR as well as a few people said my lines looked really good...also said I had the loudest bike at the track but it sounded good  Plan on bringing the SV next time, the DRZ was fun but I was constantly running out of RPM.Only issue I had was the lack of power in the truck. Too many drat hills around here so the group drive down mostly went on without me.
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Apr 27, 2010 03:31
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It's still processing but here's TsavenNava's trip through the grass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaJgfkjJOhM
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Apr 27, 2010 05:41
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NitroSpazzz posted:the DRZ was fun but I was constantly running out of RPM. Find a kart track 
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Apr 27, 2010 06:07
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needknees posted:It's still processing but here's TsavenNava's trip through the grass: Those never look as pucker-inducing on video as they actually are in real life  How do you like the JR Honda leathers? I assume they're the ones from Newenough. I have the Kawi ones (almost identical) I've been using for a couple years and I love them. The stock plastic pucks are pretty soft though. I've only done 5 or so track days total and they wore out quickly. I upgraded to ceramic ones--I recommend it. http://www.newenough.com/street/armor/knee_sliders_pucks/joe_rocket/speedmaster_motorcycle_knee_sliders.html aventari fucked around with this message at 06:20 on Apr 27, 2010 |
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Apr 27, 2010 06:16
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aventari posted:Those never look as pucker-inducing on video as they actually are in real life Given that it had rained recently and the grass was still very wet, it could have been much worse. Two sessions after I went off, a guy on an SV650 went off in the exact same place, wiped out and broke his collarbone. Dual-sport FTW! I think what happened in my situation was that I got the bike over far enough to touch my toe to the ground, which startled me and made me panic, chopping the throttle. I had to dive in on the corner to stay upright because of it, which made me apex too early and run WAY wide, running off the track. Kept it up though (gentle rear brake, and a bit of experience on lovely, slippery roads), and as soon as the group passed, the corner worker waved me back on.
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Apr 27, 2010 06:22
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Tsaven Nava posted:Given that it had rained recently and the grass was still very wet, it could have been much worse. Two sessions after I went off, a guy on an SV650 went off in the exact same place, wiped out and broke his collarbone. Dual-sport FTW! That's awesome it's scary the first few time you drag your toe/peg. I'm really happy with stock pegs that fold in, I think hitting a solid mounted peg like on a bike with rearsets would really upset things. I've run off track once in the dirt at Willow Springs and like you said, once you see you're going off wide, get the bike up be super ginger with inputs.
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Apr 27, 2010 06:34
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Z3n posted:Get your g/f out on the track. Then she'll be the one dragging you to trackdays. I would love to get myself out on the track. I would also love to afford it. The only way I got my ninja was because my mom gave me some of her tax refund because she's the best mom ever, and I decided to be irresponsible with it. (sides. I was less bored more exhausted, because I'd gone clubbing the night before like a tool) Someday, when I'm rich, I will have a garage of motorcycles and I will go fast on some of them and super far on others.
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Apr 27, 2010 08:25
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aventari posted:How do you like the JR Honda leathers? I assume they're the ones from Newenough. I have the Kawi ones (almost identical) I've been using for a couple years and I love them. The stock plastic pucks are pretty soft though. I've only done 5 or so track days total and they wore out quickly. I upgraded to ceramic ones--I recommend it. They're pretty nice! It was by far the best deal on a decent set of leathers I could find, and the ones I got fit me drat near perfectly. They were tight at first when I put my back and chest protectors in but now that they've had a chance to break in a little bit the fit is great. Seem to be relatively well made too. I would worry about the knee pucks wearing out... if I could drag my knee  . Still not carrying enough corner speed!
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Apr 27, 2010 13:42
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Don't mean to double post, but I came across some pictures someone else took at Autobahn on the STT forum: http://www.sttforum.com/sttforum/viewtopic.php?t=7384 Also feeding the demon again soon... headed over to MAM on the 3rd for their MotoMonday! 5 hours of open lapping... should be interesting to be out there with the fast guys 
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Apr 30, 2010 16:56
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Triple post!  (is no one doing any trackdays or what?!?) I did another one this past monday at MAM. It was a neat format that seemed to work very well -- open session after the track goes green, straight through to the end of the day. You can come and go as you please, and it you're not pressured to OHMYGODGOFASTONLYHAVE20MINUTES. I was a bit concerned going into it because there's some seriously fast riders out there, but there were few enough people on track at any given time it wasn't really an issue, and the few times I was passed they're gone so fast it didn't matter. I'm getting more comfortable being passed and passing because of this. I managed to knock a whopping 10 seconds off my previous times at this track  . Just goes to show how loving slow I was going before. I'm carrying a lot more corner speed and actually getting the bike in its powerband every now and again. I still brake way too much though, I would often find myself coasting, or even adding throttle, to MAKE IT to a turn  . Just need more time at the track!Here's some videos: Forward view (might still be processing) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMwkgz5JBt4 ASSCAM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re3q73U7Fbs
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May 5, 2010 16:29
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I almost signed up for a open track format at VIR a couple months ago, but pussied out due to logistics (though traffic anxiety was among my lame excuses). Duly noted and I'll try to do one of those if I get a chance. How much total track time did you end up running and how did you pace yourself?
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May 6, 2010 07:51
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needknees posted:Triple post! You're on a 1000 right? It looks like you're shorting yourself 1-2000 rpms on your up shifts on the straights. I've got Supermoto NW round 2 next weekend, I haven't ridden at a track since the last race though.
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May 6, 2010 08:47
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Holy poo poo new posts  lokiegoesrawr posted:I almost signed up for a open track format at VIR a couple months ago, but pussied out due to logistics (though traffic anxiety was among my lame excuses). Duly noted and I'll try to do one of those if I get a chance. How much total track time did you end up running and how did you pace yourself? I actually ended up getting *less* track time but I'm ok with it. The bigass thunderstorm that rolled through with a little over two hours to go in the day didn't help things. I found myself going out for 12-15min sessions; just cruising the first couple laps, turning up the pace a bit for a few, then pitting at the first signs of being tired (I am horribly out of shape, apparently  )Zool posted:You're on a 1000 right? It looks like you're shorting yourself 1-2000 rpms on your up shifts on the straights. Yep, I'm the retard track newbie on a literbike  . Not sure which video you're referring to, but at ~2:12 in the forward view one there was a rider going really slow on the front straight for some reason, so I wasn't fully caning it because I didn't know what he was going to do or if there was debris or something. Otherwise, I found myself shifting around 12-12.5k. There's not much point in running it higher than that other than if you're saving a shift somewhere (another thing I need to work on, I have a tendency to shift too much) because my power peaks at 12k and torque peaks just short of 10k. Unless I'm missing something, which is very possible.
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May 6, 2010 13:47
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Is anyone doing the track day with TI2TT on May 30 at Chuckwalla? I will be there. You can help me unload my massive bike! http://bit.ly/aCiALE
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May 6, 2010 21:58
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French Canadian posted:Is anyone doing the track day with TI2TT on May 30 at Chuckwalla? I will be there. You can help me unload my massive bike! 4.5 hours from me May as well go to infineon if I'm gonna travel that far.
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May 6, 2010 22:18
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Z3n posted:4.5 hours from me 4 hours is the closest track to me After riding the DRZ on the track I'm really itching to get back on the track and see how the SV handles it. Need to find a kart track or something so I can get my fix.
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May 6, 2010 22:47
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NitroSpazzz posted:4 hours is the closest track to me I have 2 within an hour (Talladega GP and Barber Motorsports Park) and another 3 hours away (Road Atlanta) but I have no money. It's far worse to have world class tracks near you but no money to go use them.
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May 7, 2010 05:22
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frozenphil posted:I have 2 within an hour (Talladega GP and Barber Motorsports Park) and another 3 hours away (Road Atlanta) but I have no money. It's far worse to have world class tracks near you but no money to go use them. I'd rather have them close and no money than super loving far away .I really want to ride Barber but it's 900 miles away. I'd also love to hit Road America, but it's 8hrs away. I have a lot of tracks "near" me but the closest is 2.5hrs and most are 5+.
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May 9, 2010 20:25
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Double postin up in this bitch. Again I figured this would be a better thread to ask in than the tire thread. For some reason I'm thinking about upgrading to actual track type tires. I come seeking the great wisdom of CA on this potential move... As a bit of background for those who can't be bothered to scroll up a little bit in this thread, I am a fairly new trackday convert. I've currently got a whopping three(!) trackdays under my belt, but I'm getting *much* more comfortable carrying corner speed and actually getting on the gas on corner exits. I still lack confidence in braking and corner entry though. After my last trackday I'm now turning fairly consistent mid Intermediate level times at the place I have the most laps in at  . This is on a basically stock CBR1000RR (I know, far too much bike but jesus gently caress is it fun) save for proper suspension setup and protective bits, on standard Pilot Power tires. What I'm trying to figure out is if it would really be worth it for me to go to a true trackday tire. The TrackDayStore has a loving BITCHIN deal on what is apparently a great tire, the Dunlop D209GPA. TWO Rears and one front for $329. There's a few things that bother me about going to a tire like that. 1: Tire life. I have a feeling I'd only be getting two days out of a rear and maybe 3-4 out of the front. A literbike is not easy on tires, as I've found out with even street tires. Nothing like making an already expensive hobby more expensive. To add to the expense I really should run tire warmers with this type of tire. Sportbike Track Gear has STG branded warmers made by Chicken Hawk for $275 though so it's not too horrible. 2: Seeing as I don't have an extra set of wheels (yet) and honda thinks they're made of loving gold, I'm going to have to get the tires swapped over before/after every track event. It's not a HUGE deal since there's a shop pretty close to me that will mount and balance a tire for freakin 7 bucks a wheel, but it is an added annoyance seeing as they're ~25 minutes away. Every other shop in the area is around 25-30/wheel off the bike, so it's a no brainer to drive a little further and get both wheels done for about half the price of one... But, realistically how many times can a tire be spooned off and on before the bead starts giving out? I'm a little worried about my street tires. 3: Tire life. ~300 miles out of a rear tire???  4: I know my good 'ol Pilot powers have more to give. I've been running them hard but I know there's more left. I think I need to play with pressures more, I'm not quite getting the pressure increase I should be seeing. I'm getting ~3psi in the front and 4psi in the rear... I think my gauge is a bit off and I'm actually running higher pressures than I should . Wear is pretty great though.Any thoughts? Edit: chirst that was a long post whining about tires.
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May 11, 2010 16:15
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needknees posted:I come seeking the great wisdom of CA on this potential move... Not helping, am I? Almost kinda content - I just had a relatively hilarious (and brief) daydream about tracking the SR250 at High Plains Raceway. Considering that when I was driving a cab between my last job and this one, I tracked a 2002 Windstar (yes, that was my cab), putting ridiculous stuff on the track has a certain appeal.
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May 11, 2010 17:34
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1. That's the price of going faster. You don't need warmers though, for a variety of reasons. 2. As long as the shop is decent, it's not going to hurt the tires to swap them back and forth. 3. That's the price of riding a literbike. 4. Tires always have more to give, the problem is that when you push your personal limits and the limits of the tires at the same time, your chances of crashing go up dramatically. You want your tires to be there as your safety margin, and on top of that, DOTs spin up and go off in a much more controllable fashion than street/track tires.
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May 11, 2010 17:48
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Jabs posted:Sell it and track a V-Strom. Or a Ninja 250. Or a DRZ400. You involved with the MRA at all? I was at the race school and the first race (two weekends ago) doing corner work and motorcycle pickup. HPR is quite an impressive track.
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May 12, 2010 04:44
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Z3n posted:1. That's the price of going faster. You don't need warmers though, for a variety of reasons. But heat cycles are bad...
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May 12, 2010 06:17
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Rakekniven posted:You involved with the MRA at all? I was at the race school and the first race (two weekends ago) doing corner work and motorcycle pickup. HPR is quite an impressive track. I haven't done any digging at all on local cycle orgs, racing or otherwise. Despite being fairly active in the local SCCA community, I hadn't thought of looking for the same on the biek side of the garage.
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May 12, 2010 16:32
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Bird-o-matic posted:But heat cycles are bad... I've run a set of Pirelli Diablo Supercorsas for 5 days...plus the 2 race weekends and the 2 trackdays that the friend I bought the take off from did. No warmers. The only reason the tire lasted that long is because I was on an SV, and I heatcycled the hell out of it (A group pace). Right as it hit the wear bars, it started to go off, so it was toast anyways. SVs tend to wear tires gently, but they still get up to temp so you're looking at probably 70+ heat cycles on it before there was a measurable decrease in grip at A pace. I've done 6-7 days on a set of UK Dunlop 209 Ntecs without them going off. I think I replaced them because I was going out to race, I'd have to check my track notebook. I did get in the habit of parking my bike with the sun directly on the tires, and that does help confidence out the door, and probably has a minor reduction on heat cycling. An old racer I know was talking about heat cycles back in the day, where bias plies would go off after one heat cycle, and tire warmers being totally essential to keeping your tires sticking around more than a day. On modern tires? It's really not a big deal. I'd say a quarter to half of the racers in the pits don't use tire warmers. If you replace your tires after 3 trackdays, you don't need to use warmers. If you're trying to push out to the wear bars, and you're diligent about using your warmers (ie, using them when you should, and not turning them on when it's not needed), then it could see some gains. And to address the "But they're better on the warm up lap!", well...they're really not. The problem is that most tire warmers don't come with shrouds for the rims, so if there's a bit of wind, you're going to have a hot tire, but a cold rim. And as soon as you stop heating up the tire, you're going to have the rim leeching all the heat out. So you could go great through the first few corners only to discover that the rim has leeched the heat out of the tire and suddenly you don't have as much grip as you expected. Not to mention that your suspension has to come up to temperature as well, so even if you have tire warmers, you're still going to have cold, non-compliant suspension until you get a lap in. Which is why I've never bothered with warmers.
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May 12, 2010 17:07
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You're probably just as better off parking out in the sun in pit-lane, rather than the pits.
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May 13, 2010 01:03
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2ndclasscitizen posted:You're probably just as better off parking out in the sun in pit-lane, rather than the pits. You can actually feel the difference in parking it with the tires in the sun on a hot day, the shaded part of the tire will be noticeably cooler It keeps way more heat in than I expected. It's not like tire warmers, but there's also a lot of talk about the correct use of tire warmers (ie, when you turn them on, what you turn them on to, etc, and you can cook them by going overboard with the warmers). 
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May 13, 2010 01:08
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Figured I'd drop this here too. Sunday's Race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afzrT1EGRH4 Just a view of the track, I was in the earlier heat.
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May 13, 2010 01:22
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Jabs posted:What is this MRA you speak of? Motorcycle Roadracing Association They race at HPR, PPIR, and Pueblo through the summer. They run a lot of different classes, and just started a new class this year called Superstreet, that's only $100 for some classroom and practice time, with a race Saturday. It's got much lower prep requirements, and is designed to be a much cheaper way to check out the MRA.
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May 13, 2010 15:51
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This is from my race last month.
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May 14, 2010 04:14
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Zool posted:This is from my race last month. So far out in front ain't nobody contendin'
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May 14, 2010 04:35
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VTNewb posted:Figured I'd drop this here too. What exactly is this sort of race called? Endurocross? Hare Scramble?
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May 14, 2010 15:56
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I had a sm race today that ended early with a pretty rough off. Half way through the first practice lap another rider lowsided as I was passing him on the outside. I got on the front brake as he and his bike slid in front of me, his head had to have been less than a foot in front of my front tire as my rear tire came off the ground. With my options at endo, or run over a 12 year old boy I kept on the brake, launching myself over the bars. I flew through the air and executed a flawless jujitsu roll upon landing. Deftly breaking my left clavicle, and trapping myself beneath my motorcycle. One way to look at it, is that I average 2 crashes per lap. Since I won't be riding for a while I'll move over to TCC to post about my new prescription drug habit.
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May 17, 2010 05:29
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Z3n posted:1. That's the price of going faster. You don't need warmers though, for a variety of reasons. Just chiming in on the sentiment that a modern liter bike is qualitatively harder on tyres. My 954 was the only bike I've owned that actually needed a track-day type tyre - I started off its trackday career on Diablos (being a Pirelli/Metzeler fan and because I couldn't get it to hit an apex on the stock bridgestones), and on a dry day with a high track temp (e.g. anything in the mid-Atlantic region in summer...) it would literally liquefy the back tyre by halfway through a session. It was like riding our local hard-surfaced MX course - sliding greasily out of the apex slightly crossed up and then hooking up late and wheelieing between the corners on the power. I kept the Diablo at the front but had to go to a corsa at the back to stop it. In contrast, my TRX (~79bhp)was riding around guys on '954s a couple of years ago on a lovely Conti Attack and an old Sportec M1, and could do that all day without the back end stepping out. And though I haven't bothered to take the Hornet to the track yet, the Angel STs are quite happy taking a thrashing from 94hp worth of 600 without any grip problems, so they'll stay on for trackdays. What I took from needknees' last post was that he might well be better off picking up an old F2-F4 trackbike/racebike, or something of that kind (GSX-R 600 etc). It'll pay for itself in cheap rubber and dinged CBR1000 rims over a couple of years. Slightly slower bikes, to me anyway, are usually more fun. When I was running a CBR4 last year and borrowed a buddy's 929 for a session, I was reminded how much concentration you need to deploy the power and then, more importantly, to reel it in before turn-in. Where I was putting in smooth laps on the 400, the 929 spent corner exits with the back fighting to get away, and corner entry with the forks struggling and failing to deal with the extra speed carried down the straight, extra weight and the extremely powerful braking setup. Admittedly, if you go too low on the HP, you just get held up in the corners and passed down every straight, but there is a happy medium out there. Also +1 on no-one needing warmers unless they're racing and really, really have to be very quick into the first corner.
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May 17, 2010 14:06
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Zool posted:I had a sm race today that ended early with a pretty rough off. Half way through the first practice lap another rider lowsided as I was passing him on the outside. Suck, what's your recovery time like? Gonna be able to ride with me in July? Saga posted:What I took from needknees' last post was that he might well be better off picking up an old F2-F4 trackbike/racebike, or something of that kind (GSX-R 600 etc). It'll pay for itself in cheap rubber and dinged CBR1000 rims over a couple of years. Slightly slower bikes, to me anyway, are usually more fun. I have been barking up this tree for like 3 months now. He just doesn't listen. And yeah, I agree that slower bikes are more fun, within reason.
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May 17, 2010 17:06
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Z3n posted:I have been barking up this tree for like 3 months now. He just doesn't listen. I know, I'm retarded.  Honestly if I'm discerning some "reason" through all of the other voices up there, here's what's going through my head at the moment. I'm well aware a less powerful bike would be a better learning tool... but I'm waiting in the weeds to snag what I think is a great deal. It very well may be at the end of the season or over the winter when people are dumping poo poo cheap. I know that doesn't help the here and now but it's definitely on my short list. I'm still kicking myself for passing on an AMAZING deal I stumbled across last winter, but that was before i was sure I really wanted to get involved in the whole trackday thing. I knew I wanted to try it, but that would have been a pretty big commitment without ever touching tire to track. Besides, I'm having a loving BLAST on the CBR as it is, and making (what I feel to be) great strides in my riding abilities. No doubt a less powerful bike would get me there faster but it's great actually getting the CBR in the environment it's designed for.
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May 17, 2010 21:38
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No doubt, it's a fun bike on the track. I really liked my '954 best on track - its "character" only really came out in that environment for me. At the risk of contradicting myself, the other way to put it is not that you need a slower bike (liter bike torque means never needing to worry about being in the right gear, after all ) to learn on or to prove you're suitably abasing yourself before the gods of track riding, but just that a bike with less HP is likely to go faster and be more fun/less scary more of the time. Hence my example of my TRX, which regularly outran "proper" sportsbikes, despite having zero weight advantage (~189kg), cheap-rear end forks and the worst rubber on the circuit. Not needing to worry about getting on the throttle meant I could get on it earlier and drive past the guy on the R1/blade/GSX-R in front of me. It's more like a bonus that you save on tyres and the cost of crashing it (if you decide you want to push that hard, that is). needknees posted:I know, I'm retarded.
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May 18, 2010 07:22
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Have many 400s made it to the USA? They're great trackbikes.
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May 18, 2010 08:38
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Zool posted:I had a sm race today that ended early with a pretty rough off. Half way through the first practice lap another rider lowsided as I was passing him on the outside. Your off right there sounds 95% like mine last year when I was at an MX track. Minus the broken bits, I received a concussion though and a bunch of sore muscles for a couple weeks. Kid landed a jump and pulled into my line and stopped, I was in mid air and as soon as I touched down locked the brakes .. no other options, went over the bars just like you and skid on my head with the bike landing on me. Heal up quick!
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May 18, 2010 11:34
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2ndclasscitizen posted:Have many 400s made it to the USA? They're great trackbikes. AFAIK, none of the race reps were imported. I eventually gave up on my NC23 because, despite having great handling and making a nice noise, it was only fun on a clear track (or I guess if you're racing it against other 400s). If it got into traffic, you'd get eaten up on the straights by bikes with 3x the power, or just deliberately block-passed in your braking zone for no good reason. Having adjusted your line, you'd turn in and the bigger bike would then reverse rapidly towards your front tyre. Once you'd finished cursing the guy in front, stood it up and taken a wider line around the outside, you'd finally get on the throttle hard and start to pass, but by that time the other bike's stood up and romping away. Of course there are certain corners where they work - even with the 80s-tastic front end geometry, Gerards at Mallory Park allowed you to dispatch anything, due to the great length of the mid-corner. Guys would go in 40+mph quicker and a full 150m ahead down the front straight, and you'd be past them by the apex without trying. The other problem with them is simply not "making the distance". In a mixed field of faster bikes, the 400 often just can't make the optimal entry speed from one corner to the next. E.g. Mallory again - between the chicane after Gerrards and the following right/left bends, the 400 is basically vertical and held on full throttle. If you were going faster, you could exploit the bike's corner speed advantage, but you can't actually accelerate hard enough to do so. I actually found the Duke was a better track bike. It has a power deficit over the average 400, but the braking and handling is orders of magnitude better. With the Duke, you're still on the throttle when everyone else has hit their braking point, you can haul it down startlingly fast (despite having only one caliper), still carry a metric poo poo-ton of trail up to the apex, and the corner speed is so huge that you aren't wondering whether you can pass the bike in front of you, the problem is deciding which side you're going to go around him (and what rude hand gesture to make). You do have to pick fairly slow tracks and expect to get absolutely killed down the straights, but at least you're never thwarted mid-corner.
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May 18, 2010 12:35
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