- Barnsy
- Jul 22, 2013
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A single lap uses about 8-10% charge - a full recharge off a 220 outlet is about 3 hours, so if you're careful you can run 6 out of 7 sessions at a normal trackday with proper charging and cooling setups (when the batteries get hot enough, they don't charge as quickly as charging dumps a pile of heat into the batteries).
Ok, so, first day at Laguna!
It was a beautiful day out there, perfect conditions with a very warm track. This trackday is more of an electric exhibition day than an actual formal trackday, so it had some unique considerations to take into account. First of all, you don't get much track time - I had about 13 laps total during the day. (3 sessions with ~4 laps each, plus the single lap of the time trial).
The bike's setup is stock-ish, with clipons, rearsets, a Tyga RC211V fairing, and the rear shock revalved by SuperPlush. I've also got 2 different power modes, one is full power with full engine braking/regen, and the other is full power with no engine braking, as turning off the engine braking makes it much easier to set entry speed (no changes due to coming into the corner in a different gear, and no transition from engine braking to no engine braking). I'd recently adjusted the suspension as I wasn't happy with how the bike steered at the last Thunderhill day, probably because I hadn't even checked the settings and it was still running not enough preload and could use a little more rebound damping. I could probably use to go up a spring rate front and rear, but it's on the soft side of race setup at the moment, which I'm fine with, given that the bike doesn't have a crazy amount of power or anything, so a little more compliance at speed is fine. When I'm going faster, I'm only adding a few mph at the apex.
Went out for the first session, and tried to get accustomed to the track. I don't find the corkscrew all that much different than T5 at Thunderhill - the line is relatively similar, it's a slow, blind left hander off a crest where you pile a lot of lean angle in early in the corner and by the time you're approaching the apex you're already thinking about standing the bike up to fire it down the hill. The first time I went down it I stood the bike up too early and took the Marquez line, but after that I could pretty consistently hit within a few feet of the curbing as I crossed over. My fastest time of that session was a 2:02, and I could see I was leaving plenty of time on the table. My max speed down the front straight was just touching 100mph.
After my first session, I reviewed the footage from the session, tried to commit my braking and lap times to memory, jotted down some notes on that session, and had a brief chat with Brian from Brammo about gearing and engine choices. It became quite clear that I was geared too short for the track, as I never really went below 3rd gear, and down the straights I was getting well past peak power and losing drive as a result. Despite the fact that the shift lights don't come on until around 6.5k, you never really want to be over 6k unless you're in an over-rev situation, with peak torque coming at 5k. I committed to running a gear higher everywhere, leading me to exit most corners in 4th gear, with the exception being T11.
Second session I was seeing about +5mph down the front straight by short shifting the bike, and dropped down to the 1:59s. They do the time trial between the 2nd and 3rd sessions, which is great for track temp, but didn't exactly give me a lot of time to figure out how to consistently go faster without introducing a pile of risk to the equation. Unfortunately, Speed Ventures doesn't run motorcycle trackdays very often, so they have us enter the track at T10, and after 2 corners you're heading down the front straight for your flying lap. Definitely didn't have the same confidence as I was trying to manage the cold tires plus put in a fast lap, but we all had to deal with the same handicap. The Zeros also have a bit of an advantage in a single lap time trial as they make more power but get into an overheat situation faster, which is a non-issue on a single lap race.
Here's video of the TT lap:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H6FRplenUg
After the TT race, I decided to put in a last session and just cruise around, and had a great time not focusing at all on lap times and just enjoying riding around. Amusingly, I put in the same times just having a good time that I did on the TT lap, with plenty of early braking and a much more relaxed approach to the lap. Clearly, there's plenty of time left in the bike if the rider could get his stuff together.
A single lap of Laguna on the Brammo looked something like this:
Come over the top of the T1 hill on whatever line I felt like, still pinned, as the bike is only doing ~95mph and you can pretty much be anywhere on the track and make the kink.
On an aggressive lap, I'd brake at the 3 marker coming into T2, down to 4th gear hit the first apex and then sweep out wide, scrubbing speed, before you tuck back in for the second apex in T2. Push wide out to the right, then move back over to the left to set up for T3.
T3: Holding 4th gear, scrub some speed, turn in at the end of the curbing, and try and keep the line tight enough that you don't run wide, as too much speed into T3 will throw you right off the edge of the curbing. This is one of the more hairy corners as it is tighter than you expect on exit. Upshift to 5th on exit.
T4: No need to brake here, although I was doing it, as the corner seems tight but opens up and has plenty of space on exit.
T5; Brake aggressively, downshift to 4th, scrub some speed, and then realize that you came through too slowly as you're still not using all track on exit. Another corner that you can enter faster than you expect. Upshift to 5th on exit.
T6: You don't need to brake for this corner and can hold 5th, but the hill you climb on corner entrance makes the corner seem like it comes at you really quickly. It's another corner that you can enter faster than you expect. Grab 6th halfway up the hill on exit.
T7: You're basically banking the bike over and braking as you come through this corner, setting up for the Corkscrew.
T8: Downshift to 4th, enter wide to the right, and try and get the corner over before you hit the crest so you're pinned driving down the hill and sweeping to the right as you enter Rainey. Shortshifting into on exit of the corkscrew would likely be faster than holding 4th like I did.
T9: It's fast, and you don't want to take a sharp inside line as is tempting. You stay way right for what seems like way too long, building piles of speed, and then bank the bike over more to make the apex at Rainey.
T10: Scrub a little speed and pitch it in - heavily on camber, so you can carry a lot of speed through here. If you get good drive out you'll need 6th before you get to T11.
T11: Slow all the way down, drop the bike into 3rd gear, and power out down the front straight, running up through the gears. I was making it into 6th before the start/finish on a good drive, indicating I needed taller gearing.
All in all, had a great time. Ended up 5th in the production class out of 13, which I was pretty happy with considering I'd never actually ridden Laguna before.
Planned mods to the Brammo are now: Move down to a 160 rear, because the 180 is just excessive and I could use the reduced rotating mass, strip one of the front brake rotors for the same reason because I don't brake enough to need the dual setup, and swap out master cylinder for the appropriate one for a single front rotor. For club racing, I'll need to remake the belly pan to not be split down the middle to accommodate the motor controller, and safety wire/etc.
All in all, really happy with the bike. It handles really nicely, responds well to being pushed to go faster, and is a blast all around. Looking forward to picking my race license up again and getting out there next year in AFM, and shooting for a podium spot next year on the Brammo at the TT.
I don't get the hate for the sound of electric bikes, I think they sound pretty rad. Nice riding, Seca is such an amazing track.
I find it interesting that the Brammo engine revs so low. A lot of electric motors are easily capable of over 30k RPM, is there a reason Brammo went with a low-revving version?
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Jun 29, 2015 23:23
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Apr 28, 2024 13:18
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- Barnsy
- Jul 22, 2013
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Awesome entertaining review. I don't think I'll be able to afford anything like this in the near future, but it's nice to know there are plain awesome bikes out there. Also completely agree with the technology stuff: the more gizmos let you have more fun safely, the better.
Also agree about your vibration point: cb650f was supposed to be vibey as hell according to the comparos, but it feels butter smooth after my cbr250. I think some journalists need to man up.
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Oct 12, 2015 11:40
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- Barnsy
- Jul 22, 2013
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Whelp.
Got the KTM torn down for it's 18k service, made it most of the way through the work, and all of the sudden:
A wild superduke appears!
The valves are slowly closing up on my 1290, about .01 every 10k miles, so I'll knock them all to the very loose end of the spec in 10k miles, and that'll keep them good for a good and long time.
The other SuperDuke is a buddy's, who bought it to go racing, had a season destroyed by bad luck, and ended with a spark cut quickshifter knocking a valve shim out and doing in the top end on the bike. So now it has a fresh top end, and he's looking for something that he can just race and not thing about. I'll be stripping it down, taking it back to street trim, and putting it up on the chopping block.
Anyone interested in a 10k superduke? Not cosmetically perfect, but hey, it's a Superduke for cheap!
If you were in Aus I'd sell my bike and take up your offer...
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Dec 30, 2015 03:47
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- Barnsy
- Jul 22, 2013
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The whole thing would actually make a fabulous art piece. But it runs just as nicely!
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Jan 23, 2017 08:21
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Jun 29, 2015 23:23
