swft
Needs a life
Full throttle!
Posts: One MEEEEEELLION
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posted July 21, 2002 08:26 PM
Pacific Raceways Round 5
Well, the sidecars were in town, and that put a real crimp on practice time on saturday. ZHooligan took the SV out in the morning for one practice session, and I got in 3 laps in the afternoon. Still, the bike felt real good, and I looked forward to competing the next day.
I did a bit of practice in my black and silver leathers, but swapped back to my red leathers for the race. I've found that having a really scuffed up set of leathers keeps people from coming in and taking your line, because hey, they get close and see all the roadrash on those leathers... *grin*
Here's a pic of me on the SV with the black leathers on:
I was still gridded in the rear of the field, but that didn't bother me. It made my job simpler. Ie; try to keep up and pass when possible.
The red light went out, and we were off down through turn 1 flat out, bikes close to one another. Turn two came up in a hurry, and I was able to pick a good line through the turn and keep my speed up. The brakes were feeling a bit iffy. Took a lot of pressure to actually get them to do anything, which was a sure sign that the pads were glazed.
Kept going and on the second lap, made a very nice pass on a fellow rider in turn 3. Turn 3 is a hairpin at the bottom of a sharp drop from turn two, and it's a good test of braking ability and one of the few right handers at Pacific Raceways. The other rider had passed me coming down the hill, and cut in front of me, then went wide at the apex of the corner. I was able to turn in sharper because I had less speed at the apex and dive under him, then take away his line up to turn 4, the second hairpin. Turn four is fun, because the corner has a lot of positive camber, and you can push through it pretty hard. I've had the back tire slide around on me a couple times coming out of four, but for the most part, it's full throttle up the hill.
So I had put this rider behind me, and was doing great, up until I came up the hill, through turn eight (turn eight is taken flat out in fourth, bike leaned over, and run wide to avoid a pothole on the inside of the turn) and braking for nine. Normally, I brake hard for nine, downshift once, and tip the bike into nine, starting from the outside of the corner, decreasing my radius and lining up for a straight shot at the busstop. However, I did NOT downshift into third gear, instead I hit a false neutral, which really blew my line. When I was able to get the bike in gear, I had run off into the gravel! I coasted back onto the track, steered through the busstop, and took off in pursuit of the rider I had passed earlier in the race. Argh! I hate losing a position like that! I kept pushing, slowly creeping up on him every lap. I was finally able to pass him going into turn two. For some reason, he chose to run to the left, going into turn two, which put him on a very sharp apex for the corner. I was following a 125 GP bike on my normal line to the far right, and waited until the second brake marker before braking hard and tipping the bike into the corner, taking the line away from the other rider. There was one more lap after that, but I never saw him put a wheel in, so he must have faded back. A great race, I finished 13th. My lap times were actually a bit slower than the previous round, but I felt good about the race, and recovering from my error and getting back the one position I had lost!
  
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swft
Needs a life
Full throttle!
Posts: One MEEEEEELLION
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posted July 21, 2002 08:36 PM
A few pics:
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Zhooligan
Moderator
Post Whore Extraordinaire!
Posts: 3829
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posted July 21, 2002 09:14 PM
Thanks for letting me ride the SV this weekend Swft. It was especially nice that I did not take it on any off track excursions and kept the painted parts off of the ground!!
____________
To those who do not count their life in years, but in how life
has touched them in the past and how much it can hold in the
future; -- Youth is forever.
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swft
Needs a life
Full throttle!
Posts: One MEEEEEELLION
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posted July 22, 2002 02:45 AM
Yer welcome, Z! What a fun bike!
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Ozzy
Needs a job
need guberment cheese
Posts: 3172
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posted July 22, 2002 05:25 AM
Looks like your having a lot of fun!
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swft
Needs a life
Full throttle!
Posts: One MEEEEEELLION
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posted July 23, 2002 06:31 AM
 Edited By: swft on 23 Jul 2002 07:46
Thanks Ozzy, I'm trying to! I'll box up that rearset and get it out to ya today.
I looked at it, and just sent ya both sides, since one side would be fairly useless to me. The shifter shaft has been cut down to allow for GP shifting, that way it doesn't scrape against the frame.
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entropy
Moderator
Posts: 8671
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posted July 23, 2002 06:37 AM
DANG, swft, you are a large person! No wonder you are all over the 1347, 1270, etc!!!!
Sure looks like fun on a track, although I sure don't have the balls anymore to do that stuff. More power to you. Great pix. 
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This moderator uses moderation in moderation
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swft
Needs a life
Full throttle!
Posts: One MEEEEEELLION
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posted July 23, 2002 06:49 AM
Thanks man! Yah, I'm a svelte 220 lbs. Course, riding a SV650 ain't gonna make me look smaller! Things look a little more in perspective when I'm on the 12. 
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ZHooligan
Moderator
Post Whore Extraordinaire!
Posts: 3829
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posted July 23, 2002 06:50 AM
Yes, the SV does make your ass look big!!
____________
To those who do not count their life in years, but in how life
has touched them in the past and how much it can hold in the
future; -- Youth is forever.
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