posted February 21, 2005 05:43 PM
OT - my weekend This is OT because the bike in question is an R6, not my 10R.
Friday was hell. I went to work... or tried to, at 06:00. The freeway was jammed up, took over an hour to get past the accident. I was borderline-late for my first meeting of the day, and that set the tone for the rest of the morning.
I left work at 10:40 to go pick up the preload collar for the shock I'd rebuilt. Now, this was an aggravating story, as Race-Tech and Parts Unlimited were both in some way conspiring to keep the part out of my hot little hands. Nonetheless, the part showed up at Pipe City just at the 11th hour - literally, as I picked up the part at 11:00. Now to try to get the hair cut, the shock filled with nitrogen, and pack before getting dropped off at the race trailer by 14:00... So, long story short, I had very little time to grab everything I needed, and left a bunch of stuff I'd want over the weekend at home.
I went with three other guys: Phil: whose truck and trailer we were going in, and is the race school instructor for the track. Phil had been my instructor when I took the school a few months ago. Mike: a pretty good rider of similar size as me, who's been a trackday rider for several years, but was now taking the race school. Aaron: a younger guy who had just made the decision to stop riding the street and convert his R6 to track-only duty, and was taking the race school too.
We got in the truck and headed East in the rain at 16:00, starting a 5 ½ hour drive. Conversation was about what we wanted to work on, and how we'd set the bikes up in the morning Saturday. Got the hotel room, sacked out around 23:00 hours.
Saturday dawned - really dawned, the sun wasn't hidden by the rain clouds pounding Phoenix and points West. We ate breakfast, ran by Wally World, filled up the various fuel containers, and got to the track.
I installed my revalved rear shock with Phil's help, and we set the sag on the new spring (preload) quickly, my pre-installation guess at preload was about right on, we ended up giving it about ½ a turn more. The front springs are a rate too light (0.95s, I'd like 1.05's), but the damping is about right for the day, I'll be getting new springs next week. We set the rebound, left the compression where I'd put it after replacing the shim stack. No further adjustments to the shock or fork all weekend!
A few other pre-track setup mods to the other guys' bikes - Phil swapped out his new Pirelli slicks for some chewed up ones since he was going to be conducting the race school; Mike made some tweaks to his, and we spent some time with Aaron's R6 as it was getting a 190/60 rear and some variant of the D208GP front. Aaron needed a few more adjustments that day, mostly removing rebound and preload.
After the rider's meeting, the first group went out, and we changed into our leathers, and stopped talking about goals for the day.
The first day was run counter-clockwise on the track, and I headed down the pit lane slowly, resolving to take it easy on my new 208GP/A DOTs, as I don't have tire warmers. Yet. That was a limitation on me for the first three laps each session throughout the weekend, warming the tires, and I'd just as soon not waste the time.
I hadn't really ridden the bike much before - a quick test ride and a quick putt around the neighborhood to air out the new paint was all. The bike really responded well to inputs - by the first turn, I completely forgot about taking it gently due to unfamiliarity with the bike, as it had no bad habits other than a mild shake when it sets the front wheel down, and was very compliant under me. I negotiated the track slowly that first lap - a 1:34 pace, looking for the bumps, and deciding I liked how the shock soaked them up. The track was dry, the wind was light, the other people on the track moving at about this pace. I came down the back straight, and entered the carousel, and instantly surprised myself by having no fear about passing 8 or so riders on the outside at a slow (to me) pace on cold tires. Laughing, I hit the start-finish straight, and watched the lap timer update, this was a good start. Two more laps, I was turning a 1:24.90, and had already reached my pre-setup goal of 1:24's, and I wasn't pushing hard yet. The other riders on the track were mostly slower than this pace, and I was passing lots of people, setting them up, shooting for outside passes, only choosing to dive under when the target rider took a wide line. Shooting them down like fish in a barrel, with ease, it seemed like.
Well, I knew it wasn't going to be that easy - I'm not going to be racing the folks in the slow group. I could get my times down to 1:23.4 by myself, but I wasn't really getting faster. I wasn't finding anyone to follow around, except Aaron or Mike, who were turning the same times more-or-less I was, so it was hit-or-miss if I found them. Phil and I didn't really get hooked up on Saturday, as he was shadowing the race-school students.
Lunchtime found me wondering why my back wheel was dirty (dirtier than brake dust would account for), and I found oil all over my shock. For a bad moment I thought the shock seal had let go, but quickly traced it to a loose dipstick (me) that had failed to safety-wire the engine oil dipstick. I had about a ½ cup of oil in the belly pan... A few rags and some safety wire later, all was good to go. Disaster averted, lesson learned.
I didn't ever get the braking zone before the bus-stop really figured out in this direction (CCW), so I have something to work on next time; this was easily where I lost the most time, and why I didn't really get better lap times than 1:23.4.
To the good side though, I had a blast passing people on the carousel on the outside; and at one point Mike and I passed a slower rider at the end of the start-finish straight - Mike on the inside, me on the outside, both of us on the gas, but the guy had rolled off. We both braked heavily, and flopped the bikes over, and all I can think the poor victim thought was 'holy sh*t, those guys are fast'. This was a good moment.
Throughout the weekend, the brake pads (Vesrah SRJLs) were perfect, single-finger braking, easy to modulate, never a hint of fade. I pushed my personal braking envelope a bit and started to build confidence in these pads and the D208GP front tire. I am shocked at how deeply I can brake into a corner with this R6, and how far over I can be leaned and hit the brake - one corner I had been thinking of as a three-turn series I'm now taking as a decreasing-radius turn that has me brake from 80MPH or so and catch a downshift near the end into second as I flop the bike over the other way... heady stuff.
Sunday morning the track was run CW. The weather was beautiful - 65' and sunny, light wind. Aaron's bike got a couple more suspension adjustments (rear sag), and Phil put the new slicks back on his bike (nice to have spare wheels, huh?). We started off in the slower group, and I followed Phil (in his instructor role) through the slower part of the track for three laps (he'd leave me on the front straight and wait for me again on the back straight to underscore the point that I'm slow); this encouraged me to brake later and stay on the gas longer; which helped a lot, and stuck with me, as my lap times were down in the 1:21.30 range. In this direction, I had the bus-stop "more" figured-out, and I steadily gained confidence in the grip of the tires. Working with Phil had me working more on top of the bike hopping over the tank faster, breathing harder, and sweating lots. I ditched the polypropylene under suit at lunch time.
For the afternoon sessions I joined the fast group (my choice), and Aaron did too, so Phil joined us there. I moved so I could follow faster riders (Aaron, Phil, Mike, and I were the fastest riders on the track in the slow group on Sunday), and because I don't think it was doing anyone any good if I passed slow riders with over 50 MPH difference in some spots (such as the entrance to the carousel...). I didn't hook up with Phil for the rest of the day, but did follow some of the faster guys around, and did block a faster guy behind me for three laps one session. But it seemed like the really fast guys could pass me like shooting fish in a barrel - its all relative.
Getting rid of the polypro under suit helped me get over the bike faster, and I was able to hang off a little further, pushing the bike more upright, and found a few seconds more speed in the carousel. I can't prove it, since I gave the laptimer back to Phil for the afternoon, but I think I was in the 1:19's as I could keep the fast guys in sight for a lot of the track, and got lapped/passed only once per session by only some of them (they turn 1:15's as a relaxed pace, as I understand it, race-pace is usually 1:11 or less for the expert racers). I was seriously working on top of the bike, but still riding pretty smoothly, and dealing with stuff as it came up.
Stuff that came up: the rear tire started to break loose as I upped the cornering speeds. It happened in a couple of hairpins, and in the carousel and the mini-carousel, and I knew it was costing me some time and more attention than I wanted to spare. I pitted after the first session with the fast group (where I'd blocked the one guy for three laps), and after consulting with a few Dunlop riders, dropped the air pressure three pounds. Problem solved - only one spin the rest of the day, and that was a 3rd gear, 15,000 RPM exit from the carousel where I whacked the throttle instead of a steady roll-on. I changed to taking the carousel in fourth at 9k so I could avoid an upshift at the exit, and it seems to have helped, too.
At one point a guy I know from several boards was in front of me on the straightaway, and he lost his front brake lines (rubbed through by the front wheel), and nearly highsided at 140 MPH when he tried to brake for turn 1, he saved it and his ZX-7R started tank-slapping badly - how the heck he saved it from that, I'll never know, but I flashed by the dust cloud where he went off the track, and waited until the end of the session to go find out how he did and what happened. Turns out he went about ½ mile across the desert (there is that much smooth runoff at this track - I think this is one of the safest tracks for a long way around) but had no other damage.
At the end of the day in the last session, I was getting tired - all that puffing and sweating adds up - and I tucked the front (lost traction on the front wheel) in a shallow ess-curve at about 40 MPH. Recovered by releasing the front brake and standing the bike back up with the back brake and rode three feet off the track (reapplying the front while I was still on pavement). After that, I spent the last four laps at 1:23 pace again, which felt like I was crawling but wasn't making me work hard.
My conclusions are that I still have a lot to learn, I need to find some time in lots of the corners, and gain more trust in my brakes and grip - I think I made huge strides, but there's room for improvement. I would like to be in better shape and not huff so much through a 20 minute session at near race pace (I was catching my breath on the straights...), and there is probably suspension tweaks to be made that will start revealing themselves as I start to get faster. I need to follow faster riders more, and yet I need to find out how to pass riders in the ess-curves where I am able to rapidly close with many many riders, but not flash past them yet - I think possibly its fear of making close passes and maybe some of it is courtesy, meaning holding off on track-day inside passing in the slow group. And, I need to work on the little details on reference points to set me up with the lines the fast guys use, my lines aren't bad, but not universally perfect, and I could be more consistent about hitting them. Phil tells me to ask for help here, and not try to do it all by myself, and I need to figure out how to do that, too.
And, lastly, I'm going to need a whole lot more rear tires, since this 208GP/A only lasted two days - I won't get more than a session out of it next practice day.
We made it home after midnight.
First race weekend is March 12 & 13.
I am one sore puppy today...
____________
ASMA 47
WERA 147
Needs a life
Full throttle!
Posts: One MEEEEEELLION
posted February 23, 2005 01:35 PM
Sounds like you had a good learning weekend. As you can see, the tire budget is always a factor.
____________
82 Gpz750, 84 Ninja 900, 2000 ZX12R (Muzzy Big Bore Kit), *another* 2000 ZX12R (Muzzy custom stroke crank 1341cc motor), 2004 ZZR1200, 2005 ZX10R, 2007 ZX14, 2008 Concours 14, 2014 Versys 650, 2014 Yamaha WR450F, 2015 Ninja H2
Needs a life
living life, and loving it.
Posts: 7981
posted February 23, 2005 02:13 PM
rock on, I always have fun on the track....and I always learn something....
____________
When in doubt, lean farther and go faster....
posted February 23, 2005 02:46 PM
Kz, Sounds like you had a great w/e (though you dodged a major bullet on that oil cap bro!). My only advice is to take one step at a time - it's a long season. Just keep your cool. When you are sitting on the grid with other bikes screaming all around you, and that 1 minute board gets tilted sideways, you will then realize that this is like nothing you've ever experienced. Have fun man!
____________
CCS #428
HOME
NEW TOPIC
posted February 21, 2005 05:43 PM
