khp

Kevin, My life is a bit hectic atm. I was 33,000' above Silverstone at the time of the race this weekend, and only got to watch it on my itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny laptop monitor* Tuesday evening. But seven different winners in seven consecutive races is a mouthful. I would have expected this in the beginning of the season, but not now. Why now? Mav totally deserved that victory btw. MM clearly went into "win it or bin it mode" but it was a great battle for them and us as spectators. *) Nope, it's neither yellow nor dotted.

I came to the same conclusion (the closest Ducati dealership was more than 2 hours away). Once you get comfortable repairing your own bike, it takes a BIG issue (blown motor) to pay someone else to fix it. Ah, more that have discovered the old adage: "If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself!" Applies to a lot of things beyond motorcycle maintenance.

When Bridgestone announced that they were stopping as supplier for MotoGP, Dorna sent out a request for bids to the tire manufacturers. Only one manufacturer replied: Michelin. Sounds to me that Dunlop isn't interested in getting into MotoGP since they are so heavily involved in Moto3 and Moto2.

+1 on the heat in the tires. Standing water (like on the picture) sucks the heat right out of those tires.

Good point. I'll see if I can find an upholstering company near me and discuss the idea. I got a 2nd hand seat off ebay some years ago so I have one "to go around".

I have two suggestions: 1) You should NOT, under any circumstances, suggest to her that she ought to lose 5 lbs. Hotfoot, you just made my day there. Your advice is very well dispensed, and to my knowledge covers all women that walk this earth. It's like trying to say that a woman is older than 29 years old More seriously, what I'd recommend you to do is to have the shock serviced by an Ohlins technician (new oil and Nitrogen gas, checking if any gaskets etc needs replacement. Fairly inexpensive stuff). I don't ride competitively on the track, so I keep my service interval to every 2 years (both for the roadbike and the racebike) - otherwise I would be looking at once a year.

Good tip, Dylan. Still doesn't fix my problem with the R1's seat angle being so steep that I'm ending up against the tank while riding over minor bumps on a flat road (despite digging my knees into the tank). Cutting a fully new seat (which is more horizontal) from racing seatfoam seems like the only fix to that.

Great to hear that you're so happy with the new R1, Damien. Congrats, and I'm a bit more than just a little envious of you. You wrote 5sec faster than before - did I get that right or did you mean half a second (0.5sec)? 5sec is m i n d b l o w i n g!

MCN posted an interview with Andrea Dovizioso about the transition from Bridgestone to Michelin tyres. Dovi posted a pic of the 2 pages on twitter here. Since it's pretty hard to read, I transcribed here for everyone's reading interest: Enjoy! /Kai

The airbags in MotoGP are inside the suit. Look for that "puffed-up look" on the upper body of the rider as he/she gets up and walks back in shame.

I have a fiberglass tank over over the actual tank of my R6. I put the grips to the tank cover and have no problems. A friend has a BMW F800, where "the tank" isn't a tank and he doesn't have any problems either.

Roland, I did the same trip as you, just back in 2012. I hired a rental car in the LAX airport. It takes a couple of hours to drive up there (85-95miles one-way). I was recommended (and used) the same Motel in Lancaster that the CSS team was using. Ask the office for suggestions.

The F800 isn't a 600cc sportsbike. It's something else - say a city commuter or roadster. Turns good, but when you take it to the track you'll start to find the limits of it (a friend and fellow CSS student of mine has it). For me, one of the key components of a 'real' sportsbike is a fully adjustable suspension, and the only thing you can do to the OEM fork is change the oil and give it stiffer springs. The rear shock has preload and rebound, but not compression. Don't get me wrong: the F800 is a nice bike, but it just isn't a sportsbike.

I don't have photos to show it, but I ride like that at least on my left side. It's gnawing a hole in the sole of the boot!

Right, I remember watching that interview with Mladin. Interesting counter-point to MotoGP today - 10 years later, where it's Rossis' superior hand throttle-control (avoiding the electronic TC) that make him save his tires and get better acceleration out of the corners than, say, Lorenzo.

Found this article from asphalt & rubber that dives into lack of development of new supersport bikes: http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/honda-cbr600rr-discontinued/

Great read, Dylan. I think you could evolve this further to a section or chapter in a Twist-3 book. The key take-away for me here is the point that as a rider I cannot - and should not - try to track those infinite number of variables that impact the available traction, but track my feeling of traction; the tire slippage. However, the feeling of a front tire slipping is different from the feeling of a rear tire slipping. The 'light' bars (or even a gentle rocking) is a dead giveaway for a slipping front tire. For the rear tire, how would you describe the feeling when the tire starts to slip more than usual? - just this Sunday, I doing a trackday with a worn rear and in the last session, the rear felt as it was 'gliding' slightly outwards through a RHS turn (the final turn out on the front straight, so you're feeding the throttle). This was a gentle gliding sensation throughout the first part of the turn (until I could stand up the bike enough to get away from the worn-out part), not a "let go & grip" feeling.

Denmark is an outlier, but here the R6 is 200K DKK and the R1 is 300K DKK (the R1M is 370K). The RR is 268K DKK for the base model. All of this explains why I still have "Madame Blue" - my 13yo R1. I think the reason why BMW doesn't get into the 600cc market and that you don't see new models coming out can be destilled down to three words: The Financial Crisis. Motorcycles are discretionary/luxury spending, and a lot of that got cut back on a world-wide scale from mid/late 2008, and it hasn't recovered yet. Companies may make a lot of money on the bottom line, but make people are not seeing an upturn in the personal finances. Sorry, I'm getting OT here.

IANAC, but the 1000cc bikes come with all the electronic gadgets and have seen a major evolution over the last 10 years, whereas several of the 600cc models are basically the same model as in 2008, only with "bold new graphics". Cobie (and Kieth) have told that with the rain/street/track/race driving modes have actually helped half the number of falls per student from the older bikes (the advanced TC didn't prevent me from loosing the front when hitting a bump during CodeRACE a few years ago, but I'll admit fault for that).

Kevin, I drove off at 4.30pm local time and were home at 1.30am this morning - 8 hours of driving and 1 hour for pitshops (and bordershopping - the Europeans/Scandinavians will related to this). I have still to re-watch the races, after catching up on all the QPs today. I think the original decision to stop the race was correct, as we got the real down-pour shortly after (btw those who claimed that it was a "tropical level rainstorm" clearly haven't lived in a tropical area). I think Race Direction and the Marshalls could have been better at assessing the track condition (and maybe waiting just another 5 minutes) before deciding on the 2.55pm re-start time. Valentino clearly admitted that he pushed too hard and the crash was his mistake, but all credit to #JackAssen for pushing when he had nothing to loose. But in the end it's still a pity to see so many crashes (in fact, everyone in the MotoGP field crashed at least once during the weekend), and it will inevitably impact the championship. It's all but gone for Valentino, I'm afraid. Edit: I also have about 1800 photos to sort and grade from the first two days

Captain Obvious here: Have you checked the coolant level and that there's coolant in the overflow reservoir? - there's a reason for that 'minimum' level in the overflow so the engine can suck in coolant instead of air.

I'm swearing by my contacts when I'm riding - even just on the road. I tried my glasses recently on the road and it was enough of a nuisance that I know it's way out of the question when riding on the track for me.

So, the guy on the yellow bike what you passed down the straight tries to re-pass you on the brakes and hits you from behind? - is that it? Daymn, Hugh!

Training in the wet is a free lesson in being smooooooth on the controls.

Kevin, From what I hear, HRC is very much "The Great Japanese Engineers At Headquarters Are Right". They had a pretty unridable bike last year, and they haven't made the problems smaller this year. Engine far too aggressive so they can't get any edge grip, can't get the tires to hook up and get the bike to go. All five Honda riders are having problems.