Jump to content

BikeSpeedman

Members
  • Posts

    98
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    23

Everything posted by BikeSpeedman

  1. there are clubs that for at least C if not B and C (can't quite remember) REQUIRE outside passing only. So you end up with people thinking that's safer and then they "grow up" to be A group riders who literally go onto the dirt to outside pass someone who's rightfully on the edge of the track. I'm not sure if expert coaches and racers agree with me but I think outside passes are awful. We don't have mirrors and it's very alarming to be surprised by someone right before you begin your turn. I'm expecting to be able to put my wheels on the outside edge without fear of someone competing for that real estate. And as soon as I get there, my eyes are looking inside. If you pull up beside me in the braking zone, I'll see you and won't turn into you. Your line will be shorter (than if you went outside) and assuming you are faster than me, you'll zoom past me with much less drama than if you had to ride a wide arc around the outside. You'll get to the apex first and I'll be able to use the full track on exit as well.
  2. Thanks. Same. I was in the slow end of the A group (not the slowest but definitely behind all the racers) but I rarely get passed in CSS classes. It's a lot less intimidating when the action is coming at you from one direction (even better if that direction happens to be in front of you). And there's no wild racers cutting people up in class - just better manners all around.
  3. I've done 7 CSS days and 20 regular track days. For the vast majority of my time, I was slow enough that tires were not that expensive. Near the end of 2019, I was getting about 4 or 5 sessions per rear tire. So by then, it would definitely be more cost effective for me to pay the extra money and use a school bike for my CSS days. Plus, easier to get to the event (no trailer speed limit, no loading/unloading) and then saving tires and fuel. Not to mention the damage liability on my bike is 100% and on your bikes it's something like $2k. That's a lot of value for the extra $200. The only thing I lost by selling my bike is the ability to do regular track days - something which I had grown to love. I did 7 btwn June and Nov in 2019. Then Covid. The thing is while I never got WERA fast or CSS instructor fast, I did manage to do 27 track days and wear out a lot of knee pucks without ever crashing. Not on the street or the track. I took my time and worked on technique and only added speed as I got better but always stayed within myself. Then I took over 12 months off and it felt like I'd be starting from scratch. I started thinking about the track fees, hotel costs, the trailer, tires, etc all while either being slower than I should be. I thought about how much money it would cost to get back to my Nov 2019 form. One day I may change my mind and might want to recommit. But if I go back to the track at all, my next 5 or so trips will be with CSS to make sure I'm getting back up to speed under their watchful eyes and making sure I'm doing it right. But for the next year or 2 at least, I'll just riding to work and back. I kept my commuter bike.
  4. Thanks! I just went to grab the title from my safe and realized I can't find it. My registration shows no lienholder so technically I could just fill out a transfer of title form and the buyer would get the title in the mail but I feel like it might turn off a prospective buyer so I've requested a duplicate and will wait until it arrives before I try to sell it. Anyway, I'll try out those boards when I get all the paperwork squared away. I sold my track bike recently and for the foreseeable future, my track days will be on CSS bikes.
  5. There's no classified forum here so I'm guessing it's not okay to post things for sale. I need to sell a motorcycle trailer. Are there any forums you guys can recommend where guys who need motorcycle trailers might hang out?
  6. So when do you plug in the warmers? The advice was just cover the tires after a session but wait to plug them in. How long do you wait?
  7. Dylan, I was doing some research about tire sizes because my bike comes with a manual that says "if you use Supercorsa V2, then use 200 rear but with any other tire, use 190." That concerned me bc Dunlop doesn't make a race tire in 190. So I started doing some research and ran across a post you made about tire sizes on another forum a few years ago. Based on your post, I think it's safe to mount a KR451 in 200 on my bike/rim size. My bike comes with a manual that says "if you use Supercorsa V2, then use 200 rear but with any other tire, use 190." That concerned me bc Dunlop doesn't make a race tire in 190. I'm going to disregard the manual and mount a KR451 in 200 - verifying with the Dunlop guy that works at our local track daI'm going to disregard the manual and mount a KR451 in 200 - verifying with our trackside Dunlop guy. That led me another post you made about the heat-cycle myth. Apparently the heat-cycle thing is a myth with respect to Dunlops at least. That's very good info. The one part of it that confuses me is that on Dunlop's own FAQ page, they say the following: That appears to contradict their other statements. BTW, this link you posted http://www.dunlopracing.com/Warmers.pdf is a dead link now. Not sure if it was moved or if they just got rid of it. I wanted to read more about what you said regarding not plugging warmers right after a session. It makes sense - don't add heat to an already hot tire - but how long do you wait before plugging it in? Assuming you get 40 min btwn sessions, how long do you let the tires cool off before adding heat again?
  8. Awesome. I'll reach out to Ginny when I upgrade. Thanks again.
  9. Thanks, Dylan! Okay so now I need to do the math to see how long it takes to make up for buying a generator and warmers. I know you guys sell the GPAs. Do you also sell the K448/K451?
  10. Hi guys. I've gone through 2 sets of Q4s so far and loved them. On my 675 and at a slower pace, they seemed to have decent wear. I just ran through a set on a 1000 and at -10 sec, I'm getting 2 track days out of a set. The rear went off in session 3 of track day 3. I've been researching and it appears that 2-2.5 track days is all you can hope to get out of the Q4s. So my question is do slicks last longer? I've read that to maximize the life out of slicks, you need to use warmers so they don't go in and out of temp (fewer heat cycles). How many track days could I hope to get out of a set of Dunlop slicks assuming I use warmers? Thanks.
  11. I've made a lot of progress at different parts of Thunderhill East. I've gotten my corner speed up in 1, 2, 5b, 8, 14, 15. I am wanting to start getting my speed up in 3 but it's off camber and I am not sure I know how to attack it safely. I've heard approach off camber like a decreasing radius but I'm not sure what that means. I'd rather ask now than after a crash and then get those "Oh, you have to ______ in off camber corners." I realize the basic premise of having less grip but I also know I'm not on the limit. I'm looking for specific techniques that you have to use on this kind of corner. Thanks.
  12. are you suggesting "Using arm's force to countersteer and make any bike turn, we cancel the self-correcting property of the steering geometry. Motorcycles don't really need a rider to avoid cornering:" contradicts my statement that you quoted? If so you must misunderstand me. I agree a bike defaults to going in a straight line with no lean. You push the right bar (same as turning bars to the left) to lean/go right. When you use hands to push/pull the bars, it's the bar movement that causes the lean which causes the turning action. If you are riding without hands, you have to get the bike to lean to turn but without the bars, you can't create nearly as much force. But the bar-direction is still the same, it's just that the order is flipped. Just like CSS says, you can't turn nearly as effectively without hands but of course it can be done. Interestingly, and what you quoted of mine, is that when you use your no-hands body english method to lean right, the bars still end up going left (right bar forward) in order to allow you to lean. Either way (with bar pressure or without), you're still counter steering to turn. It's just a matter of how well you can do it. The no-hands method certainly limits your effectiveness.
  13. I know sometimes it feels like you're pushing down on the bars to turn but you're not. You're pushing forward which makes that side of the bike lean down which makes your hand feel the downward motion. I know some people claim they're able to turn with foot pressure and/or body english to cause the bike to lean but both methods are simply riding no hands. A) it's way way less effective than with hands. You claim 60% as effective but this is easily disproved on a skid pad or an obstacle course. Estimating based on how you feel is not useful and of course, it varies on speed. Try changing lanes no-handed at 60 then repeat the process using push-pull. B ) riding no hands still requires counter steering. It just happens with less force and happens in reverse. Instead of turning the bars left to lean right, you lean right to turn the bars left. To the foot-peg steering method, the only thing outer peg pressure achieves is enabling you to put more inner bar pressure. Just like you jump from your left foot to make a right handed layup, when you push on the left peg, you effectively harness your body's ability to push on the right bar with your right hand. If you ever doubt it, take your hands off the bars, push with your left foot and stick your head out over the right. You will probably list lazily to the right but it's a quite a bit less effective than what you're actually doing (even if you don't realize it). These facts are true on a sportbike, a Harley, and my 15 lb road bike.
  14. Thanks, everyone. Of course, when you're slow the improvements come in big steps. I'm not really fast yet but by the end of the day, the way I was going through the esses was probably the best I've ever felt on a bike.
  15. I thought I knew how beneficial it would be and I thought I knew what I wanted to get out of it. I was kinda wrong on both counts. The personal consultant approach makes the leap between L3 and L4 huge. Take what we all know about CSS coaches. They're well versed in the hangups regular humans have in riding motorcycles fast and they're incredibly skilled at breaking down those barriers and knowing what the riders need to become better. Now, take those skills and remove the confines of teaching 5 new skills in a day and just let them have the time to fix whatever needs fixing and that's the difference between L3 and L4. I was at SoW. I was struggling at the kink and it turned out the problem was actually starting at the turn-in for 8. This was nice but the next revelation was that I was turning too slowly. It never felt like it to me because I was able to hit my marks at the speed I was riding. But much like the previous issue, the solution was not what I expected. I thought once I had more pace, I'd turn more quickly. But once they got me to really turn more quickly, I found that I had to up my pace. Again, the solution to a known problem was far from intuitive. After circling SoW who knows how many times at basically the same pace (better form each time but never more pace), being forced to do quick-turn correctly (in my case, push-pull) forced me to approach the corners with more pace because if had turned more quickly at the same entrance speed, of course, I would have early apexed. This one change got me 9 seconds. Next year I'm going to find a stretch of 3 or 4 days at SoW and book multiple days at once. Primary focus (I think) will be T1. Can't wait.
  16. RE Car tire widths... The movement of a car tire when turning is split between the wheel and the tire. The steps involved are: Turn steering wheel the wheels turn while the tires remain in original position the tires then let go of the road surface and twist to get back in line with the position of the wheel This repeats in little steps over and over throughout the turn. It happens for rear tires too but it's the attitude of the car which turns the rear wheels. In both cases, the tires lag behind the wheel, let go of the road, and catch up with the wheel as long as the direction is being changed. The way a tire performs this sideways deflection (twist) is a product of sidewall height and tire width. This is one of the main reasons race cars have low profiles and more width. It should be noted that there's a practical limit for how low you can go with profile before losing too much suspension effect from the tire. It's far more desirable to add width as much as possible without hitting suspension components or fenders. Also, you want to increase the wheels along with increases in tire because even though you can often add +5 or +10 mm for a given wheel size, it will allow the tire to twist more than if this relationship is controlled. If the article says that more width does not give more grip (in cars), then it is wrong. I spent a lot of time a while back autocrossing and time trialing. I've been to racing schools and read dozens of books about car setup and performance. Classes are tightly controlled about all aspects of the tire including width. Getting a tire that is too wide for your current class bumps you into a different class and your lap times drop. It's easily verified. Anyone involved in racing (bikes or cars) will tell you being able to consistently run laps with little variation is important both for safety and to reliably improve the car's setup. It's not "in your head". It's a real effect. I can't speak to bike tire widths.
  17. I got a Pista GP when they first came out (~2 years ago) and love it. It's crazy expensive but Revzilla has a few colors listed for about $1k now.
  18. He did quite well in the wet FP1 as well. Briefly as high as 4th and ultimately finishing in 14. At first it seems odd for a SoCal boy to be so much better in the wet than the dry but he moved to England when he was 13 or 14 as a home base for his European racing career so it kinda makes sense. Hopefully he gets a bit better in the dry.
  19. Oh no. I just saw this. It's a 675R. 1st: full track day (4 or 5 sessions) 2nd: I was sick so I did 2 half-sessions and 1 full session and went home. 3rd: It was the 2nd session of the day when I started having the problems. Commuting distance covered about 500 miles. I thought the "street" tires like the Q3s would endure more heat cycles than that. Are you guys swapping out tires every other day at the schools? Yikes.
  20. I've been doing some introspection and I realize I actually do prefer right turns. There's some pre-turn stress probably linked to the fact my body doesn't bend that way as easily. So why am I faster in lefts? Possibly bc Thunderhill is almost entirely lefts and I get to practice them a lot more. There are 10 lefts and 5 rights by the official count. However, 2 of the rights are kinda straights so you don't lean much at all and another 2 are off camber so you're naturally going to lean less on those. There's only one level right turn where you're not straight-lining it and that one is a very late apex where you're trying to stand the bike up asap bc it essentially leads on to the front straight (you're pretty straight through the next corner). It'd be interesting to look at the data on a track with some fast right hand sweepers.
  21. To be honest it varies. Sometimes I locked on to the back of the tank with my thigh and others I'm farther back with knee into the side of the tank. I can say that I can do either position in right turns without any trouble. I've been working on stretching off the bike and practicing on the road. One thing I've noticed is that I've had different mechanics with my inside foot R/L. I'm now trying to focus on replicating every detail of my right turns on my left turns. I hope it's sorted by the time I come back to CSS so I can spend my time working on fun stuff.
  22. I keep forgetting to check my notes. Yeah, he dialed one softer by 4 or 5 clicks and 1 stiffer by 1. I'm sure he did it the correct direction bc he seemed really knowledgeable. Since having the squirmy feeling on the way to work that one day, I decided to run 34/34 on the street. Some mornings are shockingly cold and might cause my pressure to be lower than expected. They feel better. I also put my shock back to my old settings bc I know I've had good results on the track with those settings. The only known variable between 11 good sessions (2 total track days plus 1st session of the 3rd - which included my PB) and the bad sessions was tire pressure. When I go back to the track, if I keep my pressures where I trust them and still feel squirmy (or see craters) then I'll go back to Dave Moss's settings.
  23. Thanks. Yeah, ironically it's the opposite for me. Judging by Gs and lean angle, I'm way more confident in lefts. 1.14g left to .98g right (peak for each). And 43 degrees peak left to 38 peak to the right. This pattern plays out session after session, day after day. It's not a one-off. The reason I say it's opposite is that left is the side I have trouble hanging off correctly. I tend to get over way less to the side that I'm significantly faster on. When I work really hard at flicking over and actually do get over "enough", I feel tightness in my hips and back making me far less comfortable getting down and pointed in the right direction. I can still keep my elbows bent, inside elbow down, hands light on the bars, and not crossed up. But there's so much tension throughout my back and hips that I just notice that I have physical imbalances to work on.
  24. Apologies in advance for not keeping this brief. Switched from Supercorsas to Q3s a couple of months ago. They felt awful at first. I've ridden brand new Supercorsas 3 times and never felt this but I recalled feeling good on Q3s at CSS so I kept the faith and scrubbed them in. 30 miles on the road and then 3 sessions on the track and they started to feel great. An AFM racer looked at them at the end of the day and commented that my suspension was setup well bc they looked great. Went back a few weeks later and they still felt good. Went back Tuesday and set a PB in my first session. 3 laps into my 2nd session, leaned over and on maintenance throttle before the apex of turn 8 (Thunderhill), the rear started to walk around on me. It felt like the tire was low so I backed off the pace and came in to look. It was 30 psi. That was fresh off the track where it would normally be higher than that. I went looking for the Dunlop trailer (which wasn't there) and talked to a tuning guy. He said the tire was covered with craters and my pressure was fine so it must be the shock was too stiff. He backed it off 2 clicks and went back out. I was nervous and slower this time but I felt it again in turn 6. He backed it off another 1 or 2 clicks. I found a guy who was there in place of the normal Dunlop guys and asked him about it. He said I should drop it down to 23 psi. That's the recommendation for the D211s, not Q3s. Having gotten Q3 recommendations from Cobie and "the real Dunlop" guy before, I knew he was wrong and ignored him. After lunch, I borrowed an air tank and got them up to 30r/32f. Went back out and felt good again. Went back to the tuning guy and he said they looked good too. I think I went wrong earlier in the day because I started at 29/31 and then immediately after my session, I bled them down to 30/32. That was my process on the 2 previous track days but today was kinda cool outside and I think they ended up too low. Then I suffered by talking to too many people who know a lot about Dunlop race tires but not so much about Q3s. I almost didn't bother posting about this because I sorta felt like it was all worked out. But then this morning on the way to work, the rear felt really squishy and unstable. I checked and reset my pressures when I got home. I've been riding at 30/32 on the street too bc my commute is pretty severe canyon carving. Today was the first day they felt squishy and unstable at that pressure. I'll try adding a bit of air tonight but I thought I'd throw this out there and see if anyone else feels this way about Q3s and if it's something I should worry about or just ignore.
×
×
  • Create New...