Jump to content

You Guys Would Be Mad If I Did Not Share


Recommended Posts

Yeah. Just a standard track day where you provide your own bike. The BMW demo truck will be there but I doubt you could borrow one for more than a few laps. :)

 

All bikes are welcome not just BMW's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. REALLY looking forward to those two straights. As well as all of the corners.

 

As I mentioned before BMW's going to have their world superbike engineers there for data analysis. I'm going to take advantage of this with my data but my focus is not going to be as much the data itself as it is going to be learning how the engineer approaches the analysis. I'm going to take lots and lots of notes. :)

 

What I'm not looking forward to is the drive. I'll be driving at about 9-10mpg across country to get there and then back. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. REALLY looking forward to those two straights. As well as all of the corners.

 

As I mentioned before BMW's going to have their world superbike engineers there for data analysis. I'm going to take advantage of this with my data but my focus is not going to be as much the data itself as it is going to be learning how the engineer approaches the analysis. I'm going to take lots and lots of notes. :)

 

What I'm not looking forward to is the drive. I'll be driving at about 9-10mpg across country to get there and then back. :)

The longest straight is 0.62miles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_of_the_Americas#Configuration

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ouch. I don't feel so bad now about my fuel economy. I could care less about the cost of course. It's the constant stopping for fuel that annoys me so much.

 

I just invested in some vortex generators for my tow vehicle and for the trailer so hopefully that will help with the fuel consumption a bit and and give me a bit more time between stops. Most of the fuel economy issues that you see towing is not due to weight and is due mostly to aerodynamics.

 

Nothing wrong with the Odyssey. A friend of mine tows with one of those. Something to consider is some airbags for the rear suspension to level it out a bit and take some of the strain off the rear suspension. He did this with his and it tows really well.

 

I tow with a Range Rover myself. It's probably not on any "best of" tow vehicle lists but it has a #7500 tow capacity and is super comfy to soak up the miles.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Figured I would share this.

 

http://www.airtab.com/

 

Those are the vortex generators I bought. They are very commonly used on semi's to reduce the "suction" effect due to the flat rear section of the trailer. Even if I get just 1-2 mpg improvement they are worth it for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. The airbags go inside the rear springs and just help to beef up the rear suspension and give the van a bit more ability to support the tongue weight of the trailer. You still need to be a bit mindful of the fact that you may be close to the towing limits depending on the weight of your trailer. My friend was towing a relatively light trailer however they did not care for how much the rear of the van was sinking when he attached the trailer. It's a cheap upgrade that helps the van out a lot.

 

Air tabs also help out a lot with large enclosed trailers. They help a bit with fuel economy but they also help reduce a lot of the swaying and wind turbulence and make everything a bit more stable. I did a semi tractor trailer kit for my trailer and was able to do both sides and the roof of my trailer as well as the roof of my tow vehicle and still have some left over as spares or to do the roof of a 2nd tow vehicle. They help out a lot more than I expected and make the trailer tow a lot more easily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. The airbags go inside the rear springs and just help to beef up the rear suspension and give the van a bit more ability to support the tongue weight of the trailer. You still need to be a bit mindful of the fact that you may be close to the towing limits depending on the weight of your trailer. My friend was towing a relatively light trailer however they did not care for how much the rear of the van was sinking when he attached the trailer. It's a cheap upgrade that helps the van out a lot.

 

Air tabs also help out a lot with large enclosed trailers. They help a bit with fuel economy but they also help reduce a lot of the swaying and wind turbulence and make everything a bit more stable. I did a semi tractor trailer kit for my trailer and was able to do both sides and the roof of my trailer as well as the roof of my tow vehicle and still have some left over as spares or to do the roof of a 2nd tow vehicle. They help out a lot more than I expected and make the trailer tow a lot more easily.

 

I'll definitely look into it, but towing is one of the reasons we got the Touring Elite over the other models.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...