Jaybird180

I saw something the other day that Brandon Paasch now is on an FIM Moto2 team and finished 12th in his first race! Go Brandon!

2020 is shaping up to be an awesome season. 5X (Consecutive) World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea will have his hands full. His closest competitor for 2019, Alvaro Bautista is changing factories, which is...interesting. I don't know what precipitated that but I thought Buatista on the Ducati was a match made-in-heaven, but I guess not. Honda is back with full factory support and hired Butista to pilot the all-new, homologation special CBR1000RR-R SP (yeah, that's a lot of letters) Fireblade. Let's see if Honda can get out of their racing slouch. BMW came to play, with a new 2020 model that is more than just an evolution of it's prior models. Yamaha made some tweaks to their bike from what I hear, squeezing more power from their engine for 2020. And.....(get this)....we now have an American rider in the series again! I've been a JR fan since his days on the Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR World Supersport, but I gotta root for my fellow country man, Garrett Gerloff. What do you guys think will happen this upcoming season?

Nice video. He’s a good story teller...and I know what he went thru because I’m doing the same...thinking about it too much LoL.

I am in need of better feel in my front braking system. Due to stock class rules, there are restrictions on what I can do to the bike. I can't change to Stainless Steel lines, upgrade calipers, master cylinder or rotors (I don't think), but it does appear that I can change the brake pads. I did some research into the various materials, but the articles I found only discuss costs, longevity and composition, but not much in the way of feedback and feel vs stopping power. My current setup (very likely OE Yamaha pads, but I'll have to verify - shame on me) feels spongy but has the capability to lift the back wheel off the ground with alacrity. Unfortunately I have experience with this, as it caught me off-guard when I had instead expected the front tire to slide on the cold pavement this Friday evening, but it never did. This is for my TT-R125 Minimoto trackbike. Which pad material could improve my feedback in what the brakes are doing and offer more progressive feel? Organic, Semi-Organic, Sintered, Metallic, etc.? I wasn't able to find out what the OE pad is made from, but I've put in an inquiry with a major parts distributor to see if they can help. UPDATE: The supplier says the pads “appear to be ceramic”.

I heard that Honda is doing a Factory Team with full WSBK support in 2020 and Bautista will be their lead rider.

The pic looks like ViR....Turn 2

That sounds like a good goal to achieve! Welcome to the forum.

It's my understanding that Garrett Gerloff is going to WSBK on Yamaha's dime, even though Cameron Beabier just won the MotoAmerica Superbike crown for the 4th time (CONGRATULATIONS) If that's so, then we're getting another American star! What's the magic formula that makes someone a better candidate? I'm currently listening to a podcast and Cameron is endorsing Garrett for the job and talking about his stats and youth. Cameron is 26 himself, which I consider young (I'm not an old fart...yet- LoL).

So, we just sent one of ours over to the other side of the big pond and he took the crown! Brandon Paasch is the newly crowned 2019 BSB Moto3 Champion! CONGRATULATIONS!!! Brandon is also a member of one of the clubs we raced with last year, NJMINIGP (that’s a plug- I have no shame- LoL). Talking with a friend, he wanted to know the difference in skill between Brits and us Yanks and I couldn’t say definitively if there was nor what accounts for it considering there are Brits in World Level racing but currently no Americans. We both have FIM level tracks, we both have crappy tracks and everything in-between. But they have something that we’re missing that allows them to get more and keep more racers at that level than we do, whereas we have a star every once in awhile. What are they doing that we’re not doing over here? Speculation is okay for this discussion.

When you ride, do you get arm pump? Cramped hands?

3-4 minute cool down is quite significant! I notice that on the grid of MotoGP and WSBK, they remove the tire warmers just before the sighting lap and it appears they aren't going fast enough to heat the tires (???). If this is true then it means they're losing some temperature during that lap, considering the ambient and surface temps are lower than the hot temperature coming right off warmers. They seem to get back to race pace by about lap 2-3 but it's not a fair comparison of standing start vs a rolling start.

Then may I humbly suggest that if the coaches are basically riding all day, there may not be sufficient time for the tires to cool enough to be considered a "heat cycle", that instead they stay within a heat range throughout the day. Moot point, but it may be useful in a data collection scenario to understand how a street rider or trackday guy isn't getting the same mileage the coaches do (besides the obvious skills gaps). Looking further into this, I found that car racers actually PAY for someone to heat cycle their tires for them. Tire Rack for example, charges $15 to heat up an R-Series racing tire to full operating temperature to break the molecular bonds so they can reform and realign under cooling conditions that take 24-48hrs without load being on them. Might be snake oil (I dunno), but folks are paying for it.

Dylan- If you don't mind, I need a little context to understand what you're saying here. So my question is: What's the comparison of miles on a coach bike to student bike (with 3 riders) on any given school day?

Yes, it's true that you get more tire in contact with the pavement with lower pressures (to a point), but despite the myths contact patch size isn't the primary factor in providing tire grip. Tire grip restated in physics terms is the coefficient of friction between the two surfaces (road and rubber) and the myth is that bigger contact patch = more grip. The tires act as part of the suspension system, responding to the irregularities in the pavement often in ways the forks and shocks cannot. This would be referred to as compliance of the tire. When the tire is not in physical contact with the pavement, you have no grip. As a tire (internally) heats up, the air inside increases pressure, pushing from the inside on the tire and giving it more of an inflated shape and hardness - pressure. Tire pressures are set in such a way to allow for running conditions to put the tire into the optimum temperature range for the tire to adhere to the pavement based on it's chemical makeup (the rubber and the other "stuff" the manufacturer puts into the tire) and to inflate the tire to a workable compliance based on expectations of performance working in concert with the forks and shock to give the rider what is needed - friction (and absorbing some bumps is nice too). All of this is the long way of saying: don't take tire pressures as gospel, they can be bike, rider, asphalt composition, surface and ambient temperature specific. Some tire brands are more tolerant than others of what the proper range would be. Dave Moss has talked about some Michelin tires being 1/2lb sensitive! I am very interested in knowing if when you felt the bike "gripped a little better" if you ramped it up a little bit or aggressively? What was your mental state knowing this was your last session of the season? How was your throttle control and what was your sense of connection to the rear wheel as it came around? Did the RPM rise? I'm very curious as to why you lost the rear and not the front as @Cobie Fair described above. I'm also curious as to how this didn't turn into a highside.

Considering there are very few left handers and that it was the 2nd lap then I understand how it could lead someone to consider that the tires weren’t yet warm. Something to consider: What did the bike do on the previous lap? What was your comparative pace? Did it slide or give any warnings on that first lap going left? How was the right side? When you pit from your previous sessions, are the tires hot to the touch? If not, I wouldn’t open your wallet on the tire warmers just yet. I’ve never run Metzlers but Dave Moss told me that he doesn’t let riders run less than 30psi until their pace is at a certain point that warrants it. I didn’t inquire further on his rationale.

Chap18 TOTW2 has a picture of a hairpin and some lines. Geez- is there anything that isn't in this book?

Ironically, on another forum this morning there was a discussion about a user who purchased helmets designed for the Asian markets. He typically bought Arai and the sizes seemed to fit his head-shape well and he saved several hundred dollars per helmet. They wouldn't be DOT approved in the Asian market. I've once purchased a helmet that was ECE approved but not SNELL (it was DOT approved BTW) and the organizer of the event that I was participating in specifically said all helmets must be SNELL approved; I know there was some debate a few years ago about the merits of each certification model. I'd imagine at the UK schools they would see more ECEs than we see on this side of the Atlantic. I would again have no problem purchasing an ECE-only helmet. Does the school allow them?

Let's recap: Maxed out rear preload increased rake angle (and trail) The rider says: Bike steers quickly (???) Cornering clearance is sufficient Low corner speed Unknowns: Are the tire sizes stock (it appears so)? What caused the rider to desire to make this change? How did it handle before? Resultant changes of geometry in wheelbase and swingarm angle Other changes rider/owner made from stock that would affect the above? Rider's application of standard throttle control (though presumed to be good and well handled)

That was worthwhile. Thanks

You say that you've done 60+ days with CSS?!!!

I gained a greater appreciation for Dani watching this documentary.

Some people just have that knack. That way of explaining something that make is so simple that "even a bonehead could understand". I recall a few years ago, where in a Private Message (and I hope it's okay to disclose this), I congratulated @Keith Code on cracking the code (no pun intended) on explaining what we're doing on motorcycles and creating a vocabulary to enable communication, learning and growing. Keith found his knack. Very few people ever do in this life, and that's unfortunate. Talking with another rider, we were discussing how sometimes we feel that being able to articulate what's happening has a barrier associated with it that makes getting the help we're looking for just one more step removed. And we're both CSS students, so we have a foundation in vocabulary by using Keith Code's technology of riding. That's one barrier down. Yet there still exists that other, somewhat unknown element where there exists a gap between self-observation, deluded reality and then real reality versus our desired reality in our riding. And it is somewhere in there where the message gets obscured. Personally, I'm working on a program of self-improvement, and honestly I use my riding as one of the yardsticks of it's effectiveness (everything boils down to motorcycles, right? - LOL). What are some other things that we as riders can use to improve the OODA-Loop in our riding? (edit)Oh, BTW- the title of this post was originally supposed to be, "That THING you do" but a fat finger changed it...and I decided I like THINK better.

@gianco Did you get this resolved?

Thank you for bringing this back up. I went back and re-read the entire thread and one of the things I also did was found Dylan's video. I'll post it here and also my thoughts about it as it relates to the concern you're having. One of the things that comes to mind that it's communicated in your write-up is your body position. If you're tucked in in full-attack mode there's going to be a certain relationship of your shoulder, elbow, wrists and hand versus being in braking posture where you are taking some advantage of aero-braking with your upper torso. Your interface with the bike's steering head pivot is going to differ in those two radically different modes of operation. From what I can ascertain, there's a mixture of both modes in your ergonimic interference issues. I'd imagine that you would need to prioritize and then find a suitable position and then change position and have another look at the control interface. You may need to do several iterations until you find a good compromise to give you the level of control you need for your bike. I ended up getting aftermarket bar risers and clip-ons for my bike but by that time, I was sure that it was the solution to my problem. Have a look at this And there's also some applicability to your question here

Thank you both. I see now my approach has been all wrong for this because of two main reasons: 1- I see now I had a misunderstanding about when to get on the gas per TC1 2- I had been conflating my qualifying line and my racing lines. There’s a passing opportunity at the exits of both hairpins and I had been trying to work out a consistent line that would be fast and defensive and I didn’t separate those goals and consider the compromise scenarios vs ideal lines for those turns. I still need to work on my entry speed and Quick Flick but now I have a new way of looking at these hairpins and when I would like to use each type of line.