khp
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Posts posted by khp
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Cobie, Bullet,
Any news on the non-uk European schedule? The UK website says "in the following weeks", but it's been 5 long ardeous cold snowy wintery weeks since that, and I sure need something to cheer on these days.
Thanks, Kai
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Is the GP-A the same as the ones known as "D211GP Racer" here in Europe?
The D211GPA is NOT the same tire as the "D211GP Racer"
So is that an entirely different tire, or is it equivalent to one of the US tires?
Thanks,
Kai (I'll be stepping outside while I rant over tires not being the same across the world).
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Ouch, that hurts!
Good to hear that you're in one piece and with high spirits.
Get well soon,
Kai
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I don't recall "getting the bug" - I've always wanted to ride motorcycles. Maybe it's a boys thing, since both the 3-year old kids on each side of me are totally excited about my bikes. Oh, that goes for my little nephews too.
That my mother was very much against it, didn't make it go away either
Kai
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Thanks for your great write up! Sorry for barging in on this conversation but I can't help my self, could you make recomandations for a Yamaha R6 used exclusively for track days running in intermidiate group?
R6 for track days. Intermediate group, or Advanced group:
3 tire choices -
D211GPA
D211GP
N-Tec slicks.
(snip explanation)
Awesome Steve. I'll give the D211GPA's a try in the spring (no need to ride around in the snow these days).
As for pricing, I have found that the US and EU have seriously different pricing structures.
Is the GP-A the same as the ones known as "D211GP Racer" here in Europe?
Thanks, again,
Kai
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I think I'd like to you on a 250 Ninja!
I'm still chuckling about that. For those that don't know, Fossil is not short.
Why don't you try me instead
Being 6'6" and wearing 38" pants is more than enough to get me into trouble.
But I can ride a Polini DB911 dreambike
--Kai
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Dunlop, as all other motorcycle tire brands, have several options available to the racer/track day rider.
If you're running close to the lap record, trying to break it or competing at the (inter)national level, your choice for tires is probably fairly simple: you want the best, stickiest tires - regardless of cost.
But the hapless trackday riders like myself, who are 15+ seconds off the race pace, we probably don't need the super-sticky stuff. I recall that Keith actually argues in Twist-2 that it would be detrimental to have too sticky tires and you'd be picking up debris from the track instead.
So how do we choose a good tire? We could probably live just fine with a not quite so sticky tire, which is less expensive. But how do we strike a good compromise?
As an example, I have personally been running Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SC's for the past two years (they don't come much stickier than that from Pirelli), simply because they were on the bike when I bought them and I got a nice deal on those tires from the guy I bought the bike from. But they're not cheap. Instead I could go for Pirelli's Diablo Superbike Pro, which is a slick, less expensive, but also has less grip than the Supercorsa SC's, according to Pirelli's website.
Edit: as a price comparison, a set of Superbike Pro is $343, while the Supercorsa SC's are $458 (€259 and €346 for this side of the pond), in Germany.
Also, why should we choose a slick tire over a tire with (minimal) sipes (like the Dunlop D211GP-A)?
Steve: I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Dunlop's offering, but feel free to use Dunlop examples if you will (but please explain the "pecking order" for Dunlop tires if you do).
Thanks,
Kai
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Steve,
Thanks for your very elaborate and enlightening answer.
You didn't mention the effect of pressure/temperature on tire wear. I've watched Dave Moss' Unsprung show where he discusses tire wear (warning: 1h45m - not for those in a hurry or the faint of heart) and cold/hot tears.
Would you change pressure to "fix" cold/hot tears? - do you agree to what Dave is saying?
I'll stick my other questions in separate threads.
Thanks again,
Kai
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What the 'right' tire pressure is, surely depends upon the tire, the bike, and the rider. But are there any good rules of thumb as to what pressure you should run - and how would you know? is it:
* an absolute pressure?
* a certain pressure change from cold to hot?
* an absolute temperature or change in temperature when the tire is ridden hard (e.g. on a track)?
Oh, and how do you go and figure these things out for yourself, if you don't have a tire expert for your particular brand on a string? Personally, I have not found the information provided on the manufacturers websites very good in this respect, and it is exceedingly seldom that I meet a tire dealer or representative at the track side, there to offer insight and help, here in Europe.
Thanks, Kai
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Hi nobody,
Very nice track. Is that the Reem track in Saudi Arabia?
I'm going to label the turns as they appear in the video and with timestamps, i.e. the first corner on the video is T1 at 0:00, which is the final corner on the track before the straight.
T1 (0:00) - you don't seem to sue the full width of the track here. You should be able to add more throttle and use the last couple of meters.
T2 (0:23) - How many gears are you dropping down here and when? - I'm getting the feeling that you're quite busy at braking and don't get set gear settled properly as the rpms sounds fairly low for an inline-4. Have you tried dropping an extra gear down?
T3 (0:32) - the angle from the camera (on the right side of the bike?) may cheat, but I an unsure of whether you are making it all the way to the inside of the track at the apex.
T4 (0:36) - here you are clearly not using all of the track. Also notice that the engine pitch is constant - a tell-tale sign of a constant throttle. What does that Throttle Control Rule #1 say again?
T5 (0:45) - Again the downshift: sounds like you're engine braking going into the turn. Where's the throttle blip? Again you are very wide out from the inside curb, making your path unnecessarily long around the track.
T6 (0:55) - you are totally blowing the inside apex here. you're probably dropping 1/3 of the track width on the inside.
T7 (1:03) - again, the apex is missed.
T8 (1:08) - good tight apex.
T9 (1:15) - Missing the apex. Also, the throttle is constant in the middle of the turn.
T10 (1:20) - Apex again. Constant throttle for a large part of the turn (could be for a good reason, though, as the following straight is very short)
T11 (1:25) - same turn as the first "T1" turn. Here you are using the track to the edge, but you start out too wide, so you're again not utilizing the full width of the track from inside to outside. Since this turn is leading out to the longest straight, this is the most important turn to get right in order to lower your laptimes.
Dave and Razor have talked about how quickly you're leaning, so I'll leave that to those gentlemen.
I hope that you find my comments useful.
Regards,
Kai
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I am considering attending School and get proper training... I been riding since 11/2005 and have been doing track days whenever I can since 12/2007...
However, I feel like I am still pretty slow, middle of the pack on intermediate group...
I ride a little SV650 with suspension, brakes upgrades and traction control (When I go WOT, it does not go... Must be the traction control kicking in...
hehehe...)
Currently, I am working with a couple local expert racers to develop technique... They tell me that I should jumping into the grid and simply racing will make me faster... Personnaly, I do not feel competitive enough to win my first race.
I also have a coach to help me keep my mental blocks in check... Understanding fear and knowing how to properly react without having to stop to think about it...
One of the things I am still having dificulty with, is reference points, I think it is very important to get this down before attending school...
I know getting proper training is no brainer... But shouldn't I learn to walk, before I try to run?
Should I continue getting more track experience before school? ...Or should I try to go to school and try learning from scratch?
Luis
Luis,
If you knew how to do all the right things on the bike, would there be much gained by going to the school - not really, huh?
I'll stick my neck out and claim that jumping in and starting racing at this point would probably be closer to trying to run before you can walk, than taking the school would be.
If you feel that you're struggling with getting the reference point locked in (don't we all, at some personal level?) it would probably help you to take just Level 1 and 2, since level 2 attacks the RP's in particular*.
Racing with someone a notch (or couple of notches) better than yourself can improve your laptimes. It can also lead you into some stupid crashes if you just riding someone else's lines and not your own, causing you to getting "lost" on the track (or simply riding too fast).
Hope this helps,
Kai
*) General motorcyclists warning: attending CSS courses may cause serious dents in your wallet, since you want to attend even more CSS courses.
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Mostly a test, see if this thing is working.
Sure looks like it's working, Cobie
Kai
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I think I can help you all out here with some solid facts and procedures.
There are many urban legends regarding tire warmers.
When the forum gets setup I will be happy to add my 2 cents worth and help you guys navigate this seemingly confusing issue, and turn it into a very simple one (which it really is simple).
Would that be alright with you guys if I jump in?
Hi Steve,
Go ahead and jump in - just be careful of any rocks you might land on
Kai
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OK as the title says I want to improve my times,
I am going to be riding almeria in spain again, now this is the only track I have ever been timed and I will be using a transponder again!
So I have a time to beat, is it reasonable to think that I can get on the pace and match my time from last year immediately and then progress to going faster, or is this the wrong way to approach the situation?
Bobby,
Hard to tell, as there are too many unknowns. However, I can say that I personally would not expect to immediately match or surpass my best laptime from the year before.
I can back that up with data, as I have a very similar case as yours: I rode Lausitzring for the first time during Easter 2009 and then again a year later, Easter 2010. My laptimes were not immediately better, but they were consistently better than they were a year before, over the days.
E.g. My laptimes on the morning of the first day of this year was quicker than the laptimes on the morning of the first day of the previous year, and so forth. So in the end I was around 4-5 seconds faster in 2010, than I was in 2009, but I wasn't faster straight away.
Hope this helps,
Kai
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I'm planning on taking the SuperBike School to improve my riding skills and for fun. I don't have any dreams of getting into racing. My question is: I'd like to ride my own bike to save money and because this what I'm familiar with. It's an 86 Honda VFR 750, she still runs great. The other question is my Aerostich suit OK to use? I've done track days at the Streets of Willow with it. Thanks.
Hi lewisa97,
I'd say your VFR will be just fine - For what it's worth: I've seen everything from 1000cc "superbikes" over sport-tourers and touring bikes over Harleys, a CBX1000F (the 6-cyl inline monster) and to offroaders at the school in Sweden.
Likewise, the Aerostich should be perfectly fine too, assuming it is in good condition.
Kai (just another student)
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I would like to hear other Forum members offer their opinions here because I am a lot dumber than I look.
Rainman,
I think you're spot on and not dumb at all.
Kai
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This talk of not using the clutch on the way down, I'm not seeing how it works myself as a novice. I've done the odd downchange without the clutch by blipping the throttle when I'm off the brakes but the bike always jerks forwards and isn't smooth. By using the clutch I'm taking away the input from the throttle, so I can brake and downshift smoothly, blipping the throttle just before letting the clutch back out.
So can you explain how you downshift without using the clutch and keeping everything smooth, making sure the bike doesn't jerk forward as you blip the throttle?
Steve, there was a lengthy thread about is maybe 6 months ago. I'll see if I can dig it out for you.
Ah, yes - here it is: Clutchless Down Shifting?.
But if you're used to doing clutchless upshifts, doing downshifts are not much more difficult.
Basically what you do is: first shut the throttle so you're engine braking and you have a fairly low rpm. Second, preload your shift lever in the proper direction. Third, blip the throttle, so you unload the gearbox for a split second. As the gearbox is unloaded with forces, the next lower gear is kicked in - bingo.
It is easier to do between the taller gears, since their ratios are closer, but it can be done all the way down to 2nd and 1st gears.
Kai
Edit: added link
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I was thinking more about having sufficient grip in the first couple of corners and not having to increase the pace little by little.
From what I have learned from talks given by tyre dealers/manufacturers, race tyres have a more narrow band of good traction than street tyres.
Street tyres are designed to handle thousands of heat cycles, and provide good grip in a fairly wide range of tyre and tarmac temperatures.
Race tyres, on the other hand, are designed to handle maybe 10 heat cycles, have fantastic grip, but only in a quite limited temperature range. Operating them outside this temperature range can or will result in a very rapid deconstruction of the tyre (cold/hot shear).
I think Dave Moss explained this very well in one of his On The Throttle shows.
Tyre wear show:
Tyres show:
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Like Eirik said: I couldn't be a basketball or track star with my short chunky goodness.
Hey, careful with that statement! John Paxson wasn't particularly tall for a pro basket player (6'2"), and he still sunk that 3-pointer that decided the championship for the Chicago Bulls in 92-93 over Phoenix Suns (the third title in a row). I've played and seen plenty of "short" point guards make well use of their speed and agility to out-manoeuvre 6'6" centers like myself. At the club I played in 20 years ago, the women's teams had a point guard who was maybe 5"4', and she was consistently the highest scoring player on the team. But you have a point of course
At the end, my point was more to highlight the learnings condensed in the 6 bullets formed by Schwartz: If you love something, and really put your heart and mind to it, you can push your expertise and proficiency to a very very high level. But as you become more and more skilled, having a coach to help you with perfecting the technical skill to get to the last X percent is very helpful. You need that outside eye that tells you "nope, that's not what you did. This is what you did".
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Do we want to know how Kai knows what tomcat pee smells like, uh, not likley
.Very simple Cobie: I grew up with cats in the family. And while we only had female cats, the male did spray on/around the house when the female was in heat.
Oh well, too much knowledge for today .....
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Just wondering what are peoples opinion on how often to change the fork oil?
I've been changing my fork oil every 2 years, but my bike is a street bike ridden once a month if lucky.
Hi Grip,
Once every two years should be plenty fine with that amount of riding. The fork oil will deteriorate from pumping through valve orifices (essentially, the polymer chains gets broken) and the deterioration will reduce the effective damping provided by the oil.
For "normal" street high, I'd say that most riders would be just fine with changing the oil every two years; my experience from talking to other riders and a couple of workshops is that most riders are not aware that the fork oils should be replaced, and experiencing 5 or 10 year old "fish oil" is not uncommon. If it gets really old, the oil will stink like a tomcat's urine (quite unpleasant to say the least).
Hope this helps,
Kai
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If you think that the main difference between the motoGP demigods and the rest of us is the natural gift or talent of, say, Rossi or Lorenzo, you could very well be wrong.
Deliberate practice, it seems, matter much more, according to studies: to truly excel at something, requires 10 years of daily practice, totalling 10,000 hours.
In the posting Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything on the Harvard Business Review website (yes, probably the most unlikely place to look for motorcycle corner advice), blogger Tony Schwartz explains some of the recent studies on what generates excellent performance done in the business world.
He sums up the findings in the following six bullets:
- Pursue what you love.
- Do the hardest work first.
- Practice intensely.
- Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. (hey, that's where CSS comes in, right)
- Take regular renewal breaks.
- Ritualize practice.
So while innate talent ("genetic advantages") does matter, practising does indeed make perfect.
(note to the admins: the Cornering forum seemed the best suited area of this on/off topic posting. Move it to another forum as appropriate).
Kai
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I guess my position is that I thnk it makes sense to do both with the emphasis to start at Level's I and II (and maybe III) on a School bike and then start to integrate your own bike into the equation once you have internalized the training more thoroughly.
...anyway some (many) will disagree with me here but that's my 2 cents worth. ; )
Hi Kevin,
Indeed - it was only meant as my $0.02 worth as well
I'm sorry if I've come across anyway other than that; I see it as a "pick 'yer poison" situation, and you need to decide for yourself on an enlightened basis.
Kai
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I'm solidly in the "Bring Your Own Bike" camp.
Reasons include:
- You don't need to 'adapt' to a bike you've never ridden before (or, have an entirely different suspension setup, even if the rental bike is the same bike as your own)
- You don't have to share it with another student
- You know how it works and rides in the corners - you can focus on the drills
- Your coach will experience you riding on the 'correct' bike, and as such the coach can better attack all those little bad habits you've picked up over the years
- You don't need to transplant the learning/body position/whatever from the rental bike to your own bike
- And finally: ...... you won't be tempted to buy that ultra-slick and expensive rental bike, just because you've found that your own bike suddenly feels like a bunch of junk
Of course, there are opposite arguments like transporting the bike there and keeping it safe, but personally I'd bring my own bike if I could at all.
That is; if I ever take a CSS course overseas (Laguna Seca comes to mind...), it'll be on a rental bike 'cause the cost of transporting the bike across the pond and return will simply be too high.
Kai
2011 Uk School Dates
in School Questions/General Discussion
Posted
Awesome, thanks.
BTW: Will we meet in Sweden this time around? If not, I'm sure that Spidey, JET and the guys can tell stories about me anyways
Kai