khp

Wow, what a race and a way to re-open the championship! After the free practice and Qualifying Friday & Saturday, I was totally convinced that Rossi was dead and buried - he was just nowhere as fast as Marquez and Lorenzo. Interesting to see so many falling in the rain (including Jack Miller doing the cardinal sin of taking out his teammate in his fall), and how others just shone in the rain - I'm thinking on Petrucci especially, and Scott Redding. But the 12 points that Rossi has on Lorenzo can quickly go again, so with any luck it's going to go all the way down to the final race in Valencia. And congrats to Danny Kent for his home-soil victory. He's doing so well that he's making it look boring

I just watched Dylan Gray's lap of SIlverstone, which is filmed with a host of GoPro's. In some of the shots you can see the other cameras (like in the attached screenshot) and it looks very much like that they're using their sticker mounts.

I haven't ridden very much on "pointier" tiers but when I did, I tended to change my lines to use more lean angle, to let the tire go to its sweet spot lean angle. For sure the tires had a lot of grip, but when coaching and having to vary my pace a lot from a student to student, I found the more triangular tires a little bothersome because sometimes I wanted a gentler turn-in and/or less lean angle. For going at a consistent fast pace, I might be willing to accept a more triangular profile if I felt it was a significant improvement in grip or stability. Incidentally I don't mind a steeper profile on the rear tire, but I really notice it on the front; a while back Michelin changed the rear tire profile first, which didn't bother me, but when they went more aggressive on the front I didn't like it at all. I tried the Pirelli slicks on my SuperSingle and didn't like the steep turn-in, but that is a tall and very light-weight bike and the effect may be greatly exaggerated, something I hadn't considered until reading khp's post above. You may want to try the the Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SC's on the super-single, as the "Superbike" slicks are advertised as "2% taller". So it might be that the Diablo Supercorsa will feel more neutral to you.

I had planned to have my 3rd trackday on Sunday July 31st, but I missed out the day as it was booked out. I simply waited too long to be sure that the weather would be OK. Instead, I went to "home sweet home" Ring Knutstorp this past Thursday. My personal best at the track is a 1:08.86, which I did in August 2001, shortly before I had a very small high-sider that broke my right radius bone. As with the two first days on Sturup, my friend and I were booked in the 2nd fastest ("red") group. I the spent first session to get re-aquainted with the track, getting a feel for where all the RPs, braking markers, turn points are while riding at-speed, and get an sense of whether the track had gotten any more bumpy over the last four years. Much to my satisfaction, I found that the track hadn't changed at all since 2011 - no new bumps or anything. The laptimer showed that I was already down to a 1:12.01 laptime, and I was doing fairly consistent 1:12.xx laps (if a 1-second variation can be considered 'consistent'). This was much quicker than I had expected, since I had used 2 days to get within 4 seconds of my personal best on Sturup Raceway. I kept working on hitting the RPs in the second session and was rather surprised to find that I knocked another second off (1:11.04) despite the session was cut in two due to an off-track rider. Third session wasn't great, but I started hitting my markers more consistently (although slower than in session 2). It turned out that there was quite a variation in speed in our group and several riders seemed to be recent 'graduates' from the third group (out of 4 groups). The newcomers weren't riding unpredictable or bad lines as such, but they did lack some common sense such as not sitting up and slowing significantly down in the middle of race-line. So while we weren't the fastest guys in the group, we were frustrated enough about it that we politely asked to be (and got) moved up to the fastest ("white") group. Much better! I was definitely the slowest rider in the group, but the passes were executed really safely and I felt totally comfortable with the other riders (and the other riders weren't complaining about me either). In the afternoon the "White" group starts each session with a practice start, which is new from 4 years ago. I definitely need that, as I am not giving the R6 enough RPMs and probably also dumping the clutch too quickly. Oh, and I hate liter-bikes when I'm not riding them By the sixth and final session I did a couple of 1:10.xx laps, with the fastest at a 1:10.36, exactly 1.50sec off my personal best I had borrowed a GoPro camera from a friend and have recorded the 2-6th sessions, so there is plenty of material to sit down and analyse. Have anyone noticed that it feels that you're riding really slow when they watch the onboard video? I hope that the weather behaves in two weeks time so I can get a final trackday in in mid-September before the trackday season ends. I have already chalked up a couple of points for improvement: overbreaking into turns (Turn 1 in particular), not accellerating hard enough out of the turns, and a couple of turns where my RPs are not very consistent. ObVideo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnLBKwazvbY

Spaghetti, How is the camera attached to the tail unit? I have found that the suction cup & arm I use makes the video very prone to vibrations. I will be doing some tests, but right now my gut feeling is that the better you can lock the camera down (ideally with a flat mount on the fairing or all the way to the seat unit subframe), the less vibration you'll have.

I prefer a 'neutral' profile, where the tyre gives the bike a constant turn-in. I've tried a very pointy profile (IIRC Metzeler Sportec M3), which made the bike feel rather 'nervous': it felt like the front was "searching" for the right lean angle, which I didn't find very comfort inspiring. However, this was on a R1 2003, which turns very easily. On a heavier-steering bike, a pointy tyre might be just the right thing.

RideApart has published an article called "10 Things you need to know about body positioning for sport riding", which puts different words on what Keith have been saying for quite some years.

I see what you mean. Like Tyler, I have shot much worse video myself using a ContourHD1080 camera. My finding was that it was due to the fiberglass fairing vibrating a lot and the camera was attached using a suction cup to the vibrating fairing. I was thinking that maybe that the fairing was vibrating could be your problem. Is the fairing well affixed to the frame?

Welcome to the forum. I hope they put Jon 'Gloom' to good use to translate between British and American English for you

As long as you change oil and filter on a regular basis, I doubt it makes a big difference.

Spaghetti, Totally right on the steel braided brake lines, I forgot about that. I'd replace the fairings for a couple of reasons: less weight, no glass if you drop it, cheaper to replace the fairings if you drop it, easier to take off/put on than stock, and it's easier to reach to small stuff inside the fairing with the race fairing (like pinch bolts for the lower triple clamp.

When I have done schools in Europe (ie: Sweden and once in the UK), I have always used my own bikes, since I was able to bring them and that I know how they owrk, so I don't need to spend needless mental energy in figuring out how something works or feeling awkward on the bikes. When I went to Willow springs to do first a 2-day camp and then a CodeRACE, I did not bring my own bikes - shipping them to the US and back simply didn't make sense. In Sweden, everyone was bringing their own bikes. Simple reason: it was the UK staff coming over to coach, and they didn't bring a trailer full of rental gear on the plane. In the UK, I would estimate that about 1/3 to 1/2 of the bike were rentals, the rest were bring-your-owns. In the US, there were a few riders (a faint minority, as I recall) that were riding their own bikes. Part of adding to this was us foreigners, because it wouldn't make sense to ship a bike back and forth across the Atlantic (just imagine having trouble in getting it through customs). I've "always" done two days in a row - either two single days or a 2-day camp. I have been comfortable in being able to take the coaching in, so felt this was the best way. Personally, I would recommend you to bring your SV650 and do two days.

My priority list would be: 1) Get some engine and chassis protection parts, like these from GB racing 2) replace all original plastics and lights with a fiberglass race fairing. Saves weight and saves money should you go down. 3) Suspension parts. If the OEM springs (front+rear) don't match your weight, at least change them. 4) Tyre warmers and stands I would always do 1+2. Anything else would come down lower on my list. Tuning the engine would probably come last, as a bog standard engine requires less maintenance and is less likely to break down.

Gerhard, My very best recommendation is to go and watch Dave Moss' show On The Throttle on Tyre Wear from back in 2010. Do note that it's almost 1h45m, so take your time and take notes. The lips on the sipes (thread pattern) does indeed tell you whether the rebound is too fast or too slow. However, you should only look at the "band" of the tire where you are on the gas. Normally, clicks are counted out from Hard. As I recall (but do check the video by Dave) If the leading edge has a raised edge and trailing edge is rounded off, the rebound is too slow, meaning that you need to speed it up (ie make rebound softer). If the leading edge is rounded off and trailing edge is raised, the rebound is too fast. Kai Edit: resaw parts of Dave's show/lesson and found out I had it the opposite way around.

Spaghetti, are you thinking on something like these Endurance tanks? http://www.samurider.com/?p=18635 These guyes are in California, so that might be able to do one for you (CBR600RR isn't on the standard list: eti-fuelcel.com

Chase, you can replace that "often" that I highlighted with "always" Everything else equal, an off-camber turn will have less traction available to a neutral or positive camber turn. It's down to physics. BTW, it's similar to going through a (large) turn that has positive camber in the middle of the corner, but then flattens out to be neutral.

Surely it exists, assome of the championship level riders notice it (e.g. Marc Marquez on the Honda 2015 chassis). Personally, I have yet to notice a feedback that I could refer back to the chassis. But it just might be that I don't know how to identify feedback that comes from the chassis.

Laguna sounds awesome Unless there are very pressing reasons to go back and repeat the level you just have done, I would go for the next level. Only when you've done all four levels, would I recommend considering going back to level 1-3.

I don't know the particulars of the Californian Highway Code, but around here it's only legal to do lane-splitting if you and the car you are passing can be completely (and safely) within the lane. And by completely, that includes both mirrors, handlebar ends etc. It's not enough that your tires are inside the lane. A friend of mine has a very expensive piece of paper to prove that, signed by a local law enforcement officer

Chase, is this the MotoD helmet case you're talking about? http://www.motodracing.com/motorcycle-helmet-case Just curious, Kai

Great racing there and great mind tricks on Bob, Hugh! For Sheri, aren't there another photographer up there, that you could have take a really good shot of her racing, and then present it as a nice big print for her? Very well played on Bob with Allen telling him that you're 3 seconds faster than him I noticed that you're not getting all the way to the apex on at least some of the RHS corners, like the one leading out on the long back straight, and the right hander just after the straight. There might be a few tens' to be found there Also, I really appreciate that you take your time to add the captions on the video, it becomes so much more entertaining for us that don't know who the riders in front are. Congrats on the victory - now for the final punch to clinch the crown. PS: What's the difference between the Heavy- and lightweight classes? Edit: I can recommend a substance refered to as "Loctite" for bolts and nuts that shouldn't come off. Which also reminds me that maybe I should check my own clutch at some point

Does Will post in the forums? I watched several of his vids and slowed them down and I see from the data overlay that he's often braking as he is leaning in, and from what I can tell is braking until he gets to maybe 50%-66% of final lean angle. Curious to know if this is always front brake only, or if rear is also involved, in what ratio to front? Will used to pop in from time to time, especially in the "Ask the Chief (Mechanic)" section, but I'm not sure if he works for the school anymore (Cobie was looking for a new Chief Mechanic early this year). Hotfoot can probably say for sure. I don't know how they get the data - whether it's decuded from a GPS datalogger, or they have real sensors connected to the brakes and throttle. Again, Hottie can probably confirm this. The "throttle" and "brake" animations you see on my videos (like this one) are faked by the overlay software, so it's acceleration/decelleration data.

I agree that Marc is a once-in-10/20 years talent. Rossi came second in championship in his first season (49 pts down on KR Jr), and Burgess and Rossi put this down to the fact that they didn't push for the victories immediately, according to Rossi's autobiography. BTW, anyone knows what Jeremy Burgess is doing these days - did he hang up his tools and go into retirement? Very exciting season so far, even if there have only been 3 riders / 2 teams winning so far! I think we're in for a treat in the second half and that Marc (and Dani, I hope) will be winning much more. I haven't heard about the Honda engine design change. Clearly I'm not following all rumour sites - got a link to share? The one thing that I have seen, which is what Honda have been acknowledging themselves: that the 2015 chassis is not 'forgiving' enough so if Marc makes a mistake, he's more likely to crash. They changed back to the 2014 chassis (but with a "2015B" spec swingarm) for the last two races (Assen and Sachsenring), and Marc is much happier with that combo, and it seems like that Dani is getting back to his old self, running for podiums and wins again. I'm still hoping for Ducati and Suzuki to find some extra speed to really challenge The Aliens for the wins, that would be really fun. Unfortunately, I'm not sure they have the riders to do that so far - only one that's won a GP is Dovi, and his only win in MotoGP was back in 2009 on a Repsol Honda. Maybe Maverick Viñales in the future.

Thanks. I kinda figured this would happen: right after posting here I did some more searching and apparently came up with the right combination of key words and found a few vids from CSS on YouTube that included the data overlay. These vids are very helpful. There's no indication of who is on the bike in the vids I found, so dunno if it's will - I just assumed it was Keith. I tried doing a search on Will and didn't get any hits. Found vids from Sonoma, Vegas, Laguna and Willow. If there are vids out there of other (skilled) riders that you can think of that have the data overlay I'd appreciate the leads - nice to survey different riding styles. Thanks If it says Ballistic on the back of the rider, it's Will - like this video. I haven't seen any recent videos with Keith riding in them, only Will or Dylan (not that they are bad imitations by any means...)

So we've seen Marc Marquez crash out of three races in the first half of 2015, in all three cases from second position. I went through the points to see how the championship would have looked like, if he had scored second places in those three races: Marc Marquez: 114 + 20 + 20 + 20 = 174 pts Valentino Rossi: 179 - 0 - 3 - 4 = 172 pts Jorge Lorenzo: 166 - 1 - 0 - 0 = 165 pts Andrea Iannone: 118 - 2 - 4 - 2 = 110 pts Andrea Dovizioso: 87 - 4 - 0 - 0 = 83 pts For each of the riders I've simply taken their current points and then deducted the amount of point they would have lost by Marc finishing second. Since Jorge won two of the three races in question, he would only loose a single point, whereas Iannone looses out 8 points. So, if Marc had been given the same advice as was given to Kevin Schwantz*, he would have been leading the championship by two points. Do I think that Marc's done and over this year? No, not at all. All it takes is a little crash from Rossi and/or Lorenzo to mix things up quite a bit. And there's still 9 races to go. *) "There's no bonus for being first in the first corner, being first at the end of the first lap. Only bonus is for passing the finishing line. So let's just go out there and see how things goes"