tmckeen

It looks like this season AMA Racing has ditched the TV networks and switched to a fully online live stream format with www.FansChoice.tv, it's suposedly free to watch. You can read more about that over at RoadracingWorld.com I can say for sure, if more people don't tune in to watch the state of pro motorcycle racing here in America isn't going to get much better Tyler

Welcome to the forums Nikola, there should be plenty of advice here to help you sort out any issues you may be having in regards to just about anything motorcycle related. Are the roadways in Serbia as crazy as all the dash cam video from Russia thats on Youtube ?? Tyler

Just a thought to revive this Idea, How about meeting up at the AMA/WERA round at Autoclub Speedway at the end of April, Tyler

if the problem seems to go away when you have the added weight of a passenger, assuming your riding technique remains the same, my un-educated recommendation would be to back off the preload on your shock. Have you set up the bikes "Sag" for your weight ?

I'm not physics expert but I disagree, assuming the combined mass of rider and bike is say 500 Lbs , and perfect 50/50 weight distribution, a stationary upright bike would apply 250 lbs of force to each contact patch, at 2g of cornering force the bike would be applying 1000 lbs of force, but its still split between the 2 contact patches 500 Lbs of force, Dylan, all the environmental factors Ambient Humidity, Ambient Temperature Road Temperature, Wind speed Steering geometry factors Rake Trail Offset Head Angle Wheelbase Ride Height Ground Clearance Rate of Steering application

While I am very interested in what Dylan's goto Physics guru has to say on this subject but I'm pretty sure its going to boil down to a "Spherical Chicken in a Vacuum". Motorcycles are very complex things that are constantly moving and changing and trying to express that in a neat tidy equation is impossible, and requires that you ignore numerous other phenomena that are effecting the action you are trying to explain with your tidy formula. There's a neat tidy formula that some people have tried to argue means the size of your contact patch has nothing to do with your available traction, but it's not the case in the real world most notably due to the non linear elasticity of rubber, which said formula fails to account for. to expand on this, there is the subject of "Lean angle" which we have discussed in several other threads, First you have the "Apparent lean angle of the bike, say 45°, but that's not the real lean angle of the bike, because your tires aren't infinitely thin so you adjust your lean angle for the location of the contact patch and the CoG of the bike, so you lose a few degrees, but now you have to account for the rider who with good body position moves the CoG of the bike in and down, so you gain back a few of the degrees you lost to your contact patch, possibly even more increasing your lean angle to higher that the apparent lean you started with, I previous threads we had referred to all of that as the "Effective Lean Angle" but this is still not the true lean angle, as you are trying to explain a 3D object moving through space with a 2D diagram, there's a entire second wheel involved here, and to complicate matters its not the same width, and depending on throttle application its not a 50/50 split between them, so now you have to calculate the "effective lean angle" for both tires, relevant to the actual CoG in 3D space, and then come up with some kind of weighted average between the two based on the distribution of the cornering load. so after all that perhaps you end up with exactly 63.3° of entire "combined system lean angle" which the neat formula says is exactly 2 G's, is that ~1 G per tire which would line up neatly with Dylan's statement on being limited to 1 G of cornering force, or are both tires carrying a full 2 G ? at the end of the day is knowing the mathematical theoretical limit that can be achieved going to improve your confidence in a corner ? Tyler

I know for certain that MotoGP use's GPS based mapping for their traction control and engine management systems, and who knows what else honestly. I'm pretty sure WSBK uses it as well but I'd have to go re read some articles on R.R.W. testing WSBK spec Ducati as for the evolution making it to the marketplace, the S1000RR HP4 comes with GPS adjustable traction and engine mapping as well as GPS adjustable dynamic suspension, so its already there in somewhat limited availability

I'm curious just how much easier the newer electronic packages have made this Tyler

Great Article on Nick and his recent journey to Code R.A.C.E. in this months issue of Roadracing World. I hope too see him in action at another sometime in the future

I'm going to assume the type of plug your chance mechanic installed was the smaller push in from the outside style plugs, which are great in a pinch but are not the best long term fix. The type of plug I was asking Will about is a much larger and more permanent style that requires removal of the tire from the rim for installation. Here's a few pictures of those tire plugs, with a quarter for size comparison Tyler

I plan on doing a load of days at Streets while CSS is there, hope to get in one or two race rounds out at chuckwalla with CVMA, gonna try and make it up the The Ridge this summer for a few days, and I'd like to go back and try Autoclub Speedway again as my only trip there was marred by mechanical issues with my bike

It's a 05 that I bought new in Jan 06 with I think 8 miles on the Odometer, due to a change in the final drive gearing I think its actually driven more like 106K miles, the majority of that mileage has been daily commuting in and out of LA and Orange County for the past 3.5 years. It spent the first 4 years of its life in Hawaii and while I drove it plenty it didn't accumulate a lot of mileage, I think when I moved to CA it had like 13k on it. It's had very little service issues aside from the normal wear and tear items, Tire's Chains sprockets etc. I had a adapter in the cooling system rust to the point it sprung a leak and spewed coolant out the side of it, the result of being parked outdoors in Hawaii for 4 years, I had a valve that broke / chipped back in I wanna say the 70K range, also the EXUP valve in the exhaust system froze up due to lack of maintenance on my part and that eventually burnt out the servo motor that actuate's it'

Photo I took of my FZ-1 of which I'm rather Proud

Hotfoot Per our conversation on saturday, here's two pics of how I have my TrailTech Vapor wired up for RPM pickup on my CRF450, I was mistaken in what I said yesterday, the pickup is not fed into the spark plug wire, its the connector from the electronic "brain" into the Ignition Coil. sorry the pic' aren't all that great but its the best I could manage without pulling it apart Tyler

My 450's a pit bike if it's been ridden in the pits before right .....

I'm curious what you guys use for coolant in the School Bikes, I'd assume since they live on nothing but race tracks it isn't anything glycol based. I've been doing some reading about various coolants and I understand that water stores more heat than pure antifreeze, or even 50/50, and therefore will make a bike run cooler, it does however have a lower boiling point which if reached results in cavitation and significant loss of cooling. I understand using DI water over tap water will eliminate scaling and buildup in your cooling system from minerals and hard water etc. but from what I've read it doesn't eliminate corrosion on aluminum unless you add a corrosion inhibitor to it, and from what I can tell products like "Water Wetter" are merely "Surficants" which reduce the surface tension of the water in your system aiding in heat transfer, but do nothing to prevent corrosion to the inside of you radiator. Should I be using a corrosion inhibitor in addition to water wetter ? Is it better to drain the water for extended storage or leave it in ? Some of what I've read mentioned that in a closed system once all the free oxygen in the water was eliminated no more corrosion would result until more free oxygen was introduced. Any insight from the Chief would be greatly appreciated Tyler

As the Level IV school is tailored to suite you personal goals you can continue to repeat it as many time as you like, until your either world champion of feel you have nothing left to learn about cornering a motorcycle

Pretty much everything I know about stretching came from my Physical Training with the Marines, we normally started at the top of our bodies and worked down, the routine was something like Triceps Stretch, Posterior Shoulder Stretch, Upper Back Stretch, Chest Stretch, Quadriceps Stretch, Groin Stretch, Modified Hurdler Stretch, Calf Stretch

<--- SoCal resident, Out near Corona

My biggest goal for 2014 is to Learn how to adjust and set up my suspension, both street and dirt. and to do at least 1 track day at a track i've never ridden on before

Crappy TV Coverage, Loss of Title sponsor ( possibly ), low # of confirmed Race Rounds, switching to 2 day race weekend formats at some venu's for cost reduction, MJ Motorsports leaving for a different series, I believe I've read about a few other teams that have closed down operations. It's not exactly Doom and Gloom, but it's not shaping up to be the best of season's

I know for the CRF450R you can purchase a aftermarket Wide Ratio Transmission no idea if someone sells it for the YZ450F. to get to 125 mph on a 17 inch tire my 450 would need the wide ratio transmission and a final drive of around 16/45, theoretically that is ... Tyler

It's a custom built bike with a YZ450 dirtbike motor for its engine

If you get a Superbike Tail with your race body work you have to use a custom seat pad as your stock seat will no longer fit, Armor Bodies sells custom seat pads for all their kits, the material is quite grippy and a significant improvement over a stock seat. also double thumbs up for Stomp Grip Tyler

Hotfoot, How much does that super single of yours weigh compared to the MD250 ?? Tyler