YellowDuck

It's funny how many people are afraid to touch their suspension, especially if they have already had it "set up" by someone. Turns of preload, clicks of dampers, spring lengths, ride height, oil height - they can all be measured and recorded, and returned to previous settings if necessary. So many riders look at their motorcycle suspension like great grandpa looks at a computer - afraid to press the wrong button in case he ruins it. Thanks for the review of squat and anti-squat. It's something I don't think about much because I tend to leave rear preload and ride height alone for long periods (like, seasons) and concentrate on damping adjustments, but it's good to be reminded that a rear preload adjustment might best be compensated with a ride height change if I don't want to alter the geometry in a manner that will affect squat (amongst other things). To be honest, I am not sure that all of this is quite as sensitive as some make it out to be. For example, I recently made a huge front preload change (like, 5 mm) without touching fork height. In theory this should change the geometry enough to make an important difference....but all I noticed was that I was not using as much of the front travel, as intended. My point is that, if you are riding well within the performance envelope of the chassis, moderate or even kind of large adjustments don't really have such profound effects. Maybe it's only when you are really pushing things to the limits that you start to see major benefits (or otherwise!) from small tweaks. Of course you can make mistakes that will matter, especially on aftermarket components that tend to have a larger adjustment range than OEM. For example, I could set rebound so stiff at either end of my bike that the suspension would be practically locked down. That's very bad - but it is an extreme example. Minor ride height adjustments are not something that the average rider is really going to notice much.

When I was street riding I used to practice at least one very hard stop from speed every time I went out (after checking behind myself for traffic!). When I see people zipping along at way over the speed limit, I often wonder if they have any experience emergency braking from those speeds. It actually takes a bit of courage to pull off a proper threshold braking kind of stop from 150 kph, with the bike diving and the tire squirming and howling. But if you choose to ride that fast, shouldn't you know how to stop too?

Thanks for this great description - I have a complete mental picture of it now. I hope no one walks into the garage while I am sitting on the bike on the stands with my eyes closed, going through all of this (and maybe making engine noises LOL). I am going to try to get this stuff down June 13 - it's a different track that I don't know quite as well, but I am sure I can still apply all of this. I need to put off the instructional session until July 25. But I'll post some video from the June 13th outing.

Okay, going over that post from Jasonzilla again, I am trying to distill it into three or four succinct things that I can actually remember on track, and so I can visualize it beforehand. I have one question. I understand the concept of getting my butt in position on the seat well before turn-in (i.e., even before initiating braking), and I also understanding that opening my hips up into the turn and getting my shoulder into a consistent place over the tank will help me be less crossed up, especially on right turns. What I don't get 100% is the timing of when the rotating the hips / moving the upper body should ideally be happening. I can position my butt before braking, but does the hip rotation and upper body positioning happen then as well (surely not?), or when I look into the corner, or when I turn in, or when?

Jasonzilla, holy Hannah that is a whole heap of great advice! It will take me quite a while to get my head around it all. Thank you so much for taking the time to do that. Much appreciated! If all goes according to plan, at my next track day June 13 I am also going to have professional instruction. Between your help and theirs I am sure I will have tonnes to work on. Will definitely report back with more video after that. Edit: Having now re-read it more slowly, I think the hardest thing will be adopting the body positioning for cornering *before* sitting up to brake. That is going to be a hard new habit to pick up. I'll spend some time doing it in my imagination so I'm prepared when I get back on the bike. On the "left to right body shift without sitting on the seat in the middle", I think I normally kind of do that in the esses. This was the first track day of the season and by the fifth session my thighs felt like someone had beat them with a cricket bat. Definitely a fitness issue there.

This is an awesome thread and I can't wait for the next post!

Thanks for the comments gentlemen! Much appreciated. Eirik, I agree 100% about the body position. I was quite surprised to see how crossed up I am. I think I need to get my rear end back on the seat a bit more, and my head down and more to the inside. Yes, your brother and I appear to have very similar riding styles. Lnewqban, I think the apparently high gearing is more of an effect of how the sound is recorded. It sounds like much lower rpm than it actually is. The bike pulls extremely well out of the corners. The guys on the 4-cylinder Japanese bikes tell me that I usually gap them a bit on the exits, and so it isn't until well down the straight that they finally catch me, even if I was holding them up mid-corner. Frankly, I could pretty much always enter with more speed than I am now - that's just a matter of being rusty and not being able to judge things accurately, and so erring on the side of caution. I hadn't ridden a bike since last September. Actually, on the third lap of the day I misjudged the long right hander badly and went in with too much speed (for me), and also tipped it in too gently. I realized quickly that I would not make the corner on my current line, so leaned it in harder. At that point my knee slider was firmly on the ground and I still wasn't going to make it, so I stood it up, braked hard, then rode off onto the grass (fortunately with not much speed at that point). No harm done, but the experience had me riding a bit more cautiously the rest of the day. I expect it to be another outing or two before I can get back up to the corner speeds I managed last year. On the plus side, the new Dunlop Q2s were awesome. Set them at recommended track cold pressures at the start of the day, then never touched them again. One warmup lap each session, then they just plain worked. Great tires.

Update....here is onboard video (I finally got a GoPro) from the first track day of the year. I am 3-s off last year's pace (!) but I expect to get that back and then some over the season. Constructive criticism welcomed!

This is such good advice - thank you very much for that reminder. I have had one or two slappers over the years that were as violent as the one shown in this video...and it never occurred to me at the time to pump up the front brakes afterwards.

The standard answer is that if you are off the brakes and the suspension is settled, you can not overcome the traction available to the front tire just by steering. Steer it as hard as you can and the front will still not slip. If either end lets go in response to a steering-only input it will be the rear. I have tested this advice myself and can attest that I have yet to be able to steer the bike hard enough to induce any kind of slide at either end. But you need to be off the brakes.

You are already counter-steering - that is the only way you can turn a bike at all, practically. I'll let the instructors on the site give you the advice you are looking for...but as a rider who experienced his first track day only a few years ago, I can offer a few things from my experience. 1. Don't get intimidated. Remember, there is nothing on earth preventing you from circulating the track at the same pace you would on any public road you had never ridden before. That's your fallback position - just ride around and get comfortable. 2. Have someone show you the lines. You can waste a lot of time figuring out a new track, time you could be spending working on your riding skills. On many tracks, the proper line is not immediately obvious. Don't be shy about asking - most track days have control riders who are more than happy to do this for you. 3. If you are not using warmers, allow yourself a lap or two every session to get some heat into the tires before trying to up your pace. 4. I found that, from the TOTW set of skills, early throttle application after turn in with consistent roll on and *never* rolling off in a corner was a good place for me to start. Next came proper sighting of apexes and exits, and then working on turning it in hard.

Ha, yes! Very interesting!

Ah, Mulholland. What a disaster zone. Thankfully it seems like his worst injury was some serious road rash. Could have been much worse. What terrible riding!

Found this on the Dunlop site: http://dunlopracing.com/technical-info/#CP Basically, says that soft compounds cold tear more easily, so on a cold track you want the harder compound tire. Sorry, I know that is not as specific as what you are asking, but at least goes to show that it doesn't always go in the direction that you might expect!

As far as I know, racetech doesn't make rear springs, they just sell them. If you know the length, ID and rate, you can order whatever you like. e.g. http://www.hypercoils.com/

I am interested in the compound question too. I *think* I recently read that it is actually counter-intuitive with the Dunlop slicks (maybe all slicks), and that you actually needed the softer compound on the hotter track....but maybe my memory is playing tricks on me.

Sorry, I didn't get this. What do you mean race tech springs would make you no better off? You can specify any rate rear spring you like, and the higher the rate, the less sag (and therefore more ride height) you will get. You can reduce static sag by adding rear preload, but if your spring rate is too low you will still get too much travel and be dragging stuff under high cornering loads, especially in long corners where your compression damping setting isn't going to affect where the suspension ends up. If you are 225 nekid (plus socks) then for sure the shock is undersprung for your weight. Getting the spring rate right (especially in the rear) is easily the most fundamental and dramatic thing you can do to improve your suspension. I don't know anything specifically about the 954, but I would be very surprised if the OEM spring was anywhere near correct for your weight.

....and the payoff for those nasty downhills is the fun uphill sections, where you can be a total hero because gravity does a bunch of the braking for you going into the corners, with zero cost in terms of tire traction. That's fun!

I understand this concern completely. When I used to ride in the North Georgia mountains I often found I had a real lack of courage on the steep downhill turns. (Actually I wiped out on one, but there was ice involved...) There is a tendency to put more weight on the arms / hands when going downhill, which leads to tension and unwanted steering inputs. Concentrate on supporting your weight with your legs against the tank and using your core muscles, so that you can keep your arms relaxed. Easier said that done when braking downhill...but it can be done.

The comment about the bike being way undersprung had me wondering the same thing. You wouldn't be the first one to have the shock near the bumpstop while cornering hard, then hit another tiny bump and lose traction.

I watched the crash about 10 times in a row, and I can't quite tell which end let loose. I assume it was the rear since you were on the throttle. It actually looks to me like a kind of mini-highside wipeout, which would be consistent with the throttle error. Do you think the rear slid then caught again, chucking you off, or did it just slide away out from under you? That looks like a fun track!

Whew....yes, that is another universe. One thing I can say is that, even at my level, the biggest improvement I have ever made to my track riding happened when, based on TOTWII and advice here on the forum, I started to steer it in really hard (by my standards). It was a major transformation in how I rode the bike and brought whole seconds off my lap times almost immediately. It took a little bit of trust to believe that I wouldn't break the front loose steering that hard, but once I experienced it it was a true revelation. I was actually grunting from the exertion each time I countersteered. Major breakthrough. Yet, the fellow in the videos makes me look like an overweight senior citizen on a Boss Hog.

I like anything aircooled (at least if it is sporting...I am not talking cruisers here). GSXR1100 / GS1150 / Bandit 1200. Buells. R1200S. And of course, 2-V Ducatis. Not sure why really - something about the rawness and simplicity of an aircooled design. Plus, cooling fins look awesome. The Guzzi MGS-01 was probably my favourite design ever, followed by the NCR Millona, and then the Bimota DB5. Of course I never got the chance to ride any of those... I like 90-degree twins especially. It is pretty funny how my 90-hp bike can gap a modern 600 coming out of a tight corner....of course they eventually leave me for dead, but I do get that brief moment of glory.

Okay, I *wanted* to stop watching that almost right away....but for some reason I watched four minutes....now I need a drink.

14/41. That gets a fat old guy with a poor tuck just to the rev limiter in sixth at the end of the back straight at Mosport....