Pepsi Drinker

I have a set of forks with racetech gold valves and springs; It took three attempts to get the correct springs as their spring guide deal had the weight of the bike off by 50 pounds and even when I pointed that out to them they said it was only on the website not thier application guide. Then the replacement set they sent 4 days later didn't even fit in the tubes, so it was 9 days from the time I got the first set til the correct set actually arrived. The gold valves, well after installing them and they leaked I removed them and sanded the valve bodies flat with 800 grit on a steel flat plate, now they don't leak anymore. But I would certainly check for flatness on any of their bodies if installing again. I would never go this route again! While they were appreciably better than the oe set up, it was not worth all that money and time and hassle compared to something that actually worked~ see below Since, I have bought a set of Ak20's and it is night and day difference in how they work and the much more linear damping adjustment. Since it was only about $280 more out of pocket and actually significantly (hours) less work, I would call it a bargain. In the rear, I revalved/resprung and refreshed an oe shock and it was far better than it was originally, but I also have a Penske 8983 that works even better yet that was about twice the cost. I use them differently as one is a two up set up and one is for solo so I can not directly compare feedback etc. But they both work well for their intended use, but the Penske is bling too... If I was to start anew on this, buy the Penske and Ak20's and be done all at once with top notch stuff... or Ohlins or Ktech or something of known quality

I have tried one of those gas cap mounted units and she doesn't like it at all, she prefers the handgrip rails that came standard on the bike as her wrists are at a slightly akward angle with the tank mounted thing. Not to mention she bangs her faceshield into the back of my helmet way too often in that position. Although the tank grip unit has been favored by many first time passengers going at a spirited clip on the track, most of which have been trackday riders, although only by them not me as the rider. That said, I also prefer her to hold on to the oe grips in the back so it allows me a little more freedom of movement instead of her arms firmly pressing on both sides of me to get around to the tank mounted grip. Actually she typically has one hand palm down on the tank and the other on that rear grab bar and swaps hands depending on the direction of turn so I am able to lean my upper body unobstructed. Of course I am really moving all that far, but enough that if her arm was there it would definately be in the way. Besides the suspension set up, it really comes down to working together with your passenger and them knowing how and when to move with the bike, or more often how not to move at all.

If only I wasn't 1700 miles away. hmm- $550 in fuel plus hotel stay Barber is much closer at about 1100 miles, if you need help there I for sure would make the drive

I am trying to manage to get there those same days, level 3 and 4 on my bike. A new local track was scheduled to be built not too far away but alas that fell apart so likely relagated to the same old tired 1.1 mile track at the local school

Levers, handlebars, throttle tube, grips, zipties, duct tape, safety wire are always staples But I have taken; oil/filter, distilled water, brake fluid, crush washers, chain/sprockets, rearsets or stock footpeg assemblies at the least, windshield, clutch frictions and a new gasket, second helmet and leathers, gloves, tires, a metric assortment of orings, fule line and vaccuumn line, I have even so far to bring a second bike. Besides tools and compressed air and tire change stuff But I try to go with knowing the bike is in tip top shape and short crashing it will need nothing but fuel to last the day or two days at the track.

As said some of that could be; on the street most people feel safer going through right turns viewing that oncoming lane as a safety zone, run off area if you will whereas, when going through left handed turns the "run off" is off the road. Faulty logic, but common logic for whatever reason.

Can't you wrap it around the stick coil, it works that way for engine timers on most the dirt bikes I install them on that have a stick coil. I don't have a pic, but I could usually get 3 wraps inside the top boot as long as they didn't overlap and still get it down in the head cover hole.

Many of the people I bring with me to the track for events I set up won't do any trackdays with the one local organization simply because it is mostly racers and then there is of course the cost. $110 to get to ride for maybe 80-90 minutes out of an 8 hour day on a 1 mile track, or $240 for the same amount of time on a track that is 200 miles away. Most would rather spend $50 on gas and ride 400 miles in those same 8 hours on the best roads they could find, or better yet, spend $350-$400 and head to Arkansas and ride for 3 days, all day everyday. Me I prefer the street and all the changes and challenges it presents, but still go to the track often enough to be a little bored with it.

On the street I often use a very late turn in point. For the simple reason of better visibility and it keeps me tight on exit, away from those dangerous oncoming vehicles in right hand turns. And on left hand turns it keeps me away from them as they exit and I enter. On the street at a moderate or even spirited pace this seems to make sense for no other reason that safety. At the track, since usually visibility is much better and I will have seen the same corner a bajillion times. I typically only turn in "late" if I need a tighter exit line for a consecutive corner to be set up better. Say turn 4/5 at VIR north; late into 4 to hold a tighter line exiting to set up for 5 But I guess this isn't answering your too late question. Too late would kill your drive through and off the corner since it is likely you would have lean further which would mean carrying less speed and wait on the throttle til you got the bike more upright.

This is going to come off as bragging, which I am not. This is just some factual information; I ride a 600cc sportbike I have about 20 years racing experience and have ridden well over a million miles in my life. The last few years, I ride more miles 2up than I do solo, I ride at a very spirited pace on the best roads I can find. I am not WOT and I 99% of the time have a self imposed 70-75mph cap on my top speed, but even in the marked 30 mph corners I run about 70, so double plus is pretty common except on the straights where I just troll along at about 70-75 I also do several track events each year where I ride two up the majority of the sessions As far as the bike set up; I have .95kg/mm fork springs in the bike when I ride solo and 1.05kg/mm fork springs when I am two up-and add both compression and rebound damping to go with that stiffer spring. 30mm sag is set either way The rear shock, I have an oe fresh shock with stock valving and spring when solo and an entirely different shock set up for two up, the spring is quite a bit stiffer, so much so the rare occassion I have ridden on it solo it sits topped out most the time and about bucks me off the bike. It also adds 5mm more rear ride height when two up. 35mm sag is set either way Given that the suspension demands are very different, I opt to take the 30 minutes it takes me to make the switch so it is set up for how I plan to ride. I have found the weight of the passenger is every bit as much on the front as the rear or very near the same weight bias when the bike sits statically. I have no doubt some model bikes this will vary on- to atleast some extent. And of course when on the brakes, there is far more weight pushing on that front tire As far as throttle control, I find I am actually on the gas harder and earlier since the engine doesn't accelerate as hard with the passenger and the extra, lets just call it 160 lbs with gear, on the back seat. Which actually adds some amount of traction at a spirited pace. Mind you I am not saying race pace. I do set tire pressures differently as well, adding 4psi cold more to the rear and 5 to the front to keep that same approx 15% of pressure increase at temperature. Tires that solo would last me 4500 miles or so of street while riding two up only go about 3200 miles. I actually burned through a set of tires in Arkansas in 900 miles late last fall two up the entire time at a spirited pace, they had less than 400 miles on them when we left. The local track I typically run about 3-5 seconds off my solo pace when she is on the back and am typically passing most the riders on the track even two up. Again we aren't racing, but we are moving at very quick clip and most of the people who join me aren't racers although nearly all do trackdays several times a year. I do end up having to keep my sessions shorter with her on back, her wrists and legs get sore under hard braking after several laps once past the first session or two but especially later in the day. There are a few people I ride with regularly who ride two up often and are very quick, quick enough to leave most solo riders far behind through the technical stuff. Their wives love it, but there are others who bring a passenger and if the pace is upped at all they get stiff and tense and do all sorts of bad things. So it will much depend on the quality of passenger as well as the bike set up I have no doubt that if I was riding a liter bike where the extra weight wouldn't make as big of a difference in acceleration my throttle application would still be earlier and more than riding solo.

Speak with your agent about your specific policy. My own policy does cover track riding as long as it is a "school" and not a race or trackday and carries the same coverage I have on the street. So it protects me, my bike and anyone/anything else I injure/damage up to its limits. My personal policy does not however cover someone elses bike if I am riding their bike and fall down, it would still cover me though. I have a seperate policy that covers me on anything I ride or drive.

"A brake vendor came yesterday to the shop where i frequent and I saw translucent "rubber" encased steel briad brake hoses ... could you say double trhe protection?? :D" That outer layer also helps keep your painted parts from being so rubbed, along with the radiator in some cases, then of course your hands when handling them, especially after they have seen extended use.

I don't. I likely did at some point in my early stages of riding but now it just is part of riding. One key thing though that I can help with; is to adjust your clutch lever free play to a minimal amount and adjust the lever height/distance for your hand size/riding position then adjust the shifter pedal up/down to the correct position for you as well. You can also "double up" the shift rubber pad to make it thicker and thus easier to be more firm with your shifts I removed the oe rubber and slid a piece of hose over the rod then reinstalled the oe shift rubber with lots of sopa and elbow grease. It made a huge difference. I have never missed a shift since or found any false nuetral from being a little lazy on the shifter pedal.

Servicing the suspension is important, but even more important is to have it set up as good as you can with what you have. As stated above, particulate matter, mostly metal from the springs rubbing on the interior of the fork tube, collect and can change how your valving stack will work or not work. So disassembly and cleaning and fresh oil atleast once a season is highly recommended. Many racers do it far more often, personally I do mine twice a year. You may not feel the slow progression of the components working less effectively, but they are. And chasing a moving target isn't ideal. Servicing the rest of the bike is equally important, and @ 11k it is certainly close enough to the 16k oe recommended service for getting the valves adjusted and everything listed in the service manual. It has been my long time experience as a mechanic that the valves move the most early on in the engines life, so the first couple adjustments are the most critical where there is the most movement from the most valves. I always recommend having that first service done before the 10k mark. Once you reach past 35,000 or 40,000 miles they seem to settle in and move far less (street bike) On a virtually track only bike I would adjust them once per season or every 3000 miles of track use, you may be suprised how much they move. Other items like throttle cable free play, TPS adjustment, throttle body sync, air filter cleanliness, changing the oil/filter, adjusting and lubing the chain, amking sure your wheels are truly straight, checking brake pads regularly, lubing and adjusting the cables and pivot bushings, making sure the steering head bearings, swingarm bearings and wheel bearings are all full of grease and in good condition. Those bushings tend to wear prematurely becasue the factories use precious little grease on initial assembly. Then of course flushing the brakes atleast once per season are all very important to have the bike work as it should You also need to make sure the levers, shifter pedal, brake pedal etc are ideally set up for your rding position and size. All of these are adjustable on all bikes.

Well I doubt any coaches do it that way. After all they need to be able to ride almost flawlessly while following others and analyzing their riding then remembering what they saw in order to discuss it after the fact. But I have found some solice in videoing myself or having someone else follow and video so I can analyze after the fact and just concentrate corner to corner or maybe even a few corners ahead on the track when I actually go run hard and fast. When those options are not available, lap times end up being the measure, which I find is a little more vague as that is only an average over the entire lap and doesn't isolate individual corners or even more break down the entry, middle and exit of each corner. That is one area where lots of telemetry can be a huge benefit

"So again - is it within your personality to become a world champion?" Since it is phrased as personality not as talent, patience or physical ability, then I would have to answer yes. I am that competitive, not as competitive as I was 20 or 30 years ago, but I have that drive to work as hard as I have to in order to succeed, if anything given past failures this drive has grown stronger not faded away. Although I can secumb to disappointment and doubt just like anyone, usually that despair as it is will get refocused into more drive to work harder.

Going from 65 to 75 seconds = 15% more time. Adding 15% to 5 min 10 seconds gives us a time of about 6 minutes. Yes, you'd still get a workout, but you would not be strained at that pace. However, I guess the situation from my point of view is that I simply cannot see myself enjoying circulating a track at anything but full attack. And even doing that I'd be bored pretty soon. I've never enjoyed repeating things over and over in order to find minute gains. I know that's what's needed to become number one, and some can find pleasure discovering their own limits. Personally, though, I find that 20% effort brings 80% result, which I'm good with We'll have to agree to disagree on this. But just for clarity- he typically runs 1:15ish but always thought 1:10ish was his limit then ran ~1:05 and found 1:10 was not his limit at all, so really we are talking a 5 second difference not 10 seconds as far as his percieved 100%, but yes his trackday pace is ~10 seconds off what he can ride even though he thought it was only 5 seconds off what he could ride.

Looking into these and the gas charged model is about twice the cost of the non gas filled model. Reading what the description (sales pitch) have to say the gas charged information makes it sound like it is so far superior or that the non gas charged is so inferior there is no other choice. I have ridden on forks with just new damping stacks and springs, with forks that are stock and forks that have the traditional non gas filled Ak20 cartrides installed yes each step up in cost has been noticeablely better. Perhaps there is my own answer? The difference in cost from having new compression and rebound valves installed on oe fork components...lets just use $750 out the door total cost of this service including the new compression stack, new rebound stack and new springs, oil, seals - to going to the Ak20 non gas charged at (999 for the kit includes everything but seals and install) installed lets use $1200 * it is significantly more time invested to install new valving stacks than it is to "drop in" an all new cartridge already set up-so labor cost if you aren't doing it yourself will be likley atleast another $100+ to replace your rebound and damping shim stacks and valve body- thus taking away some of the cost difference in the products themselves even at this price difference the Ak is a noticeably better product and IMO opinion worth the extra expense, perhaps an even more noticeable improvement than going from oe to having new valving and springs? But to then jump up to around $2200 installed to go to the gas charged Ak, well how much better does that have to be to make it worth an extra $1k? I am sure the top racers likely use the latest and greatest, but for us mere mortals who aren't nearly as fast, is the difference enough to justify the cost? So the question really is; Does anyone have experience with the gas charged AK-20 or any similar product from another manufacturer? How much difference could you actually feel/tell from a non gas charged unit or from having aftermarket valving stacks and springs installed?

I use to run the mile when in Middle & High School. I regularly was a 5:30ish runner for years. Well one race some guy from another school was mouthing off this and that and I ran a 5:10 to stay with him. I certainly was not sluffing while running 5:30 and stepping up to run a 5:10 for that race that day was all driven by the competition. I do have to admit I coughed for 2 days straight after that race, my lungs had never worked so hard, usually it only took me a few hours to feel fine again. So saying someone is just going through the paces of strolling around the track at 1:15 when they could knock off a 1:05 I find ridiculous. I have ridden plenty of tracks where I will coast sort of on the straights only reaching say 135=140 instead of running to 160+ yet still riding very fast through the infield, I would easily be 5-10 seconds off my race pace while doing that yet I was still riding quite fast, just not on the straights...Way too many variables for one to say 10 seconds off the pace is coasting around a track. Even short shifting the straights by 1500 rpm to save some engine wear will cost several seconds on many tracks. There is plenty to be learned and practiced at a comfortable pace. Track days and track schools are for fun and education not competition, or maybe I am all wrong and misinformed and lap times are the only important thing. I find that mentality to be on the same plain as the street riders who think because they have a sportbike that is capable of 160+ mph they need to ride that fast or why bother. I here from riders of all styles of bikes - as it relates to sportbikes-"why buy a bike capable of 160+, can turn on a dime and stop in 110 feet if you aren't going to use that?" Of course we are mostly talking about track riding on this forum, but the skills do translate to both track and street riding, don't they?

I think the quicker your steering input the quicker you can get onto your desired radius, but it doesn't change that radius or the time in that radius. It only changes the amount of time spent getting to the desired lean angle, which is still time wasted. IMO Well okay it also changes the distance traveled while getting to your desired lean angle/radius.

www.zcustom.com/ www.dianese.com www.alpinestars.com www.agvsport.com just so I have no one companies interests displayed

Personally for me, I really loved the fit and comfort of the Z custom suit I once had. I never crash tested it yet Is aw others who had and they held up great with only scuffingto the surface. Of course every crash is a bit different so it is not very scientific testing but I think there suits are top notch. Others that have faired well in crashes, a few of them through a half dozen or more crashes Velocity sportgear Route21 Perrini MI3 AGVSport I have seen all these sustain multiple crashes without significant damage to suit or rider. How well the suit fits has more to do with this than the suit itself....to some extent

More than anything I think it drives home the point of not really pushing yourself to anywhere near your abilities or limits when doing it for fun. Yet when being more competetive, depending on your own competetive drive of course, one can easily hit another gear and go much faster. So is this riders 100% running 1:05's that day? or was he still sub 100% and could have gone faster yet? When he rides his typical 1:15 plus where does that fall in? I have seen numerous riders who ride that tiny 1.1 mile 20+ turn track who can run sub 1:10 lap times who routinely only run 1:15-1:20's. Some of that has to do with passing (track is narrow and technically the rule for passing is only allowed on the back straight, although there are places and times to drive by in other areas-just don't get black flagged doing so, which has more to do with politics and who likes you than safety) but mostly I think riders fall into a comfort zone and pick a pace more conservative than they really need to, even less than say 80%. This track, it is very typical for the leaders of the "fast" group ride somewhere around 1:15 and riding very very close with the leaders of the intermediate group running about 2 seconds slower and giving each other more room making things seem even slower yet. So anyone knocking off anything sub 1:10 is really moving and at 1:05 you are definately riding very very hard. I don't know anyone who has run faster than 1:02's. He attended one other event at the track since we were there together and I spectated for awhile and he was again in the 1:16-1:18 range for the two sessions I observed, which was near the front of the fastest people on the track in those sessions. So he may well be in a comfort zone of riding at the groups pace on a typical day?

At a few tracks I have run thousands of laps at, I have a good idea when running 3-8 seconds a lap slower than normal that I am running at something less than giving it my all at 100%. How much less is too subjective to quantify as somedays I am faster than others even when racing and riding at "100%", but do know when I am not running as fast so if it is 75% or 90% perhaps I couldn't even guess close as my 100% one day is clearly different than my 100% some other days, maybe that is why I am just a mear mortal and never got any race contract...lol But i totally agree with some comments about when it is for competition (racing) your lap times will be quicker than when you are out there trying to push yourself but doing it for a trackday or track school. Recently I was doing some track riding with friends and after clicking off 1:10's for most of the day one of my friends and I went back out when he said "lets go do some hot laps", it was only the two of us on the track, well I went out there and ran about the same times for several laps seeing him still close in my mirrors I wicked it up some for about 5 laps and gapping him by several seconds before slowing on the straight and having him pass, he instantly turned into another gear and had about a 2 second lead by the end of the lap and then 4 seconds by the end of the next, I was now running 1:07's then so he had to be around 1:05 (no transponder on his bike) which is far faster than his normal trackday pace of around 1:15 and when we were done he said that was the fastest he had ever ridden on that track. He has atleast ten times as many laps on that track as I do but yet he is typically a 1:15-1:18 rider feeling like he was only a few seconds off the fastest he could run. Competition (speculation) drove him to ride faster and he looked really smooth and in control doing it, clearly what he thought was his 100% when pushing to around 1:10 wasn't his 100% at all. One way when I was racing I decided this is as fast as I can go (my percieved 100%) was when I didn't feel comfortable any longer with how much the bike was moving around through the turns. This typically meant having the front slightly tuck atleast a few times per lap and the rear stepping out more than a wiggle and geting off the planned line more than a few times per lap. I learned though that sometimes my riding made the bike more unstable and an easy change in that netted a better handling/feeling bike and thus quicker lap times. Of course I had to recognize what I did wrong to upset the bike and figure out how to correct that, which many times meant someone else saying something, CSS was excellent at that !

Books and videos, and likely to squeeze in another trip to Texas Hill Country sometime in January, to atleast get in some riding in the off season. I have managed for many years to find a few days each winter where it is around 40* and sunny and hasn't snowed in several days for the roads to be clear, but that is not real quality riding not to mention the time committment involved once back home having to clean all the sand and salt off the bike.