fastfreddie

three brands i've noticed with exceptional wear characteristics are michelin, bridgstone and maxxis. the tires they offer for your flavor of riding are the pilot power, bt-014 and supermaxx m6029, respectively. it won't be "necessary" to make adjustments going from a 65 to a 70 but, you'll notice a change in handling...it will be a little lazy going into turns and your "effort" may have to be increased. this does have the benefit of making the bike "more stable". additionally, the taller tire might not fit under the fender. you may be able to alleviate that by elongating the mounting holes in the fender. check the feasibility of that before you buy. it's an easy fix with a uni-bit.

i don't remember at which level we're given a suspension "work sheet" but, the gist of it involves taking a test ride with the dampeners fully in or out and in the center. at each setting, the idea is to familiarize yourself with the feel of the bike. this helps the rider make the correct choices when it comes to adjustment of a set baseline for varying conditions. caution is called for when going out with the settings at their extremes.

those tire pressures are "hot". i bet he's right on the money when they're cold.

back off your compression settings. too much compression limits the suspension's ability to do its job. this, in turn, puts the burden on the tire. while a tire is designed for a certain amount of bump absorption, if the suspension stops/slows compression the tire must accomodate this added force. a sticky compund at temperature being forced to do something it's not designed to do tears away. the grip is there, the compliance is not. also, 2.1 bar is about a point high for track work. spirited riding elevates the temp, increasing pressure and reducing the contact patch...more work for less rubber. through experience, i've found one of the suspension guidelines i've come across to be a fairly good gauge of correct tire pressures. i look for a .4-.5 bar increase from cold to hot.

here's the link... http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm the old tuner's lore about "breaking it in fast=a fast motor" is substantiated, even with our modern processes and technology. i have always broken in my bikes quicker than the factory recommends, along the same lines as motoman recommends. i've found my bikes to be quicker than the same model broken in following factory guidelines. i'm on this guy's bandwagon. most recently, i tore down the top-end of my racebike. no visible blow-by on the piston at all, none. my other "highly tuned" bike has a compression ratio of only 12.4...broken in the fast way. how can you explain compression testing of 250psi if the rings had a "lazy" seal? i can't. it's a rocketship with very harsh use of the throttle hand over 20k miles and still a monster. ymmv.

sean, you have a spring rate issue...too soft up front, too stiff out back. a make-shift spacer can be installed in the forks but, there's a possiblity of coil bind at full compression. that can reduce the effective suspension travel and/or damage internal components when it bottoms out. changing the springs, front and rear, is the correct solution. a general rule for dynamic sag(rider on bike) is 1/3 of suspension travel and static sag(bike only) is 5-10mm out back, double that up front. you were correct in turning the dampeners all the way out when checking for sag. it eliminates guess work when accounting for stiction.

i've never had a crash where i didn't know why and mused at the stories of other riders who didn't know why they had crashed. then, one day, it happened. i was dumbfounded and humbled myself in silent apology to everyone that ever suffered the same fate. the instance... going into t1 at beaverun on my second lap, i threw it in as hard as i ever have. next thing i knew, i was bike and body on the ground, sliding off the track, asking myself, "i'm crashing?!?" turns out, i had a failing front tire warmer. michelin no sticky when cold.

i feel like i'm betraying the love affairs i've had with a few of my bikes but, here goes... '01 duc996s. it's overall combination of stability in accelerating, braking and handling can't be beat. i knew i was gonna love it when, during the break-in period, i negotiated a turn with a hefty handful of throttle. the front lofted about six inches at the apex and just hung there until lightly touching down upon exit. no head shake, no change of line, no drama. THAT was my initiation into the magic of ducati. no bike i've ridden aggressively has the poise of the duc. surgically placing it amidst half-a-dozen other bikes buried in t1-t2 traffic, it does exactly what i ask of it and amazes me every time i ask it to go above and beyond. ironically, i've gone faster on another brand. that bike doesn't give me the confidence i have with the duc when things get dicey, tho'.

supernouht is on the right track... when you reach your lean angle, stop trying to counter-steer. i'd bet you're pushing on the outside bar to hold yourself up and, subsequently, getting arm-pump. no?

i was going on the assumption that the same lean angle would be used. you validated most of my point. thank you.

wouldn't that send the bike wide on exit?

two things to consider when you make a quicker turn based on your previous turn points... either you will need to move your turn point farther down the track or you will need to increase your entry speed. without doing either, you're gonna end up inside the apex.

might we induce that target fixation blinds you to your surroundings? how you been, kevin?

kevin, what are you looking for when you find this stuff? weird, tho' i'm sure it's very 'explainable'. now i'm thinking about the things i don't see when i ride.

by lowering the front and raising the rear you've added to the load on the front tire. that alone will increase its wear/decrease its life...if you like the way the bike handles then it may just be a fact of life. if the tire wear is abnormal, like tearing, etc. you have a suspension issue...that includes proper tire compound and pressure.

i'd say back off the compression. too much compression is generally felt in the bars as the suspension tries to deal with the surface irregularities and fails.

fwiw, i started in the dirt, went to 750s for 10 years got a 1000, went racing...my choice in bikes for the track has gone the reverse direction since then. i'm now contemplating a 600 after 1000, 996, 750. i did well on those bikes but, not having to spend too much thought on throttle control upon exiting allows more freedom of thought for nailing down other important issues...not to mention, i'm less likely to throw it away due to a bonehead right hand indiscretion. it's difficult to be precise with a sledgehammer.

yes, but some people use the word 'F***ing' instead of FULL.

http://chasinracin.net/track-locator/rtl_links.php

http://venus.13x.com/roadracingworld/index.html damn, dude! hope you're not gonna need a bigger helmet! i imagine you're discouraging a few people but, you're makin' a whole lot of other people both proud and happy.

for each of your's and stoney's entries, i took the average number of entrants per race and weighed that against the average of the respective finishes to derive a percentage. dropping decimal points gave you 90% and stoney 85%. prolly totally wrong way of doing it but, like i said, pseudo-... i do think my 'win factor' stat for you and stoney is more relevant when compared to each other. basically, it says you got him beat 100%....generally putting someone between you and him. you win, he places third. my wife's an accountant and she could put together some real stats. towards the end of last year, she had my competition broken down to place finishes/points overall relative to my finishes/points overall. it was very, very helpful in providing extra levels of stress. the final in 750sbk came down to a 1 point difference. thanks for pointing out the overall point thing...my ignorance is prolly the reason i didn't like it. yeah, i know. i was just hopin' you'd be out on the track burnin' it up for our viewing pleasure.

WOW! you guys sure do a lot of racin' at these events. if i counted correctly, will, you have 11/14 wins! that's awesome! after doing a psuedo-scientific breakdown of the numbers, you got stoney beat by 5%. i also noticed that in the few races where you two competed in the same class, you beat him. it also appeared that stoney's overall points are padded, relative to yours, due to an extra race entry or two. i never really liked the overall point system. a guy could enter every race, not win, and conceivably take the points lead. there's no doubt they would be a champion of some sort just by the magnitude of their effort but, winning individual classes while besting the top runner's times in other classes tells me who's gettin' the job done. my 'stats' for 'win factor' show yours to be twice as good as stoney's. not to diminish stoney's efforts but, you rock! how long has it been since you were an active(full season) racer? no need to show me how it's done when you get to pocono, i've been a fan from the git-go.

'oorah! what's stoney got to say about it, or is he doin' his talkin' on the track?

do i detect some rivalry?

nice post. i, too, benefitted greatly from my lessons.