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marcus

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About marcus

  • Birthday 04/24/1979

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  • Have you attended a California Superbike School school?
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    Sydney

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  1. Something to consider is stomp grips are good. But they more so rely on the surface area for additional grip. Run your finger along the smooth part, the material has hardly any grip. Tech spec rely on a grippy surface more then outright surface area. My road bike (K6 1000) has the teck spec grips, and its near impossible for me to lock on using the tank's lip so I more so rely on the grips. I also ride my works bikes with stomp grips which is a K6 750 and every now and then, I feel my leg slipping so I have to dig into the tank harder and as a result I put even more weight on the outside peg. They also have K6 600's which dont have any grips and while a stomp grip is better, its no where near as good as my bike. Mind you, its only because I ride so many differnt bikes at the track that these small things are more apparent, while someone who has only ever used stomp will rave about them. Which is understanable as I would have done the same in their situation. When you tend to get the feeling your not locked on the bike, the top of your body goes into an SR where it wants to get further away from the ground- you start to tense up and it has a domino effect. I have something that I am testing and will post how I went when tested
  2. I currently have the 211 GP's on a 5.5 rim on my track bike, they are the 200/55 and are a very, very tall tyre. A mate runs them on his R1 and even on a 6'' rim, they need more muscle then the 209 ntec's. To give you an idea, its currently harder to tip in then my gsxr1000, although that has been valved and had a decent amount of set up and saddle time on and in all fairness, the track bikes probably only had 5 sessions. I am currently playing with it a bit as the front wanted to tuck and didnt give me the confidence to pick up corner speed which probably would have made them a bit more stable. I tried the slow in, fast out and maybe I did it on the wrong corner but the bike head shook at maybe 50% of the steering sweep (no damper- yet)! I have set the forks flush with the top triple to increase trail. I added a 3mm spacer to the shock which gave about 9mm ride height at the rear- the tyre is so tall it reduces swing arm angle... which is sort of counter intuitive but I made about a 6mm change in fork height. Currently, it would seem that the tyre has a massive amount of grip but the negatives associated with it at my pace make it apparent they are more of a pain then what its worth Unfortunatly, I dont have a base line as I got it like that so all I can really do is use my limited experience which will generally lead me in the right direction
  3. I think it depends on the bike ergo's, body position and personal physique. If you cant lock on properly, your not going to feel stable on the bike and the bike isnt going to feel as stable when you start o lean On one of my bikes, I dont want it any further back, just up 1/2 to 1'' so i can lock onto the tank better
  4. I did Lvl 1 at a track I have racked up hundreds of laps in a car and I was still a bit nervous. Prior to that I did 1 Track day on another bike. I did it with a mate, she was nervous at first but had a ball! By the end of the first session she was jumping up and down. If you get a chance, spend a day or 2 lapping up and down your favourite twisty road. This should make you feel more comfortable and relaxed with the bike which will give you a bit of confidence. This will settle some of the nerves I get rusty when I havent ridden for a while, not to mention bike fit. I.e if I dont ride for a month I have to build speed back up There will be faster and probably slower people on the day.
  5. I use under armour. I like the leggings and long sleeve compression for winter, short sleeve compression top for summer and heat gear leggings. Our summers are pretty hot, so I take my suit off and put on shorts between sessions I pretty much use it every time I wear leathers. If anyone has hand washed theirs (i.e double TD) you will see how much ###### they absorb instead of going into your leathers lining.
  6. I'm not arguing with you, but it sure FELT like it was peg weighting. I used to do that. Its more like using the inside peg to push the bike underneath you. Its described in one of my questions on here somewhere. I think I picked it up from dirt bikes. P.s whats up with quotes? Doesnt seem to work
  7. I have done Lvl 1 at eastern creek. I use my outside leg/arm/chest as an anchor point. I havent gotten up to that part of the 2nd book yet. I weighted the inside peg to try and change/tighten my line- as I have found that trying to steer the bike with the bars hard out of corner exit doesnt do much except for inducing a head shake. I have found with a bit more time I can better pick up what the rear end is doing. I have also found out there is a slide bike (and no BS bike) but they are based in Phillip Island.
  8. I ride an 06 GSXR1000 and these suffer badly from stiction. I have oil soaked foam under my dust seals which reduced it 5mm, I still have 9-11mm. I have backed off the bolts from the triple clamp, given the wheel a tap and loosened the axle nut which also helped a bit. Any suggestions to help reduce it? My suspension guy has a chromed stanction to test but im putting that off and since he hasnt asked me when, I assume he is a bit busy anyway
  9. I have techspec pads on my bike. Everytime I ride a bike without them, I feel the need to put excessive weight on the outside peg which fatigues me quickly. I wouldnt mind my rearsets moved up and back a bit.
  10. Hey guys Not trying to hijack CHAOS's thread but I have similar BP. Good or bad comments will be appreciated. Unfortunatly these were at the end of last year and my BP has changed slightly. Im trying to get into the mindset of if im crouching, use a full crouch and kiss the mirror, if not sit upright and nothing inbetween. Sorry I dont know how to imbed images, just click on the link http://a463.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/image...b1a82530606.jpg http://a631.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/image...f9958513896.jpg
  11. These guys are all giving sound advice. Its not advice, its what YOU need to do! Riding a bike without even setting the sags can be difficult and unnerving. A good friend of mine has an 04 R1, didnt want to touch his suspension even though I said I will do everything, all he has to do is sit there. Didnt want to have a bar of it. It was actually a trust issue and I said to him we will note the current settings and if you dont like it, we can turn it back. I just couldnt believe he was riding it as fast as he was. A couple of weeks later, we swapped bikes and that was enough to convince him. We did his suspension and its a major improvement! His bike actually had the same problem, just as my knee would go to touch down, it felt like it was falling into the corner. Im putting it down to his front tyre which is due to be replaced shortly. There are no other variables. One of my mentors has always said to me: "Tyres and suspension- its the only thing keeping you upright in a corner. Saftey is No.1"!!! You can have one or the other, but if you have both you are set. I might point out this is already taking into account some schooling. If you have a track near by, chances are there is a local suspension guy that can do your sag and basic clicker set up for a very minimal amount (like $30 or so) This WILL improve your confidence. It wont be optimal, but it will get you to another level. You will be going as fast, if not faster and you will be more comfortable. It will be easier. A rear spring isnt that much, maybe $80- $110 US. Front springs are probably about the same but you will get ball park preload with the stock front springs. Im 68kg and I still had to fork out for a stiffer rear spring. $180 AUD! I got ripped in comparison but I paid it without blinking an eye- saftey is No.1!! This isnt really directed at anyone so dont take it the wrong way: I really dont get it, people will spend $600 on pipes, $250 on a power commander, sprockets, $60 on an air filter, $300 on tuning it. Thats over a 1K for maybe 10hp that you can only use on the highway. Lets see, 5 hp is maybe 2 bike lengths in a "roll on race". Thats not a lot of value.... realistically! But getting your sag and clickers set up isnt considered? Or deemed too expensive or inconvienient! A basic revalve is what, maybe $400? SBK school, what $450? go to the twisties and see who is competant (skill and machine). Even better, go to the track and race them! Maybe its the australian culture, but being able to do a 2mile wheelie isnt that impressive. Being the fastest in a straight line means nothing- anyone can spend money and twist their wrist. Sort of gets boring after a while.
  12. I would but the conundrum is they dont have a slide bike in Australia. Ok, I had a bit of a play around and im not sure what to do. The tyre is spinning but there is no real jump in RPM's. I actually thought it was quite mild but I accidentally weighted the inside peg too much and it stepped out more then anticipated. I managed to ride the road the opposite way (slowly) and noticed the marks. There was a faint mark from my riding buddy, then 4 or 5'' over you could see my mark which was a lot darker. I sort of weighted the peg to change my line (to set up better for the next corner) and you can see where the line is in an arc that starts to straightens out, then it steps out 3'' (where I tried to change direction) and then continued on the arc as I realized and adjusted. It was already in a gradual slide and there is a slight crest ahead so I wanted the bike to be set up before that and tip in. Basically I didnt want to push my front end that hard into the next corner if I could help it.... braking more didnt really occour to me at that point. I know its a bit stupid to do on the road but thats changed now. I have been struggling with chassis stability on corner exit and the rear shocks been redone. Its a lot better but its made the grip issues more apparent, but its stable and a lot more controllable with further fine tuning scheduled. But up until this point, I really didnt know the tyre was spinning up so much. I had an idea it was spinning a bit as I could "induce a slide". But for the most of it, my roll on was smooth (but aggressive), my throttle application felt "about right" but looking at the marks I was leaving, its more then what I interpreted- hence it stepping out quicker then what I expected. The bikes a lot smoother and im probably improving as well. I dont usually need to make any adjustments at this part of the corner and im sort of letting it drift a bit but I wanted a little bit of a nicer turn in point. The slide didnt really worry me and I now know I need to be a little more gentile if the bike needs more input or to hold a longer apex/make the adjustment earlier when im not on the gas as hard etc. (other options?) Sorry if im using car terms, I used to club race but the bike things a bit new to me. Reading the article again, am I correct in guessing that I have to chock this up to "experience" and learning that this is a particular stage of learning what the tyres and bike is capable of in its current trim? And relearn these things again if there are any changes made? I was sort of back to the stage of feeling the bike out, but comfortable with it The cars I used to have gave subtle hints that the tyres were going off and you had to back it off a bit, but with a bike, im a little concerned that its going to "let go" without any warning or im going to go for a ride when the tyres are near due for replacements and have an opps. Or do I have to get used to the fact that every time I ride, I have to constantly feel the bike out? I.e knock 5-10% off my last known pace and slowly build up pace again? Sorry if this is a bit cryptic, if there is anything that needs further explanation let me know.
  13. Im sure you have heard it a million times, but its rider dependant and climate can also make a difference. Play with it, you will find what you like and what you dont like.
  14. Is there a way one can feel for rear traction, specifically on corner exit? Previoulsy I let the rear squirm around a bit but that was on pilots and was quite easy to do, since changing to a better tyre I can use a lot more throttle out of corners which sort of makes me wonder how I can feel if the rears going to break loose. Surely there is a safer way to notice signs of rear grip!
  15. apart from things like tyres, nope, im fresh out of ideas
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