Hotfoot
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Posts posted by Hotfoot
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Rearsets can help in a couple of ways - if you get adjustables you can play with the position until you find a spot that is comfortable for you, and I have definitely had good success with that personally.
They can also help you by allowing you to change the shape of the footpeg. Some footpegs are more aggressive than others, to give better grip, etc., but some of the shapes can end up putting an unusual amount of pressure in one spot on your foot. Some have a rounded end, making it easier to rotate your foot for an aggressive knee positions, and some of them also have little knobs or corners that can be uncomfortable if ONE little spot is taking most of the weight, and it can wear out your boots quicker, too.
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Maybe we can get Keith to add a level 4 drill for this, although we won't be able to call it the "Pick-Up" drill...
Benny
Hee hee.
It reminds me of the cowboy competitions where guys would hang way off horses to pick something up at a full gallop. They still have a modern gymkhana event where the object is to grab a little flag out of the top of a small traffic cone, then put the flag back down into another traffic cone a distance away, all done at a flat out gallop, fastest time wins.
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I didn't see him ride - could he have been hanging his body off so much that his outside leg had to lift that high to accommodate the position? Or was it clearly a lift off the pegs without moving his leg? Seems like the radical hang off position that Marquez uses has been influencing other riders to hang off farther - I wonder if there will be changes in the bikes coming to make it easier for riders to hang off even farther. I'd need a seat belt!
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Hello !
Been reading, for fun, dreaming about my next track day !
So, it seems that there is some controversy about how good the DDC is for real racing... Just curious, what do the experts / HP4 owner and racers think about this ?
I noticed there hasn't been a lot of response to this question - I don't think there are many people USING the HP4 for racing, so I'm not sure you will find one in this forum group. I know a lot of people racing BMW1000rrs but I don't know anyone racing the HP4 version. I know at least five or six people here in California that own one (and 3 of those are racers) but none of them are racing that bike. We have a guy that volunteers to crew for us at the races sometimes and he rides his HP4 to the track and parks it in our pit - it gets a lot of attention - but he wouldn't dream of racing it, too worried about it getting damaged.
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Excellent, isn't it a great feeling when something clicks like that?
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I'd be interested to see lean angle, too, to see if there was any added lean angle contributing to the TC kicking in, and slip rate to see how much it allowed the tire to slip.
Interesting how smooth the actual RPM increase is.
Wouldn't be cool if you could also track what your eyes were doing? For example, I'd like to see what your eyes did right at the point there was a little dip in the user-input throttle, then a hard roll on. Was that little hesitation caused by your eyes getting stuck on the apex for a fraction of a second too long, followed by shifting them to your exit area and then going for it with the gas?
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Oh. I'm definitely over thinking things. I tend to do that by default.
On the over thinking front though I think I may want to invest in a calibrated tire gauge so I know for sure I'm running the right pressure. The one I'm using is a Cycle Gear digital cheapie. It could be off and that in itself could be part of the problem.
That is a good plan. Or, if you like the cheapie one, you can take it over to a tire vendor at the track and compare your gauge's reading to one they know is accurate and see how it compares. I have one that reads 1psi low and I just marked the gauge with permanant marker and adjust pressure accordingly, because I like the gauge.
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Slowing you down in the dirt?
Stroker - is there a particular problem in your riding that you are hoping can be solved using the rear brake?
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That's the same problem I have with my SuperSingle - it is so unusual and has such a beautiful paint job, I am always a little afraid to push hard when racing it, I REALLY REALLY don't want to crash it. :/
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What a great thread, these are terrific stories!
Robert your story reminded me of an off-road riding day - my husband and I hauled the bikes out somewhere for a ride, rode hard all day on all kinds of terrain, and I made it through that whole day staying upright on the bike... but at home, while unloading the back of the truck, I caught the toe of my off-road boot in between slats on the ramp and fell all the way down the ramp. Good thing I still had on elbow and knee pads!
Here's another almost-crash story - went riding with a buddy in a beautiful area. As we were going down the road we saw a hawk swoop down at the side of the road, grab a SNAKE about 4 feet long, and then start struggling to get back airborne with the live snake thrashing around. We were still approaching and the hawk was about 8 feet off the ground, right above my buddy when it DROPPED the snake, practically on his handlebars. He freaked, swerved off the road and started flailing around, thinking it was on him somewhere and SURE it was a rattler. He looked like Ricky-Bobby when he thought he was on fire.
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Here's one I've heard: "I sneezed going into the corner"
One from a rider at a race practice (not at the school): "My mechanic forgot to turn on my tire warmers."
And here is a personal one:
Have you ever seen those big black beetles that walk around the paddock area at Willow Springs? I almost dropped a coach bike in the pit lane because I pulled my glove on and there was one of those big beetles IN the index finger of the glove, I could feel it wiggling. YUCK!!!!
Another coach (Mikey) saw me yank my glove off and shake it upside down - a fat beetle dropped out and then started crawling away. Mikey said EWWW!!! and then started laughing so hard HE nearly fell off HIS bike.
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Damien;
His name is Bob Hartman
etechphoto
PO Box 1187
Eldersburg, MD 21784
I don't have his phone number or his e-mail address but some other Forum member may have it.
Rainman
Email should be etechphoto@usa.net
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My understanding is that you are usually looking for a 2-3psi increase from cold to hot. IIRC the Dunlop website recommends starting at about 32 psi cold and look for the tires to get to 34-35psi hot.This is a huge mystery for me. Mostly because of all the different schools of thought involved. Does anybody have a workable "formula" of how to adjust hot pressure?
Normally I "set it and forget it" and that's worked well for me. I run Dunlop Q3's on an S1000RR and do 31/30 cold. I recently did a 101 degree track day and realized this is probably not the best approach when the temp goes from 80 in the morning to 101 in the afternoon.
HELP!
Many tire vendors will ONLY give you hot pressures for their race tires, and the expectation is that you will put on warmers, THEN set the pressures once the tires are up to temp - around 160-175 degrees F. That's because the COLD pressures will vary depending on ambient temp, but the HOT pressure (at the tire warmer set temp) will not, so it is much more consistent to do it that way.
I don't know that it is necessary to adjust your tire pressures for different ambient temps UNLESS you can't get enough heat in them because it is cold out. In that case you might set the pressure to 31 psi cold, ride a session, then check pressures right after exiting the track and if you have only gotten to 32 or are still at 31 you might drop the pressure a little to allow the tire to flex more and to get more heat into it. You'd also probably notice that the tires don't feel hot to the touch, or they might feel a bit loose on the track.
Q3s have a very wide operating temperature and will grip well at temperatures much lower than a race tire, and in my opinion they also warm up faster and more easily, so on those you may not notice much (or any) difference in how they feel on track.
It sounded like you felt that you needed to lower your tire pressures for a hot day - I'm not sure why that would be necessary, since the tires are designed to operate at temps in the 160-180 degree range, unless you found that the tire pressure was increasing too much between cold and hot. For example if you set it to 31 psi cold and the pressure jumped up to 38psi hot, you'd probably want to bring it back down to the recommended hot pressure of around 34psi.
(Side note - I think having the pressure too LOW is a more common cause of a tire actually getting overheated - too much flexion on a hot day can do that, and poor suspension setting can overwork a tire and contribute to that, too. )
For race tires I think it is more common to change compounds (ultra soft to soft or to medium) with different ambient temps, not pressure - a soft tire can provide better grip in cooler weather and a medium tire could be more resistant to excess wear on a hot day. The Dunlop website has good info on choosing the right tire for high or low temps or for different track surfaces.
The safest bet is to check the tire pressure when hot, at least once - but the Q3 seems like a very forgiving tire and is long as it feels OK and is wearing OK, you're probably fine just sticking with 'set it and forget it' in the morning.
Does that help? In your case I agree with something Jeff said earlier - since your pace has increased so much, I wonder if it is time to start doing some suspension adjustment. Do you ever adjust your clicker adjustments? That will open up a whole new world of mystery.
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I have high hopes for this!! I hope it breathes new life into local and national racing - I am especially hopeful that there will be an easier path for young aspiring racers to get into pro racing, and more pro-am events.
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Great job explaining that, Yellow Duck!
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WOT means wide open throttle, not redline. So yes you might well have revs left depending on how close to redline you were entering the corner.
Appreciate the helpful explanation. I was actually asking the original poster how many revs they had left. I guess I could have worded my question a bit better to prevent confusion.
Mostly just curious. As well what kind of bike is this? What works on a 250 would probably not work well on a big 1L monster.
Absolutely true (that WOT on a 250 would be considerably different than WOT on an S1000)! Also, a fine point but sometimes becomes important - your revs will be different leaned over than straight up and down due to the difference in the circumference of the tire.
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I agree with all of what YellowDuck said above. If you've taken Level 1, check your Two-Step timing to make sure your eyes aren't stuck on your turn point - that can mess up your sense of speed.
There is a section in A Twist of the Wrist II called "Discharging" that gives a useful procedure for gradually increasing entry speed without overwhelming yourself.
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Nice! Glad you got some improvement, and have some ideas on possible additional adjustments. I know what you mean about the Stompgrip, I have had that too-grippy issue too.
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Have you tried going through the whole corner at WOT? If so, were you able to get the bike turned, and get to and stay on your desired line?
Is there a particular problem you are trying to solve in these corners? Is your bike not going where you want it to go or is there a handling problem?
The reasons for rolling off the throttle on entry include setting your entry speed and getting the weight on the front end to quicken the steering. The reasons for good throttle control are many but they include maximizing traction and getting the suspension in the ideal range.
If the corners are such that you can enter WOT and get the bike turned successfully and it holds your desired line, then there is no real necessity to roll off - this is a fairly common scenario on lightweight bikes on big tracks. However, if entering at WOT causes you to run wide, or triggers SRs causing errors like tightening on the bars, etc., it may not be practical and you need to look at using your roll-off to set a proper entry speed that is manageable for you.
Quick flick versus a slower turn will depend on the corner - is it more of a priority in THAT corner to go IN fast or come OUT fast? If the corner has a wide, high speed entry after a straightaway it might be useful to use a slower turn in and trail brake (or just roll-off and let the slow turn in scrub speed) to preserve your straightaway speed as long as possible and prevent being passed on entry. But if the corner is tight and leads ONTO a straightaway, quick turn may be better so you can get on the gas as early as possible for your drive. Every corner is a little different so it is best to ride to your own strengths and use a laptimer to actually measure which works better for you in a given turn.
If there is a specific problem you are experiencing in a turn, post that up and maybe we can help figure out the cause and some solutions.
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Sorry for all the questions, it is much easier to help with this sort of thing in person when one can actually SEE what is happening!
If you are observing a problem, there's a problem! It's just a matter of identifying it and finding ways to fix it or work around it. Hopefully your experiments in the garage will help. I guess another thing to look at would be the soles of your boots, do they have a big arch or ridge that requires you to raise your foot up a LOT to move your foot?
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OK, good info, now I have more questions.
How long is your commute? Do you have trouble right from the beginning or only later in the ride? Is your commute on streets, stop and go, or mostly high speed highway riding?
If your commute is more than about 15-20 minutes, how do you hold yourself up off the bars? What parts of your body get tired as you ride for longer periods?
Once your foot is set forward enough on the peg to reach the shift lever, can you upshift just by lifting the toe of your boot? Or do you have to move your whole leg? Are your knee and ankle already flexed too far for you to easily lift your toe any higher? If so, there may be an issue with your rearset position, it is definitely possible to get your hip/knee/ankle flexed so much that you cannot lift up your toe enough to shift (or lift your foot up enough to move it forward) without having to move your whole leg.
(If this idea is not clear, try sitting in a chair and extending your leg straight out, and observe how much you can rotate your foot from the ankle in an up and down motion, then tuck your leg under you with the ball of your foot on the ground and your knee fully flexed, and try lifting your foot upward by rotating the ankle - it is much more difficult and you get much less available motion.)
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Personally, I do find it easy to move my foot without losing my lock-on, but I know I use my abs/core strength to help with that, plus I have GP shift which probably makes it easier in general. For sure I have had trouble in the past if my shifter was too high, or if my footpegs were way too high or low, too far back, or too far forward. Specifically I remember coaching once on someone else's S1000rr (a much taller rider) and in only two sessions my legs were worn out from trying to shift in an awkward way, the pegs were too low and the shifter was too high, I had to rock my whole body back to lift the shift lever, push on the opposite peg, push on the bars, shift my hips, etc.
I think we need to get more info about when this problem is actually occurring and what exactly you are doing. So, here are a bunch of questions, maybe others can think of more, to try to pinpoint the problem - please be patient with all the questions:
1) Does this happen on upshifts, downshifts, or both? Do you have standard or GP shift?
2) Do you have trouble while braking, accelerating, or all the time, even when riding at an easy pace? Is the problem worse when upright versus leaned over?
3) What kind of bike are you riding, and are the rearsets stock or aftermarket? How flexed is your knee when your feet are on the pegs? Are your pegs directly underneath you, or farther back, behind the vertical line down from your hips?
4) How are you using the bars to stabilize yourself when you shift, are you pushing your upper body up and back to allow your foot to move? Or using one bar to twist around to move your leg?
5) What part of your right leg cramped, when you had that happen?
6) What are your normal grip points on the bike, and which ones do you have to release or change when you move your foot to shift?
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Is your shift lever adjusted too high up for you to reach it easily? If you have to lift your while foot up to shift, that sounds too high. Ideally you should adjust the lever so that you can just slide your foot forward and click it up or down easily without having to make a change in your overall leg position. If the action required is more than just rotating the toe of your boot up and down using ankle flex, it may not be adjusted properly for you.
Cornering Expertise.
in Cornering and Techniques
Posted
Hm, well, it looks like the 2015 BMWs have optional cruise control, maybe we CAN do a 'no-hands' drill!