CodeRACE at Willow bike choice

[yakaru]

Debating which bike to bring to CodeRACE this year -- as a tight technical track one of my super lights (Ninja 250/300) has some advantages and would force the best technique but I'm not sure it would be 'competitive' against the superbikes which might make it less applicable for club race preparation. Anyone done this before? Any thoughts?

[Hotfoot]

At a school at Streets of Willow many years ago I was a student on my 250 (the Honda MD250H) and later in the day I had a mechanical issue and ended up renting a school bike. At the end of the day my best lap time was only 1/10th second difference between the two bikes.  Over the years I have ridden that track on a 250, a 450, a 600 and a 1000 and my times on all of them were very close. Since that track is so tight and doesn't have long high speed sections, it is definitely possible to runs laps as fast or quicker than the bigger bikes, and we have had kids at CodeRace on 125's 2 stroke bikes run rings around the bigger bikes and set lap records.

Having said all that, in a race environment I'm not the biggest fan of running a lightweight bike in a class of mostly heavyweight bikes, because the big bikes pass you on the straights then you have to pass them back in the corners. So at Streets, you'd probably get left behind at the start (uphill, HP disadvantage) then have to pass bikes through turns 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, then probably get passed back at the exit of 8 and then have to try to pass back either at 9-10 or through the last turn... it could be really fun passing the big bikes in the corners, but it also might be a lot of back and forth, where the big bikes can take their passes on the exits but you will have to take yours on entries or mid-corner, and those passes can be tougher to plan and execute. So if it was a regular school I'd say bring the 250/300 and have fun with the higher corner speeds and nimble handling, but at CodeRACE you may or may not want to set yourself up for that much back and forth passing; a 1000cc bike can gain a lot of ground on a lightweight bike on the main straight, especially if they are willing to carry good speed though turn 1, so you'd have to work pretty hard to get far enough ahead to not have to deal with that.

[yakaru]

Thanks Hotfoot, that makes sense -- maybe I'll run my 300 for a some of the pre-CodeRACE school days and then bump up. If I'm trailering down one bike from the PNW I might as well bring 2.

[Cobie Fair]

Being pretty fit also helps, in particular with the larger bikes at tighter tracks (get less fatigued with moving the thing around).  If you need a reason to train a bit in the off season, there you go!

[yakaru]

For sure. I'm trying to get back to the gym more -- get back to my 'normal' weight that my suspension is prepped for plus the endurance factor!

[Cobie Fair]

Yeah, trying to move the weight pile in my garage a little this winter...

[Mikeb]

Is the code race class still going to happen on this coming Monday and Tuesday.  Our CMRA club race this weekend was canceled and so I thought I would see if I could come to the class if it had space.