Tmp thurs may 2

Because he hasn't got a scooby.

On a similar note; I was amazed by the mount of people in beginner and intermediate with quick shifters. It's like new riders want to go from zero to Moto GP without really learning the basics of riding.

All stock here except the ohlins work.
 
I counted 21 riders at one time in Intermediate.

Of which at least half should have been in green.


Green was no more than 6-7 bikes at any one time, perfect for hot laps. I even passed a few times in the infield and nobody said anything.

The perfect place for hot laps is red. Nobody would say anything. I think the marshalls were more interested in their tans than watching what was happening on track.
 
Put a zip-tie on my fork at the end of the day---I found out I've been completely bottoming out the forks. Time to lose weight or send them to Sharrard for stiffer springs..

Not to be Captain Obvious, but did you try adding preload?
 
[video=youtube;nY-90KCv6Rw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY-90KCv6Rw[/video]
 
Good thing you moved up to red. That looks terribly annoying... all the straight line warriors. LOL I think I rode in yellow once or twice ever. Did FAST a few times and some private track days before doing open track days.
 
[video=youtube;nY-90KCv6Rw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY-90KCv6Rw[/video]

Made it onto YouTube! Woohoo!
Passed at 6:28 between 1 and 2

That extra 30-40hp is amazing. I hit 190-200kph while you're hitting 240kph.
 
From the slight bit of knowledge passed on to me by John it's not just the springs that will help your bottoming, but more so the valving, so you can get the perfect compression setting for your weight. The stock compression adjusters are like on/off, so not easy to dial in at all.
Yeah, I guess so. Time to save up for some forks work..

How did the lap timer work? GPS points good? Start/stop all automatic?!?
Worked perfect! However, I found out I didn't look at it at all while riding, so I kept it in my jacket pocket the whole time. So I start it before the session, then turn it off when I come back in the pit area. 6 sessions total for me (I missed one when I was changing my sprocket). Here are some Google Earth pictures to see how the detail is at 5hz (these pics are just from one session, judging by the line, not my best---towards the end I was actually still on the gas between turns 9 and 10, I guess it comes with seat time, because towards the end of the day I was much more comfortable on the bike, braking later, etc...took advantage of the slipper clutch (which finally started working!!!), it was much better. BTW, I had my first split marker set at the middle of the straight, which worked good for automatic start. I wish I could have a track day today, I'm sure with regained strengths and thinking it over, I can easily shed few more seconds right away.

top_zps57ca09c0.png


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With that aggressive gearing you had you will feel the engine braking a lot more, perhaps that's why it was so hard to keep it smooth in the corners. I have 30% of my engine braking taken out (with the ECU flash) and will probably take another 20% out for the next track day.

Sucks your tires weren't working well :( I'd hope with slicks they'd be so damn sticky you would lose your courage before they would feel like they weren't sticking :(
I really don't know what was up with that, i swear. I've been on the gas harder last year in turn exits, and the Q2 barely ever slid. These tires slid constantly at exit of turn 3 and turn 5...almost every single time, and I wasn't even on them as hard as before. Probably I've changed, I don't know. I also noticed I didn't drag knee all the time yesterday, as compared to touching down on every single corner the last season (on Q2). I was thinking it might be before I decided to hang off a little less this time---still hang off, but not stick out like crazy, so I was not dragging knee so much (caught my foot a couple of times, but that's because I didn't have it tucked in). Don't know. I was faster last season, for one reason or another..

Yesterday I saw a guy with a wicked camera snapping pics of a lot of us. Anyone know who he was? I'd like to see if he got some nice HD shots if my bike? Thx

I'd love to see myself too, I don't have even one pic with me on the track and the new bodywork. Bike #359, please good people, post some pics.

Not to be Captain Obvious, but did you try adding preload?

Yeah, preload was set by Ryan Gill for me.
 
Made it onto YouTube! Woohoo!
Passed at 6:28 between 1 and 2

That extra 30-40hp is amazing. I hit 190-200kph while you're hitting 240kph.

I doubt it's 240kph, i bet he has non-stock gearing and no speed adjustment in the form of speedohealer or something like that for the track. so the indicator is definitely off and shows more. That said, video is great, but it shows very well how crowded it was in intermediate, and people were obviously not going that fast either.
 
Wouldnt change anything. Adding compression will stop bottoming but the real fix is the proper spring for the riders weight

How do you figure? Adding preload will have him starting higher in the suspension travel, so he has more positive travel available before bottoming. Yes, the correct spring rate is the best fix (if it is actually wrong), but adding preload to reduce sag certainly can prevent bottoming if there is enough preload adjustment available. It's a better at-track option than riding around with the suspension bottoming out, which can be dangerous.

Adding compression damping can help too of course, since the bottoming is likely happening when he hits a bump with the suspension already highly loaded, (e.g, braking hard for T1, or cornering hard). But with any given compression setting, adding 5 mm of preload will have the suspension 5 mm more extended in any situation.
 
I doubt it's 240kph, i bet he has non-stock gearing and no speed adjustment in the form of speedohealer or something like that for the track. so the indicator is definitely off and shows more. That said, video is great, but it shows very well how crowded it was in intermediate, and people were obviously not going that fast either.

I would bet it is, or close to it, cause I was getting smoked down the two straights.
Halfway down the straight Carboncat slowed down beside me, looked at me and then took off like a rocket. Damn you TJ!
 
How do you figure? Adding preload will have him starting higher in the suspension travel, so he has more positive travel available before bottoming. Yes, the correct spring rate is the best fix (if it is actually wrong), but adding preload to reduce sag certainly can prevent bottoming if there is enough preload adjustment available. It's a better at-track option than riding around with the suspension bottoming out, which can be dangerous.

Adding compression damping can help too of course, since the bottoming is likely happening when he hits a bump with the suspension already highly loaded, (e.g, braking hard for T1, or cornering hard). But with any given compression setting, adding 5 mm of preload will have the suspension 5 mm more extended in any situation.

I tweaked preload and compression. Didn't help, we'll it helped a bit, it felt better but I was still bottoming out. You can't fix 50lbs difference with preload.
At least in my eyes.

I've never understood why I have to pay $1000+ just cause I'm bigger.
 
Chris, why do you keep signing up for Intermediate at TMP lol.

Cherrypicker. :)

Exactly. He never had a truly clear lap, and still had a 1:22 in there. Time to stop being a big fish in a small pond.

Nice video though. Inline fours. Wow. I am counting something like two or three upshifts per lap. You guys should all try riding twins now and again just to give your left foot something to do.
 
I would bet it is, or close to it, cause I was getting smoked down the two straights.
Halfway down the straight Carboncat slowed down beside me, looked at me and then took off like a rocket. Damn you TJ!

From the factory, bikes show 5-10% more speed than it actually is. At the track, it's hard to find anybody with stock gearing, it's always in the direction of speedo showing even more speed, while in reality it's less. Fiery245 can be the judge of this---if he confirms he has his speedo calibrated for his gearing with some device, then I'll rest my case. Still, 240 seems a bit over the limit of max speed at that short straight. According to my GPS reading (which is much more trustworthy than my speedometer), I did get up to 205kph yesterday. I'd assume the faster guys would be doing 220-230 at max, even that seems a stretch to me. I might be wrong, of course, would be happy to hear what the others have to say.

EDIT: Just reviewed my sessions, I actually had a top speed of 209.66 km/h at one lap, so I might be wrong---240 might be possible...

What I also noticed is that I have so many good "best possilbe" (taking the fastest times in sectors in a session) and "rolling laps" on each session, which reveals the fact I'm totally not being consistent with my riding. There's like a 3-4 sec amplitude by the laps I do and the "best possible".
 
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I tweaked preload and compression. Didn't help, we'll it helped a bit, it felt better but I was still bottoming out. You can't fix 50lbs difference with preload.
At least in my eyes.

50 lbs is not *that* much. If the spring rate in the forks is 0.85 kg / mm x 2 springs = 1.7 kg /mm. 50 lbs is 23 kg, but only about 40% of it is on the front in a normal riding position, so that's 23 kg x 0.4 / 1.7 mm / kg = 5.4 mm extra rider sag.

50 lbs is about 8% of the combined total bike + rider weight, so should add about 8% to positive suspension travel, all other things being equal. Most bikes have about 120 mm travel in the front, with maybe 85 mm of that available on the compression side with a normal setup, but of course you don't want to use all of that so let's say 75 mm. 8% of that is 6.0 mm.

Just trying to give you the numbers. An extra 50 lbs puts you at about 6 mm more sag. Yes, that's a lot and normally calls for stiffer springs to optimize things, but it's also not so much that a preload adjustment can't help quite a bit. If the zip tie says your are bottoming, there is really no reason not to continue adding preload to prevent that. Often best to do it at both ends to keep the geometry similar.
 
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