Advice on drag nights at Cayuga

B

Bike Geek 17

Member
My local shop released a cool YouTube video running the quarter-mile at Toronto Motorsports Park and it got me thinking about giving it a try next season. What advice do you have for a noob? I would take my '05 Speed Triple and have a race suit, boots and current helmet - anything else? Do you run water wetter? Is that too many questions at once? :)
 
Brian P wrote an awesome thread a few years ago detailing the work he was doing to make his street 10R into a better drag bike. Not exactly what you are looking for, but there is tons of knowledge in that thread.
 
My observation was that tech was pretty lax (they basically don't know anything about bikes) ... except for the chain guard. Gotta have a chain guard that extends at least as far back as the back of the sprocket! Doesn't matter how flimsy it is, it just has to be there. Although there was scant checking ... full leathers, proper boots and helmet will be fine. Don't go faster than 9.99, but that won't be a problem for most people. It wasn't a problem for me. If you want to run after dark, it has to have "a" headlight and "a" taillight that work.

I went a couple of times (to see if there was something other than roadracing that would capture my interest), just enough to establish that it was not my thing and not my scene.
 
Brian P said:
I went a couple of times (to see if there was something other than roadracing that would capture my interest), just enough to establish that it was not my thing and not my scene.
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Did you change the geometry again or is the 10R still in its drag configuration?
 
I more or less left it like that. (I took two links out of the chain to shorten the wheelbase a bit, and I went up to stock ride height.)

Despite all the fuss made by the haters "Oh, you stretched the bike and ruined the handling" ... It works fine like this. That generation of ZX10R was too light in the front anyhow.
 
Bike Geek 17 said:
What advice do you have for a noob? I would take my '05 Speed Triple and have a race suit, boots and current helmet - anything else? Do you run water wetter? Is that too many questions at once? :)
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Never too many questions! There's no need to change coolant, for the drag strip. Tech inspection is hit or miss. I was allowed to run with duct tape around my ankles once (had running shoes on).
As noted above......chain guard, fr & rr light, riding gear, and a deadman switch if you run sub 10's.
Get to the line......don't stop breathing, relax, pin it to a hair above your comfort zone, and enjoy. There is no perfecting........only practicing!
 
Thanks, Brian. The video that my shop made was of them alone on the track, so I was curious about the drag night aspect of it: inspections, expectations, etc. I know that this won't be a worry for me, but when you say, "don't go faster than a 9.99", does that put you in a different bracket for what is needed from a safety perspective?
 
Gary said:
There's no need to change coolant, for the drag strip. Tech inspection is hit or miss. I was allowed to run with duct tape around my ankles once (had running shoes on).
As noted above......chain guard, fr & rr light, riding gear, and a deadman switch if you run sub 10's.
Get to the line......don't stop breathing, relax, pin it to a hair above your comfort zone, and enjoy. There is no perfecting........only practicing!
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This is great info, Gary - I like that it sounds fairly laid back. It's the pinning it that I am loving the idea of! No cross traffic, no oncoming traffic, no radar traps - just acceleration!
 
As the owner of GBM (and I am sure Neale has seen it many times at TMP) we see too many guys go up to the line and let her rip first time out - the result is their rear tire hooks because of the glued starting line and we watch the bike go straight up and over backwards - usually leaving the rider flat on his back (or thrown off to the side) and usually a wrecked or hurt motorcycle. Feather it out a couple times first to feel how much hook your tire is going to have and make sure you keep your weight up and over the front end. Once you got it figured out let her rip - we want you to have fun and hopefully come back again, not hurt yourself or your bike.
 
PLS said:
As the owner of GBM (and I am sure Neale has seen it many times at TMP) we see too many guys go up to the line and let her rip first time out - the result is their rear tire hooks because of the glued starting line and we watch the bike go straight up and over backwards - usually leaving the rider flat on his back (or thrown off to the side) and usually a wrecked or hurt motorcycle. Feather it out a couple times first to feel how much hook your tire is going to have and make sure you keep your weight up and over the front end. Once you got it figured out let her rip - we want you to have fun and hopefully come back again, not hurt yourself or your bike.
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I guess the surface is going to be different than your standard asphalt, isn't it? Thanks for the advice.
 
In this video that Apex created, there is a lot of shots of the burnouts before the run. Necessity, or just when you want maximum traction for best possible results? It looked cool, but I'd rather not cook a tire sooner than I'd have to.
 
With a stock shortish wheelbase sportish bike with an uprightish riding position (yours), and with decent tires on it ... you should not need to do a burnout. It will want to wheelie before it will want to spin anyhow.

Stock wheelbase and ride height, I couldn't keep the front wheel of my bike down. I couldn't use more grip if I had it.

Stretched and with shortened gearing, it needed the tire warmed up or it would spin.

This is another thing to play by ear. Ease into harder launches a step at a time as mentioned above. Eventually it is going to either want to wheelie or spin the tire. If it wants to wheelie, do whatever you can to get weight down and forward (mostly determined by your riding position, although lowering the suspension matters also). If it wants to spin the tire, especially if it wants to go sideways, you need to do a burnout first.
 
One other small thing. If it is a combined car and bike event, there will probably be a "water box" that the cars use for starting their burnouts. Last thing you want is water on your tires. Ride around the water box, not through it. If it turns out that you have to warm up the tire, back up into it ... or don't use it.
 
I run my bike a few times a year at TMP, I take off my mirrors, remove tool kit and strap down the front end.
I dont do a burn out and my 60ft time are in the 1.7s range.
The first few times just take it easy
 
I think this is the video in question

[video=youtube;w0rdtesfaGU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0rdtesfaGU[/video]

That bike has launch/wheelie control ... no fair! I had trouble keeping the front down while going slower ...
 
Brian P said:
That bike has launch/wheelie control ... no fair! I had trouble keeping the front down while going slower ...
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Does the H2 have launch control? Or is that no fun as it breaks the 10 second barrier and all the additional requirements that come with that?
 
It does, but check youtube for videos of people trying to launch them short wheelbase (especially if stock ride height). Very hard to do. Lots of other bikes (including Kawi's own ZX14) will beat them with normal riders riding them, at least for the first eighth mile or so, because they are easier to ride.

The R1 in the video above has the IMU based traction/wheelie control system. The first couple years of H2 didn't have that, they used the older wheel speed based system (which doesn't actually detect the bike doing a wheelie, it only guesses it from seeing rear wheel speed diverge from front wheel speed). The 2017 on models have the IMU system.

BUT ... the wheel speed based traction control systems go into fault mode if they see non zero rear wheel speed with zero front wheel speed, i.e. if you do a burnout, you end up having to turn traction control off (or it faults off anyhow if you don't). I have no idea what the IMU based systems do in that situation. Fancy stuff meant to try to protect people from themselves ends up interfering and has to be turned off anyhow.

My zx10r doesn't have any of that. You are on your own. Wheelie? Sort it out yourself. Burnout? Go ahead, nothing interferes.
 
That's the one. I never really thought about the traction control - I'll have to ask the next time I am in. I guess if the bike was able to do a burnout that the TC must have been set fairly low. I'm just impressed that that video was all (apparently) edited by the Service Manager in his spare time.
 
I can't speak for Cayuga but at St Thomas Dragway Friday night is cheap - 20$ because they don't prep the track w/ adhesive or whatever until Saturday morning after that the price is double. St Thomas is really laid back. Tech inspection is minimal at best. You can run at night with no lights. If you're persistant you can get in tons of runs. I got 24 or 25 one Sunday. I always did a burnout just because it's fun.

Stripped 1981 GL1100 (GoldWing) with bone stock motor - best run 12.67 @ 105 MPH
 
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