follow the rules (pt. 2)

at the end of day 1, i had managed to already drop the bike. being a good social-networker, i was able to upload photos & a brief description of the incident to Facebook, whereupon many of my friends expressed concern, dismay, wry wit...or some combination thereof. at this point in my life, my reputation is such that my doing a little pavement-surfing at a trackday is not wholly unexpected.

through the cyber-cacophony emerged one glittering gem of useful feedback. my friend Eric, who races professionally in the AMA, came out with the following reply to my status update; "sometimes my mind goes to the next turn before i finish the one im in, this is usually followed by a pasturing the kow." i also canvassed the pits & found the guy who had been following me at the time. he said that he had no idea why i should have lost the front at that pace, which was merely on the quick end of "moderate."


the morning of day 2, i slapped on the lap timer. i've never had one before, and this was a borrowed unit (thanks, DJFootball!) that i planned to use in my quest to break into the 1:25 range of lap times. 1:28 is considered "expert pace," and the lap record is now something under 1:14. most fast trackday riders will run around 1:22, so i felt my goal was reasonable. 

during the first session, i paid particular attention to my technique on the bike, especially through the corners. Keith Code literally has written the book on sportbike riding technique. it is called "A Twist of the Wrist," and presently exists in two printed volumes and several DVD's. he constantly reiterates the three parts to every corner - entry, apex, and exit. during the entry, the heavy braking and corner initiation, or "tip-in," is done. during apex, the bike reaches maximum lean and is driven to the desired arc. during exit, the throttle is cracked open, then slowly rolled on as the bike is straightened up, until the bike is wide-open (WOT), or as close as possible before the next corner. this is how the machine is designed to work; these are the rules. i found that i was not following them.


in the back section, between turns 6 and 11, i was riding sloppy. the thing about riding street in between track days (or in our case this winter, not riding at all) is that street riding is done at such a reduced pace, it is easy to become lazy, maintaining partial throttle nearly everywhere, using only a small range of the bike's capabilities. i was not finishing the corners, particularly T7, the site of my mishap on day 1. i would crack the throttle open, then just maintain steady throttle all the way through to the point i had to flip it over for the next corner. in T7, i was even rolling off to set up for the T8 left while i was still leaned over on my right side. i was not rolling on the throttle all the way through any of the corners except T1 and T13-14, which are faster sections. once i began paying attention to the three phases of the corner, my lines got better & the bike felt more planted through all the corners.


pushing pretty hard on a cool track, i was running mid-1:28's in the morning sessions. after the second session i felt as if the bike was wallowing, or transferring weight fore-and-aft, a bit too much. i was also starting to have traction problems from the Bridgestones, sliding the front thru T8 once or twice, and lighting up the rear out of T6, T11, and T14 with my fire-breathing fresh motor. i took a session off to get a set of somebody's well-used Pirellis mounted (my other set of tires was one of those things i had forgotten in my haste to leave town). once the wheels were back on, i spent a few minutes checking my sag. whereupon i discovered the most likely cause of my gardening the previous day.


checking sag is the most basic, rudimentary suspension setup procedure. it should be done immediately & without delay after any significant changes to the bike's forks, rear shock, or tire sizes. if one were to Google "motorcycle suspension setup," easily the first five results will involve setting sag. do you think i had done this most basic procedure after swapping my entire front end and changing to a 190 rear tire? no, i had not. the main reason is that i'm lazy. it takes two or three people and maybe ten minutes. i had been too anxious to get on the track & go fast, to take a few moments & ask for some help. 


upon checking my sag, i found my rear to be 23mm. suggested baseline for rear sag is 25mm, so i felt that was close enough, since the bike felt wallowy to me. however, when i checked front sag, i came up with just over 40mm. suggested baseline for front sag on a race bike is 30mm - a full 10mm less. what this means is that my forks were gravely lacking preload, or initial spring load, which had a couple of detrimental effects. primarily, it means there was too much weight on the front tire. in addition to this effect, the softer setup was allowing much more weight transfer from rear to front in off-throttle or light-braking situations, such as my disastrous run thru T7 the day before, when i had rolled off the gas in premature preparation for T8. too much weight on the front tire will quickly overcome the available grip of the rubber. combine the lazy technique with my laziness in setting the bike up, and it's a wonder the thing even stayed on the track!


after lunch on day 2, having dialed 10 turns (!) of preload into my front forks and with a slightly-less-cooked set of tires, my lap times tumbled pretty quick. i finished the day in the low 1:26's, easily the fastest i had ever gone at Jennings. i was catching & passing a number of the guys that had been rolling past me & my ill-handling beast during the morning sessions. i was also able to hold onto the the tailsections of some of the faster guys for just a bit longer before i made a mistake & they went up the road. 


at the end of the day, i was pretty stoked. my as-yet unspoken goal of breaking into the :25s was at least fathomable, and i was feeling more comfortable on the bike than ever. i checked sag once more as the sun was setting, and found the front was now 28mm, right about where i wanted it. the rear, however, had increased to 28mm as well. this was most likely from adding the front preload earlier, transferring weight to the rear of the bike. i added 5mm of rear preload (taking it back to the 23mm i had previously), plus a few clicks of low-speed compression damping to address the wallowing i continued to feel under heavy throttle. i also added a couple clicks of rebound damping to both front & rear shocks to counter the increase in spring preload. 


then i went to sleep around 9:30. riding a track bike at one's physical & mental limit is exhausting! 

...TO BE CONTINUED...