Two wheels discussion thread! (Motorcycles only!)

 

I've never had or heard of any problems with theivery either in town or in the paddock. But if you're there early enough, might as well leave the trailer in the paddock.

 

The mexican restaurant in town is good, as is the Black Bear diner. I haven't tried the Chinese place. The rest is mostly fast food.

 

There's a Wal-Mart right off the exit in case you need anything, but there's no full supermarket for miles around, so bring most of what you need.

 

Were you running off the inside right exiting 9? I can imagine running off to the left on entry. I've seen lots of people panic and go straight off on entry and all kinds of crazy lines on exit. Did anyone mention the trick to exiting 9? There's a silver water tank off in the distance that you can see cresting the hill before the rest of the track comes into view. Just aim for that once you see it.

 

And what about 5 was giving you trouble? Other than the blind hill crest, off camber entry and crazy downhill exit... LOL.

 

Thunderhill is the funnest track I've ever been on for sure. So much room to play with your lines and not really get penalized too much. You should've been there two years ago when they first repaved it... lap record dropped almost 8 seconds. It's still pretty good, but getting bumpy again, especially in 3. But then again, I realize I'm probably spoiled.

 

I'll be back out there the last weekend this month and then again two weeks later, the second weekend of October, both times with Keigwins. Maybe you can make it down one of those times. Unfortunately, that will probably be it for this year. Ahhhh... I miss the track.

I'm hoping to go back either on the 13th and 14th or the 26th and 27th (I think, can't remember the exact dates).

Just got back from the Ridge in Shelton Washington and its similar in nature to Thunderhill, lots of blind crests and corners with elevation changes.  TONS of fun.  Resting up for PIR on Friday, then 2 sprint races and an endurance race this weekend with OMRRA

The tentative schedule is to leave the track sunday night from racing, and head north to take part in a 2 day Pridmore STARR school.  

Thunderhill is going to happen in October for sure, trying to make it work in such a way that I end up taking a Rich Olliver camp while I'm down there.

Race 1 in the books.  I don't want to say I'm upset with myself, more disappointed.  Just got there late, had to do a sprocket change, literally got 4 laps in the first practice, then 4 more in the second practice.  Then sat for three hours and gridded up.  Finished 4th, turning lap times 2 seconds slower than I was yesterday.  Most of it was mental, big chunk was physical.  I was having so much fun turning laps during the trackday that I could barely walk up the steps this morning and by lap 4 of the race I was exhausted already, with 8 more laps to go.  What really got to me is that I had 2nd place lined up for several laps, he was on a GSXR1000 and I simply faded away from fatigue.  Then I checked up a bit for safety and let another guy by.  Still decided not to go into the red mist, but then noticed I was reeling in the pack again.  Which then caused me to go overboard and run wide on turn 1 and 4 three laps in a row.  Oddest thing was those were still my fastest laps.  Ended up skpping the endurance race.  I have another race tomorrow and I plan on setting a personal lap record in the process.

Small recap on my second race.  I was determined to come in 2nd place in this one, I felt like I could take the guy on the GSXR1000 and the one on the CBR1000 who both finished ahead of me in the previous race.  Got a decent launch and settled into third place, chasing the two leaders (supersport spec GSXR 750 and the aformentioned GSXR 1000).  Fatigue didn't set in until about lap 7 or 8, but unfortunately a bent shift fork was preventing me from getting into the gears I needed, and frequently keeping me locked in 5th when I needed 2nd or 3rd.  Obviously that killed my drive in a lot of places and caused some funky lines as I stood the bike up to get more leverage under the lever and jerk up harder on it to shift.  Despite this, I was determined to finish better and I did hold on to third, even going a half second quicker than I did during the first race!

Cases have to come apart to fix the trannie, so it looks like I'll supersport prep the motor here shortly.  Havent decided if I'm going to run it like this for next round yet or not.

Immediately after finishing up the race weekend, we jumped in the truck and headed north, back to the Ridge Motorsports park for a two day session at the Pridmore Star school.  Man how i wish I ran that before the race weekend!  Had so much fun, too tired still to really recap everything, but the biggest thing I took out of the class was feeling the bike better.  I can trailbrake so much harder and start feeding in the throttle just enough to get some rear end slip in a few corners, and do it repeatedly.  Plus downshift so much faster and later into the corner (when the damn thing will downshift anyway).  Well worth the money!

Going back to sleep now for a few hours, I literally have spent five days on a motorcycle straight and driven over 3,000 miles the past few weeks chasing trackdays.  I'm so beat its not even funny.

 

Prices aren't based on the economy, they're based on what it costs to manufacture the product. If prices are too high for the marketplace, they'll either come down or companies will go out of business.

I read an interesting article yesterday that Dorna told Yamaha and Honda that if they didn't like CRT's, they better come up with an economically viable alternative on their own.  Apparently the two met and did in fact come up with an idea for selling/leasing up to 8 factory rides a piece.  Which would basically mean CRT's would be done for.  

Dorna did throw the gauntlet down on Suzuki though.  Told them they had to sign a three year contract to participate in GP.  Suzuki only wants to guarantee the first year of participation.

Other rumors on Superbikeplanet were that Honda is contemplating a return to AMA Superbike, my guess is this signifies a new model for the CBR, or they really are putting the new V4 on the streets pretty soon.

As for my own season, I parked it race wise until we could get the tranny to shift out of fifth gear.  But kept doing trackdays.  In fact, on the 11th trackday, I finally wore the US Spec Dunlops down to the cords.  Problem was I was turning faster times than ever and I was sliding around a LOT.........a little too much and I dumped it in an off camber corner.  An interesting side benefit occured though.  I snapped a bracket on my Vortex footpegs.  Vortex no longer makes that model and doesn't sell the old parts anymore, so they upgraded me to the new rearsets.  It cured 99% of the shifting issues when I put them back on.  I got in a good Friday practice for the final race weekend in October, but high 30's overnight and the idea of facing a freezing track surface the next morning just didn't sit well with me.  I destroyed a new tire just in one practice day due to cold tearing and didn't feel like messing with it, so I sat it out.

Anyhow, great end to the official season.  I'll be hitting the supermoto tracks in another month or so since they are open year round.  Then headed to the Rich Oliver camp.  There is an outside chance I hit Thunderhill for the two day Thanksgiving trackday, but I would put the odds at only about 30% right now.

Pic from Ridge Motorsport Park, just before I decided to "customize" the graphics