Good time hanging out with Mike and good to meet you Rmcanich. Sorry I missed the rest of you guys that went Sat.

For a day with 80% chance of rain I would say 4 perfect sessions isn't bad.

And I think I'm going to carry around a sign that sign that says "Only you can prevent tire punctures...clean up your safety wire clippings." That shit pisses me off.

This is what sent us packing:

_________________
Ben
#535

Glad to hear you got 4 sessions in. I was hoping you got the whole day as I didn't get any rain at my place and I'm less than 50 miles away. How was the back section - turns #4 - #6? It was inexplicably sketchy on Sat.

Nice to meet Rmcanich as well!

I didn't seem to have any issues there, I wasn't setting the world on fire, there was no beacon out but from video review I was in the :03-:04 range most of the day. I don't think anyone crashed there all day. Maybe there was oil down?

_________________
Ben
#535

Had a pretty good day at BeaveRun with Nesba on Sat. Pitted with Pat and Kenny. Mike, Brian, Carl, and Scott were also in attendance. I didn't have my lap timer on for the first couple sessions, but I felt like I was riding OK, but still knocking the rust off. I led KCM around for a few laps in the first session. He passed me on the brakes going into #10 and I tried to latch onto his back wheel. He walked away from me, but it helped me to start to pick up the pace a bit. I followed him around for most of the 3rd session. I started dragging my right toe slider going into #4 and #5 and I could tell we had picked up the pace a bit. I spun the rear up in #4, #5 and #6. I've done that before in #4, but that was the first time ever in #5 and #6. The weird looking patch in #5 seemed a bit slick. I can usually ignore it and ride over it like any other part of the track, but it felt different on Sat. It was the first session of the day I got lap times and when we pulled in I was hoping that I had gotten down into the low 1:05's and maybe into the 1:04's (1:04.16 was my previous best lap). I was shocked to see that I had done a best lap of 1:03.06! I believe every lap on the timer was in the 1:03's with the exception of the first and last lap. I was really psyched about that.

I went out for the 4th session and on the 3rd or 4th lap I was trying to pick up the pace and went into #4 pretty quick. I turned the bike in, got back on the gas, and just past the apex the rear started to spin, I slowly rolled off the gas, and the front started to tuck. That was a close one!!! A couple riders (including a control rider) went down in the turn #4 - #6 area and they red flagged the session pretty early. Apparently I was not the only one sliding around in that area. The control riders who had all been sliding there as well, went over the track with a fine toothed comb and didn't find anything on the surface. We had a rider's meeting at lunch and they told us to be careful in that section because the track was very green. Kubricky said that the fact that we've had the first few cold nights in a long time may have the pavement adjusting to the temp change. Not sure if that's the case, but it was weird, and I've never had an issue like that at BeaveRun before.

I hadn't made it back into the 1:03's in the 4th session (low 1:04's) and with "green" track in my head, my lap times continued to go up to the upper 1:04's by the 6th session. I had some more rear wheel slides in #4, but the track seemed to be getting better as the day went on, and I was able to get back down to the mid/low 1:04's on a shagged rear tire by the 7th session. Speaking of the shagged rear tire. It occurred to me that I ran my fastest ever laps at Mid-O, Nelson, and BeaveRun on that same set of tires. I ran 2 sessions on the rear at Mid-O, 4 at Nelson, and 7 at BeaveRun.

Overall I had a fun day and was psyched about getting into the 1:03's - thanks for the tow Kenny!!! We got really, really, lucky with the weather! At some point during the day I noticed that my rear tire warmer is no longer working. When I though about it, I remembered my rear tire feeling pretty cool to the touch coming off the warmer one time at Nelson. My guess is it hasn't been working since then. I'm sending it back to Woodcraft and hopefully they'll get me squared away.

That's really weird about 4-6 . Nice work on the new personal best!

I was having some tearing on the rear tire. Mike yours seemed to clean up with the compression
adjustment and I don't know what compound you were running but just as an fyi I figured I'd link the WERA thread I started about it:
http://forums.13x.com/showthread.php?t=290016

That dude GoodMatt is fast as hell, like 1:08's at Nelson fast and seems to know Dunlops pretty
well from other threads I've read.

_________________
Ben
#535

great weekend and glad i got to meet some of you. Just got into the 1s with a 1:01.97 though didn't have a lap timer for sunday.

Guess I’ll do my version. I have a raging headache so please pardon the rant like nature.

Got to the track uneventfully at around 8PM on Friday. Hardly anyone there. Was almost done setting up when Walt and Family rolled in. BS’d a bit and finished setting up and headed to the Holiday Inn. Was worried about the weather but the forecast for Saturday kept improving while Sunday was looking pretty bleak.
Did my usual Sheetz for breakfast and ice run and got to the track about 7:30 Saturday. Saw Matt, Pat and Kenny all set up already. Got my bike tech’d, harassed LandShark (Troy). All good.
Every bump leads to a shark becoming a guppy Going from being pretty much the fastest guy on the track to one of the slowest is a great reality check and motivation to improve your skills. I ran fairly consistent 5’s and 6’s but never really got much faster than my previous best. I think I took like 10th out in all on Saturday (no beacon on Sunday at all so no idea if I went any faster).
It was good to ride with significantly faster and more skilled riders all weekend. Really unfortunate to see Pat do his dismount first hand. Still hard to believe he went down where he did. I guess that “Gloom and Doom” Chris doing much the same a few laps later was at least a bit of affirmation. Important thing was that both Pat and Chris were OK. Seemed like demolition derby on Saturday on the back of the hill. I think Chris said something like 4 B riders, 5 I riders and 3 A riders Kirbicky included all biting the dust there. I think there were a couple more offs elsewhere but few and far between. Unfortunately HondaGal lowsided in T1 toward the end of the day but again only injured pride and bike. Luckily with all the carnage no one went to the hospital.
I even contributed to the bike dropping myself. My rear 211GPA had 2 sessions from Summit on it and was already starting to show a bit of tear. The one I had taken off at Summit was also torn to shreds. I tried to dig into the combined wisdom of the paddock to address it before I toasted the tire. I had tired playing with pressures, slowing down the rebound (my guess), combination of stuff but it just kept getting worst. Figured I’d better get some adult feedback (I use the term loosely) and went to find Troy. His quick assessment was that I needed to add some compression. As much as I hate to admit it he was right. I put 2 clicks in and it stopped tearing and started to clean up a bit if anything. I think it started to spin more on exist though and I did slow down a hair as he predicted as well.
So was sitting on my bike just shooting the shit with him and his wife at their toy hauler, rocking the bike back and forth under me. Decided I’d put it on the kickstand and as it passed that agonizingly slow point of no return I realized that the kickstand was up. Put it down slowly and pick right back up without a scratch other than a wounded ego.
Anyhow, rode the rest of the day without incident though never got past mid 5’s. My generator had died half way through the day and first Matt lent me his spare (who the fuck brings a spare generator to the track? Bless his anal retentive soul) and then Pat let me use his after his unfortunate off. I was going to just give it to Rosey to take back to Pat on Sunday. You guys are both awesome BTW for helping me out! I have to add that Pat probably had the most positive post dismount attitude of anyone I’ve seen in a long time. I was right behind him but unfortunately I did not notice that I had cycled my GoPro to take photos so I did not immortalize what looked like a dismount with a double twist. I do believe he has his own video.
The rest of Saturday was uneventful. I was pretty beat so I just wanted to get a shower, dinner and relax for the rest of the night. Mission accomplished there.
Sunday weather predictions looked like shit and looking out the hotel window at 6:30 did not bring any hope. Everything was soaked and it was still spitting a bit. Did my Sheetz gig and went to the track. Ben pitted next to me so I had a new victim to harass all day. There were some areas of sky visible through the clouds so there was yet hope. It looked ugly but it did not rain. Chris ran probably the biggest downer of a riders’ meeting in recent history. It could probably be summed up as “If you go on the track you will probably die, your first born will be drawn and quartered and your wife will ceremonially raped and then burned alive” or something like that. Maybe it was the carnage of the day prior but it must have really set him off. Telling us about how bad it would be if we did something stupid and ended up as paraplegics in a hospital bed next to the guy we took out and also made a paraplegic while our families fight each other (I’m not making this shit up) was just a hair of a downer.
We sat around for the first session whining like little girls about the weather but went out for the second. There was a dry race line and you could run probably 90% pace. The 3rd session was actually really nice and perfectly dry. After lunch we managed to get 2 more full sessions in and then the skies started to turn from gray to black with lightning in the distance. Mike (track marshal) debated putting us out on the track with his corner workers. He let us loose but we only got about 10 minutes into the session before the lightning got very close and it started to rain. We got a red and went in. The skies really opened up. Ben and I hid in his trailer for a long time while the monsoon blew by. Chris called a meeting to tell us that we were done for the day. I think there were probably only a15 or so people left by then anyway.
Considering the weather forecast it was a great day. Got 4 ½ sessions in (could have gotten 5 ½ if we had ridden the first) and managed not to get soaked at all.
I had to flip my rear at lunch and I was getting a strange vibration from the rear afterward. I probably waited about a session too long to flip it but its toast now anyway. The only part that sucks about going faster is how much more money it costs.
Great riding booth days! Good bunch of guys on the track. It was nice to meet and ride with Ryan, Kenny and Rich (cookie man). Always great to see Matt, Pat, Ben, Walt (cheer up man), all the CR’s, etc. Glad that through all the carnage in Saturday no one was hurt. As always, can’t wait to do it all again!

_________________


Ἢ τὰν ἢ ἐπὶ τᾶς

www.WickedRacing.com - Go Fast Parts & Gear for Riders and Their Motorcycles
PM me for "TrackWhore" special discounts

Well I was hoping to see how the bike handled at Beaver this time.I've been getting tank slappers coming down turn 7 through 9 and the out 11 also.I was reading some set-up on the WERA forum and after installing fork extender's I needed to add more length to the rear shock then what I had.I went out and was not getting the slappers anymore and was able to stay on the throttle more coming down the hill.I just needed to build my confidence on getting on the throttle more. Third session I went out and ran my best which was a 1:04.6 and like Matt I wasn't thinking I was running that fast and knew I had room to work on.I was hoping to get into the 1:03's the next session.I had a new Go-Pro HD camera sdo I followed Mike out and followed him a couple laps.I passed him I think in the carousel and made it to turn 5.I think I was mid turn to coming out when the front slide out.I remembered sliding and seeing the bike parts flying.I guess this is where the talk at riders meetings and traingin comes into play.Let go of the bike,when you think you stopped tap the ground,make a ssesmnet on if you are on/off the track and do you have any injury's.When I thought I was ok I signaled the corner worker to let them know and went to a safe place.It sucked watching all the bike going around while I sat there but I was really happy because I felt ok and didn't feel like I broke anything.A control rider went down 3 laps later a little farther from my and they redflagged the session.NESBA went out and checked that trun to see if there was anything there,guy's were sliding in the turn 4 through 7 I think all moring.Even Matt and I think Kenny said they were.I never slide all moring until the big one.Kenny joked he would take his slide over mine. I agreed.
I was able to pick up my bike and parts and even found my brand new camera.I got into the pits and started tearing it apart to haul home.Mostly cosmetic damage but the rear subframe and lower triple broke the stop off.I guess it's going to be a real track bike now and the body plastics are gone. I got it home that night and tore it apart made a assesment to the damage and started making a list.Bikes can be fixed thats whats important

Here is the moring pic


Here is the damage



Following Mike around two laps then my crash.Mike said he was going to make me famous but his video camera wasn't running

http://vimeo.com/27718658

Yes he does Ben.Type in "running wide" on the gixxe forum and I think WERA has it also.GoodMatt has all kinds of specs you wouldn't believe and there are many chiming in on the info also.I used his info when I installed my fork extenders and I think I was on the right track until my wreck.

Thanks Ben!

Kenny had some minor tearing on his rear Dunlop as well. From the pic, I'd say his was less pronounced than yours, but it was the same concept. There were some Dunlop Techs at Mid-O yesterday, they checked out Kenny's tire and said "that looks about normal - no adjustments needed". They said "it will probably look worse after today because you'll be on the side of the tire a lot at Mid-O". They also said that it shouldn't detract much/any from the tire's performance.

From what I've read, GoodMatt seems to know his stuff and to be well thought out...