Three Days at Barber w/ a '22 BMW RnineT

[David]

Went back to the race track (Barber Motorsports in Leeds, AL). It was ungodly hot, but I had a blast. Those of you who have done this will know all this stuff, but I thought I'd explain a little for those of you who are interested. We have two groups, and each group has seven riding sessions. Each coach has two riders for the day, and you usually have the same coach (I was there three days). You ride about 20 mins, your technique is dissected for 10 mins by the riding coach, and then your Level 4 consultant spends another 10 mins establishing a plan for the next session. Then 20 mins of rest and planning/visualizing.

 

I was an instructor for a year at the same Superbike School, but that was a long time ago when I was young and skilled. Or at least young. There were probably 40 people there? I'd guess that only two people were older than me. I had the least powerful bike (105 hp) with the least amount of lean angle (those two horizontally opposed heads) and the only R bike there. Everyone else was riding 180 hp bikes; mainly the BMW 1000RR, which is purpose made for the race track.

 

I quit riding for 12 years and just got back into it. I'm riding a new BMW RnineT (totally stock, including street tires). I use a lap timer that Steven Knapp told me about. The video below was shot with a GoPro and a Sennheiser microphone under the seat, wrapped in a bunch of foam to cut down on the wind noise. Back when I was riding a lot, I had a dedicated track bike (Aprilia Tuono) that was a lot more powerful and made to race. On that bike I was turning the 2.38 mile track in 1:49 mins.

 

The lap I've posted the video of is at 2:08, though I was turning 2:04 earlier in the day before my tires started to melt (see picture) and I got exhausted in the heat. With a few more days I might be able to shave some time off and get it to 2:00, but at that point the bike will be the limiting factor (at the moment it's skill). Even with good technique I scraped the pegs (they are hinged, so they fold up) a half dozen times, and never the heads--that's something you don't want to do, because they'll dig in and you'll be in a world of trouble).

 

Anyway, the picture with all the people is my on-track coach, the Level 4 consultant, and the guy in the white hair is Keith Code. He was the fastest human on the planet back when he won the world MotoGP title.

 

I'll be back at Barber two more times this year.

 

In the video, I took the tape off the speedometer so you could see the speeds (roughly 110 mph). It's a short track with short straights, but on the same straights the more powerful 1000RR bikes were hitting 135 or so.

 

I tend to choose hobbies that require complete concentration so that I don't think about anything else, and this qualifies.

 

Here's the video: 

 

[TEWKS]

Nice lap David! 

[wbw6cos]

That was fun!    Thanks for the ride-along.   I have never been and I hope to some day day take one of Keith's courses.   

 

The gauges allowed to view the performance aspect, but mostly I was checking out your reflection to see your head turning.   Nice!

[9Mary7]

11 hours ago, David said:

He was the fastest human on the planet back when he won the world MotoGP title.

When exactly was that? 

[roadscholar]

4 hours ago, 9Mary7 said:

When exactly was that? 

 

Hey, us codgers get our Keith's, Kenny's and Kevin's mixed up sometimes : )