Day at Road Atlanta

[Jake]

Unfortunately, you can't really do that on a Ducati or Aprilia or I would. The tank shape is significantly different.

 

Sounds like a technique issue to me.

 

Plus one on the technique comment. Oh yeah, um...

 

[Z-Man]

David, to answer the question you raised in your original post, the back straight at Road Atlanta, including the area along turn 9, is right at one mile even. Also, talk around the local sports car circuit is that Road Atlanta will repave the entire track surface over the off season and might tear down the tower to erect a new one. Not sure I believe the second part but would be willing to place a small wager on the first one happening. The word from a reliable source is that the track will also change the configuration of turn 12 to make it safer, meaning trying to keep cars off the walls. Not many bikes crash around there but next time you visit Road Atlanta take note of all the colorful scrape marks on the concrete barriers all along both sides of the front straight. Not sure whether the change at turn 12 means doing something with the arc, the elevation, curbing, or some combination of these and other variables. If any of this is going to happen, I'd expect to hear about it at a press conference during the Petit LeMans event the last week of September.

 

And by the way, your track times were damn respectable.

[Carl_T]

Yeah Mark, I do love the V-twin character.

 

I'm putting the rear tire on tonight, the front tomorrow. I have to install new fork springs, oil, and emulator when I get the front wheel off for the tire. The 650 is a tiny pleasure machine, the 1K has lots of extra grunt over it, but not the light playful feel.

 

Get some pictures when to post when you go to the track with these guys.

[David]

Sounds like a technique issue to me.

 

Yeah, but look at his outside leg! Really!

[StretchMark]

Maybe it would help if you put some of those grippers on your tank

[David]

Talk around the local sports car circuit is that Road Atlanta will repave the entire track surface over the off season.

 

That would be great. I know like the track, but the pavement can be treacherous. Turn 7 in the wet is like an ice rink. And now that fresh patch of concrete between Turn 6 and 7--WTF? I just stayed right in the middle to avoid the traps on each side.

 

It's good to hear that there aren't many m/c crashes at Turn 12, but I have to tell you that my heart beats a little faster wide open in 4th as I round that turn.

 

I thought of you and your wife while we were there. It sounds like you're still doing a lot of corner worker stuff. I don't know if you saw my earlier post about life as a corner worker (I've been doing it at Barber this year--five days of it), but it's a blast.

 

And by the way, your track times were damn respectable.

 

That warms my heart to hear!

[David]

Maybe it would help if you put some of those grippers on your tank

 

Hah!

 

Mark's referring to the fact that I DID, but one of them came off halfway through the day.

[russell_bynum]

Maybe it would help if you put some of those grippers on your tank

 

Hah!

 

Mark's referring to the fact that I DID, but one of them came off halfway through the day.

 

That happens when the bike's got a coating of Honda Spray Cheese, or some other pansy cleaner product on it.

 

Get the surface nice and clean (maybe hit it with rubbing alcohol or something) before you install those pads.

[Z-Man]

We pause this series of messages for a hijack of sorts....

 

David, Pat and I are still flagging for sports cars at Road Atlanta [we'll once again miss the BB&B Quatro, for example, because of a conflict with the Petit LeMans race] but haven't been traveling to other tracks for the last couple of years. We've also cut way back on what we do at Road Atlanta, and we no longer work for the track itself.

 

If you've been flagging events at Barber, I wonder if you'd like to flag the AMA event Labor Day weekend at Road Atlanta. If you feel comfortable with your experience level and want to give it a try, I'll make some calls to see if I can find out how you can get involved. Pat and I haven't done bike races in five or six years so I don't know whether Igor is still the man for AMA. But say the word and I'll check into it.

 

By the way, I didn't see your report about working corners but would like to read it. Can you post the link for us lazy types who are lousy at doing searches? Hope you're doing well, Dave. I've been so busy since retiring two years ago that I've barely spent any time on the website until the last couple of weeks, but I did learn recently that you turned the forum over to Leslie.

 

Sorry for the hijack, now back to the intended subject....

[David]

If you've been flagging events at Barber, I wonder if you'd like to flag the AMA event Labor Day weekend at Road Atlanta. If you feel comfortable with your experience level and want to give it a try, I'll make some calls to see if I can find out how you can get involved.

 

Pat, I'd be delighted to participate. I'm pretty comfortable with the requirements and experience required. I'll be doing three more days in a few weeks. Thanks!

 

By the way, I didn't see your report about working corners but would like to read it. Can you post the link for us lazy types who are lousy at doing searches?

 

Pat, click here for that thread.

[Ben Peeples]

Great writeup. Congrats to all. I have ridden RA twice and loved and feared it.

A tire comment. I have gone through 2 set of pilot powers and 1 pair of pilot race. I could feel the back end slip from time to time at full lean. I am now on my 2nd set of dunlap 209gp's. I love them. They feel so much more planted on the track. I feel a very real improvement in grip that has upped my confidence. I am riding a stock motor SV650 so I am not spinning the rear but am trying to up my entry speed and get on the gas sooner. I don't agree with the reasoning that " I am not fast enough for DOT race tires". I think that Rossi could ride iron hoops faster than I go on the race tires. I feel that at my very low skill level, I need all of the help and every edge that I can get. I got 8 days out of the 209's. They were not worn out, just not as sticky when I replaced them. Same with the Pilot Powers. Wear was great, but they will lose the grip before the tread goes, at least on a 650. Ben.

[David]

Ben, I've not tried the tires you are now using, so I can't compare them. It's possible that the slide you are experiencing is from being too leaned over when adding throttle? I don't know that this is the case, but unless you "pick up the bike" and get it on the center of the tire, any tire will slip some.

 

I just finished another day today at Blackhawk on the Powers on the bike now, and still love them.

[Ben Peeples]

David,

It is possible. I would feel small, momentary loss of traction with the powers that I have never felt with the 209's. I love the powers, btw, have them on my Monster now and wore out a set on the RC51 before to sold it to buy the Monster.

Another topic: trail braking. If there is a max speed that the bike and rider can carry at the apex, is it not better to reach that speed by lightly accelerating, thereby loading the rear, than by braking down to it and loading an already taxed front tire? I did Code and if I understood him, he wants you opening the throttle as soon as the bike is turned in and before arriving at the apex. This make sense to me for a number of reasons.

One more subject. US Desmo is doing a Euro day at CMP Oct 21 and 22. You could come down and renew your Ducati affair. Ben.

[David]

It is possible. I would feel small, momentary loss of traction with the powers that I have never felt with the 209's.

 

"Feeling" these things is not bad. It's more about how they give way, and what sort of feedback they provide in the first place. M only frame of reference is doing some pretty good laps on them (not that far off a race pace), and knowing they have a fair amount left. But as I said before, I've not ridden the 209 tire.

 

Another topic: trail braking. If there is a max speed that the bike and rider can carry at the apex, is it not better to reach that speed by lightly accelerating, thereby loading the rear, than by braking down to it and loading an already taxed front tire? I did Code and if I understood him, he wants you opening the throttle as soon as the bike is turned in and before arriving at the apex. This make sense to me for a number of reasons.

 

If the goal is to get around a track fast, trail braking is a requirement for some turns, simple because they are more carousel like (or momentum) turns, devoid of a 2nd gear, 90-degree radius.

 

Remember too that braking is not a digital event--it's not heavy braking or none. Trail braking can be modulated just like a throttle can. In fact, I could turn this argument around and argue for trail braking in this sense: it avoids a decompression of the suspension that on the rebound will unload the front. So it's not quite so simple.

 

You might head straight into a tight corner, getting most of your heavy braking down before you flip it into the turn. But instead of releasing the brakes all at once, you release them slowly as as you turn so that the suspension is not unsettled. Code teaches a lot of that stuff to oversimplify it for beginners. Then they back off on it later, and/or in private on-track instruction.

 

All this to say that it's not quite that simple. But if you want a really simple phrase to keep telling yourself, it's this: "Would I rather push the front or push the rear?" (The former is from braking and the rear is from getting on the power early). The answer is the rear, because that'll tend to steer you into the right place.

 

One more subject. US Desmo is doing a Euro day at CMP Oct 21 and 22. You could come down and renew your Ducati affair. Ben.

 

I'm not moving from 60-degree to 90-degree any time soon.

[Ben Peeples]

David,

I understand. A lot of my friends really like their Harley's too. Ben

[russell_bynum]

LOL!!