Brands Hatch GP nolimits vid 21/7

Had a pretty epic day doing the Brands Hatch GP circuit yesterday. It was a bit mixed emotions through the day as we had a bunch of red flags from crashes and it was getting frustrating but they gave us a double time session at the end to make up for it. It's an incredible circuit; possibly one of the best I've done I think. It's such a shame about all the noise problems with idiot neighbours that they do not run more days on the full circuit.

The S1000RR came of age for me I think. I rode it at Spa and Nurburgring last month and got on well but they are very different to the slower and more technical British circuits. For most of yesterday I was a bit off balance trying to learn how to ride the bike. I was putting way too much weight through the handle bars in braking which was unsettling the bike a lot. By the last session I had played with the suspension a bit to tighten stuff up and moved my rear sets back some more which let me find my balance on the foot pegs and things became a lot more fun. Every lap was 1'45'' in this last session. This vid is the loosest one as it's more fun to watch but the later ones were much smoother.

Is anyone around 85kg and able to give me some base settings for suspension? I've tightened everything up but two or three clicks and got on top of the rear tyre wear but it needs further work as I'm still bottoming the front even though I had not starting braking hard as I was learning the circuit. It's a bit frustrating not having separate compression / rebound on the front. I need to get my head in the manual as well, I couldn't suss out the lap timer!

https://youtu.be/6TdcygEU9rQ

Sounds like you need to add some preload if your forks are bottoming out.

Brands GP is a great track but, like you, when I went I just found it was red flag after red flag. It costs an exorbitant amount to hire the track + like you say it's only the GP track on a very limited number of days.

1:45 seems a very handy time. What tyres were you running, you carry some decent speed and a tight line through the corners.

I was running some Metzeller slicks made for the Isle of Man that FWR had on special offer. They have a harder middle section on the rear to last longer at the TT. They are not as good as the Pirelli I normally use and took a while to start working even with tyre warmers but for the price they were good value. My mates who normally get about the same lap times were 1'40'' on their Triumph Daytona 675. I think it was a combination of having to learn the track and bike, plus the big bike being a bit more of a handfull as the track is like a roller coaster. Those guys were just nailing it full throttle everywhere as the Triumph is so easy to ride whereas I was trying to work out where the limits were with all the BMW powers.

Ahh slicks...makes me feel a little better about my times on Conti Sport Attacks before the upgrades.

I need to pop down to FWR when I'm ready to change hoops

Haha yeah, they make a difference for sure. The cost of Pirellis is getting a bit much for me to stomach so I'm thinking about stocking up on some more of these even though I already have a tyre tower going on in the garage for the rest of the years trackdays! They dont have the same feedback but it's not far off and they are loads cheaper.

Hi Royal

I was there too same group I think purple? I managed a 1.44.6 so right on your pace. For me too it's the fastest I've been round there so far. What year is yr bike? Mines a 2011 with Ohlins cartridges and rear shock. The Ohlins front for me combined with a 10 weight spring transforms the bike on track. Much more stable into corners and no bottoming out. I'm around the 85kg mark and could not get on with the standard front. Some say just uprate the internal springs but I went the whole hog and I know there's lots more time to grab once I grow the balls!!

For me I keep eating through Slick Metzelers on the back they were tearing up something rotten. Having now put a Dunlop K108 Med on the rear that prob has vanished and hopoefully get about 3 days form a rear now rather than one!!!

I still run a K1 Metzeler on the front Iv'e never had any probs with the front wear at all. I have my old Parkitt suspension settings from Aragon if you want them but I still found the front way too soft.

Off to Le Mans on Aug 10/11 hope to get some vid up then, my camera didn't work on 21st had the wrong mem card in, Hero 2 only supports up to 32gb I had only 64gb card with me by mistake!!!

Thanks for the info, that's really useful. I guess I need to spend a bit more time getting my head around the settings and automatic shenanigans. Ideally I'd buy the front POT sensor so I get full control but as this bike is supposed to be more of a road bike I don't want to go to crazy buying stuff.

The bike was new earlier this year, I got made redundant so did something sensible with the money

OK no worries didn't realise it was a 2015 bike. Friend has an HP4 and the best set up he has with the front on track was with the telemetry front fork slider, this made set up a doodle as the person setting up your suspension electrics can do it via laptop in seconds. Not too pricey either look on the Alpha racing site.

Sort yrself a 2d sensor for the front, separates comp. and rebound. Have you set up yr sags etc?