U
UrbanRacer
Guest
Sold my GSXR 4 years ago when i bought a Nissan 200SX with approx 350bhp, that following summer i regretted it. so i made the decision at the beginning of 2011 that i would sell the car and get back into bikes.
This is how it looked when i got it home.
1 Service, 3weeks later and with 1000miles on the clock i did my first trackday on it.
This is how it went.
I did my first track day on the BMW back in august 2011. I had been looking forward to it even before I bought the bike, so when i got to the circuit and the weather was one of the better days I was pretty excited.
In the past I've always used proper fast road/track tyres but seeing as the tyres I had on the bike had about 1000miles on them it seemed a bit of a waste to chuck them so I decided to use them.
I hadn't been on track for nearly 2 years so I started off slowly getting familiar with the track again and learning any new feature like the kerbs on the chicanes and just as well, had i took my old line through one in particular I would have went to the moon.
After a few laps I decided to up the pace a little but for some reason i just could get up to speed, I couldn't hold a line through the corners, bike felt nervous and the long left hand bend down to the hairpin the rear tyre was squirming all over the place to the point the bike was almost power-sliding, then into the hairpin I was getting some strange chatter through the bars almost like the tarmac was rough. I knew from memory that a lot of bikes go down on that corner and dig into the tarmac so i put it down to that.
After a few more laps i returned to the pits to gather my thoughts as to why i was struggling.
Tyre pressures?! i got a hold of a tyre pressure gauge and to my horror the pressure shown was 50PSI!! both front and rear. Holy shit i thought but it was soo high i thought the gauge was faulty, so I only knocked 10psi out of the tyres. If the gauge was right then that was still too high as i should have been running 30 at the front and 28 on the rear.
Back out i went and the bike felt a little better but still not up to a pace that i was used to on previous bikes. I persevered and kept trying and yet again the issues i was having before came back.
Thinking it was in my head and just being a bit rusty I kept going and then
Everything as normal
Hmmm, the vibration in the bars again.
Oh its gone all light.
I can still save it.... errm no
The chatter through the bars i mentioned was me pushing the front end too hard and it was sliding, on that lap i was way beyond what the tyre could give. also coupled with the fact they were road tyres and the pressures would have gone up again once the heat got into the tyres, no doubt back up to 50psi.
The damage:
The crash protectors did there job by limiting what hit the deck so I got off lightly. Mirror, indicator, rear brake lever, bar end, a few scratches on the bodywork and the exhaust which is made from Titanium and Carbon Fibre i was told the spark trail from the bike was impressive :lol:
I've replaced everything except the exhaust, i'll leave that till over the xmas period when the bike will be wrapped up for the winter until I decide weather to replace like for like or go down the route of a full system.
Lessons learned:
:arrow: Don't use road tyres if you want to set a lap record.
:arrow: Check the tyre pressures before you go out on track.[/quote]
I've since had the suspension sorted but i had another big moment this year
BMW S1000RR Huge Tank Slapper at Knockhill
I've sisnce changed the geometry of the front end, alot of folk had commented that the front suspension had been set so the bike is on its nose. Helps with corner entry but corner exits are harder to finish and high stability is affected
This is how it looked when i got it home.
1 Service, 3weeks later and with 1000miles on the clock i did my first trackday on it.
This is how it went.
I did my first track day on the BMW back in august 2011. I had been looking forward to it even before I bought the bike, so when i got to the circuit and the weather was one of the better days I was pretty excited.
In the past I've always used proper fast road/track tyres but seeing as the tyres I had on the bike had about 1000miles on them it seemed a bit of a waste to chuck them so I decided to use them.
I hadn't been on track for nearly 2 years so I started off slowly getting familiar with the track again and learning any new feature like the kerbs on the chicanes and just as well, had i took my old line through one in particular I would have went to the moon.
After a few laps I decided to up the pace a little but for some reason i just could get up to speed, I couldn't hold a line through the corners, bike felt nervous and the long left hand bend down to the hairpin the rear tyre was squirming all over the place to the point the bike was almost power-sliding, then into the hairpin I was getting some strange chatter through the bars almost like the tarmac was rough. I knew from memory that a lot of bikes go down on that corner and dig into the tarmac so i put it down to that.
After a few more laps i returned to the pits to gather my thoughts as to why i was struggling.
Tyre pressures?! i got a hold of a tyre pressure gauge and to my horror the pressure shown was 50PSI!! both front and rear. Holy shit i thought but it was soo high i thought the gauge was faulty, so I only knocked 10psi out of the tyres. If the gauge was right then that was still too high as i should have been running 30 at the front and 28 on the rear.
Back out i went and the bike felt a little better but still not up to a pace that i was used to on previous bikes. I persevered and kept trying and yet again the issues i was having before came back.
Thinking it was in my head and just being a bit rusty I kept going and then
Everything as normal
Hmmm, the vibration in the bars again.
Oh its gone all light.
I can still save it.... errm no
The chatter through the bars i mentioned was me pushing the front end too hard and it was sliding, on that lap i was way beyond what the tyre could give. also coupled with the fact they were road tyres and the pressures would have gone up again once the heat got into the tyres, no doubt back up to 50psi.
The damage:
The crash protectors did there job by limiting what hit the deck so I got off lightly. Mirror, indicator, rear brake lever, bar end, a few scratches on the bodywork and the exhaust which is made from Titanium and Carbon Fibre i was told the spark trail from the bike was impressive :lol:
I've replaced everything except the exhaust, i'll leave that till over the xmas period when the bike will be wrapped up for the winter until I decide weather to replace like for like or go down the route of a full system.
Lessons learned:
:arrow: Don't use road tyres if you want to set a lap record.
:arrow: Check the tyre pressures before you go out on track.[/quote]
I've since had the suspension sorted but i had another big moment this year
BMW S1000RR Huge Tank Slapper at Knockhill
I've sisnce changed the geometry of the front end, alot of folk had commented that the front suspension had been set so the bike is on its nose. Helps with corner entry but corner exits are harder to finish and high stability is affected
You look quite a bit past the apex for it to tuck? ??? Everyone will tell you to junk the standard
