good weather for a ride

a couple of weeks ago me and a friend took a ride thru the hills nearby. skip the first minute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUEk7GcyYpk


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6kKZHlLds

Did close to a thousand miles this past weekend and all of it was mountain twisties.. Covered 5 states. Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. Obliterated a set of Michelin's

wow, good for you pov. for me, the most fun is riding thru the mountains on twisties. i`m about 100km afar from the closest mountain roads, and latest the weather was ......, but whenever i have the time to do it, i enjoy an afternoon of riding.

Not good weather for a ride...the greasiest and most treacherous I've ever known Doni. Timely change of front averted an almost certain trip to Intensive care.

What's that front, Arrabb?

And what were Mais8 (or whatever) lap times like?

What was the temp Arrab?

Mick D said:

What was the temp Arrab?

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Ambient, around 10 degrees C when the session kicked off, so even with tyre warmers and full wets folk were struggling. It's quite mild right now and I thought that the strong southerly would dry the circuit by the time it reached around 15 degrees at lunch - but it didn't. Track temp? sensor indicated 17 degrees mid morning and it never really improved. It was tough to keep heat in the tyre, but comfortable running at 30 - 32 psi all day.

Foolishly ran a worn front in the first session and following several front end slides down Craners, switched tyre and was planted for the rest of the day. Still very slow and cautious though, track was like an ice rink. Nonetheless. some riders on full wet set up were putting in the sort of pace that I would cream over in the dry and one of the guys from Russo Racing tore the decals of my bike when he came past through Hollywood about 40mph faster. Six big crashes, most of them highsides - I'll try and upload footage of one of the early sessions so you can see how slow it was.

When it's like this, I slow right down - find some space and barring the end of the straights try to ride the track purely on throttle control and engine braking with minimum use of brakes. From the old hairpin to Mcleans it's a great exercise.

Sounds like a great day, everything considered!

10C is Canadian track-day temp though...

Always some fun to be had at there track, even slow, slippery and wet (hey, wait a minute there...) you can challenge yourself and work on technique.

Bravo!

Dr No said:

What's that front, Arrabb?

And what were Mais8 (or whatever) lap times like?

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Was tempted to sling in a full wet, but the front that I turned up on was quite worn and didn't want to stick it back on for the ride home. I do a lot of straight line road miles so a Pilot 2 was great choice for the day and beyond. Unbelievable grip, ugly ....... tyre though.

Got some Pirelli Diablo Rosso's stashed in the garage for next summer. Trust me, this wasn't the day to air them. In the meantime this is a great performance front for the winter and early spring sports riding. Brilliant boot.

Mais8 tore my stickers off as he passed me down Craners.

That front was a Pilot 2?
I have raced in 13deg wet. But on full wets. Very wierd and squirmy. Two stroke 125 power band doesn't help. Nor stress and steam pouring into lid.
Confidence trick.
Big props for taking a 1000 out on such a nasty day.

Dr No said:

That front was a Pilot 2?
I have raced in 13deg wet. But on full wets. Very wierd and squirmy. Two stroke 125 power band doesn't help. Nor stress and steam pouring into lid.
Confidence trick.
Big props for taking a 1000 out on such a nasty day.

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Thanks Doc. The guys on 1 litre bikes really struggled bar the race teams and the clubbers. The first R1 is renowned for being particularly savage and unrefined, so you HAVE to short shift. First and second are practically unusable in the wet, they made the ratios taller on the second iteration I think. No TC or wet weather map, just a bank of mikuni's, so smooth throttle control and try to relax on the bike even though your sphincter is clenching like a clam. During the first session on the old tyre it was stair rods, I was very, very lucky to bring it back in - although it was flagged early. The guy with me bought down a blade and a CBR600 and flew round on the latter on full wets. I'll upload some footage...I kept having to lift my visor at the end the straights through the Esses and out of Redgate due to fogging. It was like a skid pan...to give you an idea, I was exiting Coppice at only 40mph.

Actually, it's a pilot 4 I think...the one with the sipe technology. A friend has them and everyone keeps asking him why he has wet tyres on. I need a good performance sports tourer tyre for the miles I do and this was in the back of the truck and ideal for the day and until I put the sticky's on next summer.

Once rode an RG500 around a wet Mallory with 80's tyre technology ...'interesting'.

I've only ridden about a couple of dozen laps on a track on non-race tyres...I can't comprehend a Gen1 R1 on road tyres...in the wet.
To be frank, 1000s in any form kinda terrify me. The vast bulk of my track time has been on 125GP and a couple of practice weekends playing on a TZ250. The size, power, (relatively) poor braking and turn in, make my riding style umm, "unsuitable".
A mate's GSXR750 was an utter handful for me due to having to recalibrate my braking points etc. Big buzz, but not satisfying (and I have to learn how to ride better...)

Helmet fogging sucks. PI in the wet is eye-opening. Tucking into the bubble down the straight tends to fog you up pretty nicely....just in time for Turn 1.

Worst thing about wet riding? Climbing back into soggy, cold leathers...worse than getting into a cold, soggy wetsuit and somewhat less appropriate to piss in.

Dr No said:

I've only ridden about a couple of dozen laps on a track on non-race tyres...I can't comprehend a Gen1 R1 on road tyres...in the wet.
To be frank, 1000s in any form kinda terrify me. The vast bulk of my track time has been on 125GP and a couple of practice weekends playing on a TZ250. The size, power, (relatively) poor braking and turn in, make my riding style umm, "unsuitable".
A mate's GSXR750 was an utter handful for me due to having to recalibrate my braking points etc. Big buzz, but not satisfying (and I have to learn how to ride better...)

Helmet fogging sucks. PI in the wet is eye-opening. Tucking into the bubble down the straight tends to fog you up pretty nicely....just in time for Turn 1.

Worst thing about wet riding? Climbing back into soggy, cold leathers...worse than getting into a cold, soggy wetsuit and somewhat less appropriate to piss in.

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Generation 1 R1, in the wet on road tyres = slow.

1 litre sports bikes are a liability on the road in my opinion because as challenging as they can be to push, they can also mask a riders inefficiency. On track, you immediately discover who is out of their depth.

I truly believe in the maxim that 'the bike is always better than you'. I see guys out there on the road who even given frequent track time will never get close to exploiting the performance of modern machinery and contemporary tyre performance which is why I ride a 16 year old bike...because I am still exploring and unlocking its potential. It has limitations true, but they are grossly outweighed by my own.

Having been weaned on two strokes I almost have the reverse contention. If I took an RS250 out on track tomorrow directly after a four stroke sports bike, my overwhelming feeling would be 'I have to learn to ride better' - but, if the circuit was tight and twisty enough, I'd make sure I claimed a few hypersport scalps while I was out there.

I have the same attitude to bikes.
The bikes I have are so much better than me (It's motivating/disheartening to have someone try out your bike and go a few seconds faster with no set-up) that I see no need to upgrade to anything faster. And I can spend that cash on tyres.

I wrote that bit about bulk/braking/turn-in badly.
The RS125/TZ250 brake so much later, and turn in so fast, that the bulkier and much faster GSXR required a lot of recalibration. First few laps, it felt like steering a very fast truck.

Dr No said:

I have the same attitude to bikes.
The bikes I have are so much better than me (It's motivating/disheartening to have someone try out your bike and go a few seconds faster with no set-up) that I see no need to upgrade to anything faster. And I can spend that cash on tyres.

I wrote that bit about bulk/braking/turn-in badly.
The RS125/TZ250 brake so much later, and turn in so fast, that the bulkier and much faster GSXR required a lot of recalibration. First few laps, it felt like steering a very fast truck.

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Absolutely - greater gyroscopic force, and accustomising to the engine braking also.

Not to mention that me and the 125 weigh less than a dry GSXR....
Engine braking was less of a deal than I thought, I blip the downchanges on the RS125. Mainly out of paranoia of being flat in 6th and shutting off all lube in the braking zone.
While we are trading war stories, engine braking did catch me out on the first lap on a Manx Norton. Straight off a 125 onto a complete thumper of a bike with a slooow gearchange. Much less fun than I'd thought it'd be but one (4 lap?) notch on my "I've ridden one of those!!" (note Harryjones exclamations) belt.

gekko1ro said:

a couple of weeks ago me and a friend took a ride thru the hills nearby. skip the first minute

YouTube vids

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Great footage Gekko, thanks for sharing.

I`m glad you like it, but it`s a last year video and now I think it`s a kind of lame. But I enjoyed very much the ride so I shared it. Track days for me are out of the question, the closest track is in another country (Hungary), so this rides are our way to spent time on bikes. It`s a little bit dangerous (sometimes sand or dirt on the road), but the traffic is light and we don't mess with the throttle.

A good representation of today's ride....rain, wind, snow, cold

Willski said:

A good representation of today's ride....rain, wind, snow, cold

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You should have let me know you were going Wills...I've always wanted to cycle round Silverstone.