Track day

[limeex2]

Second track day with the GS. At theDakota County Tech Collage. It's more of a school than a track day. Very short track, 1.3 miles? 12 corners and very rough. Its a great place to legally dial in your bike. The first session in May, due to operator error and rebuilder misinformation, my forks were locking up. Drained oil, went with std oem amount and the problem was solved. Second was front brakes. Kept going soft. Has the salty monk mod with all parts rebuilt. Borrowed a known good Ducati master and it was still poor. I had a Triumph take off master that worked good but not perfect. Once I got over newbie jitters and settled in the bike was working very well. Was using SBS pads and by the end of the day the pads were breaking in and working very well. Jetting and carburation were spot on. My gearing sucked. I figured with a shorter, tight track, I could use almost use 1/4 mile gearing. Motor has plenty of torque so it was not needed at all. With suspension adjustments,the bike started settling in and getting a lot easier to push harder as the day went on. Work on some ergo issues next, try to find a seat base to make a flatter seat and move the pegs as I have plenty of ground clearance and legs that are to long and do not bend like they used to. All in all it was great day, lots was learned and I'm still sore!

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Wore your legs out doing the trackday squat?
I know how that feels.
Bike's looking real good.:encouragement:

 

[dorkburger]

Cool, glad to see that your ole GS is up and running.

 

[steve murdoch]

Get to go fast, avoid the cops and be safe? Sounds excellent.
Is that an old Zero seat?

 

[limeex2]

Get to go fast, avoid the cops and be safe? Sounds excellent.
Is that an old Zero seat?

Not sure of the seat name, but someone id'ed it for me awhile back. Its original from way back. If I could even find a King/queen seat for a base, I have a original that I could copy and it would be close enough for this application.

 

[Carter Turk]

Looks like a more than a good time on that machinery.
Sure is fun to cut loose and flog as much as you dare, w/o the worry of a traffic award.

 

[alke46]

When taking your bike onto the track, do you change the air pressure in the tires or just leave them as you would for daily riding?

 

[Buffalo Bill]

When taking your bike onto the track, do you change the air pressure in the tires or just leave them as you would for daily riding?

You lower the pressure so the tires will heat up fast. About 8-10% lower pressure.

 

[alke46]

You lower the pressure so the tires will heat up fast. About 8-10% lower pressure.

Thanks Bill, that's what I was thinking but did not know for sure.

 

[Dogma]

You lower the pressure so the tires will heat up fast. About 8-10% lower pressure.

The explanation I heard was to make room for more pressure increase due to higher speeds causing higher temps. Both make at least intuitive sense. Average speed on track is probably not more than highway cruising speed though. But the tires are definitely working harder in corners, and I think that is the real reason for increased heating.

 

[Chuck78]

Get to go fast, avoid the cops and be safe? Sounds excellent.
Is that an old Zero seat?

Yes... Exactly why I would like to go to some track days this coming season, and attend a riding school!

Yes that is most definitely an old Zero seat. Very nice piece. Very nice Fox Street Shox as well, also referred to as Fox Gas Shox... overall excellent bike there. Great tires as well. Hayabusa rearsets? I have some in a box here somewhere and they look a lot like those.

 

[limeex2]

Sorry Chuck78, I forget about some of my posts. Good eye! Shocks were my original race shocks. by chance I found a local guy ( http://www.deycore.com/ ) who's only job is fixing shock's and was able to rebuild the shocks. Yes, Hayabusa rear sets. Got the brakes sorted out,and when the pads started bedding in, it was nice to have brakes that were very strong. I will be bracing the frame and have some other minor welding to do, so I will move the rearsets for better ergos/leg room. Finally took the bike out on the street last fall, and its a blast to ride, very planted feel, after dynoing, the carburation is perfect and it runs strong. Using the bathroom scale method it weighed 461 lbs. The bike will be like a rolling test bed for my next project, an 1100ES.