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LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 10:06 pm
by Striple
LSTD is doing a track day at ECR this Friday, 04/13/2012. I registered for the ARC class again, and we're probably going to be camping out at the track Thursday night. If anyone wants to join us or just swing by and hang out for a bit, you're welcome to do so. Its CMRA weekend, so its going to be very busy, and there is a $15 gate fee.

Re: LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2012 8:12 pm
by Striple
We had a fun day at ECR again today. It had the typical structure of pre-race weekend trackdays, including one group for expert racers, one for novice racers, and one "street" group for everyone else. Most of the riders in the street group were roughly on par with Ridesmart's level 2, although there were a couple of really fast guys that may have been closer to advanced level riders. The total number of riders in the street group was about 15 or so, which was really nice.

The sessions were held in the usual order, up until the afternoon, when things got a little curious. In the first session after lunch, I seriously saw more riders off the track than on the track (myself included). That same session eventually got red-flagged, when two bikes were found to have leaked oil in several turns, resulting in a massive cleanup effort that lasted a solid 45 minutes or so. Once the oil was cleaned off the track, they re-started our session, but I opted to let everyone else go out there and look for any leftover patches of oil instead. :D

At lunch I decided to get the SV some new shoes. The PP 2CTs have been excellent, but I wanted to try out a more aggressive tire. As it turned out, Cloudy Pants was one step ahead of me, and had already talked to the tire vendor that morning. He basically made us an offer that we couldn't refuse, and now the SV has a brand new set of Michelin Power One. I went with the medium compound in the rear, and couldn't wait to see how the tires would perform after lunch. They only took about one lap to warm up, and after that their grip was impressive! It didn't take long to find myself dragging knee in at least half of the turns, including turns where I don't normally do so. I ran tire pressures of 29f and 24r, based on the tire vendor recommendation, and it felt great.

Thanks to Jared for coming by to hang out! Sorry to the rest of you who were stuck at work!

Re: LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:18 am
by milesmiles
yep, i was stuck at work, thanks for reminding me. Good to hear you had fun and glad you like the new tires. I'm curious how many miles you might get out of them

Re: LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 11:52 am
by fixxervi6
Miles and weight, are they lighter than Q2's?

What about the profile? I think the Q2 may be rounder

Re: LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 3:59 pm
by Striple
Being a DOT race tire, the expected mileage is obviously going to be quite low. In fact, I'm thinking of longevity more in terms of the number of track days. As long as they last at least 3-4 track days, then I will be content. I have another set of BT-003 in the pipeline that I should be able to get as a backup set. As far as the weight is concerned, the front is 9-lb, 5.3-oz, and the rear is 13-lb, 3.9-oz., which is quite close to many street tires, including the Q2s.

Not having a Q2 on any of my bikes for a side-by-side comparison, it is difficult to say how the two shapes compare. Based on images, I'd agree that the Q2s appear to have a rounder shape. The picture below is of the rear Power One after one session.

Re: LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 5:08 pm
by fixxervi6
That shoulder area looks bad ass, the shoulders are all solid surface with no rain grooves so, like a slick!


Re: LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:01 am
by Firewa11
Yeah, that's how most DOT Race tires are, just enough tread to be DOT legal, but barely. I can't even imagine taking a set out in the rain...

Re: LSTD @ ECR on Friday, 04/13/2012

Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2012 6:51 pm
by Striple
Yeah, you definitely won't catch me riding those in the rain, or even on a wet surface. This morning the track at ECR was pretty wet, with both of the free practice sessions poorly attended, and the few bikes that were running then were scooting around like a round robin. I saw several racers running rain tires, and I don't blame them one bit. Nonetheless, there were very few incidents, despite the race pace.