ECR 07/17-07/18

[shilka99]

Ask and ye shall receive:


This is the first one Neil. It looks pretty good so I'm uploading the 7 minute clip, now that I'm done downloading Top Gear.

It was another fantastic day at the track. Yes, it was 105° but by pouring water down my neck right before going on track I managed to stay perfectly comfortable while riding.

And it was a record day for Ridesmart, no crashes! Dave said thats the first crash free day they've ever had!

I think my classroom sessions went well too. Paul and Dave both got some good feedback from students who learned more about the track and went faster as a result of my presentations. Cant wait to see the video.

I also tested out my new brake pressure sensor and it worked perfectly. Heres the log from the first session after the round robin:


And heres a detail shot of the period from 90 seconds to 120 seconds:


The units aren't calibrated so they dont mean anything at the moment but this is intended only as a comparative measure. The aim here is to have video of the students bike, taken from the instructors bike, overlaid with one gauge showing the students brake pressure and another one showing the instructors brake pressure.

Lots of fun.

[Blizzard_1708]

Neal is .....Near.....Far.......Near.....Far

[Dr.PorkChop]

rc did you have anymore trouble with the sensor slipping off again?

[shilka99]

No it was perfect all day. Right now I'm in the process of merging the video with the speed and brake sensor readings. Once thats done I'll have a powerful training tool to help people maximise their braking.

[Dr.PorkChop]

Noticed that you were blipping the throttle to down shift. Instead of using the clutch or was I imagining that. Noticed alot of Lvl 2 and all the 3 guys were doing that. One guy, sounded like he kept missing the gear. If that's was the case, I didn't know you could do that.

[Firewa11]

You blip the throttle on a downshift to set your engine RPMs to closer match your tire RPMs before letting the clutch back out, so you get a smooth transition, and it doesn't cause the rear wheel to skid / chatter (and upset your bike) when you're braking hard before going into a turn.

Ever release the clutch when downshifting into a lower gear (especially near redline) and the rear wheel chirps / chatters / skids a little? Blipping the throttle helps cure that. A slipper clutch will help too, but even with one on my race bike it still chirps... it doesn't skid the rear tire like the Katana did, but it's enough to put you a little sideways and rattle the nerves.

Oh, and as far as downshifting / upshifting without the clutch, yeah you can, I personally don't do it often, usually when I'm on the street and my left wrist is getting sore. On the track I use the clutch all the time, you can't be as smooth if you don't use it.

[DemonDuck]

Can you use a shift assist? I was thinking about putting the dynojet one on my bike but I want to make sure it dont make me illegal for the track.

[DarcShadow]

For trackdays it's not a problem. If you're racing it might through you into a different class but some one with more experence with the CMRA experence would know.

[Firewa11]

Yeah for both track days and racing in CMRA quickshifters are perfectly fine. I'd have to check the rules to see if they are allowed in the Superstock classes, but I believe they are. If not, it just takes two little screws to pull it off to be legal for Superstock again. I'm sure they would make drag racing easier, I'm just not at the level where I'm going to be able to do anything with the 1/4 - 1/2 second gain I might get each lap by having one.

There's not much you can do to your bike that will make it illegal for Ridesmart / TTD / Lonestar track events, unless it makes the bike itself unsafe.

[DemonDuck]

Cool thanks. I am going to throw one on there soon.

[shilka99]

Creach, I never use the clutch on the track. I even broke a clutch cable on my race bike on a track day so after getting a push start I did the whole session then hit the kill switch when i got back to the pits.

[Dr.PorkChop]

DemonDuck ask Dave at Cyclewerkz about the quick shift. He had one sitting there on the desk the other day and I got to asking about it. There are different types. Air shifter and something that power commander has that's eletric. One is CMRA legal and one is not due to the fact that it's not active below 4000rpm.

You blip the throttle on a downshift to set your engine RPMs to closer match your tire RPMs before letting the clutch back out, so you get a smooth transition, and it doesn't cause the rear wheel to skid / chatter (and upset your bike) when you're braking hard before going into a turn.

Ever release the clutch when downshifting into a lower gear (especially near redline) and the rear wheel chirps / chatters / skids a little? Blipping the throttle helps cure that. A slipper clutch will help too, but even with one on my race bike it still chirps... it doesn't skid the rear tire like the Katana did, but it's enough to put you a little sideways and rattle the nerves.

Oh, and as far as downshifting / upshifting without the clutch, yeah you can, I personally don't do it often, usually when I'm on the street and my left wrist is getting sore. On the track I use the clutch all the time, you can't be as smooth if you don't use it.

Ok I gotcha now. I"ve had it do that a few times. Thanks

[Dr.PorkChop]

Ok, so it possible to down shift without the clutch.

[DemonDuck]

Ok, so it possible to down shift without the clutch.

Yes just give it a little more gas then downshift without the clutch and it will work ..... gotta work on the proper throttle though because to much or to little will make it sloppy.

DemonDuck ask Dave at Cyclewerkz about the quick shift. He had one sitting there on the desk the other day and I got to asking about it. There are different types. Air shifter and something that power commander has that's eletric. One is CMRA legal and one is not due to the fact that it's not active below 4000rpm.

I think the air shifter is not active below 4000 rpm. That is the one most drag guys use as it is actually faster shift. So if it is the rpm thing that makes it not legal then I am sure that the quickshifter is fine as it works at any rpm as long as your giving it a little gas.

[shilka99]

Shocker - heres the video from the last session when the camera ran out of memory. I had to convert it to an avi in order to make it small enough to upload to youtube but it still looks good.

[Grinner]

Creach, I never use the clutch on the track. I even broke a clutch cable on my race bike on a track day so after getting a push start I did the whole session then hit the kill switch when i got back to the pits.

Im with you 30...I only used the clutch at my last track day two maybe three times on the track. Other than that, it was used when I was returning or leaving pits.

[DarcShadow]

I didn't either, but then again, I just stuck it in one gear and left it there all session.

[sckego]

I always use my clutch on the track. I can smoothly upshift and downshift without it, and occasionally do on the street, normally when I'm riding along with my hand at my side and don't want to bother reaching back to the bar (or that one time my clutch cable broke in Glen Rose and I had to ride home without stopping). But for most riding when I've got both hands on the bars, trackdays included, I'll use the clutch.

Also, if you have never practiced clutchless shifting, it's a good idea to give it a try sometime. Not that you'll do it regularly, but if you have a bike with a clutch cable (seriously, who still makes those? Hydraulic all the way, baby!), it's nice to know you can still ride home if it breaks.

[Dr.PorkChop]

Sounds like it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn how to do that just in case or see if I can make smoother shift like that.