Fort Worth Motorcycle Riders

Rhino wrote:I should have played hookey. Today sucks at work.

Same here. Although the track may not have been great today. I'm all light headed and can't focus. F'ing allergies are killing me.

You guys missed another fantastic day at the track. Thanks to Shaun, Fish, Greg, for joining us on the track, and to Grinner, Jared, and Melinda for stopping by!

Striple wrote:You guys missed another fantastic day at the track. Thanks to Shaun, Fish, Greg, for joining us on the track, and to Grinner, Jared, and Melinda for stopping by!

It was a shame I had to leave early. I'm here in New Jersey this week so I wont be able to download my gopro video. It'll be an interesting one too - there I was, first session of the day, dawdling along on brand new slicks fitted to the KTM, following a beginner on a VFR. We were going REALLY slow when all of a sudden, coming out of rattlesnake I just breathed on the front brake and POW, I smacked the asphalt with my face!
The bike had stalled by the time I got to it, but I was able to pick it up, hit the starter and ride back to the pits. It has some new scratches on the bar end and foot peg, but thats it!
My visor was badly damaged, but the helmet itself didnt get a scratch. My suit/boots were lightly scuffed so the challenge will be to see how well I can repair the damage. The only good thing was that I crashed the KTM instead of the Ducati; and that I had the gopro recording the whole time.
The bad - its my first crash on asphalt since 1994. That was on cold tires in a warmup session first thing in the morning if I remember correctly

I'll upload the video when I get back home. Could be worth a laugh!

Shaun, you're not supposed to crash in the round robin.

Was the issue lack of tire warmers, or do you think your tires cooled off running around at beginner pace?

I think there were several contributing factors; brand new slicks are usually grippy enough for slow speeds even when cold. But this was my first time using this brand on this bike so I was using a best guess for the pressures, and I think 25 in the front was too high.
Second, a bike that weighs less than 200lbs cant load up a contact patch the way a larger bike can. Throughout the entire lap (thats right, I got 1 entire lap done before crashing...) I was experimenting with brakes while upright to scrub the front, then accelerating to scrub the rear. According to Brandt this is the best way to warm a cold tire. True, I didnt remove the stickers before heading out but they were scrubbed off by the time I got back to the pits, so I dont think they were a contributing factor. (Besides, I never peel the stickers off new tires and this has never happened before.)

I'll do some research and see if I can find a ballpark value for front pressures in these slicks and see how that compares to my guess. At this point thats the only thing I can think of that I can do differently for next time out.

I know you're used to running race tires cold, but have you considered using warmers again? I've tried running competition DOTs without warmers, and they were VERY slick when cold. It may not be a bad idea to throw warmers on them next time.

I used slicks for years on the RC30 but I couldnt afford warmers and generator so I became accustomed to warming up the tires gradually. The technique worked - I never crashed on slicks before Monday. Has technology changed in the years since then so that warmers are now required?

I did some digging on SupermotoJunkie.com and found an AMA Pro supermoto competitor discussing slick tire pressures. I couldnt believe it but he said he runs his slicks between 22 and 28psi HOT!

I had my front tire set at 25psi cold. Before I start dropping 4-8psi I'll do some more research but if this turns out to be a good recommendation for my tires that will certainly help explain why I had so little traction from my front tire.

Dam. Taht's low.
When I started with FWMR I was on pilot powers and before every ride I'd pump em up 40 / 42.
Someone somwehere told me to.
After a while of the back end stepping out I noticed when they leaked down to about 34/37~37 the back stopped stepping out.
Then I put on a Q2 and was dragging my boots on the cloverleafs, without meaning to.
-
But 22 / 28 ? - But then that is a light bike.

I did a demo for Thomas/Striple at Cresson - my KTM is so light I can pick it up and carry it.

Go ahead, laugh...

I hear the benny hill soundtrack whenever I watch it.

That sucks! Did you hit the curbing? It looks like you hit the curbing or ran it over (not that that would cause you to wreck) but if you have unscrubbed slicks on, would the tires be like ice on that slippery curbing? I am glad you are doing great though.

I dont think I ran over the curb, I generally try to avoid that. Its possible though.

glad you are ok, yea that was a really unexpected from the camera view

I'm glad you are ok too. Was that you that was throwing your arms (it was a shadow) as if you were saying WTF?

Telomere wrote:I'm glad you are ok too. Was that you that was throwing your arms (it was a shadow) as if you were saying WTF?

It was me. I was frustrated because I've caught front end slides a hundred times on dirt. I can usually feel it coming and be ready. But this time there was no warning at all. It was so fast I went from upright to face in the asphalt before I had a chance to react! And that pissed me off...

I could tell and that made me giggle...your reaction and not you kissing the ground.

Any chance someone got video from behind you?

That's what my crash was like, I've had front end slides too and recovered, but when I finally ate it on the 250, it was over before it started, no warning just WAM and done. That's the scariest part, of all of the times I've "saved" it, I had one incident where there was 0 window it was just done, no chance or warning.

Glad you poped back off and walked away, what was the damage to the machine?

There was no one behind me. Thats the beauty of ES days, there was only about 10 people on the track in the first session.

And damage was pretty bad. It will cost about $7.50 to fix the brand new grip!

THAT SUCKS.... Just sell me the bike for $200 so you dont have to worry about the repairs. Ill let you ride it now and then!

Thats generous DD, but I wouldnt dream of handing you my problems!

RFOL..... I would not mind one bit.