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ST on the track



Hi all,

    I had a good day at the track (Cadwell Park) on Friday.  The main
problem was the rider, not the bike ;-)

    After running the bike hard on the track I have a few comments:

    1. I can't really say much about the tyres (MeZ4s).  They stuck, I
       didn't fall over or have any slides.  Nor did I touch any part of
       the bike or myself down, so I wasn't leaning very far over.

    2. But I did have an interesting wear pattern: at the very edge of
       the rear tyre (both sides) there was a thin wavy line of torn-up
       rubber - the tyres were worn right to the edge and then there was 
       this extra wear in a wavy line at most 3mm wide all the way
       around the edge of the tyre.  Any ideas?

    3. The forks dive a lot under braking.  What with the recent
       discussions I'm starting to think about "getting them done" :-)

    4. I cleaned the front brake calipers before setting out for the
       track, and the brakes were feeling sharper than usual for the
       first half of the day.  Then I let a friend of mine whose race
       bike (a BSA Rocket 3) had broken down have a go - when he came
       back in the brakes were spongy again.  What's going on here?
       The brakes still have plenty of power, but lack initial bite.

    5. Pushing the engine hard causes some oil to blow past the clutch
       rod seal.  I've noticed this before on the road, but it was worse 
       on the track.  Is this just something I'll have to live with, or
       can it be fixed properly?

    6. Several people commented on how well the Sprint pulls down the
       straights :-)  Especially a friend of mine on an RVF400: I knew
       that someone was behind me, and intended to ease up a little on
       the straight and let them past.  Then I fluffed a gear change
       coming out of Barn onto the start/finish straight and Steve came
       past.  Fair enough.  Then he gave me the two finger salute and I
       couldn't resist thinking "all right Steve, you're quicker in the
       corners on your 400cc track tool.  However, I have now found the
       gear I was looking for on my 955cc machine.  Eat my dust!"  There 
       followed a very enjoyable few laps until I slowed down after the
       chequered flag came out and Steve got past and vanished into the
       distance.

    Conclusions:

    1. I really need to work on my corner speed and turn-in.

    2. Trackdays are fun, but the continual fear of crashing the bike on 
       which one intends to ride home puts a bit of a damper on things.

    3. The continual fear of crashing the bike on which one intends to
       ride home probably keeps one from crashing!

    Now I'm really looking forward to going to the Nuerburgring in July
:-)

                Jim
- --
      jim@         ,'_                  How come *they* get all the moral
  gillespie.org   / -.--.    ___        turpitude?
                 _\_  ~-.`--'_.-' 
                / /\\    \--'_ \\ 
 '99 Sprint ST  \__/ `---'  \__/                          -- Craig Dalkin


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