2020 season thread

[fzar]

The 3,4,5,6th. position race was hard, true racing, gettin all bent out of shape into turn 5, good stuff. Man anywhere you looked behind 1-2 they were fighting hard. I Loved it. Roll on next round.  Anyone got speed traps MPH compared to last round at the same venue? I'm curious as to the developments on a dyno or just straight! Run what Ya Brung.

 

[mossrider]

June 2019,

May 2020,

June 2020,

[mossrider]

Team's  new look, 

Maybe it'll help us get into the top 10? We've all had to up our game to stay afloat in this class. 

[fzar]

Thanks for the speed traps and time @mossrider yer looking good out there. Well Done.

[fzar]

10 hours ago, mossrider said:

June 2019,

May 2020,

June 2020,

Is there a reason that the speed trap MPH have gone down across the board? I understand it could have to do with whatever run off a corner,traffic, drafting, temps. etc.but it just seems like the top speeds have dropped significantly, and I'm curious.

 

[mossrider]

It's not quite that simple. These split, timing and scoring data sheets take a while to decipher. As far as pure top speed goes, there are many variables that effect it. Weather, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, placement of the radar gun, time of day varies. Keep in mind it's seldom placed at the fastest point of the track, usually near the middle/end of hot pit lane and the bike's are still accelerating beyond the gun. The other thing is that as a class you're looking at finite or slowly climbing horse power numbers as a function of the rules and motor size limitations. The real changes come in the ability to get the machine/rider around the track faster through other means. Corner speed, rider aides, improvements in technology, electronics, suspension, handling, braking and hardware help us lower the lap times even tho trap speeds appear stagnant.

If you look at the overall race time, then lap times you see trends more clearly. For instance;

In 2018 the overall winning Twins Cup time was roughly 20:50 with a best lap of 2:34. 

In 2019 it was 20:19 with a best lap of 2:30.

In 2020 it's now 19:50 with a 2:27!  That's finishing the entire race in a full minute less time and running 7 seconds per lap faster. Holy crap. The developement of these bikes in this class has been incredible. We've set a new class lap record every year. It also helps that the rules have remained somewhat unchanged. Having said all this I think at some point we'll see diminishing returns as time moves forward. Since this was a new class with a liberal rules package we were able to make great strides in a short time. These begin as entry level street bikes remember so they are never going to threaten other classes too much, lol. 

Giddy up.

[mossrider]

These showed up the other day to help us control heat.  Better materials and greater capacity than stock radiators.

Also gonna be testing a new carbon fiber tank cover. It has a different shape and will hopefully offer better ergonomics, a better tuck and better aero.

Shawn and I playing with one of only 10 ever Britten's at Road America for the heritage cup. Holy Grail of racing. 

Once in a lifetime to see on track getting beat on. This one has a long, storied pedigree.

"One of the most famous racebikes in the world will be there on track, and that’s Bob Robbins’ Britten V1000.

I actually wrote a story for the MotoAmerica Website last year about the Britten and when Michael Barnes, Andrew Stroud, and others raced one at Daytona. So that’s really cool that Bob will have his Britten at Road America. The fans will love that.

Yeah, we’re really excited. It kind of surprised even me. My father tells stories of going to Daytona the first year the Britten was there, and he describes the bike being out on the track and 50 men standing in a circle just dead silent, creeping inches at a time in a circle so that they could all get a full panoramic view. Nobody could get enough of it. What an extraordinary machine and an amazing opportunity to have it on track with us. It takes so much effort to ride and preserve the bike because there are little to no spare parts for it. So, we’re really honored that Bob Robbins will have it out there.

I’ll also have my personal race bike, which is a blue-and-white Suzuki GS1000 Wes Cooley replica. There will be some Kawasaki KZ1000’s and some GPz’s, too. A couple of Matchless G50’s. It’ll be an eclectic group of vintage racebikes, for sure."

 

[cornerslider]

How much more cooling capacity do those  provide? Nice looking parts!!!

[mossrider]

Just now, cornerslider said:

How much more cooling capacity do those  provide? Nice looking parts!!!

Manufacturer claims 40%.

[cornerslider]

I'm assuming they are dimensionally the same, but just "thicker" front to back? Who makes them?

[mossrider]

Just now, cornerslider said:

I'm assuming they are dimensionally the same, but just "thicker" front to back? Who makes them?

Correct. Some dude in the Orient someplace.  

[Spatt]

On 7/1/2020 at 7:41 PM, fzar said:

Is there a reason that the speed trap MPH have gone down across the board? I understand it could have to do with whatever run off a corner,traffic, drafting, temps. etc.but it just seems like the top speeds have dropped significantly, and I'm curious.

 

Are you meaning between the two rounds in 2020.  

Round 1 was a double header, more track time for one.  Round 2 the race was also earlier in the day.

 

[mossrider]

Latest and greatest from the front lines:

* we worked through all the fork settings and gathered a ton of good data on the front end.

* We started on the rear end and the shock let go. Ordered up a Ktech, m*!'+r f^×¢r! I guess the Pittsburg round of MotoAmerica in a couple weeks is a figure stuff quick and go fast race without testing or data. I'm gonna start printing money like the Fed, Lord knows I spend it like they do, lol.

* New radiator doesn't make the impact we hoped it would, it helps but we need more. Pulling the thermostat to try that. Next replace the water pump I guess. 

Also saw spy photos of competitions new closed deck cp2 motor. They'll try anything...

[blackout]

9 hours ago, mossrider said:

Latest and greatest from the front lines:

* we worked through all the fork settings and gathered a ton of good data on the front end.

* We started on the rear end and the shock let go. Ordered up a Ktech, m*!'+r f^×¢r! I guess the Pittsburg round of MotoAmerica in a couple weeks is a figure stuff quick and go fast race without testing or data. I'm gonna start printing money like the Fed, Lord knows I spend it like they do, lol.

* New radiator doesn't make the impact we hoped it would, it helps but we need more. Pulling the thermostat to try that. Next replace the water pump I guess. 

Also saw spy photos of competitions new closed deck cp2 motor. They'll try anything...

From my experience with racing cars, a wider or taller radiator of the same thickness will cool better.  Air doesn't flow as nicely through the thicker radiators.

[mossrider]

Follow up on the heat.

I used a couple different chemical/heat cycle flushes on the motor and cleaned out some horrible sediment and corrosion. This is an eBay replacement lump and musta sat around for some time neglected with smeg in it. Yuck. Lesson learned.

Despite all this, this motor pulls strong and runs down just about everything. 

We ran 3 races from the back of decent sized 20+ bike grids as a late entry. We did it on worn out rim rags to boot. We finished 2nd in Super Twins, 5th in Lightweight Superbike and 10th in Middleweight gp bumping up a class to run against the 600's. Nice.

Tony had to leave after Saturdays races so I worked the starters tower on Sunday. Kinda fun and I got to have a little revenge letting them marinade in the sun a bit on the grid, lol. 

[Spatt]

On 7/18/2020 at 8:36 AM, mossrider said:

Latest and greatest from the front lines:

* we worked through all the fork settings and gathered a ton of good data on the front end.

* We started on the rear end and the shock let go. Ordered up a Ktech, m*!'+r f^×¢r! I guess the Pittsburg round of MotoAmerica in a couple weeks is a figure stuff quick and go fast race without testing or data. I'm gonna start printing money like the Fed, Lord knows I spend it like they do, lol.

* New radiator doesn't make the impact we hoped it would, it helps but we need more. Pulling the thermostat to try that. Next replace the water pump I guess. 

Also saw spy photos of competitions new closed deck cp2 motor. They'll try anything...

I’d check ignition timing.  The FZ is sensitive to going past bmt and overheating.  

There are also some tricks in areas of the map you can do to get heat out.  You just have to think about what would get a rider into that part of the map; off throttle/braking, partial throttle, full throttle.

Closed deck isn’t a bad thing but I don’t see the benefit on the FZ.  Power level doesn’t warrant it.  We did it to Subaru’s when adding big boost.  The Head gasket issues they are having aren’t related to cylinder deformation.  IMHO 

[Spatt]

4 hours ago, mossrider said:

Follow up on the heat.

I used a couple different chemical/heat cycle flushes on the motor and cleaned out some horrible sediment and corrosion. This is an eBay replacement lump and musta sat around for some time neglected with smeg in it. Yuck. Lesson learned.

Despite all this, this motor pulls strong and runs down just about everything. 

We ran 3 races from the back of decent sized 20+ bike grids as a late entry. We did it on worn out rim rags to boot. We finished 2nd in Super Twins, 5th in Lightweight Superbike and 10th in Middleweight gp bumping up a class to run against the 600's. Nice.

Tony had to leave after Saturdays races so I worked the starters tower on Sunday. Kinda fun and I got to have a little revenge letting them marinade in the sun a bit on the grid, lol. 

CLR if you don’t have access to a sonic cleaner does wonders. Just be sure to flush the system a couple times. 

[mossrider]

Thanks, I used my secret old person coffee maker cleaning concoction a few times and it seemed to do the trick.  I think my coffee pot makes more power than my motor especially early in the day.

[mossrider]

Well you never know what you'll find but it pays to tear em down and go over em good periodically. 

I have a cracked head pipe on #1 cyl. Pssh, only 5 years of WOT and crashing,

Could very well be the source of my heat issues too. I missed it last time I had it down, what a dough head. Good thing I tore it all down before heading out to Pittsburgh for MotoAmerica. 

Ride safe

[fzar]

1 hour ago, mossrider said:

Could very well be the source of my heat issues too. I missed it last time I had it down, what a dough head. Good thing I tore it all down before heading out to Pittsburgh for MotoAmerica. 

Ride safe

Glad you caught it in time.

 

[cornerslider]

That sucks .... Glad you caught it before $hit got "real".... What header/header material are you running??? That seems like a pretty massive crack????

 

[mossrider]

On 7/30/2020 at 11:16 PM, cornerslider said:

That sucks ">.... Glad you caught it before $hit got "real".... What header/header material are you running??? That seems like a pretty massive crack????

 

This is one of those rare pics where it shows up better on camera than to the naked eye because of the shadow. It wasn't easy to spot from underneath and behind the radiator 

It so happened I was running the bike on the lift at chest level in preparation to service it. I felt the exhaust leak on my arm by happenstance. It was blowing hot gas right on the back of the radiator. No wonder I couldn't get it to cool. 

I was going to have it welded at my buddies fab shop but there is no Titanium filler rod this far north of the real world. We had to order some but it won't be here for a week or so.

I spoke to Yosh and they don't make the Ti version any more. They are also out of stock in the stainless version too. Check back in a few weeks she said...

Oddly, another buddies headpipe turned up missing right off his bike. I'm sure it will show up in a week or so. He needs to be more careful where he puts things. 

 

[mossrider]

Pittrace summary. 

I was unable to make the trip but sent my crew and gear under the watchful eye of the Warden.

The new Ktech rear suspension wasn't ready for combat in my bike so we tried an Ohlins TTX and custom linkage in its place. It functioned well and Tony set a personal record during the race, finishing 17th out of 27. Shawn was also in the process of setting a PR during the race when he binned it outta T14 on the white flag lap. (See video highlight clip below, lol) Trouble is, everyone else is setting PR's and Rocco is setting track records everywhere. 

Making preparations for BIR in a couple weeks with the new Ktech stuff on her, then another assault on the MotoAmerica folks at Indy with Tenracing aboard my bike. Look out Brickyard!

Aftermath of letting others ransack my kit n toolbox for 4 days has my OCD raging. Had to re-sort, clean and reorganize everything anyone touched.

Almost like a race team...

[mossrider]

So we're at Brainerd International Raceway this weekend. I'm working up a new rear shock and linkage setup for the Indy round of MotoAmerica coming up next month. 

I replaced the broken header with a brand new stainless version of the original Ti Yoshimura head pipe. 

I have our club president and resident fast guy Brett (Ten Racing) Donahue riding my bike. We go out for a twenty lap tire test and set up run in a Trophy Dash on a fresh set of Dunlop spec tires to make sure we're hitting on all 8 cylinders. 43 bikes take the grid. Were in second and Brett's got plenty left for an overtake and run on the leader. Brett sets an unofficial lightweight track record and fast lap of the race at 1:42.346 seconds and is poised to win the race but the fairing stay breaks off at the steering head and the fairing falls down and sits on the front fender, blocking airflow to the radiator. Back to over heating. Maybe had solid 1:41's in him. He finishes the race in 3rd place, holding the fairing up with one hand and racing the bike with the other. My boy!

Solid finish. An easy fix, glad it happened here and not at Indy. Broke from fatigue. I think we're ready for the deep end. 

 

[bornagainbiker]

Kudos to Brett for the great save.