General Track day Chat

192425 Views 3594 Replies 114 Participants Last post by HydeWhyte, 2 d ago

SRAD600

Discussion Starter · May 30, 2013

Let it begin.

The straight line guys have one, now so do "we". Anything goes in here despite us having a thread for pics and vids this is so we dont need to create threads for EVERYTHING. Maybe you just have something quick you wanna say. Maybe you wanna just give a heads up when a new track junkie joins the forum etc...

Stickied at the top. Enjoy fools. :0001136745-wait:

3521 - 3540 of 3595 Posts

koth442

· #3,521 · 1 mo ago

Better late than never?

Chango

· #3,522 · 1 mo ago

Man alive. It's a good thing I don't mind track days in the rain. Obviously I prefer sunny with a high of 75 or so, but I've been watching the weather forecast for Barber for this weekend for two weeks now and I've seen everything from clear and sunny through 70% chance of thunderstorms every day. Currently it's looking good...

Reactions: 3

Chango

· #3,523 · 1 mo ago

Well, I've worn through a knee slider before, but I've never broken one. I had just swapped sides because my right was nearly gone but I had lots of life left in my left one. During the next session when I tapped my left down I felt a massive tug. I didn't know why, so I just stopped dragging my left knee for the session. After it ended I finally had a chance to look down and saw that the puck had been ripped off the Velcro backing:

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Reactions: 3

koth442

· #3,524 · 1 mo ago

Can't say that I've seen that either, wow!!

HydeWhyte

· #3,525 · 29 d ago

I'm starting to appreciate the fact that I'm not doing my 1st trackday until Sept. Spending time watching vids of riders at COTA to help learn the track before getting there. It's helping a lot with memorizing the turns so I won't be jumping in blind when I get finally there.

Reactions: 2

koth442

· #3,526 · 29 d ago

I'm jealous. Back when I started trackdays YouTube videos were few and far between. Damn kids and their technology!! (hahaha)

But seriously, always good to do your homework early. You can always turn mental laps too.

Reactions: 2

HydeWhyte

· #3,527 · 29 d ago

koth442 said:
I'm jealous. Back when I started trackdays YouTube videos were few and far between. Damn kids and their technology!! (hahaha)

But seriously, always good to do your homework early. You can always turn mental laps too.

I'd rather learn it by riding it over & over & over but I expect that's not going to happen, so every little bit of technology advantage helps 😂

Reactions: 1

JCW

· #3,528 · 29 d ago

I was just watching this vid at cota of the rc8c. It's a nice one cause the quality of recording is so good. but also there is pink tape on the track presumably to mark out the turn in points for the riders.

Reactions: 3

JCW

· #3,529 · 29 d ago

I just heard the surface at Road America is as smooth as a.... whatever.... something really really smooth. The track is beautiful.

But the surface eats up tires just like barber did when they got resurfaced.
A race team owner said he was getting no more than 6 laps!!! on a set of tires.
Ultimate lap times were really slow because of the lack of feedback from the pristine racing surface.

All this probably matters little to novice and inter riders, but just something I found interesting.

Reactions: 1

rv6john

· #3,530 · 29 d ago

JCW said:
I just heard the surface at Road America is as smooth as a.... whatever.... something really really smooth. The track is beautiful.

But the surface eats up tires just like barber did when they got resurfaced.
A race team owner said he was getting no more than 6 laps!!! on a set of tires.
Ultimate lap times were really slow because of the lack of feedback from the pristine racing surface.

All this probably matters little to novice and inter riders, but just something I found interesting.

Same thing happened at Carolina Motorsports Park when they resurfaced a few years ago. We were the first bikes on the track after the repave and the guys running slicks had some really strange wear. I was running S22s in intermediate and did not see a significant wear difference. The comments seem to go away after a couple of months.

Reactions: 2

koth442

· #3,531 · 29 d ago

I guess the new pavement needs time to "wear in"? Needs rubber in the race line I guess? Dunno. I do know, that I absolutely love how smooth it feels after a repave.

Reactions: 2

Chuckster

· #3,532 · 29 d ago

^^^ That's what they've been saying about Putnam for years..... New surface is just to abrasive and needs to "wear in". You guys really have never seen a puck come apart before? I think I see 1 or 2 every season.... usually laying in the track in the throttle pickup zone.

Reactions: 1

Todd_Sails

· #3,533 · 28 d ago

JCW said:
I just heard the surface at Road America is as smooth as a.... whatever.... something really really smooth. The track is beautiful.

But the surface eats up tires just like barber did when they got resurfaced.
A race team owner said he was getting no more than 6 laps!!! on a set of tires.
Ultimate lap times were really slow because of the lack of feedback from the pristine racing surface.

All this probably matters little to novice and inter riders, but just something I found interesting.

I'm doing Rd 'Merica in late June w/ STT!
I heard that about Putnam, my tires were already worn, and after that it needed a new rear. Even at my snail pace LOL.

Reactions: 1

Chango

· #3,534 · 28 d ago (Edited)

Chuckster said:
^^^ That's what they've been saying about Putnam for years..... New surface is just to abrasive and needs to "wear in". You guys really have never seen a puck come apart before? I think I see 1 or 2 every season.... usually laying in the track in the throttle pickup zone.

I don't remember ever seeing just a puck before, but that would make sense if you spend more time at the track than I do. Considering I just came back from a decade off last year, that's not very hard.

Minor update: on Sunday morning I decided to replace the other one so they would feel the same. When I pulled it off the suit, it fell apart too. Admittedly, those sliders were 11 years old, and I was planning on replacing them soon anyway, just not this weekend.

More expensive than the knee sliders is the shiny, new Dunlop Q5 I shredded. It has 4 track days on it and I might get 1 more day at a left-handed track, but I wouldn't use it for another day at Barber.

It's not as obvious in the picture, but in person there is a pretty big difference in the profile with the left being about normal and the right having a definite "shelf" where I apparently spent a good deal of time over the weekend.

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Reactions: 1

koth442

· #3,535 · 28 d ago

Chango said:
More expensive than the knee sliders is the shiny, new Dunlop Q5 I shredded. It has 4 track days on it and I might get 1 more day at a left-handed track, but I wouldn't use it for another day at Barber.

I'd encourage you to consider switching to slicks. I used to get 1 or 2 days out of a Q4 (rear). Last year I ran the whole season (~8TD's) on a single rear slick, Dunlop medium compound. Same tracks. Same-ish pace.

Chango

· #3,536 · 27 d ago (Edited)

koth442 said:
I'd encourage you to consider switching to slicks. I used to get 1 or 2 days out of a Q4 (rear). Last year I ran the whole season (~8TD's) on a single rear slick, Dunlop medium compound. Same tracks. Same-ish pace.

I had heard that the Q4/5 had a short life, especially at the track, but I was hoping to continue my previous method of making tires last longer by riding slow. Sadly, Barber doesn't allow that sort of tomfoolery. Heck, the Michelin Power GPs I had before the Q5 lasted me a year, though that was definitely a slower pace than the last two track weekends.

Do you run warmers? I assume you do, since the only slicks I know of that don't require them are the Pirelli Track day slicks. I already have a set and a generator, so I guess it's just the mental hurdle of deciding to go for it and dealing with them before and after each session.

koth442

· #3,537 · 27 d ago

Chango said:
Do you run warmers? I assume you do, since the only slicks I know of that don't require them are the Pirelli Track day slicks. I already have a set and a generator, so I guess it's just the mental hurdle of deciding to go for it and dealing with them before and after each session.

Yeah I run warmers. I always ran warmers even on street tires just for the convenience of going out on hot tires every time. It's really not too bad IMO.

Reactions: 1

Todd_Sails

· #3,538 · 27 d ago

I thought the Michelin power slick twos also were advertised it’s not really needing warmers as well. I run them and I use warmers.
You know you could flip that tire over. It’s really only directional if you ride in the rain.

Chango

· #3,539 · 26 d ago

koth442 said:
Yeah I run warmers. I always ran warmers even on street tires just for the convenience of going out on hot tires every time. It's really not too bad IMO.

Where do you get your slicks from? Before I start blindly looking for race tires, I may as well have a starting point.

HydeWhyte

· #3,540 · 26 d ago

Bridgestone's track-only tire pressure recommendations for the S22's in 120/R70-17 & 180/ZR55-17 are 30psi front and 26psi rear (in cold tires). Any experienced suggestions on potential changes to that, like +/- a psi or two or few depending on ambient temps at the time? It'll be my 1st time on a track, so I don't need recommendations for cutting edge performance of course.

If it rains while I'm at COTA Sept 2nd-3rd, well, I'm a chicken-shit on a sportbike on wet pavement so I doubt any suggestions (like get'cha some rain-tires brah!) would help a lot in that case

Reactions: 1

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