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Hawt Motorcycle Talk

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  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,739 Founders Club
    This thread is epic.
  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,739 Founders Club

    I felt the need to poast some Streetfighter porn.







    How fun would that be?

    That bike is just pure bad-assery.

    I'd kill myself confirmed.
  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,739 Founders Club

    You assholes zooming around out here in Granite Falls drive me fucking crazy.

    Only did that once before hanging up the street riding. Amazing road! My buddy and I, he on an FZ1 and me on a CBR1000RR, once tried doing the whole Mountain Loop Highway, only to find it turned to extremely potholed gravel with a lot of downed trees. After several miles of standing up on a CBR like it's a motocross bike and railing through the dirt, weaving around downed trees, we finally came to a downed tree that blocked the whole road. We'd been having so much fun on this unexpected adventure that we actually scouted the bushes on the side of the road to work our way around, then briefly considered lifting each bike over the logs and carrying on our way, but sanity prevailed and we turned around.

    Granite Falls is an area I take people who are new to Western Washington just to blow them away with the views. Cool fucking city!°
    CSB. For real.
  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696

    I felt the need to poast some Streetfighter porn.

    How fun would that be?

    That bike is just pure bad-assery.

    Oh, I'd certainly love to try one. I chose the SDR as my bananas dream bike because of its more torque-biased, impossible-to-not-wheelie, batshit crazy nature. 208 hp with no fairing would certainly be insane, but I've read that Ducati has actually biased the SF more to the track (high speed, high RPM, etc.), and it's actually a very civilized bike around town if you want it to be. Which is even more amazing of an achievement, just less batshit crazy. I'd have to try both back to back, though.

    As for developing skills by starting younger, I'm not too different from you. Now, 25 isn't 47, but it's still a hell of a lot older to start riding than when most people give it a shot (racing 85s like @Swaye). I developed a sudden and immediate addiction at 25, started track riding at 26, quit at 28 when it rained every fucking day for a whole summer, started again at 32 after they built The Ridge, and now I'm 40. Didn't start riding on the dirt until I was 29.

    I had zero real scary moments on the street after I started track riding. I had one crash and several close calls before, though, in that first year, because I didn't understand what the bike could do and thought I was in trouble when I wasn't. My only crash on the street happened right here, shortly before my first track day. I was on my way home from work and took the more curvy Bayview Edison to Chuckanut to get some "practice" in before my first day on track. (In retrospect, I laugh now at how backward thinking it is to practice for the track on a public road instead of vice versa...) I was well above 100 heading into that sweeper to the left, got on the brakes hard like you would, and the back end started fishtailing. I'd experienced this already, so no big deal (hard enough on the brakes, and the rear wheel isn't touching the ground, hence the fishtailing), but then the front end started chop-chop-chopping off the asphalt. This was new, and it freaked me out. Instead of just (probably easily) completing the turn, I decided the safest bet was to just run straight ahead on the gravel road that carried on straight. Didn't see the ditch that ran across that road, which launched me off my bike like I was shot out of a cannon. Landed upside down in a thicket of blackberries that have since been removed. Like being caught in a net, so I was completely unscathed. Bike took some fixin'. It was funny, as all of the blackberries smashed all over me made it look like I was totally fucked up and bloody.

    I bring this up because you're absolutely right as to the value the track brings to street riding. You don't need to know how to shave that last five seconds off your lap time. You DO need to know that if your bike does X, that's fine, and if your bike does Y, you should fix it. You learn that in a very safe environment at the track. Public roads are where you learn the hard way.
  • PurpleBaze
    PurpleBaze Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 30,309 Founders Club
    Thanks once again for the great insight...
  • PurpleBaze
    PurpleBaze Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 30,309 Founders Club
    Marc Marquez out another 2-3 months. Needless to say, TSIO for him.
  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696
    Good call. I should watch the last race before I read any spoilers. Been out in the woods getting mosquito bites and tetanus all weekend and had forgotten about Austria 2.0.
  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696
    In other news, should we have a rolling "motorcycle stuff" all-in-one thread? Should this be it? If so, should it have the title changed and be moved by a benevolent modde to the Shoppe?
  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,739 Founders Club

    In other news, should we have a rolling "motorcycle stuff" all-in-one thread? Should this be it? If so, should it have the title changed and be moved by a benevolent modde to the Shoppe?

    I can do this, though the Wam will miss your presence.
  • DerekJohnson
    DerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 68,314 Founders Club
    Edited by Stalin -- removed three nudie pics
  • Swaye
    Swaye Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 41,739 Founders Club

    Edited by Stalin -- removed three nudie pics

    Sort of forgot about those when I moved it here. You gotta be extra careful transferring from the Wam.
  • DerekJohnson
    DerekJohnson Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 68,314 Founders Club
    Swaye said:

    Edited by Stalin -- removed three nudie pics

    Sort of forgot about those when I moved it here. You gotta be extra careful transferring from the Wam.

  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696
    Having watched Austria 2, all I have to say is: What the actual fuck is happening in Iwata?
  • YellowSnow
    YellowSnow Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 37,220 Founders Club
    I don’t understand what is happening
  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696

    I don’t understand what is happening

    Their bikes keep trying to kill their riders. Quality control seems at an all-time low.
  • PurpleBaze
    PurpleBaze Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 30,309 Founders Club
    Maverick jumping off his bike at 140 mph was something else.
  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696

    Maverick jumping off his bike at 140 mph was something else.

    I've done it at ~70, but 140!? Yeah. Nuts.

    So let's review:

    Out of four riders, we have three blown motors, a fourth that started on fire after a collision with a wall, three sessions that included brake failures (Vinales' recent one being the most obvious, but both Quartararo and Vinales have complained about running wide due to the brake lever being like a clutch lever and just traveling to the grip), one clutch failure.

    Quartararo is insanely lucky. He's the only Yamaha rider who hasn't had an engine removed from his allocation, with Vinales missing two now. Maverick has to finish eight races on three used engines. Pit lane start: Inevitable. With Marquez cockily lawn-darting himself out of the short season, Yamaha had a wide open window and have seemingly pissed it away. I can't see them winning the championship at this point.

    Don't know what it is about the Espargaro brothers that rubs me the wrong way, but I laughed so hard at the race finish. Would have been just fine with Miller taking it (that guy's got his shit together), but also dug how it went down. Rins and Nakagami got absolutely fucked by the restart. Feel sorry for those guys. On the other hand, Pol and Miller got fucked last week by that restart, so it is what it is. You'd think by this point these guys would leave a fresh set of softs aside in case of a red flag. ESPECIALLY at a track that's constantly trying to kill riders like the Red Bull Ring.

    Five races in, and the series leader is on 70 points. Nobody wants to win this thing.
  • dflea
    dflea Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,287 Swaye's Wigwam
    Holy shit. Dude just climbed off - at 140. I swear, bike racers and rally car drivers have the biggest balls around. Oh yeah - and those squirrel suit lunatics. Huge nuts.
  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696
    dflea said:

    Holy shit. Dude just climbed off - at 140. I swear, bike racers and rally car drivers have the biggest balls around. Oh yeah - and those squirrel suit lunatics. Huge nuts.

    When I braked at 160+ while leaned to avoid a collision, I knew it was going to be a bad time that was merely better than the alternative. Even though I barely feathered the brake lever, the rear end swapped four or five times. Nope. Not at that speed. Just measured on Google Maps, and I had a thousand feet of infield in which to get the bike stopped, so that seemed like the best bet. Nope. Street tires don't do shit on dirt, so it wasn't stopping. Dragging rear brake the whole time (front would have been suicidal), used all 1000 feet before crossing the track again, still at way too high of a speed. It was at this point Maverick would have been smarter than me and hopped off. I was stupid and still fought to save it. Was never going to shed that much speed. Before hitting the wall, I actually gave a thought to jumping up and seeing if I could clear the whole thing. I could see a tire wall with a grass berm behind it and that's it. Who knows, maybe there'd just be a field back there and I'd slide along unharmed? Was going fast enough to easily superman over it all. It briefly sounded better than hitting that wall. At the last second, I concluded the known bad of a soft(ish) tire wall was better than the possibly dead of blindly flying over a wall at 70 mph. So I climbed off.

    Self preservation will help you do insane things when the alternative is probable death. Vinales was just smart and experienced enough to make that choice a hell of a lot sooner than I did. He'd have followed that bike into the air fence and been a goner. I believe the last person to die at Pacific Raceways went out that same way: bike destroyed the air fence in T8, then he followed it into the wall, now with no air fence.
  • dflea
    dflea Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,287 Swaye's Wigwam

    dflea said:

    Holy shit. Dude just climbed off - at 140. I swear, bike racers and rally car drivers have the biggest balls around. Oh yeah - and those squirrel suit lunatics. Huge nuts.

    When I braked at 160+ while leaned to avoid a collision, I knew it was going to be a bad time that was merely better than the alternative. Even though I barely feathered the brake lever, the rear end swapped four or five times. Nope. Not at that speed. Just measured on Google Maps, and I had a thousand feet of infield in which to get the bike stopped, so that seemed like the best bet. Nope. Street tires don't do shit on dirt, so it wasn't stopping. Dragging rear brake the whole time (front would have been suicidal), used all 1000 feet before crossing the track again, still at way too high of a speed. It was at this point Maverick would have been smarter than me and hopped off. I was stupid and still fought to save it. Was never going to shed that much speed. Before hitting the wall, I actually gave a thought to jumping up and seeing if I could clear the whole thing. I could see a tire wall with a grass berm behind it and that's it. Who knows, maybe there'd just be a field back there and I'd slide along unharmed? Was going fast enough to easily superman over it all. It briefly sounded better than hitting that wall. At the last second, I concluded the known bad of a soft(ish) tire wall was better than the possibly dead of blindly flying over a wall at 70 mph. So I climbed off.

    Self preservation will help you do insane things when the alternative is probable death. Vinales was just smart and experienced enough to make that choice a hell of a lot sooner than I did. He'd have followed that bike into the air fence and been a goner. I believe the last person to die at Pacific Raceways went out that same way: bike destroyed the air fence in T8, then he followed it into the wall, now with no air fence.
    csb

    You should be a little more careful next time. lol
  • dflea
    dflea Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 7,287 Swaye's Wigwam

    dflea said:

    You should be a little more careful next time. lol

    This was way back in 2006, at my second ever track day. I am quite a bit more careful now, mostly due to the bikes being so amazing nowadays from an electronics standpoint but also because I'm just too old and stiff to do what I could do back then. Also, like mentioned above, riding technique has changed since back then, and I find deeper trail braking leaves a bigger safety margin if you get a corner wrong.

    To that last point, motorcycle geometry and handling compromises are pretty fascinating in general, and I could get into it if anybody's interested. Fun example, leaning to brake:

    Let's say you're running this 200/60 rear tire here:



    You're charging into a corner in 3rd gear, pretty high in the rev range--13,000 rpm for simplicity. Being straight up and down, your contact patch is right where those white stripes are running down the middle of the tire, the max circumference. Theoretically, a 200/60 has about an 83" circumference, but in practice it's actually bigger. When you're charging a corner straight up and down on the tallest part of the tire, that's about 125 mph with stock gearing on an R1 at 13,000 rpm.

    Now you lean over to the edge of the tire. No throttle change, consistent rpm. On the edge, the tire circumference is now about 63". In effect, without doing anything but cornering, you've seamlessly changed final drive ratio by nearly 25%! With zero braking or throttle reduction, your speed at the apex of the turn is down from ~125 mph to ~95 mph. Not something you have to think about in a car.

    Pretty cool, huh?
    Very cool. Very technical. Much moreso than dirt bikes. Both of them will fuck you up pretty good for making a mistake, though.
  • 1to392831weretaken
    1to392831weretaken Member Posts: 7,696
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7NZ0zaJYbM

    It was so weird watching pros race on the same track I usually ride. I was hoping to attend, but COVID... These guys are hauling serious ass. I haven't ridden there (or anywhere) since they added that chicane at the end of the straight, but that thing has to add at least 10 seconds to a lap time. My fastest time ever there--working HARD--was a 1:50 (I believe on the high side of 1:50), and these guys are doing race laps at high 1:40 with an extra 10-second chicane!

    Awesome watching their lines and seeing how aggressive they are into downhill corners. A couple of times, I saw front wheels off the ground going into 8a, which is nuts!