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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
Picked up my brand new Ducati Panigale V2 in Rosso White on Friday. It finally arrived after a 5-month wait. I'm still waiting for the tail tidy parts, as well as the mirror block offs and bar-end mirrors.
I've already put over 120 miles on it and the bike handles beautifully. Today's ride was particularly fun. Motorbikes are amazing therapy.
Love the attention to detail with the red accent, even in the keyhole. And yes, the keyhole underneath the seat also has the red accent.
Next to my 2019 Ducati Supersport S:
I'll post more pictures after the mirrors and the ugly plastic fender in the back have been removed.
Also, last month, I bought a 2020 Ninja 400 that had been totalled. Really, the left side of the bike has been trashed, because looks like the moron was doing a burnout and lost control of the bike. The engine runs and you can shift gears, etc. The frame is not bent and the wheels are also undamaged.
Once the weather goes to shit, I'm going to spend hours and hours in the garage converting it into a track bike. I have Lacomoto fairings and Woodcraft clip-ons already. I'm going to install keyless start and keyless gas cap. I'm also going to delete the ABS and add a new throttle system. New rearsets will also be installed.
I'm planning on posting pictures periodically, as I make progress with that bike. Can't wait.
One more thing about the Panigale - I'm planning on getting XPEL paint protection for it. I'll do that in mid September, while I'm away on a mini vacation. Didn't want to do it now, because we are experiencing some excellent riding weather and I don't want to part with my bike for 4-5 days. Even though I have the Supersport to ride, I'm trying to put some miles on the Panigale; one to get more comfortable on it and two to get to the magic 650-mile engine break-in mark. After that, I can really let it rip.
Comments
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.
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.
You should be a little more careful next time. lol
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?
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!
I've already put over 120 miles on it and the bike handles beautifully. Today's ride was particularly fun. Motorbikes are amazing therapy.
Love the attention to detail with the red accent, even in the keyhole. And yes, the keyhole underneath the seat also has the red accent.
Next to my 2019 Ducati Supersport S:
I'll post more pictures after the mirrors and the ugly plastic fender in the back have been removed.
Once the weather goes to shit, I'm going to spend hours and hours in the garage converting it into a track bike. I have Lacomoto fairings and Woodcraft clip-ons already. I'm going to install keyless start and keyless gas cap. I'm also going to delete the ABS and add a new throttle system. New rearsets will also be installed.
I'm planning on posting pictures periodically, as I make progress with that bike. Can't wait.