April 2005 Race Report - Getting Back in the Saddle...yet again...

WSMC Round 4 - April 15, 16 & 17 - Double Points Race Weekend

This is my first time back out on the track since my crash in January at Pahrump Spring Mountain Raceway.

First time out on the new racebike - a 2003 Yamaha R6. Jim Bird's ex-racebike (WSMC#111).

I had not made any changes to the bike since I bought it off him and that was a mistake. He was about 230lbs and I'm about 120lbs. The springs were way too stiff for me and so I played around with different suspension settings, just trying to make it rideable for me.

Friday Practice:

This day was basically just an introduction to the new bike, playing around with suspension settings, trying to back into the flow of things… Nothing much happened this day other than realizing I'm now slooooowwww….pulling around 1:53's or worse.

Saturday Practice:

More of the same as Friday. Body was tired, all my injuries were aching from the exertion from yesterday. I'm out of shape!! Played around more with suspension and found out that when I tweaked the suspension, I would either end up going faster or slower. Best time of the day was in the 1:40's. Got so frustrated by the end of the day, I finally got desperate and seeked help. The help came in the form of talking to Dave Moss of Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tunings - www.crstuning.com. I was extremely reluctant to talk to him because I'm frankly, very sick of guys setting up my bike without consulting me - doing whatever they want - ignoring my input - and trying to make me ride "their" way. I found that this was not Dave's way and I was immediately impressed. Wow…here's a guy who's actually listening to my input!

He took a few measurements and came to these conclusions: 1. The bike was extremely unbalanced. The rear sag was at 12mm and he wants minimum of 26mm. The front sag was at 20mm and it should be around 37mm. He looked at my tires and was able to determine my riding style. Combined, he was able to tell that I was a skilled rider since I was riding this very unbalanced bike in a very balanced manner - at the sacrifice of speed. 2. There is no substitution for needing to change out the springs. I have .95 springs in there now and I need somewhere in the range of .85-.87. That's a big difference and no matter how much we play with suspension - nothing's going to be able to overcome that.

There was one thing he could do for me…he took out the preload spacers and loaned me shorter spacers. The good in this is that he gained me 20mm of sag up front. The bad in this is that I'm now at 40mm of sag and he was aiming for 37mm. He changed some other settings and then we were done for the day - only thing to do was to wait for Sunday Practice to test it out.

Sunday Practice:

First lap out on the new settings and I knew something was wrong. After the 3rd lap, I pulled into the hot pit lane and Dave jumped over the pit wall. I was bottoming out my forks and the rear was still too stiff. He made several adjustments and then I was off again. I was able to get a couple of laps in to test the new settings before the 8 minute session was over - one one other practice session to go. Pulled into the pits and talked to Dave - he made more adjustments and then it we waited for the last practice session of the day. At the next practice, I made two laps - the bike was still unstable - I came in and he made adjustments - then I was off again. In another 2 laps I realized the bike was still unstable, but at this point I was afraid that I was running out of time. So instead of coming in - I used the last lap to try to figure out a workaround for the instability issue. I found it - it meant letting off the throttle and going slow…but oh well…we have to work with what we've got. Basically, at high rpms and high speeds, the bike gets very unstable - Dave thinks we have a geometry issue at this point - but we can't say for sure until we get the proper springs in there and get set up the bike properly.

The Race - Novice Middleweight:

I'm gridded at 20 of 44 racers. I ended at 27th place.

Not much to say here except that hopefully, I'll have more of the suspension issues worked out by the next race so I'll be doing better then.

It was a crazy race - several close calls - this race is not called the Axe-Murderer class for nothing. People were crashing left and right. I think we had 6 crashes before they finally red flagged the race. These people are nuts!!

The Plan

I'm headed back out to the track - WSIR with MTC Trackdays - tomorrow. Suspension is still not set, but I'll be getting track time in. Next Tuesday I'll be back at WSIR with SBR Trackdays for more track time as well. After that, I'll take off the forks and rear shock. Forks will go to Stig at PPS for new springs, preload spacers, and valve shims. Shock will go to Ohlins to get a new spring. After that, I have no trackdays planned...so the next time we test this out will Friday Practice of May Race Weekend. Dave already agreed to meet with me and help me get it all set up then.