ultimate motorbikes

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SykomantiS
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

Really, really cool write-up dude, and congrats on the 3rd! :D

But if you're racing 1k's, how do the classes work? Kinda just free for all, or what? Sucks though, it's unfair if you ask me.

But again, congrats dude :thumbup:
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by WiK1d »

Thanks man! And yeah, it's a free for all, so I gotta work my bottom off between those litre bikes. I actually had a good chuckle after race 2 when the oke who flipped found out I was on a 600. His eyes told the whole story, haha.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

:lol: I can see how the 675 would have that effect. Reminds me of the days when I was still on the 750- lot of R1's and Fireblades were really unhappy. :twisted:

If I ever had to get in on track action, I'd get another GSX-R750- perfect balance between 1000cc power and 600cc handling and weight.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

Nice W1k! Gratz.

The toy run was good yesterday, I'm flat broke now and waiting for Wednesday, but it's for a good cause. There were about 260 bikes there yesterday unfortunately I didn't take any pics.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

Hman wrote:unfortunately I didn't take any pics.
No excuses! You fail Hman :P
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

I was way too tired yesterday, was awake the whole night.
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WiK1d
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by WiK1d »

SykomantiS wrote::lol: I can see how the 675 would have that effect. Reminds me of the days when I was still on the 750- lot of R1's and Fireblades were really unhappy. :twisted:

If I ever had to get in on track action, I'd get another GSX-R750- perfect balance between 1000cc power and 600cc handling and weight.
Oh yeah for sure, the 750 is the perfect all-round bike.
Hman wrote:Nice W1k! Gratz.

The toy run was good yesterday, I'm flat broke now and waiting for Wednesday, but it's for a good cause. There were about 260 bikes there yesterday unfortunately I didn't take any pics.
I only remembered yesterday morning that it was Toy Run, so I missed out on that one this year.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

Quick question:
It's time for a new set of tyres.
GSX-R1000- road riding only. Pilot Road2 for 2grand fitted, or Pilot Road3 for 2k5, fitted (both includes front and rear)

Opinions, questions, comments :?:
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by DarkStar »

Why not consider the Pirelli Angel?

I'm not sure how much for both front and rear, but apparently they a) grip like demons and b) have a long life on them.

My one mate used to use Bridgestone Battleax and installed the Pirelli's and was shocked at how much grip he gained. He rides a 2006 Z1000.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by WiK1d »

I'd go for the PR3's, should give you more mileage and better grip, should.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

Well they reckon the PR2's were brilliant. Supposedly the PR3 is even better.

I'm happy with the one I put on the back of my bike. Managed to touch my bike's exhaust on the tar the other day.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

Thing is, I have a set of Power Pures on, but I can't justify getting only 5000 - 7000km on those when only street riding. Having said that, I'm scared out of my mind that the PR2/3 will fall short on grip on a 1000cc. I do sometimes tend to push it a bit.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

I know guys who have PR2's on litres with no problems. PR3's are better still.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

Well that's good to know. I guess I'll be a guinea pig then. I know I had PR2's on my 750, but I gave those to my mom, cause the damn thing sent me drifting on a blind left-hander. I have to admit, it might still have had some of that factory wax-stuff on it at the time- but any tire that does that to me, goes bye-bye. So I am a bit sceptical about their Pilot Roads.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

Or you went in too hot? LOL

The Pirelli Angel is in the same class if you don't want to use Michellins. I know guys riding on those as well...
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by DarkStar »

Well, the Pirelli Angel seems to hold out on my mate's Z1000 quite nicely.

He's only got the rear tyre on, but says he's never had as much grip than what he has now with the Pirelli.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by WiK1d »

DarkStar wrote:but says he's never had as much grip than what he has now with the Pirelli.
Haha, humorous!

Anyways, today's tyre technology is way better than the technology on MotoGP tyres were ten years ago. Most people don't come near the limits of the grip modern tyres can provide.

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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by WiK1d »

This past weekend the first ever 24 Hour Le Mans style endurance race in South Africa (probably Africa as well) was held at Redstar Raceway just outside of Delmas. This has been a dream of Simon Fourie (Owner of BikeSA) for the past 10 years and he's finally got it off the ground. It was met with a lot of pessimism (from myself included), but it turned out to be a fantastic and brilliantly organised event. So much work went into realising this and I just can't give the organising team enough praise, well done guys!

In total 20 teams entered the event which exceeded almost everyone's expectations and even better, 17 of those 20 teams made it to the chequered flag, with only one blown motor in the entire field. The event started 1PM on Saturday afternoon and ran until 1PM Sunday afternoon. I was fortunate enough to be part of one of the teams, "Old Dog Racing" sporting a little Fazer 600. The strategy was good and they stood a fantastic chance on a top 10 finish, but some mishaps prevented that from happening.

From the get-go Team RSR Stars were on-it. Allan Jon Venter (who races British Superbikes) did the first lap and boy can that man ride a motorcycle. Did a 1m58s lap in the 4th lap of the race, but apparently he destroyed a set of tyres in his half-hour stint, not good for endurance racing. Sadly their race came to a sudden stop on lap 75 when Gary v.d. Berg had a massive high-side and went flying. Hope you're healing up well bud, cracked vertebrae is not a good thing! They hauled the bike back into pit-lane, tried to fix it until they realised it won't start because the ECU went into a mode where it thinks it has been stolen and therefore won't fire up. That was end of the race for them.

Then the two Honda CBR600RR's from Team Moto Rentals and Honda Wing Pinetown were fighting it out for the lead. Team Illiterate on their Triumph Daytona 675R were slowly making inroads towards the front mounted by strong charges from Robert Portman and Donovan Fourie. Eventually they managed to take over at the front, but lost it again in the early evening due to overheating problems. Honda Wing Pinetown took over again but they also had their fair share of problems during the night which allowed Team Illiterate to gain a massive lead and bring Team Moto Rentals into 2nd.

During our 3am fuel stop we made a massive stuff-up as due to sleep deprivation somehow with the brake pad change one calliper got a new pad and an old pad. So it had to be taken off again and redone correctly, which cost us almost an entire session. We were sitting in 10th, but fell back to 14th as a result. Slowly but surely the riders clawed their way back up the standings by being consistent through the night, whilst most other teams dropped off. Sadly about 9 hours in there was a little mishap in pit-lane when the guys had to push start the bike and Dave May had a tumble when the bike jerked to a start and broke his hand! Heal up soon Dave, that one looked MEGA! The 2nd issue came on our last fuel stop, 2 hours before the end of the race. We refueled the bike, sent Peter out and then he just parked it at the 2nd corner on his out lap. First we though he broke the chain, but when he got back the problem was a bad batch of fuel that went into the tank. Luckily a bunch of mechanics from other teams came along to help, cleaned out the injectors (or does the Fazer have carbs?) and we transplanted the spare bike's tank to the race bike. Popped in clean fuel and off they went. Once again we fell from 10th place to about 13th. Now it was hard work and the guys were giving their best, even though they were extremely exhausted. Our main competition we decided was Team M3 Racing on a BMW F800S and Team Terror-Wrists on a BMW1100S and there was a constant battle between us throughout the night. In the end we finished ahead of them in 12th place with a total of 534 laps in the 24 hours.

Well done to team Illiterate on taking the win with 611 laps. These guys were organised and full of perseverance. Robert Portman dumped the bike in qualifying practice and they managed to fix what was broken on the bike, but not on him. He hurt his wrist, but continued to race after the medical team advised him against it. He went for X-Rays after the race, turns out he actually broke it. That man is strong! They also managed to look after tyres and only had to change them every 3h30m and when they had to stop to do that, they changed tyres, brake pads, refuelled, topped up the oil and did a rider change in four-and-a-half minutes. Wow, just wow!

The interesting thing for me is though, the top 5 bikes are all 600cc machines, but the real surprise is Team Ekerold finishing in 5th place, also on a Fazer. Very well done guys!

The bad-luck award is shared by Team RSR Sparks who had endless issues with their Kawasaki ZX10. The race barely started and they were back in the pits with a chain problem, a few hours later their fuelling went to crap and they had to remove the Bazzas/Powercommander system and lost a lot of time. They had more drama that I can't even remember. The other team sharing this award is Team Dyno-racers who managed to go all through the night and just as it started getting light, their engine blew up spectacularly down the back straight. It looked like they were going to try and rebuild it, but then they called it a day. Bad luck guys, but it still was a great effort!

Anyways, here's a little something I made to try and convey the experience I had over the weekend:



Here are the official results: http://www.zatiming.co.za/index.php/541 ... id,2149491

And a report on MSA's website: http://www.motorsport.co.za/News/Displa ... niid=12083

And here are some of the very few photos I took

Before the start of the race

Image

The track at night

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Gareth Davidson defining "On-it"

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The recovery vehicle returning our broken machine

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Johann van Deventer on the gas in the last 2 hours

Image

The winning team

Image

Team Old Dog Racing

Image

Dave's very very sore hand

Image

Image

Guys, very well done on this momentous achievement and thank you very much for including me. I've already decided, next year I'm riding!
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by WiK1d »

So I decided to treat myself to a Kyalami trackday last Sunday and boy did I have fun. I didn't achieve what I set out to achieve, missed by a minimal amount of time, so I can't be too unhappy about the day as a whole, body hates me a bit though, just another sign that I should do something about my fitness, hmpf.

I was quite nervous beforehand, due to my tumble a couple of weeks ago at RSR, luckily not too much damage to myself and the bike, but my confidence took a major knock and the first couple of sessions showed it. I didn't wanna get the bike hot into the turns and leaned over. I was very good out of the corners, but I was crap into them, really terrible. Luckily the confidence grew throughout the day.

First session I went out calmly just to get a feel for the circuit and the bike. Last time I was there was well over 2 years ago on the Derbi, so it didn't really count for much. Just focused on getting some reference points trackside that I could use for braking markers, tipping in, etc. No video for this session as I had it on photo mode for something else I'm doing, but here are two shots as a result.

Image

Image

The timing for session 1 got stuffed up and hence there were no times, so I had no basis to work off for S2. Edit: Actually there was timing, started the day on a 2.05.802, fastest in the group.

The 2nd session went a bit better, but I was still very uncomfortable at corner entry, but I was starting to build up speed through the first sector of track at least.



Laptime was sitting at 2m05.434, dropped to 7th in the group, which I wasn't too happy with, thought I might have been closer to the 2m flat mark, but no worries, I knew I could still improve a bit.

Taking it gingerly through the last turn

Image

The third session I was feeling a bit more confident, but now the issue of getting a clean lap in was starting to annoy me. I constantly had traffic and that meant I could only drop about a second to a 2m04.740 lap putting me one place up into 6th



I wasn't too happy with that session and wrote it off, would put in more effort into the next one.

Session 4 saw me gaining a bit of pace and I was forcing myself to turn the bike harder as I was going into the turns hotter than I would have liked, but I knew both myself and the bike could handle it, just had to get the brain sorted out.



This time I dropped to a 2m01.572 which was a decent improvement and I was fastest in the group again, but I still had to find some time somewhere.

Hard on the gas outta T11

Image

Then it was time for lunch and I had an hour to chill a bit so I rehydrated, had some chow and thought about how I was going to get that extra bit. The fifth session went a lot better. I stayed on the gas through turn 1 (well over 200km/h) and just rolled off a bit for turn 2, one gear down into 4th for T3 and just keep on it and drop another gear for T4. If you link all those corners together it just feels absolutely amazing!



This time out I managed to do a 2m00.870 and I felt quite good, still sitting at the top of the timesheets, but I knew I could still make up some time in some areas.

By the 6th session I was rather tired already, but I was going to give it one more shot and set off for my final stint. Gave it two laps to get the tyres nice and warm, got the brake pads warmed up, cleared the traffic I saw ahead and went for it.



Two laps that were very close in time, the 2nd one I think is the 2m00.482 lap, the timing results aren't available online yet, will fill in the exact lap times when it does become available. Sadly I just got pipped for 1st place by 2 tenths, still chuffed though.

I can't say I'm unhappy about the result, even though I didn't manage to break into the 2's. There's also something up with my bike and I can't power shift like I usually do because when I did it, the bike would shift, lose a bit of power and then get back on the power, so I went the conventional shifting route instead until I can figure out what's going on there. So, hypothetically, if I didn't have to get off the gas to do a shift I might have made it into the 59's :P

As for the track, you need balls to ride it, seriously. It's terrifying. I love RSR because you just turn turn turn the whole time, at quite a low speed. Kyalami everything is fast. Even though Kyalami is a quarter of a kilometre longer than RSR, my laptime is 10 seconds faster, which means the average speed is much higher.

Overall results, the first two are the instructors, so they are fast and don't count :P

Through the fast second turn

Image

Turns 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all connected. After the main straight you need to stay wide to the left and tip in quite late into T1, I was tipping too early which then stuffs up the entry to T2. Out of T2 get on the gas hard again and then drop a gear into T3 and keep the bike leaned over, drop another gear and apex T4 and get on the gas. I can still improve in this section, just need to be more ballsy into 3 and 4.

Turn 5 (Sunset) is still a place where I can improve, you can go really fast into that turn, but I'm shaving off too much speed upon entry which I then have to make up on exit. Also tipping in a bit too early, but nonetheless, I still almost klapped the cone at the apex once.

Turn 6 I can make up so much bloody time. Sheeze. It's that little bit of patched tar that puts my off. I KNOW I can go straight over it, but my brain says I shouldn't. So annoying!

Turns 7 and 8 (The Esses) I'm still not comfortable with. I'm tipping in too early for the left S which then means I'm too early for the entry into the right S and that screws up my drive up the hill.

Turn 9 (Wesbank) I have yet to master. I can brake later there and carry more corner speed, but again it's the patched tar that's messing with my head.

Down the mineshaft is mega-fun, but the entry into T10 is also too early which then makes me back off the gas and then get back on out of it.

Turn 11 is my worst problem, I just can't get that turn right. I don't know what I'm supposed to do, but I think I gotta stay very wide to the left of the track, turn in late, pick the bike up and gas it, but I keep on entering tight, panicking and going slow.

Turn 12 is also quite intimidating as it's a fast right hand kink and quite a few times I ran over the curb there and that unsettled the bike a bit, but when you get it right it feels really good.

Turn 13 I'm also still struggling with. Braking hard for this one, bike squirming on the front wheel, stopping, turning, gassing, but I'm still not fast enough and confident enough through there. Craig gave me some pointers, they did help, but I'm not 100% yet.

So yeah, now I've got an excuse to go back!
Last edited by WiK1d on 27 Mar 2012, 17:01, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

WiK1d wrote:I was quite nervous beforehand, due to my tumble a couple of weeks ago at RSR, luckily not too much damage to myself and the bike,
What happened?
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

What I want to know too.
Other than that, great report and awesome photos as usual Wik ;)
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by WiK1d »

Oh yeah, never posted that one here. Read it on my blog
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

Luckily you didn't get serious injuries
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by SykomantiS »

Yeah, and, like you said, it was bound to happen.
Out of curiosity, how much is racing costing you?
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Re: ultimate motorbikes

Post by Hman »

"Every thinking man is a drinking man."


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