Eastern Creek GP Circuit May 8 & 9

[Spilly209]

Hey guys,

I'm overseas at the end of this week so this is the next time I can make it to the track. It also happens to be the next track days on the GP circuits. Coincidence....or is it???

Who else is doing these days? There are spots available in Red but the 9th now says "filling fast".

I'm getting my Mupo suspension fitted first think on the 8th by SW Racing, should be a good couple of days getting setting that up. I'm hoping that + a new UK NTec rear might mean a PB laptime!

Should also get my new free Bell helmet from MEGA. Will be nice to use a helmet that doesn't obstruct my vision! (my Shoei is either too big or the wrong shape or both).

Well I'll be there early for a change so I'll grab a garage for the Tarmac Talk savages :))


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[Leezx10r]

Am down on the 9th giving the zx10r a run, having a play in green group :)

[Spilly209]

Sweet! James is prolly coming too :)


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[Saturnalian]

Farrrkkk. Away again. This is killing me.

J.

[Marty]

I'm doing the 9th

[stevem]

yeah my mate Ben and I are in for the 9th.

[Marshy]

I'm keen if I can get spousal permission....

[chubb]

I'm keen if I can get spousal permission....

Same same

[chubb]

Hey guys,

I'm overseas at the end of this week so this is the next time I can make it to the track. It also happens to be the next track days on the GP circuits. Coincidence....or is it???

Who else is doing these days? There are spots available in Red but the 9th now says "filling fast".

I'm getting my Mupo suspension fitted first think on the 8th by SW Racing, should be a good couple of days getting setting that up. I'm hoping that + a new UK NTec rear might mean a PB laptime!

Should also get my new free Bell helmet from MEGA. Will be nice to use a helmet that doesn't obstruct my vision! (my Shoei is either too big or the wrong shape or both).

Well I'll be there early for a change so I'll grab a garage for the Tarmac Talk savages :))


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What you getting fitted carts and shock??

[Spilly209]

Yea the full mupo kit mate. $2.8K


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[chubb]

Nice same as on my bike then.

[Spilly209]

Yea Mark Labrooy has it too. How have you found it? He was really happy


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[chubb]

Yeah it's really good. You'll love it mate

[Marshy]

I just got the waitlist call.... I'm in for the 9th!!! :rockon:

[Spilly209]

Cool!! I'll be chasing you with me new mupo suspension - look out! :P


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[Marshy]

Cool!! I'll be chasing you with me new mupo suspension - look out! :P

Giddy up!!

[CLIFFY]

Booked PI 12th and 13th instead

[Baddie]

9th... :)

[Spilly209]

Booked PI 12th and 13th instead

You felt the need to rub that in?? Lol


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[Tristan]

I'll be there on the 8th with my new broom broom ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️


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[CLIFFY]

You felt the need to rub that in?? Lol

Just reminding you guys that one of the best tracks in the world ain't too far away

[Spilly209]

I know that all too well mate! Wish I discovered track riding while I was living in Melbourne!


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[dan]

I'll be there on the 8th with my new broom broom ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️


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Keen to see some times lad

[Kaneg]

I'll be down on Thursday (8th), can hardly wait ....

[James_]

Im on the waiting list for the 9th. If anyone hears of a spot opening up, please let me know!

[zoidberg]

Out there on friday! I'm getting all giggly like a little kid coming up to christmas.

[Marshy]

So let's do an unofficial TT garage. The usual - aim for garages 37 to 39. :thumb:

[DisPlaCeD]

I'm in for the 8th/9th. I probably should've booked white... but I've gone red... guess we'll see what happens. haha

[Marshy]

Methinks you'll be fine, Grant. It's like riding a bike.... ;)

[Little Mick]

And I'll just be the jealous guy who can't be there. Enjoy everyone

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[Mr.Ed]

And I'll just be the jealous guy who can't be there. Enjoy everyone

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I'm afraid that spot is taken

[Little Mick]

Good to have some company then :eek:

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[Kaneg]

I'm in for the 8th/9th. I probably should've booked white... but I've gone red... guess we'll see what happens. haha

Find the KANEG trailer and come share the garage with us on Thursday :-)

[DisPlaCeD]

Find the KANEG trailer and come share the garage with us on Thursday :-)

Sounds good Peter! :)

Marshy... That's good... I thought like riding a horse, until I remembered I don't know how to ride a horse!! Haha


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[chubb]

:yield: didn't the lady bois in Thailand taught you how to ride?? :jaw:

[Marshy]

:yield: didn't the lady bois in Thailand taught you how to ride?? :jaw:


Different kind of riding, chubb ;)

[Kaneg]

Different kind of riding, chubb ;)

both knees down :-)

[James_]

Im in for this Friday!!

Thank you stevem!!

[Marshy]

w00t!!!!! See ya there!!

[Spilly209]

Im in for this Friday!!

Thank you stevem!!

Cool! I've got my bike and trailer in garage 43 so if it's easier grab that. I,ll stroll in around 8am, did today's track day on 1 hours sleep!!


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[zoidberg]

Was a great time out there on Friday! I meant to make a walk to try and find some of you guys, but got caught up playing with suspension, tyres, helping friends and doing the pitcrew thing for others aswell.

Thoughts for the day;

so very happy I went back to Metzeler racetec slicks after trying the superbike Pros. I'm not sure how much is in my mind, but the 190/60 vs 190/55 rear really gives me my mojo back.

GP circuit is a load more fun, maybe a combination of being less tiring, more laps per session meaning you get to attack each corner at least once more per session

Turn 8, well, now 7? I guess? Corporate hill, goddamn I love that corner, scary fast!

Following some of the genuine fast guys is a hilarious, amazingly entertaining fun experience!

People on trackdays are a nice bunch of people!

Concrete dust is very distracting.

I'll finish with a confession.

My name is Nathan and I am a trackday-a-holic.

[Marshy]

My name is Nathan and I am a trackday-a-holic.

"HIIIIIII NATHAN!!!!!"

(Welcome to Trackdays Anonymous - most of us are already addicted, and some are even seeking counselling :rofl: :pound:)

[Spilly209]

Hi Nathan,

What were you riding?

RE tyres, have you tried Dunlop, Bridgestone or Pirelli slicks? If so thoughts Vs Metzelers?

[zoidberg]

Hi Spilly,

That's me there, I'm a bit of a born again to this trackriding gig, only having got back into it December last year after a 12 year hiatus. Only 6th day in and third on slicks. I've only ridden on the ractec slicks that came on the bike, then superbike pro's, then back onto the racetecs. So I don't have any experience therefore feedback on anything else sorry! The racetes were a lot cheaper then the pirellis and after 5 sessions friday (missed the first as no slicks allowed out) they look fantastic.

I was running 30f 28r off the warmers, ended up running 30.5f 26.5r hot off the track and loved them. I will try others eventually, but really love these! One of my mates out there bought a set of ntecs at the track and had them fitted there and detroyed the rear in a day, cold tear ripped up the right hand side of the tyre. The only moments I had were completely user related, ie; too hot into turn 6 had rear hopping and skipping around so i kinda missed the apex, but it settled down enough for me to tip it in anyway, and a bit of hamfisted foolishness on the gas had the rear getting squirrely, but compared to the superbike pros, they get squirrelly and yet still drove hard and felt like they tipped in more quickly and with more feel? Dunno, I just liked em!

Cheers

[Leezx10r]

Was a great day at the creek, as said wet first outing left the bike on the stands, but let's us all out after that.

Got a question regarding tyre pressure. This was my first time on slicks on a cool day and cool damp ish track. I run pirelli superbike sc2 front and rear, 34f hot & 26r hot, but seems like I have a cold tear on the front left, not massive but there, is this from a over inflation? And what pressures do you guys run in the cooler weather?

Oh rear is good btw, just front left



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[Little Mick]

soo many variables Lee. I aim for 32-34 hot on the bridgy's (most of the time I set them at 28 cold and leave it there). On a really hot day, I will generally need at bit more pressure, but every tire is different depending upon rider, suspension, pace etc.

were you getting heat into the tyre?

[DisPlaCeD]

Hi Nathan,

What were you riding?

RE tyres, have you tried Dunlop, Bridgestone or Pirelli slicks? If so thoughts Vs Metzelers?

Hey mate... I was pitting next to you on the ZX6R all day Sunday... "Hello" haha... I've used Metzeler, Pirelli, Bridgestone slicks... I rate the Metzelers amazing for wear and grip is good too... Pirelli, wear good also and the grip, I found it was progressive and can push the front quite a lot more than I thought. Bridgestone, just no...

[Leezx10r]

Rims were warm before going out, and rubber was still warm after coming in.

Maybe should check pressure when I come in, not just before I go out to see what the increase / decrease are?

But as you said, many variables, weight, bike, setup, times etc.


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[Leezx10r]

But this is a pic of me and my mate having a play, nothing better than riding with good mates :)

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/11/zaqu8a8y.jpg


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[Little Mick]

Assume that is you in the rear? the lean angle may give some insight as to why the cold tear...

[Leezx10r]

Haha it could lol! But never had a issue before.

It's not the worst ct, but just thought would ask about pressure


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[Nelso]

34 could be high for a cold day if you are the kind of rider (or bike set up) that doesn't load up the front.

[Leezx10r]

Cheers nelso, what would you recommend, 32 hot?


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[Nelso]

Cheers nelso, what would you recommend, 32 hot?


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It depends on too many variables to say exactly what pressure you should set them at. Bikes are different and people ride differently. Some people brake really hard and load the front end up heaps so they need to run more pressure in the front than others, while bike geometry and suspension set up also effects how much weight is on the front end which will greatly effect how much heat your front tyre generates. Then there is the track surface, temperature, how old the tyre is etc. So, as you can see, it's not just a matter of which tyre you run to say what pressure you should be running. Generally people will give you advice on a ballpark starting point for a type of tyre that works for them, but you really need to play around with pressures to see how it changes the grip levels at different temps for you on your own bike and set up.

The fact that it was a cold, damp track, I would assume you were taking it easier than normal, then there is the fact that there is no heat in the track itself, so the tyres would not be generating anywhere near as much heat as normal. For this reason alone, you would have to run your tyres with less pressure than usual to get them to generate more heat. I run Dunlops, I'm much heavier than you and it's a different kind of bike so you can't compare my pressures to yours, but I run between 30 and 34psi (hot) depending on the air and track temperature. For the same tyres Shawn Giles runs them between 32 and 36psi because he is so much faster than me and brakes so hard.

In saying all this, 34psi sounds a bit high for a cold, damp day and if you were getting cold tearing, I would say that it is likely to be the cause. Personally, I would have dropped it to 31 or 32 off the warmer and checked it when you went out and as soon as you came back in to see what was happening. If you have a heat gun to test the tyre temp, even better.

[Marty]

I run the metzeller k2 slicks and I've found that I prefer 34-35psi (off the track) in the front. Anything lower and I don't get the feeling from the front end. I'm a heavy trail braker if that has anything to do with it.

[Marty]

Ps: Friday was awesome for me, I smashed my PB by 3.0 secs :o

[James_]

Ps: Friday was awesome for me, I smashed my PB by 3.0 secs :o

I (also had a friend timing from the roof) smashed my PB by 2.2 secs. Pretty stoked!

[zoidberg]

By 3 seconds! Nice work mate. What times were you running? I set my tyres to 30F 28R cold, after being in the warmers from the morning till the second session when we were allowed out, they increased to 36.5F and 34.5R

The guys from MSRC were in my garage and I asked them what they recommended for the racetecs, warmers, hot etc. I was told 30 to 32 front and 26 to 28 rear off the track, so I dropped them to 31F 27R still on the warmers. Straight off the track, front was at 30.5 and rear 28.5. I left the front at what it was and dropped the rear to 27, next session to 26.5. They felt great the rest of the day and stayed roughly at those pressures, within .5

I don't think I can understand what a front tyre not doing what it should would feel like? The hard braking, turn 2 and old turn 9 everything feels uncomfortable anyway, so I'm not sure I'd notice the front squirming or getting out of shape as my senses are on overload slowing from speed as it is?

I didn't have a timer onboard, but my mate was running one and doing 43's and mid 42's and taking a few laps to get passed then not getting away, so I'm pretty damn pleased with that, actually, over the fucking moon! I would guess looking at his laps I would have to be around a similar pace, ie; his lap times didn't drop more than half a second once he was past. But without actually timing myself, I'm not claiming any times!

I am going to save my superbike pro's for Phillip Island, not ridden there before and looking to do a couple of days in october, I figure the track surface there will rip any softer tyres to bits in a day?

[chubb]

Tyre pressures are like asking how you like your eggs done.. each person will tell you something different based on what the front tyre is doing, track temp etc like Nelso said.

I would take it with a grain of salt yes there is a ballpark on where you should set it but ultimately set a tyre pressure that suits your bike riding style etc. it will be different from the bloke pitting next to you

[zoidberg]

Oh yeh, I understand that, that is why I was doing adjustments on the rear, but the front felt fine, so ballpark and if it doesn't try and throw me off and there aren't any huge increase/decreases in pressure, I'm happy with that! Also checking through the day as the track, air temp starts to change is pretty important? I'm keeping a diary with these kind of records and any changes I make to suspension etc. As time goes on, this will become a pretty useful little reference guide I'd reckon

[Spilly209]

Hey mate... I was pitting next to you on the ZX6R all day Sunday... "Hello" haha... I've used Metzeler, Pirelli, Bridgestone slicks... I rate the Metzelers amazing for wear and grip is good too... Pirelli, wear good also and the grip, I found it was progressive and can push the front quite a lot more than I thought. Bridgestone, just no...

Oh g'day mate. So when was the last time you ran Bridgestones? Marshy rates their rears up there with UK Ntecs, says they've come a long way.


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[Marty]

By 3 seconds! Nice work mate. What times were you running? I set my tyres to 30F 28R cold, after being in the warmers from the morning till the second session when we were allowed out, they increased to 36.5F and 34.5R

The guys from MSRC were in my garage and I asked them what they recommended for the racetecs, warmers, hot etc. I was told 30 to 32 front and 26 to 28 rear off the track, so I dropped them to 31F 27R still on the warmers. Straight off the track, front was at 30.5 and rear 28.5. I left the front at what it was and dropped the rear to 27, next session to 26.5. They felt great the rest of the day and stayed roughly at those pressures, within .5

I don't think I can understand what a front tyre not doing what it should would feel like? The hard braking, turn 2 and old turn 9 everything feels uncomfortable anyway, so I'm not sure I'd notice the front squirming or getting out of shape as my senses are on overload slowing from speed as it is?

I didn't have a timer onboard, but my mate was running one and doing 43's and mid 42's and taking a few laps to get passed then not getting away, so I'm pretty damn pleased with that, actually, over the fucking moon! I would guess looking at his laps I would have to be around a similar pace, ie; his lap times didn't drop more than half a second once he was past. But without actually timing myself, I'm not claiming any times!

I am going to save my superbike pro's for Phillip Island, not ridden there before and looking to do a couple of days in october, I figure the track surface there will rip any softer tyres to bits in a day?

My best lap of the day was 1:42.2 (down from 1:45.2), I did 4-5 42s and spent the whole day lapping under 45.0. I was very happy with that.

When I say front doesn't do what I want I mean I get a vague feeling under hard trail braking and also the tyre tends to push on exits.

I just find it weird that most people run around 30-32 in the front (off track) but I prefer 35, every time it goes below 34 it's awful. The other thing I've noticed thru trial and error is that I prefer the medium front (k2) over the soft (k1). I get more feel under brakes.

I just wonder if this is a setup issue with my bike, I'm wondering if I ran the soft front and lower front PSI and stiffened up my forks instead would the bike feel the same? As in maybe I'm compensating for a soft front end by running a stiffer tyre.

[zoidberg]

Yeh right, I get what you're saying. Have you set up your sag and whatnot? How much travel do you use up front? I had my forks set up by Frank Pons at Biketec and they feel pretty amazing. After last trackday I always had about 15 to 20mm of travel left in the forks.

We set up the sag front and rear before the last day out there and he was asking me what my bike was doing in different parts of the track, ie diving too much nuder hard braking, difficulty in turn in, was I hitting my marks where I wanted to etc. running wide under power and whatnot. Everything felt pretty good to me and I was going to do a few changes to see if I could get it better, but at the same time, it felt amazing and I didn't want to make it worse! Mind you, keeping a diary of all changes, tyres, temperature on the day, comp/rebound preload etc means even if I do make a change for the worse, I can always put it back. I guess it could feel better and it's only a few clicks away! But I think at the moment, I'd be hard pressed to notice, or be able to understand differences? Also a bit scared I guess to make it bad and waste a session...

When you say the front being lower pressure feels awful you mean it's vague under braking and wants to push on exit when the pressure is higher? I didn't even think to change the front pressure, I was in ball park "recommended pressure" and it felt great, I would've thought higher pressure would lead to vagueness and pushing? Man, I have so much to learn! I ordered a set of K2's front and rear, but pretty sure I got the K1 front? Green stripe on rear tyre, blue on front. I can read k2 on the rear, but the number on the front is smudged, so ca only go off colour? The front felt good, but I also thought the front superbike pro felt good and to be honest, I'm not that sure I would notice the difference in a front :shocked:

I was talking to my mate who is fairly into the dark arts of suspension, he was using all the travel up front and still looking to soften things up. He's been trying loads of different changes lately to his bike. I will go down this path soon.

[Marty]

Yeh right, I get what you're saying. Have you set up your sag and whatnot? How much travel do you use up front? I had my forks set up by Frank Pons at Biketec and they feel pretty amazing. After last trackday I always had about 15 to 20mm of travel left in the forks.

We set up the sag front and rear before the last day out there and he was asking me what my bike was doing in different parts of the track, ie diving too much nuder hard braking, difficulty in turn in, was I hitting my marks where I wanted to etc. running wide under power and whatnot. Everything felt pretty good to me and I was going to do a few changes to see if I could get it better, but at the same time, it felt amazing and I didn't want to make it worse! Mind you, keeping a diary of all changes, tyres, temperature on the day, comp/rebound preload etc means even if I do make a change for the worse, I can always put it back. I guess it could feel better and it's only a few clicks away! But I think at the moment, I'd be hard pressed to notice, or be able to understand differences? Also a bit scared I guess to make it bad and waste a session...

When you say the front being lower pressure feels awful you mean it's vague under braking and wants to push on exit when the pressure is higher? I didn't even think to change the front pressure, I was in ball park "recommended pressure" and it felt great, I would've thought higher pressure would lead to vagueness and pushing? Man, I have so much to learn! I ordered a set of K2's front and rear, but pretty sure I got the K1 front? Green stripe on rear tyre, blue on front. I can read k2 on the rear, but the number on the front is smudged, so ca only go off colour? The front felt good, but I also thought the front superbike pro felt good and to be honest, I'm not that sure I would notice the difference in a front :shocked:

I was talking to my mate who is fairly into the dark arts of suspension, he was using all the travel up front and still looking to soften things up. He's been trying loads of different changes lately to his bike. I will go down this path soon.

Under hard braking with the lower pressure and softer tyre it squirms too much (feels like the tyre itself), so turning into a corner like T9 under really hard braking doesn't feel as good to me as with the higher pressure. I think the k1s are blue and k2 is green off the top of my head. I run about 15-20mm remaining travel in the front end. The less preload I can get away with the better the bike turns in for me.

[Little Mick]

You may have addressed this above but maybe harder springs or valving required?

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