I had a great shakedown day on Red Baron's first track day.
It was a bit of a learning curve and there were a few new-build teething issues that I had to work through.
I got a great shot, that when compared side by side with one of me on the R6, explains quite a bit of it...
1 - Clip on positions:
The narrow/tucked in setting I had on the R6 didn't really work on the big bike so with some help from Stevem's awesome digital angle gauge, we flicked them out a fair bit.
Look at the difference in my wrist angle for starters. It's also much easier to chuck the big bike around and makes for a better tuck with the bad shoulder!
2 - Apex:
I'm clearly pretty comfortable on the bike. First day out and the geometry is feeling pretty great and I can put the bike exactly where I want it.
3 - Fork Stroke:
It took a while to get the R6 forks working as well as they are here and by comparison there's clearly some work on the BMW front end to come.
The BMW was bottoming out a lot and as you can see here, at mid corner, it's not in the sweet spot of the stroke. New springs ought to get this sorted out for next time.
4 - Lean angle/body position:
Looking at GPS data, some of my corners are a lot faster on the BMW and although the front suspension isn't yet there, the bike feels very solid to lock 'in' with as opposed to the 'on' style of the R6.
Body position was something that took a long while to resolve on the R6 so I'm very happy to be almost there on the first day with the new bike!
5 - Tyre wear:
Not too easy to see from the picture but the tyre wear on the back of the BMW was perfect! Happily this means that both the rear shock and the electronics are working well together to maximise drive and minimise slip.
The other couple of points that can't be seen in the photos was a little setup trouble I had with the shift lever and rearsets. Unfortunately I missed a fair few gears in most sessions and struggled with a lot of false neutrals right up until the last session where I got it nailed.
The other point was in my own head! I was deff playing it too cautious with roll-off and braking markers going in to almost every corner....
I was sort of assuming I'd be going 50kph+ faster everywhere, than on the R6. Really tho, there's not much on it on the back section. I should have just kept up with my usual markers. T1 however would be a different story!
Normally a strong point of mine on the R6, T1 was a mess all day for me. My markers will deff have to move and dropping two gears, whilst looking for a gear lever in the wrong spot and going at 270kph, was a lot to think about!!
Plenty of food for thought tho!
Thanks heaps to all the boys that helped out with various bits throughout the day tho, was an awesome vibe! Can't wait to get back out there with the new changes and see what she can do!
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Sicko
Bookmarks