- Jan 20, 2001
- 1,516
- 0
OK so last week I tossed on some street tires on the YZ and took her for a few (ok more then a few) laps around the Grange cart track. Today I shot on down with a friend of mine to continue the adventure.
This week I was working to trying different ways of corning, and getting use to using mainly my front brake. This week I decided to give the bike a few warm up laps before getting stupid. It turns out I should have given it a few cool down laps also, but more on that later…
The weather was perfect in every way today. And after my first session on the track some other Motard guys showed up and we all kinda BS’ed for a bit. For the next session we all took to the track and started mixing it up. Since my gearing, and bike set up prevented me from even thinking about hanging with the full on Motard bikes I spent my time trying to prevent people from passing. Not in a mean way, but in a line selection way. After a session I’d we’d talk about what was working and what wasn’t. Since I was the only two-stroke on the track the other guys wanted to know what it was like for me with out the engine braking of the four-stroke. Honestly I felt that it was a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand my breaks would heat up much faster since I had to use them all the time when I wanted to slow down. But due to how easy it coasts I think it’s easier to set up for corners.
We hit the track again, and I continued to do my own thing. On the strait away some of the other riders caught up to me as I came into the first corner way to fast. I tried to slow down the bike and throw it into the corner. What I ended up doing was locking up the rear brake, totally hacking the bike out, and shooting way wide while literally smoking the tires. :yikes: While this was going on the riders behind me cut to the inside and I remember one of the guys smiling and giving me a thumbs up for the save when I was looking over my sholder. Talking to him after the session he said that with as far down and as far hacked out as the bike was he thought there was no way I could have saved that, and it was one of the best saves he’d seen. :laugh:
On the next session we got to run the track backwards. That was an eye opening experience. As we all took to the track every one took a sight lap to try and figure out their new lines. And after that it was game on. It’s amazing how different the track was. With all kinds of new lines to pick from, and new tactics needed to attack the track the two sessions we ran like that were some of the funniest.
On the last session of the day I was getting tired, but still having a blast. And I found the limits of my tires. I was going through a S-turn section as fast as I could and it ended up with a kinda sweeping right hand turn. As I set up for the right turn the bike totally stopped responding to any steering inputs and I tried to turn the bike. As both tires locked up and I saw the hay bales coming up fast, time slowed down giving me time to think about what was going to happen. I figured one of two things was going to happen.
1, I was going to t-bone the hay bales, flip over the bars onto the next part of the track.
2. I was going to low side into the hay bales
Now, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t really like either of these two options, but #2 seemed like the least painful. So I let off of both brakes and then slam down on the rear brake and drop my right shoulder and send the bike into an instant textbook low-side. And then I slammed into the hay bales only to discover they were staked into the ground. I felt like I had hit a wall. "Ouch" seemed to sum it up best. So after laying there in a daze for a bit I get back up start the bike and continue the rest of the session a little sore. As I was finishing up my last lap in the same spot I had the same thing happen to me again. But this time I see that there are two hay bales about six inches apart. :aj: And I’m thinking that I can make to through that and not hit any thing… That turned out to be a good call and with that I shot the gap on the bales got back on the track and exited stage right in a nice easy fashion. :uh: Once I got back to the truck I took a look at my knee where I when sliding across the track. And find I took a small hunk of meat off of the side of me knee cap when I hit some thing and my knee guard slid over.
Things I’m going to do next time are change my gearing from 13/51 to something a bit more realistic for the track like 14/42 or so. And I’m going to get some better tires. Duel wheel slides suck big time.
One more thing… I love the feeling of the bike when it’s right on the edge of control. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but it’s awesome
Pics to follow... :)
This week I was working to trying different ways of corning, and getting use to using mainly my front brake. This week I decided to give the bike a few warm up laps before getting stupid. It turns out I should have given it a few cool down laps also, but more on that later…
The weather was perfect in every way today. And after my first session on the track some other Motard guys showed up and we all kinda BS’ed for a bit. For the next session we all took to the track and started mixing it up. Since my gearing, and bike set up prevented me from even thinking about hanging with the full on Motard bikes I spent my time trying to prevent people from passing. Not in a mean way, but in a line selection way. After a session I’d we’d talk about what was working and what wasn’t. Since I was the only two-stroke on the track the other guys wanted to know what it was like for me with out the engine braking of the four-stroke. Honestly I felt that it was a bit of a double edged sword. On the one hand my breaks would heat up much faster since I had to use them all the time when I wanted to slow down. But due to how easy it coasts I think it’s easier to set up for corners.
We hit the track again, and I continued to do my own thing. On the strait away some of the other riders caught up to me as I came into the first corner way to fast. I tried to slow down the bike and throw it into the corner. What I ended up doing was locking up the rear brake, totally hacking the bike out, and shooting way wide while literally smoking the tires. :yikes: While this was going on the riders behind me cut to the inside and I remember one of the guys smiling and giving me a thumbs up for the save when I was looking over my sholder. Talking to him after the session he said that with as far down and as far hacked out as the bike was he thought there was no way I could have saved that, and it was one of the best saves he’d seen. :laugh:
On the next session we got to run the track backwards. That was an eye opening experience. As we all took to the track every one took a sight lap to try and figure out their new lines. And after that it was game on. It’s amazing how different the track was. With all kinds of new lines to pick from, and new tactics needed to attack the track the two sessions we ran like that were some of the funniest.
On the last session of the day I was getting tired, but still having a blast. And I found the limits of my tires. I was going through a S-turn section as fast as I could and it ended up with a kinda sweeping right hand turn. As I set up for the right turn the bike totally stopped responding to any steering inputs and I tried to turn the bike. As both tires locked up and I saw the hay bales coming up fast, time slowed down giving me time to think about what was going to happen. I figured one of two things was going to happen.
1, I was going to t-bone the hay bales, flip over the bars onto the next part of the track.
2. I was going to low side into the hay bales
Now, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t really like either of these two options, but #2 seemed like the least painful. So I let off of both brakes and then slam down on the rear brake and drop my right shoulder and send the bike into an instant textbook low-side. And then I slammed into the hay bales only to discover they were staked into the ground. I felt like I had hit a wall. "Ouch" seemed to sum it up best. So after laying there in a daze for a bit I get back up start the bike and continue the rest of the session a little sore. As I was finishing up my last lap in the same spot I had the same thing happen to me again. But this time I see that there are two hay bales about six inches apart. :aj: And I’m thinking that I can make to through that and not hit any thing… That turned out to be a good call and with that I shot the gap on the bales got back on the track and exited stage right in a nice easy fashion. :uh: Once I got back to the truck I took a look at my knee where I when sliding across the track. And find I took a small hunk of meat off of the side of me knee cap when I hit some thing and my knee guard slid over.
Things I’m going to do next time are change my gearing from 13/51 to something a bit more realistic for the track like 14/42 or so. And I’m going to get some better tires. Duel wheel slides suck big time.
One more thing… I love the feeling of the bike when it’s right on the edge of control. It’s a hard feeling to describe, but it’s awesome
Pics to follow... :)
