Race Bike Prep Clarification

[mercho]

hahaha I was more worried about your Fuel Ed, although im guessing thats an ecu thing?

I reckon i tap the gear leaver about 20 times when im waiting to check its in 1st, must be the nerves!

[Mr.Ed]

The fuel is actually an issue with the dash itself... as soon as you plug a new one in (tried that before) it's gone. Plenty of fuel there.

I learned my lesson on that one... I got there and remembered to turn the camera on, then forgot to keep revs up, then... well, you saw the video! hahaha

[Marty]

With the starts I see some people dial the revs in sooo early. I have a crazy theory that regardless of the red light they won't start it till the marshal at the front has at least walked off the racetrack. I watch the marshal and as soon as he/she takes the last few steps off the track that's when I click it into gear and lock my eyes onto the lights. It's easy to maintain focus for a few secs, but I see guys holding the revs up on the friction point for like 10-15 secs sometimes, that's gotta be hard mentally and really hard on your clutch.

With the grid positions I also include the position from left, it's easy to have a brain fart at the last second so I write: R3/3 P11 - so row 3, lane 3, position 11. I treat the lanes as left to right for every track.

I've had two times when I'm guiding the bike up to the memorised row in to perfectly stop on my marker, looking down for P12 and it says P9, wtf, look to my right and see my number on the opposite end FARRRK!

On my first race at wakey I knew I was on the right most lane but I made the mistake of thinking that the rows were evenly spaced across the track so I was pulling up to my row (first eager guy out of the pit) and couldn't see any yellow grid markers at all, turns out they are all condensed on the left land side on the track. What a n00b!


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[dan]

I need to adjust my rear brake as I found when I was on the revs, on the sweet point on the clutch, my bike was slipping a little. I never really bothered to fix the amount of play I had in the rear as I never used it. Now I'm racing, EVERYTHING changes haha

[BoB]

I need to adjust my rear brake as I found when I was on the revs, on the sweet point on the clutch, my bike was slipping a little. I never really bothered to fix the amount of play I had in the rear as I never used it. Now I'm racing, EVERYTHING changes haha

Dan I'm happy to adjust the rear brake for you so its on slightly all the time . Anything to give me the edge to stay in front of you..

[BoB]

If your doing 2 classes like I did for the 1st time at the last st george I was always checking the grid positions and making sure I had the right row and location. Next time I will be printing out something like this on an a4 piece of paper to make it easy to work out.not that its that hard to count in fours , just one less thing to tax the already worn out brain.

4 3 2 1 R1
8 7 6 5 R2
12 11 10 9 R3
16 15 14 13 R4
20 19 18 17 R5 and so on

[motorbiker]

I must have done around 100 race starts over the last two years (Terry O'Niell's Race Your Mates at Wakefield gives you plenty of practice starts btw) but I still get a whole bunch of nerves/adrenalin reading this thread...

Like Marshy said, for me 100% of the time the nerves stop as soon as I head out on the warm up/sighting lap and it's all business like from there.

I did Ed's trick as well once down at Wakefield except I was on the first or second row, and I had no idea what had happened. I put my hand up and just had to think very... small Worked out ok thank god, hasn't happened since (touch wood).

I used to feather the clutch right on the friction point, now I come a few mm back from that - hasn't slowed down my starts, in fact I think my starts are better. Beats burning out clutch plates.

And it takes a few go's to find the right RPM to sit at for the start. My bike around 10k - 11k works well, but everyones bike/preference is different.

[Marshy]

And it takes a few go's to find the right RPM to sit at for the start. My bike around 10k - 11k works well, but everyones bike/preference is different.

+1. Mine's around 9k. But it really does require some experimentation.

[dan]

I've been doing mine somewhere around 10. Haven't done it enough to try other ideas was happy just to get off the line!

[Marty]

It's funny, there's always someone who just dumps the clutch and aims for the moon

[Marshy]

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I always engage 1st gear as I'm still rolling towards my grid spot, and then double-check it after I've stopped by easing out the clutch slightly. I know a lot of guys sit there in neutral, shaking their arms, sitting up etc, but I reckon it's just one less thing to worry about. Sometimes gearboxes can be a bit temperamental too, and what happens if it won't engage 1st as the starter is walking off the grid?? But mostly it's so I don't forget in all the excitement/stress/adrenaline.

[Marty]

Sometimes gearboxes can be a bit temperamental too, and what happens if it won't engage 1st as the starter is walking off the grid??

Maybe on a Yamaha :p