Last week was a made rush to get all the parts, here and onto the bike. I did what I could, which wasn’t much, as I just didn’t have the time. So I took the bike down to the dealership (PJ’s Motorcycles), poor Aaron. He just wasn’t having a good week, everything he had to do to the bike took more time and effort then we thought it would. First the fork internals from Race Tech wouldn’t work with this new generation of fork. Then he put the bike on the dyno once the new exhaust was on the bike started running poorly around 6,000 rpms and up. It took the better part of the day to figure out the issues and get it fixed. After all that, there was still all the small things to get on it, ya know… case covers, clipons, rearsets, the rear shock, bodywork, windscreen, and some other small goodies. Most of that went on with out a hitch good thing too, cause by the time we got that shock on it was almost 7pm and I had to leave for the track at 6am. I think Aaron was a nervous wreck helping me load it into the trailer. He kept telling me to make sure that I double check everything before I take it out on the track. He even called me the next morning to tell me again.
Once I got to the track I had plenty of time to go over the bike and tight things down more and adjust things like the levers to where they are felt more comfortable. Next on the list was new tires. I of course went with Michelin’s, A on the the rear and V for the front. Then it was on to mounting the rest of the body work. I had to drill out the holes for the Dzus fasteners, as the one I had made weren’t large enough. Suspension baseline was the last thing before the warmers went on so the tires wouldn’t be so cold. It really was fantastic weather for being on the track.
I ended up doing only a half day on Sat, given I had to drive down and get things ready. The first session out was only one lap. I knew on the first turn that I had to change a few things. Went back made the adjustments and headed back out for 6 laps, had to come in and make more adjustments. Did another 6 lap session, changed a couple more things.
I was really shocked by how easy it was to move that bike around. Every time I moved on the bike, it wanted to turn, it just fell into the corners, effortlessly. It was so easy that I kept finding my self turning in too quick and too much, then I’d have to stand it back up some. Those first few laps there was a lot of wobbling in the corners. I got one of the experts to tow me around for a few laps and check out my lines. It helped me get through a couple of the corners, more smoothly. By the last set of laps, it was feeling great and all of that wobbling through the corners was gone.
Then next day, I started latter so that the track would have more time to warm up. We were running the track the other direction, and it was the one that I was more comfortable with. The first two session went great, and since I had put the lap time on the bike the night before. I know that I was running slightly faster lap times then I was last year when I had been down at this track. I was just estastic about being ~3 seconds a lap faster.
That was short lived. The next session out I was trying some different turn in points, and miss judged it. I the “yucca” turn, I turned in too much and later. So by the time I realized that it was too much and that I was going to clip the curbing, I was on the ground sliding. All I could thinks as I watch the bike sliding in front of me was “don’t flip”
It didn’t, it just came to a gentle stop in the dirt. I hit the edge of the track and jumped up. All I could do was look at the bike, since I’d had major abdominal surgery 3 months ago. There was no way that I was going to risk trying to pick it up by myself. I had to wait for someone else to help me, Doug stopped and we got it up, I checked it out and decided that it was fine for me to ride it back to the pit.
There was some rash on the body work, case cover, lever, clipon, frame slider, and foot peg. It just took some time to wipe it down, get the dirt outta the brake caliper and belly pan.
I got Roger to take it out and shake it down, while I iced my bruised elbow. He came back and was really happy with how it preformed. I was happy to hear that he thought he could race it as is and win on it. I took it out for another 20 laps after that. Unfortunately, I was a little slower then before the lowside. Hum, go figure. But, I was still running the same lap times I was last year. So in all it didn’t slow me down too much.