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(photos by Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos)
This year I have a small goal. To participate in the endurance race in October, if all things go well.
So, when I heard about DragRacingShow holding the first trackday of the year in the Estoril circuit, I kept checking the weather, until I was certain that it would be ok to take my 600 RR with the Metzeler Racetech tires to do some track time.
It was a very rainy week, but come thursday, the last day to sign up for the trackday, and the forecast for the week-end was of partly cloudy but no rain in sight, so I signed up. Talking to a friend, Paulo Cruz, which also owns a CBR 600 RR, he offered to take my camcorder on his bike and try and get me on video. As I always try to video tape my friends, he considered he would be returning the favor by following me around with the camcorder. The only catch was that I would have to slow down a bit for him to be able to keep me in the frame, since we have slightly different paces at the track.
Come sunday and the day was sunny with some scattered clouds. The temperature wasn't great but it wasn't cold either, and the track was damp due to some night showers, but was drying up fast (or so we thought). I was in group 1 and , according to the usual timetable, things would be like this:
9:00 - 10:00 - Group 1 (60 minutes)
10:00 - 11:00 - Group 2 (60 minutes)
11:00 - 11:30 - Group 1 (30 minutes)
11:30 - 12:00 - Group 2 (30 minutes)
Since the track should be a little wet/damp, I decided to be the first out on the track, and take a couple of laps to see how the track was. As I approached the marshalls near the end of pit lane, they promptly warned me of two corners where there was still some puddles of water. That would be the "variante" and the "parabolica", and marshalls would have the "slippery conditions" flags out at those spots.
Needless to say, the track was slightly damp, with the occasional damp patch here and there, which the rising sun should take care of soon, but at those two corners there was obvious standing water there. Easy does it, as in mere 4 recon laps I had two slides, one at each of those corners !
Came back in, and told my friends how the track was. I taped my camcorder to the tank of Paulo's bike, and we went for a few laps to see if I could bring home some footage of me  . I tried to go slow, but it seems that Paulo is really careful at his out laps, much more than I am, so I lost him on the out lap. I thought he was following me, so I kept going, but in fact it was another bike.
After we came back in (we usually don't do the whole 60 minutes at once, we get tired at this age, LOL, so we do 2 or 3 outings during that period) I told him that he would go out in front of me in the out lap, and then I would pass him and would go as slow as possible, shifting way before the redline, braking earlier, etc... This time he managed not to get left too behind, and since I would go much slower at the two longer straights, he would catch up quickly. I finally have a glimpse of how I look like, from behind .
Check the footage here (first lap I was riding behind). You'll need the XVid codec installed first.
For the next session, I placed the camcorder on my bike's tank as usual, and went to have some fun. Again, at the end of the pit lane the marshalls would warn that the track was still slippery on those corners that were wet before. The day was somewhat sunny with some clouds, but the track was still amazingly slippery, specially at those corners. So slippery in fact, that there were many falls, specially at the "parabolica". It surely had to have something else than water, that they had tried to wash away. Then agai, with the amnount of falls at those corners, maybe some oil and/or gas was added to the mix. In fact, that session was interrupted with a red flag since 3 (three) riders tasted the gravel at the same time. Probably one of them slid away, while the other two behind went the same way trying to avoid the crash or something.
You can see the video from that session here. As always, you'll need the XVid codec installed first.
All in all a great morning, spent having fun and sharing the passion with a group of friends .
Many thanks to Paulo Cruz for having the patience to film me, to Miguel for letting me keep my backpack in his car, and to Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos for the always amazing photos he produces !
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I was still numb when I woke up. It didn't seem real. I had been invited to test ride a World Supersport CBR 600 RR, and now I was just about to take a shower, grab something to eat for breakfast, get geared up and be on my way to the Estoril track in Portugal.
Just a few days ago I got an email from Miguel Praia, portuguese racer in the World Supersport championship in the Parkalgar Racing Team, inviting me to ride his bike at the track, since his team would be there for the usual end of the year press test ride. Curiously, it was on the same day of another DragRacingShow track day, which meant that we could have more bikes on the track when we were riding a unique $30,000 USD CBR 600 RR Ten Kate prepped world level supersport machine..
Since it would actually be during a track day and I would be there, I signed up for the track day too, and would enjoy a morning of track time on my personal bike. More than that, I could compare my own 2003 CBR 600 RR (all stock except for an Akrapovic pipe, BMC air filter and Goodridge brake lines) with the 2006 WSS spec bike, on the same day, at the same track.
When I got to the circuit, it was about time for my group to go out to its first session, and I just stepped into Miguel Praia's pit and asked if it was ok for me to go out for a few laps and then try his bike. Since not many journos had turned up yet at 9:00 AM, I could ride the bike in 5 minutes, but I decided to take advantage of the first session of the track day on my bike and come back later to try Miguel's CBR. The weather was also an excellent suprise. Sunny clear blue sky, a bit cold but nothing drastic, around the 12-16 º C (56-61 º F).
After a few laps having fun on my bike, checking out the track and all that, I went back to the pits and into the hospitality setup that the Parkalgar Racing Team had set up for the press and VIP guests. I met there a few friends from the press, and before I knew it, I was getting the sign to get ready to ride the bike. I was told that all the invited press was getting 4 laps. One out lap, two laps, and then the slow down lap. And that meant that Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos only managed to get a single photo of me on the WSS bike  .
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I put on my helmet and gloves just in time to hear the bike coming in to the pits and being waved to sit on the bike. As I sat on it, I felt at home right away, barely hearing someone saying "don't forget it's got an inverted shift pattern!" while completely absorbed by the digital all-imaginable-telemetry-included dashboard. I put it in first, release the clutch with just as much throttle as I would do on an stock 600, and the bike pulled down pit lane smoothly without any stutter or complaint.
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Once past the marshalls verification point, I went out on the track and was thinking about how the tires were cold and I should take it easy. But once past turn 3, I just remembered that the bike had been on tire warmers all the time, and another journo had just came in the pits from his session, so the tires had to have some heat in them. I kept thinking in the back of my head that I could not forget about the inverted shift pattern, so I was shifting by thinking ahead and counting the gears. Sitting on the bike, I felt confortable right away, as Miguel is not a short fellow, and the riding position wasn't too radical. It just felt natural for track riding.
I then realized I was exiting turn 4 (also called the VIP turn), with the back straight appearing in front of me. So, I gave it some gas out of the turn, and I could only scream "banzai!" as the front wheel decided to lift a couple of inches from the ground and I was catapulted towards the slight right hander kink that I usually go through at full gas on my 600. I simply couldn't. My brain was screaming "why is the turn so tight this time around????" just because we were getting there much faster than 20 minutes earlier on my 600 RR. The rest of the lap was a very cautions one, as I was very careful going through traffic. Maybe even too careful, as when I tippy-toed behind slower riders to pass them real safely, one or two other riders would go by me. And we were on the not so fast group... Oh well, I guess I was just too scared to push it right away.
Braking into the turns made me realize two really distinctive behaviors when compared to my bike. The brakes were really powerful, but the initial bite when you pulled the lever wasn't overwhelming, it was just a slow down kind of feeling. But it was in the second half of the course of the brake lever that there was the World Supersport braking power. And I mean stop-on-a-dime type of braking. I reason that since in Supersport corner speed is so vital, and it's so important to keep your momentum up, that the inital softer brake bite is there to allow the rider to scrubb off speed without really be throwing the anchors.
The other difference I noticed was the front suspension, which was softer than I expected. Ok, I didn't do any late braking at all, I was being extremely don't-risk-anything-on-this-bike aware, as I didn't want a bunch of well known journalists angry at me for dropping the bike before their turn. But from what I could feel, it did seem a lot like the braking feeling, soft at the beginning, and stronger at the end. That initial "softness" was to be expected, as I asked about it when I was back in the pits, and that is how it's supposed to be. Naturally, this may also be down to the WSS spec fully adjustable WP front forks, which can have different settings for slow and high speed damping.
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But it was the acceleration, the power coming out of a supposedly similar engine to the one in my personal bike that I had ridden a few minutes before, that blew my mind. If this is what World Supersport racing preparation does to a 600 cc bike, I can't even begin to imagine how far a World Superbike 1000 cc inline four can do. Giving it all at the main straight, I was presented with a Star Trek spaceship kind of view, with all the information available on the digital dashborad, which includes a telemetry pickup system, including video feed from two cameras. The green lights quickly lit up and gave way to the yellow lines, which gave way to...green lights, to yellow lines, to... braaaaaaake!!!! Yes, it got through the main straight like a hot knife through butter, on speeds. Simply doesn't feel like a 600, with something like 30 extra ponies at the back wheel !
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I wish I could have riden more laps, or at least the laps I rode could be traffic ridden, so that I could enjoy it more, feel it more, instead of being constantly on the lookout for slow riders going around in the strangest possible trajectories. In fact, traffic around the circuit would be a constant during my laps, ruining any chance of anything close to what would be a fast lap for me, but I enjoyed riding this unique machine. Even missing a gear on the back straight (inverse shift pattern, Mario, inverse shift pattern!!) to avoid a slower rider didn't put me off from feeling like Charpentier on the last WSS race where he won this year's title. It was great to see Miguel taking some VIP guests around on one of the team bikes setup as a two seater, and watching the excited pillions' grins and smiles after their track experience.
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For next year, the Parkalgar team is bringing the experienced Simone Sanna on board too, which they hope will make the team evolve quicker, along with Miguel Praia's desire to do better. So, next year they plan to be constantly disputing the top 10 positions. It will be a tough job, believe me, as they haven't got the new 2007 CBR 600 RR bikes yet and hence haven't done any sort of testing with it, as opposed to the semi-factory teams which already have got a taste for the bike. Nevertheless, I'm sure we can count on a great performance by this team, if their professionalism and desire to succeed is anything to go by.
For me, an amateour ex-racer, track day regular, father of two, riding bikes like this makes many youth dreams come true, but, more than that, it makes me admire even more those who push them to their very limit against the very best in the World.
Good luck for next season Miguel, we'll be following you closely here at CBRWorld !
PS - As usual, the amazing quality photos were taken by my friend Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos, which had a tough job of taking photos of riders that had only 2 real laps on the bike. Thanks Miguel !
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How I missed it all.
The anticipation, the anxiety, the adrenalin, the team effort, the fun, the overtakings, the pushing it just a bit more, the sweat, the pain, the finish line, the aches the next day. I really missed the endurance races that I used to participate in.
A month and a half ago I read in a national magazine that there was the possibility of an Endurance race to be held at the Estoril track, but there was no confirmation. I emailed the National Motorcycle Federation for more information, but they didn't confirm that the race would take place at all. The following week the magazine mentioned it again, that the race would be held after some construction work was finalized. Contacting the mentioned race organizer, I finally was able to confirm that a race would be held on October 5th.
I decided that I would participate in this race, together with my wife's "permission". After all, she's almost 9 months pregnant with my future son (due this next week), and I really wanted this to be a fun event, not something that would cause fights at this stage .
For the race, teams had to be composed of 2 or 3 riders, with the possibility for each rider to use his own bike. Participants were divided into 3 classes: 600, 1000 and Open. The Open class was for basically almost any bike, and for teams with 600 and 1000 bikes.
So, almost everything was ready, I "just" needed a team and to prepare the bike for passing the technical verifications. A sudden invitation from some friends from the PerformanceTotal site solved the first problem . Tiago on a Ducati 749, and Miguel on a Ducati 748, and we could enter the 600 class. For the second problem, I had a checklist, created from reading the regulations:
- Go with stock fairings (allowed by regulations)
- Tape headlights and stoplight
- Remove turnsignals, mirrors, sidestand, license plate holder
- Wire oil case cover
- Install recipient for excess fluids not to pour onto the track
- Make number "plate" and numer from sticker sheet
I took the bike to my current mechanic shop, Lucapower, and asked them to perform those tasks on the bike, but also replace the front fork seals and oil.
Just for you guys to picture it properly, I do NOT have:
- a centerstand or bike stands
- trailer
- tire warmers
- racing fairings
- double bubble screen
- pit crew
- lap time panel
I basically raced with a stock bike, except for the Akrapovic pipe, PCIII (I currently use this map) and kevlar brake lines. I added some new Metzeler Racetech tires (K1 front and K2 rear), and that's it.
THE RACE
Things didn't go as well as we wanted. Not at all. First thing in the morning, after all the verifications, was the free practice. Since we only had 45 minutes and only one of us could be on the track at one time, Tiago left the pits on his 749 to get a feel for the new repaved sections of the track.He was back in on his second lap. with his engine making all kinds of strange noises and having lost all its power. He was so frustrated. He had put on some new pipes on the bike, had it all sorted out, and the engine had simply failed on him, on the second lap !!! We were all concerned, but I had to get going and scrub the tires in with a few laps, since they were brand new. Back in the pits, things weren't much better, the Ducati 749 wouldn't start.
Miguel had a pair of brand new tires for his Ducati 748 waiting for qualifying practice, but once we got there, he simply couldn't remove the rear wheel to replace the tires. He did his qualifying laps on a pair of used tires, and Tiago used my CBR 600 RR to qualify, like I did. And once we did manage to remove the 748's rear wheel, it was so close to the start that, altough he was the one expected to start the race, I had to do it. And his front wheel was also a tough nut to break, so I was concerned that my bike would end up the only one fit enough to race that afternoon...and Tiago was already going to ride my bike after his 749 gave up on him...
So, with all this back luck, you think the race would be fine, right ? Wrong. This webmaster of yours, having done quite some endurance races already, and even after the usual practice start and 2 warm up laps, used the kill switch to turn off the engine for the starting line. And yes, it's and endurance style start, where we stand at the side of the track and run across it to the bike, jump on it, start it and go. But you can only start the bike if the kill switch is in the "ON" position !!! For the first time in my humble racing career, I must have looked soooo stupid. It took me the best of 3 seconds to figure it out, and by then ALL the other riders were heading towards the braking point for the first corner. Darn it was so embarassing, to goof up in front of everyone!!!
Nevertheless, I managed to recover up to 23rd (from 31 teams) by lap seven, and by then I was fighting off an Aprilia RSV 1000, which was fun since I was faster than him almost everywhere, but frustrating because he was passing me on the brakes on the main straight. I got tired of trying to push harder on the brakes so he wouldn't pass me, then passing him in some corner, and my 20 minutes of planned race time came to an end. Perfect race strategy advised for 45-50 minutes each rider, but we're getting old at this and the 3 of us were quite out of shape and not looking for any front places, so we had decided to make smaller 20 minute "sessions" each. The race was going to last 4 hours anyway...
We kept changing rider every 20-25 minutes, which caused us to lose some places, but we were having fun and hanging on to repectable laptimes that would place us in 3rd-4th in the 600 class. Everytime we changed to a rider which was on another bike (me and Tiago on my 600 RR and Miguel on his Ducati 748), we had to remove the transponder from the arriving bike, and place it on the exiting bike. One of those times Tiago went out and forgot to put the tranponder on the bike, so he did 10 laps without any of them counting for the end result. Yes, we lost lots of places there !!!
Even so, after 4 hours of racing, we finished the race without any fall or serious problem, just a lot of bad luck, and we managed to finish in the 25 th position, altough 25 laps down on the winner (10 or so of which were due to the transponder problem). We looked at the laptimes sheet, and we could have ended up in 15th if we hadn't had the problem like that, and maybe even better if we could make the 45-50 minute session. But we didn't, and we couldn't, so 25th it was . Still, I loved it, I missed it, and I hope that next year I'll takje my bike again to a race, maybe a Promocup race where almost stock bikes are allowed. And where races only last 30 minutes.
Also a big thanks to my team mates, a Edu and Mauricio for the help around the pits and to everyone who helped us and visited our pit with words of encouragement 
As always, Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos was there to take some great pics !!! Thanks Miguel !
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I raced for 3 years in Endurance Racing. It was a team composed of me and two other friends riding, and another group of friends helpig out as the pit crew.
I stopped racing when I spent almost 3 weeks in hospital with a pneumothorax (just happens, nothign related to bike riding), exactly on the month where my daughter was expected to be born. I stopped going to the gym, which meant I gained a few pounds(cough...cough...16-18 lbs cough...cough...) and lost sight of any fitness I had when racing.. That, coupled with the tiresome role as a first time dad, plus the need to make sure there is enough money for the family, lead me not to race since then.
I still do track days and advanced riding courses, with my mainly stock CBR 600 RR, to keep me at least in touch with what I really love, riding a bike on the track.
Suddenly, I read a rumor on a magazine: "There may be an endurance race this year". Next issue had a couple more details, but when I emailed the organization, they said nothing was planned yet.
But after a few days, it's finally official ! October 5th is the date for the event, a 3 hour endurance race, where teams of 2 or 3 riders will be able to compete. The best of it all is that it is a national event, but will allow even amateur racers to experience the competition, and quite cheaply too !
There will be 3 different classes: Stocksport 600, Stocksport 1000 and Open. The "Open" class is just a class that follows the regulations of the PromoCup we have here, which means:
"Take off sidestand, mirrors and turnsignals, secure a few things on the bike, tape up all lights and/or mirrored surfaces, make sure your bike is in good condition, use DOT tires (unless it's raining), wear appropriate race equipment and you can participate."
BUT, and it's an important BUT for amateurs, teams can be composed of up to three bikes, meaning each rider can use his/her own bike, and not have to share it with the other riders (like I did when I raced).
To make it affordable, a racer needs only his racer license, and racers getting their license just for this race don't have to pay the race fee. So, it all comes down to 175 Euros to get your racer license, and some gas and tires money...
This means I will try to enter this race, and have already been invited by two other friends who wanted a partner for this race too (they are racing a Ducati 748 and a 999R). We know each other already, and we are planning the race as purely for fun, since we are all a bit out of shape (at least I am !!!).
Practice sessions and the race are all in one day. So, it will probably come down to one or two hours of practice and one hour of race. I'm sure I'll be far from any laptimes that I used to achieve, but the fun levels will surely be back up as they ever were.
Now, off to get my license, get the bike ready, some new tires and enjoy some friendly racing action ! .
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Update: A friend (Sergio) lended me a tape that he shot from the track side during that day (his SP1 had some problems) and I managed to find a couple of seconds of film where I'm seen going by. (you'll need the XVid codec installed)
Yesterday I participated in another ActionTeam advanced riding course at the Estoril track. It was a fun day, riding at the track and meeting the usual friends. Nice to talk to some of the Motociclismo magazine people (ActionTeam belongs to MotorPress, which in turn owns Motociclismo magazine) and some previous champions from our national racing scene, which were there as instructors.
The weather was nice, except for the tremendous heat. I mean, it was boiling hot !!! I tought we would all melt in there. Motociclismo's executive director, in the welcome talk, even mentioned "let's go out there to the frying pan and have some fun" meaning we should go out on the track and ride... Temperatures were in the range of 34-36º C (95-97º F), with little or no wind. Not to mention the leathers, gloves, boots, helmets...
Even so, once we were riding, we'd soon forget all about the heat and just enjoy ourselves, until we got back to the pits melting in sweat. Fortunately, ActionTeam had all planned and had plenty of drinks there for us, so nobody got dehydrated.
There were four 30-minute sessions with the instructors, plus a final open session for noth groups. By the time we got to the open session, almost only half of the riders felt fit enough to go at it again, so the track was fortunately quite clear to give it som gas :-)
Some things were't so good, like the instructor on the group I was in had to stop twice mid-session to refuel (something better planning could have avoided), and besides the track time lost, we would just fry under the hot sun on our leathers whenever the speeds dropped below 100 Km/h (60 mph). So the stops for refueling were a pain...
But the worse, the thing that upset me the most was all my fault, and only noticed it once I got home. I had taken my camcorder as I usually do now, and recorded plenty of laps behind friends who asked me to, and I was excited because I was sure i had some great footage of riding behind another 600 RR, behind a Triumph 675, Yamha R1, and even a beautiful 1000-miles-on-the-clock Aprilia Mille factory.
I was so excited, in fact, that the first thing I did once I got home after taking my leathers off was to rewind the two tapes to start recording them onto DVD. To my complete dissapointment, I managed to increase the zoom of the camcorder when taping it to the tank, so the image was basically the top of the tachometer focused, and a little bit of windscreen out of focus... And since I never checked if things were being well recorded at the event, I never noticed this, and all footage is like this. Oh how I hate myself for this !!! If only I could kick myself, I would have !
A good thing was my decision to shorten the transmission by going down a tooth on the front sprocket. That made a huge difference on the track, and I may go up 1 or 2 at the rear sprocket to make it perfect for the Estoril track. Even so, it dropped less rpms, and it pulled harder out of the turns, just like I wanted. Best bang for the buck, playing with the transmission ratio.
Once I get some photos from the event photographer, I'll post them here, and I hope to have some video from a friend who said would be taping the open session from the outside. can't wait, I always tape friends, but I never get filmed by others :-)
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After two sessions riding on the track during the last DragRacingShow trackday, I took the camcorder from the tank and walked around the circuit as a true insider, getting some action on tape, but also part of the backstage of this type of event in the Estoril circuit. Enjoy, and you can use it to convince your friends that they too should go.
CLICKY-CLICKY !
Don't forget you need the XVid codec installed on your computer to view this video clip.
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Yesterday (sunday) I was present at another DragRacingShowtrackday at the Estoril circuit (where else...). The day started with a cloudy sky and damp conditions, and once we started rolling, there were a couple of corners with some water patches. But the sun was making its appearance, and it was easy to see that after some time the wet patches would be rideable, specially with bikes passing over them constantly to help them dry up. Turns 2, 3 and the 6 were the ones demanding more carefulness, but we could ride normally everywhere else pretty much.
I had the intention to try out my GPS setup for looking at trajectories and top speeds that I used in the BMW test drive, but for some strange reason the Bluetooth connection between the GPS device and the PDA simply died after a couple of seconds. Only noticed it once I got home and tried to look at the data, though...Oh well, maybe next time. But you can still clearly see the GPS device taped to the top of my helmet in the pictures :-)
Some negative comments come up about this track day:
- No slippery conditions flags (red/yellow stripes) were waved at all on the wet corners in the first few laps, and it is usual to do so (at least in well organized trackdays...).
- Marshalls were an on/off deal. Sometimes lots of yellow flags when someone would try out the gravel, and others there were no flags to be seen...
- The sticker given to us to put on the bike to be able to get on the track was awful, made of simple paper that we just know it's gonna stick to the bike, then when trying to get it out, it will need special attention. I still have to go get some product to remove the remains of the damn thing from my bike. On the previous track day we were just given colored bands to put around the handlebar or similar place. Easy to put and take off. Don't know why it was different this time...
- Lost out on the second session of my group because they never announced it on the loudspeaker, and since the schedule was way off due to several delays, nobody knew when that session really started...
- And to top it all, they didn't let Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos ride is bike around the service roads to take his professional grade photos. Since they wanted him to walk around the whole circuit with his camera equipment, he simply left after he was told that. Nevertheless, he still managed to get some nice pictures warly on.
Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun on the track and around the pits, with many of my friends there having fun too. Funny thing too was when I was approached by a young man asking me "what have you done to that engine, it's tuned isn't it ?". No, all standard except for the Akrapovic slip-on and a PCIII. His question came up because he also had a CBR 600 RR, and he was seeing me pass a couple of liter bikes on the main straight. I tried to explain that the way we come out of the last turn influences the top speed a lot, and also many inexperienced riders don't really give it full gas out of the last turn, and lose momentum.
As usual, I taped my camcorder to the tank and got some nice video clips to share (you'll need the XVid codec installed):
- A guy riding an oldie 2 stroker Yamaha TZR 250, nice bike back then (I slowed down to get him on tape)
- I'm sorry, but what was this Ducati 999 doing in the fast group ??
- Nice clips of me passing (and getting passed) several other bikes (clip1, clip2, clip3). The thrid one is the most fun :-)
As always, the excellent photos are by Miguel "Kidhornet" Santos
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In a somewhat unprecedented initiative, BMW Portugal organized a public test-drive of their new F800S bike in the Estoril circuit. Naturally, faced with the possibility of free track time (although surely at a controlled pace), I grabbed the chance immediatelly.
Here's the bike:
Twin cylinder, 80 Hp, more or less 210-215 Km/h top speed. Not too fast, but enough to have some fun, I guess.
First impressions of the bike: "it's not like other BMWs !". Telescopic front suspension ? Light and somewhat good looking ? Paralel twin ? Not too expensive ? Is it a Honda under disguise ???
Sessions were divided into 3 groups (fast, medium and novice), and my first session was in the fast group. When I say fast, you must keep in perspective that this is a test drive, and that in all groups there was a control rider in front, and no overtakings whatsoever were allowed in a group. In the first session, I never needed to apply the brakes. Ever. Period. That's how smooth and calmly we were riding in the "fast" group.
The bike seemed light (although not near as flickable as the 600 RR) and the torque at medium revs was quite nice. But forget the top end, the engine is too linear, and you don't even notice any surge of power at all. It almost seems like an electric engine. Not too many vibes on the footpegs or handlebars, and it's a really confortable bike. Perfect riding position for any type of riding, excellent compromise, I might say. For track riding tought, the suspensions are really too soft. Maybe with some tweaking it would become better, but we weren't allowed to touch the settings at the test-drive. The tires were fine for track use (Continental Sport Attack and some Bridgestones I didn't get the model). It brakes very well, with additional safety if equipped with the ABS option (read on to find out why I know about the braking). This is a great bike for anyone jumping from small bikes or maybe even a good starter bike if some care is taken.
Then I was told I could go for a second session later on, and even though I didn't think I wanted to, the arrival of a friend that used to race had me go for a second session, with him, just for the fun of it. Fortunately, by the time of my second session (4 pm or so) there were not many participants going for the other groups. Just 2 other participants in another group. To add to the fun, the control rider for our fast group (basically, just me and my friend) was Nuno Oliveira, a rider which was several times national Supersport and Stocksport vice-champion, and he was riding a K1200 .
Yes, he did went much faster than my previous session, and we were able to ride round the circuit pushing the bike a bit (for whatever "fast" it could go), dragging knees, hitting the rev limiter, etc. Quite fun. Even though he did slow down mostly in the straights and some corners, also to make sure we weren't left behind, but naturally to make sure we wouldn't push the bikes too much and risk a fall (there had been a fall a couple of sessions before where the rider got hurt). Nevertheless, I was able to push the bike up to 207 Km/h on the main straight for at least once (he only went fast on the main straight a couple of laps) and try out the brakes. Altought the suspensions simply had more than enough travel and were soft for this type of riding, the bike coped with it extremely well, and for those interested in a good road performer with the ability to go round track just for some fun (forget diving into a corner like on a CBR, but I could surely kick some less experienced sportbikers butts with the F800 on a regular track day). All in all, a nice day !
For an added fun factor, I was able to use something I have been developing these past weeks on a personal level, which is a lap analyser using a bluetooth GPS and my PDA, and then being able to export the results to Google Earth. If you have Google Earth installed in your computer, just download and open the file attached to this post. (For a better experience, download Google Earth 4 Beta and crank up the quality settings in the Tools->Options menu, and set Altitude Exaggeration to 3). Any feedback appreciated. Here's an example printscreen (the noticeable offset over google's imagery is due to that imagery's projection system, even google roads don't match exactly to the image):
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Here I am, after another track day at the Estoril racetrack. This time, it was a DragRacingShow organized track day, which is not my favorite organizer for this type of events. The fact that they had a great price made me go for it - 50 Euros for 1 hour and 30 minutes of open track.
Since their track days are usually a bit less organized than others I have been to (well, it has to do with several factors), at least from my personal experience and point of view, I tried to go for the session where I felt I could ride with an easier state of mind. Nevertheless, they do a great job of promoting track events, reaching a far more wide audience and participants, and being sucessfull at being original and making the best of the track time they get. I am sure that with some more experience and professionalism, they can achieve awesome results.
This means I went for the first group, from 9am till 10:30am, and being the first at such an early hour in the fast group usually means a better experience, with less riders, but usually the more experienced, and the track is still free from oil or debris from possible crashes.
I enjoyed a lot meeting many of my friends there, since the cheaper price meant many were tempted to go as well, and days like this are as good for chatting and having a good time with them as for enjoying some track riding.
This time some top national racers took the time to go there and practice a bit, which made for some interesting overtakes (I got a couple of scares myself, LOL !), and it's amazing the difference in speed from a Stocksport racing machine to my 600 RR (not to mention how much faster those guys are than me). As always, the main and inner straights make it hard for me to overtake any 1000cc bikes, but it is fun to catch up on the twisty bits. I do have to be honest, I don't push as hard or risk any falls as I used to when I raced, and my bike is pretty much all stock except for braided brake lines, pipe and PC3, but I sure need to up my pace again, to be able to keep up with some of my friends that ride liter bikes (right Goncalo ? ).
This time I felt a bit safer on corner entry, because I had spent some time adjusting my front suspension a couple of days before. I still think that next time I will still need a bit more compression and extention, since I still feel there's too much movement up front. The rear will see a bit more extension too, to reduce the speed of the change in geometry under braking.
Right now, these are my current settings:
Font Pre-load: 3 lines showing (I think I may have still too much static sag int the front, may check this again next time)
Front Rebound: 1.5 turns (from fully closed)
Front Compression: 1.5 turns (from fully closed)
Rear Pre-Load: 4 out of 8
Rear Rebound: 1.5 turns (from fully closed)
Rear Compression: 5 clicks (from fully closed)
Here is a couple of movie clips of me following some friends (many friends ask me to follow them and get them on film, which I gladly do):
Following a black CBR 600 RR
Following Tiago on his Ducati 749 R
Following Goncalo Menezes on his R1
Following briefly an RC 51
*** The full 30 minute video *** (140 Mb !)
You will need to have the XVid codec installed.
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I was at a track day this past sunday in the Estoril track, organized by Speedfreaks. The curious thing is that the track day would be on the sunday afternoon of a race week-end. Altough some delays in the races also meant a delay in the track day start, it was amazing to be able to watch a couple of races before going out on the track.
But I need to rewind a bit, just to tell you about the problems I had in the previous track day, in which I couldn't take my RR past 11,000 or so rpms. I took my bike to a trusted mechanic, Lucas from Lucapower, since MilhasPorHora, where I used to go, went out of business. I told him I needed to have the bike checked for that problem, a new rear tire, and if he could check the front suspension for oil levels and such, since I couldn't rememebr when the forks oil had been changed last.
It was easy to identify and solve the bike's problem in accelerating past a certain rpm: the PowerCommander was incorrectly installed. On the CBR 600 RR, since it has two injectors per cylinder, you need to connect the PC3 to the primary injector. It had been connected (by MilhasPorHora) in the secondary injector, which only starts working at higher rpms. After correcting this, the bike was back running as good as ever.
I was going to get another Metzeler Racetech K2 for the rear, but the difference in price to a Pirelli Dragon Super Corsa made me pick the Pirelli instead. I am not a big fan of having two different makes tires, but sometimes I hate to pay too much for marketing...
Lucas didn't understand exactly my concerns with the front suspension, so he just put it back to stock settings (and so my usual track settings were lost, I never took time to write it down...), which ended up too soft for riding on the track, and made corner entry not as precise and a bit unstable.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed a sunny warm day at the track, albeit a bit windy towards the end, and even took my camcorder with me to get a few minutes of track riding that I can watch on those rainy winter days. I think me and another 600 RR were the only 600s there, with all kinds of liter bikes there, from an "old" 1992 (?) FZR 1000 to a Ducati 998 S Final Edition, with plenty of R1s, CBR 1000 RR and GSXR 1000 to make our lives harder on the straighter places of the track.
I really enjoyed the time at the track, altough I now know I really need two things on my bike to improve my fun:
- Re-adjust front fork settings to my taste (they were way too soft in standard settings)
- Shorter transmission ratio (it's currently same as standard) since it's way too long right now
Here's some video clips from the onboard camcorder:
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/td23_04_2006_Ducati998.avi
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/TD23_04_2006_CBR1000RR.avi
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/TD23_04_2006_FZR1000.avi
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/TD23_04_2006_HondaCBR954RR.avi
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/TD23_04_2006_R1.avi
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/TD23_04_2006_VariasR1.avi
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/TD23_04_2006_VitorR1.avi
http://www.mariosobral.com/2006_speedfreaks/TD23_04_2006_VitorR1_parte2.avi
You will need the XVid codec installed to view them.
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It's that time of the year. The Jerez de La Frontera MotoGP event is next week-end.
For those of you who have just watched on TV, you have absolutely no idea of what this week-end is like. Not even close !
I'll try to explain, even though you have to go there to see for yourself.
On sunday there is a race. An important race, right ? Well, imagine well over 300,000 riders from all over Europe converging to a single town, thousands and thousands and thousands of bikes filling all and any road that leads to Jerez and neighbouring villas. Some years ago I went to Jerez, and for 2/3 of the whole 500 miles I had to ride, there were people on the freeway overpasses and out on the streets waving to the bikes passing by, people up in balconies whishing us a good trip, and all in a friendly and effusive way.
Stopping for gas naturally leads to having to wait on a long line of bikes, but the amazing thing is that looking back at the main road, bikes keep going by for minutes, hours...It seems like there's no end to the amount of motorcycles that keep on passing by.
Once approaching Jerez, let's say 50 miles out, the roads are all covered in bikes. Cars have trouble to move, since bikes are passing left and right. Traffic jams are very common, but this time, even though lane splitting is legal, the problem is that there are thousands of lane splitters going for it.
 
The true party is usually not in Jerez, but in many of the neighbouring towns, packed full of adrenaline induced young and old riders, who fill all bars and restaurants with a happy and festive glow. The attraction of great food (excellent seafood there!!!) great drinks and a week-end long party attracts thousands !
One of the most charismatic towns during this week-end is Puerto de Sta Maria, where even the local authorities demonstrate tremendous patience and even close a couple of streets by protecting the sidewalk areas with gratings. Crazier stunters or wanna-bes are then allowed to go through that street and show off their skills without the police bothering them. If you want me to mention a movie I could compare the two nights before the race in Puerto de Sta Maria to, it would be something between Mad Max and Torque... Bikes with no exhausts revving up to the rev limiter, burnouts occurring every minute, every 30 seconds, wheelies, stoppies, and everyone clapping, cheering and having a blast !!!
[image]http://mk23.image.pbase.com/u15/darman/upload/41837017.DSC_3416.jpg[/image]
[image]http://mishuna.image.pbase.com/u14/darman/upload/41804560.DSC_3275.jpg[/image]
It's crazy, very crazy, I know. But, if you ever get the chance, you need to go to the Jerez de la Frontera MotoGP race, at least once in your life...
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I happened to be thinking about last WSBK race. Production based motorcycles with some modifications, putting out 200-210 hp racing in almost perfect conditions with slick tires. As many of you noticed, the Pirelli tires were struggling (understatement?) to last over 15-20 minutes of racing, and the abuse they were suffering showed in a multitude of ways, but the main thing was that the riders had to back down the throttle to avoid risking a fall.
So, this means that a 200 hp bike is shredding a tire that was specifically engineered to sustain that type of abuse, a slick tire that doesn't need to be homolgated for road use, and whose buyers could care less if the tires last more than 1000 miles. Actually they just care if it lasts for one race...
So, this brings me to think of the new Kawasaki ZX-14, Suzuki Hayabusa, and even the current and future generations of 1000cc sportbikes. If some of you remember the most amazing and powerful liter bike of 1990, the ZX-10, you'll recall how journalists gasped at its 137 hp (something that a modern 600 with a race kit can now easily achieve). Maximum speed ? A mind defying 268 Km/h (I probably have reached that on one of my 600s ?).
So, if these numbers aren't really something amazing for us now, specially considering the bike weighted at 222 Kg (dry weight!), what could be so scary ? The problem is that in the late eighties the engines performance evolution got ahead of the evolution of tires and suspension (and even frames, although with Yamaha's Deltabox this is when things started tp change). This lead to some outrageous ideas of finding a way to remove telescopic suspensions from bikes, like the infamous Bimota Tesi, Yamaha GTR 1000, BMW Telever, and some others.
Even so, the results were't that good at the time, and it seemed there was no way to have bikes more powerful than they were at the time, without becoming untamable beasts.
Forward to current times, and we see a new generation of sportbikes whose origin comes from the need of many of us to have a bike similar to a racing machine. There is demand for bikes that perform well in a circuit, regardless of wheter they're confortable or easy to ride in a normal road environment. That's because people now do take their bikes to the track, even if they don't plan to race. Sportbike owners are, more than ever, learning to enjoy what a sportbike is all about, instead of just wanting the "look-a-like" road version of a racing bike to show off at the local pub (not that there aren't still many of those...).
My particular concern is how will the tire manufacturers handle what is coming over the horizon, when it's obvious that handling so much power in such light packages is proving to be so difficult ? Well, we all know that soon we'll see traction control and ABS, TCS, CBS and plenty of electronics to make us not in control but the bike, but it will all come to the tires that transmit it all to the tarmac.
Since I started riding on the track, my biggest investment for my safety are the tires and making sure my bike is well maintained and cared of. What I am afraid of is those riders that spend all their money to be able to get that new 180 hp bike with Akrapovic exhausts and PC3 and whatever, and then say that their tires are almost bald because they can't afford new ones right now... and do I see many of those...
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Today there has been a lot of talking about how Alonso teased Rossi by saying he'd be at the podium if he was given time and a MotoGP bike to practice on, and how Rossi challenged Alonso for a go .
Now, is it just me, or are we seeing all this because "someone" really wants Rossi to go over to F1 ? Think about it, with the MotoGP regulations changing to provide yet another challenge to Rossi that could have him stay for another year at MotoGP, something had to attract Rossi to F1. Since he enjoys Rally cars more than F1 cars (or so he says) and since we all know that he loves a good challenge more than having the best chances, the best bet would be for the curretn F1 champion to play down Rossi, and maybe have us all say "Go Rossi, go teach that guy a lesson and beat him on his own turf !".
I can translate this for you:
- F1 fans would be delighted to have a personality such as Rossi driving a car like a maniac and breaking all the political correctness that is destroying F1's "attractability".
- MotoGP fans would watch F1 races in the hope of watching Rossi battling with the F1 drivers.
- Ferrari would have an italian superstar driving one of their cars (assuming Rossi would go to Ferrari)
As I'm sure yo understand, this is all a big play to avoid F1 audience levels to go down, but instead to bring F1 into the spotlight once again. MotoGP will lose with this for sure, and at least for a couple of years we'll see the MotoGP not having a strong personality such as Rossi's captivating audiences and fans.
I really don't know how I'd do to keep MotoGP interesting, but this year's new riders, and next year's change in engine capacity seems like a great start !
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I have a friend, Miguel Santos, who has a great hobby that I enjoy as well, but I'll never be as good as it as he is, specially taking into consideration the passion and effort he puts into it: sports photography.
When I was racing, I noticed that he would show up in the pits talking to my friends. We belonged to the same portuguese online community (MotoclubeVirtual), and ended up doing some nice conversations, since he lived bikes and photography, and I did too (altough I'm not a good photographer at all).
He would take pics just for him, and I asked why didn't he try to sell them. There's many track day participants and racers that like to have pictures of their track outings. So, with some convincing from my part, he started to bring some flyers to the track days and give them out to participants. This started 4 years ago or so. He's been taking pictures of racing motorsports ever since, getting better and better, and making great sacrifices to buy that new lens or accessory. He's truly dedicated to doing a good job.
After that, I've set him up a website (www.Kidhornet.com) on my server for him to publish previews of his pictures, and people can order the ones they enjoy the most. Every year he deletes all images and starts with the new year's images. This year it started with last Sunday's track day, and here are some photos of me:
And no, I due to all the comotion with my daughter this week-end, I forgot to take tools to remove the mirrors, and didn't really bothered asking around, just folded them and that was it ! .
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The sheer sarcasm that I usually use at work when I say "There's some good news, and some BAD news" always makes the person on the other side a bit scared of what's coming next.
If you read my previous post, I was about NOT to attend a track day that I really wanted to go, and that I had been planning for some time. The CBR had been stopped for the past 4-5 months without battery, and since I was commuting on my Honda Jazz 250, the CBR was just sitting there.
On friday I finally sorted some last minute battery problems (simple, just bought a new one!) and was ready to go. Except that my kid got sick friday night. On saturday I took the CBR for a 40 mile ride, to "get the dust off", put some new gas in, and adjust the tire pressure (it was so slow, that it was almost impossible to lean the bike). This morning I had decided not to go, since me, my wife and my daughter all had a rough night tonight, with her fever coming and going. I already had my new equipment all ready to go, but I decided not to go.
As the trackday start time approached, I was a bit anxious, since I had paid for it, paid for a new battery, new insurance for the bike (which had been transferred for the scooter), new equipment, all in the hope of enjoying a nice morning doing my favorite thing. To make things worse, the weather was simply PERFECT. My wife noticed my frustration, and as my daughter's fever came down and she gave in to a deep calm sleep, she told me to go that they'd be alright. Well, women always tell us to go when they don't want us to go, but this time, I rechecked my daughter's temperature, made sure she was confortable, and just went to Estoril (30 miles from where I live).
So, the good news is that I went there and rode two +-10 lap sessions - they decided not to have the planned 30 minute sessions since there weren't many participants, so we could just go to the track and come back to the pits as we saw fit - had some fun, and then came back home early to satisfy my heavy conscience.
The bad news is that somehow, my bike could not go above 11,000 rpm, it would start to bog down and I'd have to shitftup to get a bit more forward motion. It seemed like gas was being cut or something, and it sucked ! Passing bikes in the inner part of the circuit, just to get passed on the two longer straights, and having to pass the slower riders all over again. The CBR simply didn't go faster than 130mph on the main straight ! I have to get it checked ASAP ! I got a bit scared of something happenning during my track time, so I opted to not push at all, just enjoy the twisties. Some of my friends were amazed since they would pass me on the main straight, just to have me pass them back again later.
I have a couple of suspicions about the problem. The bike was stopped for 4-5 months, so the gas may have left some residues somewhere. The bike was also without a battery for several weeks, so maybe the Power Commander III USB lost its settings and resetted back to default ? (just guessing, don't know if that's possible). Any other suggestion you guys can come up with ?
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