Greg's Corner

I raced my 2008 Kawasaki ZX-10R at Homestead this past weekend and will race again August 30^th and 31^st, again at Homestead.

Homestead is fun.  I has two hard braking zone and four hard acceleration straights in which I was running up the gears from 2^nd to 5^th.   Turns 1 and 10 are 5^th gear turns off the Nascar straights down to the infield.  As is typical of such turns they’re bumpy and have traction changes in the middle of them.  Of the other turns, only the 6/7 combination presents any real challenge.  6 and 7 are almost close enough to form a single turn but not quite.  I was taking turn 6 in 2^nd gear then quickly upshifting two gears to 4^th for turn 7.

Saturday was all practice and was entirely about learning the track.  At the end of practice I changed from the Qualifiers to the NTec tires.  Yeah, enough about that. 

On Sunday my first race(GTO) was at 9:30.  Well, at 9:00 it started raining hard.  Knowing the NTec tires on the bike were totally out of their element, I suited up and went out to see how bad the track was.  There were large puddles in the middle of the corners and outside of them very slick concrete patches.  I at least made it around the track and back to the pits where I sat out the race one of the other racers wasn’t that lucky, he crashed on the warm up lap. 

My next race(Unlimited Supersport) was the first race right after lunch.  In between the two races there was a big guessing game being played by everyone in the pits of whether to change to wets or not.  Every time the rain lightened up activity in the pits would slow as racers and mechanics stepped out of the garages to peer into the sky.  Eventually, I decided that no matter what the weather did the track would still be wet enough for wets.  I bought a set of Dunlop wets and got them on just in time for my next race. 

Since I was a late entry, I started from the back of the grid.  I passed two riders going into turn 1 and then took four laps to pass the next two.  I had better corner speed but I was too easy on the throttle exiting the corner to make a pass on them.  As I began to trust the rain tires more, I passed both of them on the same lap and dropped 5 seconds off my laps times despite having severe fogging problems with my faceshield.  With no one insight for the final lap, I finished 5^th.

I had five races to wait for my next race(Unlimited Superbike.)  Again there was a lot of indecision but the sun did decide to show itself and the track did dry.  Luckily I was able to get the tires changed from the wets to NTecs just in time to go out on track.  While my tires were being changed there seemed to be a problem with the valves stem on the front wheel.  Not a problem for Randy at the Dunlop.  He put a new valve stem in and I was off to the races.

The NTecs were cold, I didn’t have time to heat them on tire warmers prior to the race.  Out on the warm up lap I was quite surprised with their grip but they warned me they were cold when I started getting on the gas hard coming out of the corners.  I stated the Superbike race from the back of the grid again though this time there were 17 racers instead of 9 for the wet Supersport race.  I was last going into turn 1 but passed someone by turn 2.  I was getting faster with each lap and had worked my way up to 10^th place by lap 5.  But then my right hand started cramping up due to me gripping too hard during acceleration.  I slowed down some and just tried to make it to the end of the race.  I finished the race in 13^th.

My next race was the very last race of the day, Unlimited GP.  With the sun out, the track dry, and the right tires on the bike, there was nothing to do but enjoy the other races.  Finally it was my turn again.  When I took the bike off the stands, I saw that the front tire was flat.  I went over to the Dunlop trailer but they couldn’t find a leak anywhere.  They put another new valve stem in just in the previous one was a problem but by then the Unlimited GP race was already over.

So, I raced in two of four races entered and got a 5^th and 13^th to show for it.  It was great to again race a bike built for me.  And I’m really looking forward to the next race because I have a good idea on the areas I need to improve and I can improve them.

Thank you Martin for putting together a great bike.

Thank you Steve for providing me with the NTecs.

Thank you Keith and Cobie for the help and encouragement you’ve provided.

Finally, Thank you Susan for saying, “Yes.”

Homestead-Miami Speedway
August 30^th-31^st.

August was a very busy month for me.  Thankfully my wife, Susan, and my mechanic, David, took over and made things happen that needed happening.   A huge thank you goes out to the two of them.  Without their dedication neither I nor the bike would have been ready for the race.

After July’s race, I realized I needed to work on some specific items to get faster.   So I arranged to take the California Superbike School as a student at Barber Motorsports Park on August 24^th.  That meant my schedule for August went like this:

·         Start painting the bike using paint cans on the 6^th.

·         Coach at the California Superbike School on the 13^th and 14^th at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

·         David and Susan finish painting the bike on the 15^th.

·         Attend a track day on the 16^th at Jennings GP track in North Florida with David and his friend Louis.

·         On the 17^th I drove to Miami for a six week plus contract with Microsoft.

·         On the 18^th, David and his friend Louis Schumacher start repainting the bike using Louis’ professional paint gun and paints.

·         I drive back to Clearwater on the 22^nd.

·         On the 23^rd, David, Susan and I drive to Barber Motorsports Park with the bike to attend the California Superbike School.

·         On the 24^th, I attend the School and then David and Susan drive back to Clearwater with the bike.  I stay and coach with the Superbike School for two more days.

·         On the 26^th I fly back to Miami.

·         On the 29^th, David, Chrissy – his wife, Kobe – his son, and Susan drive to Miami with the bike. 

·         On the 30^th and 31^st we race.

All that work paid off.  The bike looks great thanks to David, Louis, and Susan. 

Thanks to the track day at Jennings and being a student at the California Superbike School, I bettered my times from last month by more than 3 seconds a lap – 1:34.6 to a 1:31.5.  Better yet, I wasn’t getting tired running the faster laps.

Saturday was a practice day.  I ran in three sessions and worked my way down to 1:31 lap times – 11^th fastest expert and 13^th fastest for the day.  The faster experts were running 1:27s so I’ve definitely improved and am only 4 seconds off instead of the 9 seconds I was last month.

Sunday we had to deal with Hurricane Gustav’s outer bands.  It would rain and then start to dry out and then rain again.

  The first race at 9:30, a 25-minute race called GTO, was held in the rain.  With rain tires on the bike I was running 1:47 lap times and finished 7^th in the race.  My lap times were slower than my previous best rain laps last month of 1:42. 

During the race the rain stopped and the wind was drying the track pretty quickly.  I carefully looked at the latest radar on my computer and estimated that my next race would be a dry race so David put DOT race tires on the bike.  Unfortunately one of the races prior to mine was red flagged (stopped) due to a multi-bike crash and the race schedule was changed.  Instead of my race happening before lunch it was now going to happen after lunch. 

About 15 minutes before my second race, Unlimited Supersport, it rained again.  Without time to change back to rain tires I went out on the DOTs.  On the warm up lap it seemed OK.  The racers on rain tires weren’t pulling away from me anywhere. 

When the green flag dropped I even had enough traction to wheelie off the line.  Going through turns 2 and 3 through I quickly realized I was in trouble.  By the time I got to turns 6 and 7 I was convinced I had a flat rear tire.  I pulled off the track at turn 8, inspected the rear tire and determined it was fine.  By that time of course I was not only in last place as an expert, all the amateur racers had gone by too.  I finished that race in 12^th – last place for the experts.

With more rain coming, David put rain tires back on the bike and just when that was starting to look like the wrong decision, rain came in.  When you have rain tires on you want rain!

This race, Unlimited Superbike, went much better.  I passed a couple riders on the opening two laps and battled with another on the last lap.  He passed me going into turn 3 and then almost crashed 4 times trying to stay in front of me.  Held me off and I finished 7^th.

That was the last rain race.  The wind dried out the track fairly quickly and DOTs went back on the bike.  The last race of the day was Unlimited GP.  There were still a couple wet spots on the track in very bad places and I was about 5 seconds a lap slower than the leaders.  I finished 7^th out of 10.

So the results are:

GTO – 7^th

Unlimited Supersport – 12^th

Unlimited Superbike – 7^th

Unlimited GP – 7^th

A good weekend in that I’m improving and the team is coming together.   Next race is the big one – Daytona, October 16^th through the 19^th.  I’ll be racing in five races spread out over all four days.

Thanks to Steve Brubaker of Race Tire Services for the excellent Dunlop tires.  I definitely could not do this without his support. 

Thank you Louis for volunteering to paint the bike with your paint gun and paints.

Thank you Chrissy Bruce, for taking pictures, lending me your husband, and helping out as needed.

Thank you David Bruce for your tireless (OK, you were tired but you made it happen) work in painting the bike, driving, working on the truck, changing the tires and everything else.  Awesome!

And of course, thank you Susan.  I love you.

And you're still in first gear.

That's what this bike is.  It's a ticket to jail.  First gear goes to 105mph.  Say you're rolling along at 30mph and you give the bike full throttle.  I just about 5 seconds you'll be shifting out of first at 105.  You'll be lucky to not go to jail.

 This is one awesome bike.

Better pictures coming soon.

How many times has someone called their new, black, motorcycle, Black Beauty?  How hackneyed.

Well today, I'm going to get the current Crown Prince of the Supersport motorcycling world.  No, not the GSXR-1000 - that's the current King.  The Crown Prince according to the first ride reports is the new ZX-10R.  And mine is black.

I don't have a name for her yet but I imagine by the time I get her home I'll have more than a few in mind.

More videos soon to come - finally!

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=28907

After reading this I realize just how much of a 'State of Fear' we live in.  Whether it be terrorism, drugs, crime, global warming, or the impending end of the oil supply we are constantly bombarded with fear.  It doesn't matter if the article is true or not.  The article highlights the HUGE amounts of information we don't know and have not known yet we physically and verbally destroy each other over this lack of data.

Our lack of data leads to fear of the unknown.  What boils down to an argument about whether or not the glass is half full or half empty is creating an unkown that paralyzes us to inaction. 

And we wonder why we get nowhere.

OK, I finally got my new motherboard installed and my main PC is up and running so here's some video taken with ATC2K from Laguna Seca.  The vibration in the video is due to the fact that the camera was mounted to the end of the motorcycle's handlebar and it's rubber mounted.  With a propert mounting the video would be stable.

What you're seeing is me following a student through turn 5, passing him and coaching him on turning the bike quicker.  I watch him through turn 6 and the corkscrew and then take off after another student which I catch at turn 3.

OK, I'm having PC problems.  My main PC is down awaiting a new motherboard.  It has all of my video software on it and I don't really have time to install that stuff on my laptop right now.  But in fairness to the ATC2K, I have to put this up.

The bight daylight video quality of the ATC2K is perfectly fine.  It's not as high quality as that of the JonesCam but it is definitely acceptable.  The sound quality is fine too.  The video in my previous post didn't have the back cover on the camera.  This exposes the microphone which is normally covered by a thick, dense, foam pad.  That explains why the gain on the mic seems too high in the video - it is!

The ONLY complaints I now have about this product is that the battery life is a bit low at around 30 minutes of 640x480 30fps recording.  Also it is very difficult to tell if the batteries are charged despite the lcd indicator.  It's too hard to read and not very accurate.  Several time recording would stop after about 2 minutes.  It only recorded longer after I put freshly charged rechargable batteries in.

It'd be GREAT if this was able to plug into an external powersource.  Remote or attachable.

This is a camera to use for specific shooting requirements where a max 30-minute recording time is acceptable.  If that's not what you're looking for, look elsewhere.  But, if you're looking for some to record a trackday session with this seems like a very viable option.

Later I'll have some video from Laguna Seca.

You won't learn as much/fast/safe on liter bikes.

Old hands say it all the time to new riders all the time.  And while it's probably true that most of us would be faster on 600s than 1000s does that mean we're not learning as much on the 1000?  What about a Goldwing or a cruiser?  Does our choice of motorcycle mean we can't learn as much as we could or should?

It's easy to dismiss the Goldwing and the cruiser as learning tools.  They're made for straight line only.  Get them into a turn and they run out of ground clearance very quickly.  The bike clearly limits what a rider can learn.  Or does it?

Because a bike runs out of ground clearance does not limit learning.  To say it does is to say that the only thing to learn about cornering is leaning a bike over to X degrees.  There's a lot more to cornering than that.  No, the ground clearance issue doesn't really limit what a rider can learn, it limits the speed at which he can apply it.

Conversely the argument against liter bikes is that they generate too much speed for a rider to learn to ride faster.  He just relies on the engine on the straights, scares himself silly entering a corner, brakes too hard and goes through the corner too slow.  But it's not the bike limiting the rider here, it's the rider's approach to learning.

A liter bike isn't going to limit ground clearance, braking, or accelerating in any significant way.

There are basics of cornering that can be learned and applied on any bike.  And these basics can be applied at a much higher level of competency than most people think a particular bike is capable of.

Will most people be less intimidated by a 600 than a 1000 and therefore learn how have higher and safer cornering speeds?  Probably.  Does that mean a 1000 will limit your ability to learn?  No. 

If you know what to learn and practice it, a bike can only limit your application not your learning.

Using SmaterStats, I was reviewing the referring links, links that people use to find my site, and I saw some hits from a forum I hadn't heard of before, http://www.m4e.com.  Naturally I decided to read the posts and see what was up.  What I found was that someone had posted a link to my Deals Gap video, http://gormanonline.com/files/folders/govideos/entry9.aspx, and said something close to, "Nice video even if it's in fast forward."  Here's the link to the thread, http://www.m4e.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=33273&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0.  Translation tool here: http://translate.google.com/translate_t.

I actually thought of the accusation as a compliment.  So I registered and posted.  I thanked them for the compliment but assured them the video was not accelerated.  Yet the posts continued that it was.  I had the feeling at this point someone was just trying to get me riled up. 

So a comparison video was posted.  The basic argument was that this new video, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4279623571612392390, was knee down in every corner and yet only a minute faster than mine.  It simply wasn't possible that I could be riding "relaxed" and they could be going fast yet there not be that much difference in time.  Well, I worked that out.

The Overlook is at mile 2.5. The North Carolina/Tennessee state line is at 11.1 miles. 8.6 miles travled with a one minute (11 minutes vs 12 minutes) difference is a 6.9 sec/mile difference. Map here: http://www.tailofthedragon.com/freestuff/map_640.jpg

Now lets move that time to a typical 2.5 mile race track and we find that there would be a 17.4 second per lap difference between the two of us.

That is a "relaxed" pace compared to a fast pace.  Also I suspect that a real "race" pace would be somewhere in the mid 8 minute range if you stayed in your lane and 7 minute range if the road was closed and you used both lanes.

 How fast do you need to go?

Is it possible to capture the essence of working for the California Superbike School in one photo?  I'm not really sure but this picture Susan took while we were at Pacific Raceways in Seattle comes close.  It was taken early Thursday morning, October 12th, probably around 7am. 

To me this picture brings to mind the work involved, setting tire pressures, wiping down bikes, prepping student bikes, registering students, color coding the student bikes, putting on the instructor tank notes, and all the set up of the mechanic and retail areas.  A lot of work.  But this picture also shows the promise of fun and excitement of the day to come.  And that's just one of the reasons why we do it.

Most motorcyclists know that riding when you're angry is a bad idea. When people are mad they tend to focus on one thing at the expense of all else.  Riding mad almost always leads to a crash.  It's just a bad idea and we as riders know it.  But what's really going on?

Well, think about the last time someone cut you off and nearly killed you.  You probably yelled several choice expletives in the driver's general direction, gave them the bird in 42 different languages, pulled up beside him and made sure he saw you, or some other fun thing to let the other driver know your displeasure.  But what's all that trying to accomplish?

You're telling the driver he's a moron, stupid, blind, dangerous, inattentive, and just plain rude.  If, by some miracle, he actually understood what you said and realized what he did; what would he do in a future situation?  He wouldn't cut you off.  And, if he really understood, he wouldn't cut other people off either.  In other words he'd stop.

Your anger is directed towards getting that driver to stop.  Going a little more general, a person who's angry is trying to stop someone or something.

Now, this whole anger/stop thing goes a little further too. You get on the bike and you're angry, for whatever reason. You head out for a ride and you're thinking about this thing that's making you angry the whole time.

The problem here is that unless you start purposefully paying attention to the environment you're most likely just going to sit and stew about whatever's making you angry.  Your sole intention is to stop that thing.  And that's a problem.

You want to stop something that you most likely can't stop while riding. So it persists and your anger grows. Eventually you get angry enough that something stops. You get pulled over, or the bike breaks, or you crash.  Either way a stop has happened.

Yes, these things happen because you’re not paying attention but the underlying intention is to make something stop. And sometimes it stops in a big way.

So, does that mean you won’t be angry after a stop happens?  Nah.  Most likely you’ll be angrier because the wrong thing stopped.

So, you’re on the bike and you’re angry. What do you do?  Well, if you’re aware that you’re angry, you’re already one step ahead of the game.  Well, the first thing to do is to put your attention on the environment around you. 

Find specific objects like road signs, houses, other cars.  Actually direct yourself to look at them.  Tell yourself, “Look at that ____,” and then say, “Yeah. I see that ____.”

You may soon feel tired but keep doing it.  If you feel bored, do it just a little longer and see what happens.

Yeah, it’s simple.  You might even say stupidly simple. But what you’re doing is taking control of yourself.  Where before your focus was stuck on one thing, you’ve now taken control and moved it out to other things. Where you were introverted, you’re now extroverted.

You’re back in control and that’s exactly what you want as a motorcycle rider.