PPIR kicked ass!

[ebazyl]

I loved the fact that this weekend was local . Having people you know drop by the pits was great! Seeing some familiar faces was even better. Not to mention I would rather make a 2 hour drive then a 24 hour drive any day.

Friday track day was some-what frustrating , Much like the weekend before, the front was sliding, and the rear was spinning. As Mark Schellinger would say, "Not very confidence inspiring!". My best time was a 1:01.2, despite all the changes that me and Marcus made. Finally we decided to rebuild the shock. Which made the rear hook up great, but the front was still all over the place.

Saturday we kept playing with the clickers, and made a geometry change. None of that worked, and I actually ended up going backwards qualifying with a 1:01.223 on fresh tires. That night me and Mohan decided to go back to recommended rider sag numbers for the R6, I figure that it can’t possibly be any worse then the issues I was having for the last 5 days at PPIR.

Sunday, everything turned around for me set up wise. In the mourning on old tires I ran a 1:00.666! Which was my personal best at PPIR. Not to mention I hit 9 laps in 1:00 range. I was feeling great for the race.

In the race a got a poor start, but still managed to keep up with the pack. After a little while I started passing people: Tyler Jones, Jeremy Haiduk, Johnny Page. Even caught up to Lambert for about a lap. Unfortunately, at about lap 10 I started getting arm pump in my right hand, so braking and turning the bike in became some-what of a challenge, and my lap times slowed to 1:01s. I guess in the next couple of months I need to work on conditioning. If anyone has any arm pump workouts let me know (and not the kind that Brizz does late at night in front of the computer).

However what is encouraging is that my best lap time was a 1:00.151 which was faster then Jeremy Haiduk, Tyler Jones, Shannon Moham’s. Which was within 107.1 % of Tommy Hayden’s best time .

Now the cool part: I got some Speed TV love, when I was lapped by the Hayden’s. The mentioned “Eugene Bazyl from Louisville, Colorado riding for Breckenridge Brewery!”. Also during the one of the fade out for the Superbike starting grid it showed be and Marcus messing with the suspension on the bike. And I also heard that I got some recognition from the announcer when I almost high-sided coming out of turn 3.

Most importantly I would like to thank all the people that helped out this weekend.
Shannon Mohan – Thanks for all the encouragement and help in the pits, with out that suspension changes Sunday would have been completely emberasing
Joe Logalbo from Rebellion Motorsports – Thanks for all the help in the pits all weekend, it made my life so much easier
Dad – for showing up all 3 days and wrenching on the bike, as well as for getting all the food and drinks for the weekend
Marcus McBain from RPS – Thanks for the lightning fast shock rebuild.
Dean and Kim – for hooking up a ticket to the suite, air conditioning is SOOO nice
Every one from the CSC that dropped by to say hi, and all the people that corner worked.

I would also like to once again thank all of my sponsors (yes, it’s a shameless plug but these people make my racing possible):
Breckenridge Brewery – got some TV time
CarQuest of Lafayette
BikeJam.com
Morse Custom Fiberglass
TK Motorsports – congrats to Brian on his FX race
RPS
Bazyl Motorsports
Rebellion Motorsports
Vanmar- Michelin
DynoJet
BAB leathers
Codeffects.com

[VryfastRR]

two world famous riders signing autographs

[japrules]

I loved the fact that this weekend was local . Having people you know drop by the pits was great! Seeing some familiar faces was even better. Not to mention I would rather make a 2 hour drive then a 24 hour drive any day.

Friday track day was some-what frustrating , Much like the weekend before, the front was sliding, and the rear was spinning. As Mark Schellinger would say, "Not very confidence inspiring!". My best time was a 1:01.2, despite all the changes that me and Marcus made. Finally we decided to rebuild the shock. Which made the rear hook up great, but the front was still all over the place.

Saturday we kept playing with the clickers, and made a geometry change. None of that worked, and I actually ended up going backwards qualifying with a 1:01.223 on fresh tires. That night me and Mohan decided to go back to recommended rider sag numbers for the R6, I figure that it can’t possibly be any worse then the issues I was having for the last 5 days at PPIR.

Sunday, everything turned around for me set up wise. In the mourning on old tires I ran a 1:00.666! Which was my personal best at PPIR. Not to mention I hit 9 laps in 1:00 range. I was feeling great for the race.

In the race a got a poor start, but still managed to keep up with the pack. After a little while I started passing people: Tyler Jones, Jeremy Haiduk, Johnny Page. Even caught up to Lambert for about a lap. Unfortunately, at about lap 10 I started getting arm pump in my right hand, so braking and turning the bike in became some-what of a challenge, and my lap times slowed to 1:01s. I guess in the next couple of months I need to work on conditioning. If anyone has any arm pump workouts let me know (and not the kind that Brizz does late at night in front of the computer).

However what is encouraging is that my best lap time was a 1:00.151 which was faster then Jeremy Haiduk, Tyler Jones, Shannon Moham’s. Which was within 107.1 % of Tommy Hayden’s best time .

Now the cool part: I got some Speed TV love, when I was lapped by the Hayden’s. The mentioned “Eugene Bazyl from Louisville, Colorado riding for Breckenridge Brewery!”. Also during the one of the fade out for the Superbike starting grid it showed be and Marcus messing with the suspension on the bike. And I also heard that I got some recognition from the announcer when I almost high-sided coming out of turn 3.

Most importantly I would like to thank all the people that helped out this weekend.
Shannon Mohan – Thanks for all the encouragement and help in the pits, with out that suspension changes Sunday would have been completely emberasing
Joe Logalbo from Rebellion Motorsports – Thanks for all the help in the pits all weekend, it made my life so much easier
Dad – for showing up all 3 days and wrenching on the bike, as well as for getting all the food and drinks for the weekend
Marcus McBain from RPS – Thanks for the lightning fast shock rebuild.
Dean and Kim – for hooking up a ticket to the suite, air conditioning is SOOO nice
Every one from the CSC that dropped by to say hi, and all the people that corner worked.

I would also like to once again thank all of my sponsors (yes, it’s a shameless plug but these people make my racing possible):
Breckenridge Brewery – got some TV time
CarQuest of Lafayette
BikeJam.com
Morse Custom Fiberglass
TK Motorsports – congrats to Brian on his FX race
RPS
Bazyl Motorsports
Rebellion Motorsports
Vanmar- Michelin
DynoJet
BAB leathers
Codeffects.com

How did you or Marcus know the shock needed to be rebuilt? Could marcus feel it when he hopped up and down on it? Was it rebound that was out? I was real loose as PPIR until I moved my ass back in the seat a bit.. but that position makes it tough for me to get in my head down position.. and my front was still sticking.. from the sounds of it if you were losing your front moving back in the seat would have made your front even worse..so it would not have worked for you. Anyway.. please if you don't mind, I'm trying to understand why the shock was making you loose without it being really obvious to Marcus initially.

J

[Hoopty]

Sweet man, that's quite a bit of improvement on the times from last weekend. You were looking good out there, but I could tell you were getting tired. I need to work on my conditioning too. Looking forward to following you around at the next MRA races there.

[AshliRider44]

Great job Gene!!!!

[ebazyl]

How did you or Marcus know the shock needed to be rebuilt? Could marcus feel it when he hopped up and down on it? Was it rebound that was out? I was real loose as PPIR until I moved my ass back in the seat a bit.. but that position makes it tough for me to get in my head down position.. and my front was still sticking.. from the sounds of it if you were losing your front moving back in the seat would have made your front even worse..so it would not have worked for you. Anyway.. please if you don't mind, I'm trying to understand why the shock was making you loose without it being really obvious to Marcus initially.

J

The shock was going for a while. I first discovered it when I was cleaning my bike for Barber, it had oil residue on it. Through a whole series of factors it did not get taken care of at the time....don't want to post them up publicly.

Either way when a shock is going, your suspension will start to fell loose. As if it is just melting under you. It will usualy make the rear spin a little bit easier, but more controllably/predictably - which is a sign of not enough rebound dampening.

As for your suspension, I am not expert and do not claim to be one. However if moving further back into the seat made your suspension feel better sounds to me like it was an issue with the geometry of the motorcycle or your preloads. First thing I would do is go to Marcus's website and make sure that your rider sag is set up properly. If it is, I would try raising the front of the motorcycle by depressing the fork in further into the tripple.

[Hoopty]

Speaking of which, you want to give me a hand setting my sag, Gene?

[ebazyl]

Speaking of which, you want to give me a hand setting my sag, Gene?

Sure, you wanna do it at SCR on Thursday? I am kinda itching to ride again.

[ebazyl]

two world famous riders signing autographs

I should email Taichi with that photo!

Thanks for the pic.

[Hoopty]

I've got a softball game scheduled for Thursday at 6:15, so we'll have to see about that.

[ebazyl]

Oh yeah.

[japrules]

How did you or Marcus know the shock needed to be rebuilt? Could marcus feel it when he hopped up and down on it? Was it rebound that was out? I was real loose as PPIR until I moved my ass back in the seat a bit.. but that position makes it tough for me to get in my head down position.. and my front was still sticking.. from the sounds of it if you were losing your front moving back in the seat would have made your front even worse..so it would not have worked for you. Anyway.. please if you don't mind, I'm trying to understand why the shock was making you loose without it being really obvious to Marcus initially.

J

The shock was going for a while. I first discovered it when I was cleaning my bike for Barber, it had oil residue on it. Through a whole series of factors it did not get taken care of at the time....don't want to post them up publicly.

Either way when a shock is going, your suspension will start to fell loose. As if it is just melting under you. It will usualy make the rear spin a little bit easier, but more controllably/predictably - which is a sign of not enough rebound dampening.

As for your suspension, I am not expert and do not claim to be one. However if moving further back into the seat made your suspension feel better sounds to me like it was an issue with the geometry of the motorcycle or your preloads. First thing I would do is go to Marcus's website and make sure that your rider sag is set up properly. If it is, I would try raising the front of the motorcycle by depressing the fork in further into the tripple.

Thanks brother! This is really helpful.. Bart from TK adjusted me up but it was just a quick baseline.. I need to start learning how to make these adjustments.. I guess I should print out some stuff and start making some adjustments at the track.. Yeah, oil on the shock IS a dead giveway... as soon as you see any oil your shock is done in my experience.

Thanks again, this was really helpful.

joe

[ebazyl]

No problem, feel free to catch me at the track and ask questions.

However is there is something wrong with your suspension, don't live with it, try to make it better.

[Hoopty]

hey japrules, read this for some good info. Check out his whole website. http://www.roadracinghelp.com/LessonBook/School.htm

[japrules]

hey japrules, read this for some good info. Check out his whole website. http://www.roadracinghelp.com/LessonBook/School.htm

Thanks.. I'll read this instead of the 12 things I should be doing it work.. much more important!

[Mista Black]

great link hoopty!! i'm gonna read that at work tonight instead of my usual sleeping

[Hoopty]

This is from his website too, the tuning overview. http://www.roadracinghelp.com/NewCat/SMV7.0.htm

[Hoopty]

I love learning things instead of doing less important stuff.

[Anonymous]

Click the compression damping link at the bottom of the tuning overview. Where the hell did that cute little picture of Marcus come from?

[ebazyl]

Click the compression damping link at the bottom of the tuning overview. Where the hell did that cute little picture of Marcus come from?

[japrules]

Click the compression damping link at the bottom of the tuning overview. Where the hell did that cute little picture of Marcus come from?