scuzeme

VMCC ROUND 4
Well another round behind us, VMCC Round 3 to be precise and it just seems to be a never ending money eating business this racing lark, ya might as well be stuffing $50’s into a meat grinder especially if your crasher from way back lol.
If you want to be semi competitive a good second hand last years nationals machine might set you back around 12K to 15k then there’s the spares like levers, clipons, rims fairings, rear sets another 3k, then there’s support gear like leathers, helmet, boots and gloves back protector stands, tyre warmers, tools, engine liquids, 3k to lets say 5k then there’s individual meeting costs like race fees, fuel, tires, transport, accommodation, meals lets say another 500 to 1.5k depending if your using new tires every round and depending on where the round is. Many do it for much less and some spend a lot more but you could easily and I say easily spend 30k which includes your bike in one race season, even with my machine and spares and tools and safety gear left out of the equation im still spending between $600 to $1200 per meeting depending on location a duration.
Interestingly money can buy you speed but not skill hehe and I see many guys going out investing in the latest suspension set up TTx this and TTx that expert technical analysis between races, rejet, diaphragm, spring size, rebound, tyre pressure, fuel weight blah blah blah all good then Craig Sheriffs goes out there on a stock Honda SBK and demolishes the field he’s not the only one that’s been out there stock machine carving it up there are a few others doing very well this winter series on stock set ups.
There are things we can do to make our bikes faster the cheapest thing would be for A LOT of us to go on a diet Hahhaa at club level you could invest big $$$ on ramping up the horse power.
My Yamaha is particularly fast all my ground is made up on the straights at the mo which I lose just as quickly round the corners, this is where suspension comes in, but what does high spec suspension really do for us? Well to put it simply and without getting too technical it does two things 1. It extends the boundaries of your bikes handling capabilities 2. It causes the bike to be more forgiving when you upset or extend its handling capabilities.
So this is where we reach a conundrum a paradox a catch 22 situation because we have a lot of people out there my self included that aren’t really pushing the envelope when it comes to handling but we have the bling suspension and we would probably go no slower on a stock setup but we think that because we have the Ohlin’s, WP etc that it will make us faster! Then we have the true experts who can go out there on stock suspension and still beat a very good rider on bling suspension.
An expensive high tech front and back end set up can make you brake later, carry more corner speed and lean angle and allow you to get the drive earlier but what a waste of money if your skill level isn’t up to the mark.
There certainly is a huge lack of knowledge and ignorance out there and when you can’t see the enemy the best option for a lot of us is the expensive scatter shot. By this is mean you may be having problems with a handing issue and because your stupid, impatient or just plain retarded you’ve decided to get the latest $2500.00 TTx shock that will “solve or your problems” that’s an expensive scatter shot! Have you set stock suspension you have? Hows your front and rear sag? What about your bikes general bike geometry? Hell why don’t you check your tyre pressures dude or maybe even look at your riding posture.
If you can get the fundamentals right, even general bike maintenance, you may be able to get more out of your machine without spending the $$ therefore making your racing season cheaper.

A two sides of the coin footnote:
VMCC Round 1- Slone Frost approached me after a practice session and talked to me about my riding position being too rigid, seems I was moving my upper body around but my arse was too planted on the seat, he told me to push my knee forward into the corner I was turning into and that this would help my lower body position.
I had been fighting with my bike for weeks it just didn’t want to turn in and every race was a physical battle, after putting his advice into practice the handling issue was 75% solved and I got a 2 second drop in lap times across the board.

VMCC Round 2 - Robert Taylor and Dennis spent 5 minutes in my pit discussing my bikes issues which included still fighting the front end a little a lack of confidence in the rear powering out of hairpin and tight corners after a few measurements and a couple of suspension adjustments I felt the that front end struggle was another 10% better and the rear was atleast 50% better this dropped me another second which put me in the 15’s around Manfield!

Please try the low tech options before you spend money on the high-tech options you may find out that you can go surprisingly faster for surprisingly less in the rounds ahead.
Sure a mod here and a mod there my give a rider a fraction of a second but who is the rider? it may give Hayden, Craig or Andrew 500ths of a second but these guys are at the top of there games, ive seen Hayden Fitzgerlad come through the 90 Degree corner at the far end of the long track at Manfield carrying so much speed that the whole bike is drifting out towards grass edge at the last millisecond he pops a wheelie so the front tyre rides across the air above the grass while he uses the rear to steer himself back onto the track! Truly the best bike handling ive ever seen in the flesh.
Dont be fooled by the tech talk, before you go and lavish out on some bike bling ask your self these questions:

1# Am i applying good bike racing fundamentals to my racing.
2# Have i done everything i can to maximize my bikes current setup.
3# Does my bike riding ability go beyond my bikes set up.
4# Have my laptimes stagnated or reached a plateau.

Cheers