Hey there, thought I would get in a few words before I buggered off for new years.
What a friggan awesome couple of days weve just had in taup's. 2 days of bikes at the circuit for $90 bucks plus a couple cans of piss and a few bangers was unreal. Thanks Scrivy and the hard working crew for putting on a class event. I will be back next year and I should have my wheelies and rolling burnouts sussed by then so watch out Drew!
Thursday - practice(aka race day 1)
So, not so fresh from waking at 4.45am after a huge boxing day at wangas I finally arrive at the circuit, got my gear and bike checked with little fuss and find my garage with the KTL Ducati race team setting up (Drew and Vicky). Doh!, no lead to run the warmers but David Hunt stepped in to lend me his 30m (lucky boy) lead. Mark Anderson turns up late (but better than never) on a fresh (200km) SV650K7 with sorted suspention and load pipe. He's an ex chook chaser (so rides like he has a broom up his date or other items of amusement that they use in masterton) rider riding his first meet, so naturally coudnt let him beat me! In the meantime Skelstar and a bloody noisy scotsman with a rattley bike turned up (pitty I couldnt understand one word that came out of his mouth in the 2 days!, when you could hear him over his bike!). Poos was on hand to for helpful and thoughtful advice.
Now to the riding. Still havent gelled with the SV yet although its early days and this is only my 3rd time on the track with it and first since Ive put the clipons on and put the springs and emulators in the forks. Good news, the forks are awesome.. Bad news, the metzler m3 road tyres are up to 1100km's and I dont have the confidence in them to get the most out of the hot rodded forks. And to top it off, me front tyre warmer gives up the ghost in its 2nd usage! Still havent adapted me body positioning to the SV as yet and it still feels very alien. I have found from trial and error that my body is positioned too forward with too much weight being placed on the inside peg (and not enough on the outside) making the back end very unstable in turns (also by moving back an inch or 2, I can rest my arms on the tank). To top it off I dont know where my knee is so I need to hang off more. So just need the track time to iron out a feel things to feel comfortable.
So that said, I wobbled around like a beginner getting a feel for the track, trying to avoid being cutup by the 125's and Mr Love. Mark on the otherhand was fast from the get go, freak! I didnt get my knee down the whole day I wasnt having much fun but we all managed to get in a few sessions (although the 1o minute sessions seemed to go by a little tooo quickly!). I retired to hotel Suzuki SX4 for the evening to lick my wounds.
Day 2 (official race day)
First up was a 3 lap warmup. I was very happy with my lines and felt alot faster than the previous day (amazing the benefits of sleep), so I smiled for the first time and my face almost cracked. Sweet, looking forward to race time! and my back tyre warmer looked real hot all bunched up on the front tyre, such style!
Bad news... I had been nominated for row 4 start position! Very random but thats racing (without transponders) for you. Algood, will be good practise racing in traffic.
Goals of today: beat mark, beat roadrash, beat jill and spank sam love (a little optermistic maybe!).
Race 1
Though I had an awesome launch until mark shot past me from the fifth row! was all action as the bunch headed into first turn. Things spread out and I was having trouble getting past a few guys that were holding me up. the rush hour traffic was heavy and rewarded the brave, so I was f@#ked! I didnt have confidence to go underneath on the brakes on the knee to get past so I had to bid my time. I got past a couple and by the time I knew it, racing was over, finishing in 10-12'ish maybe. Its hard to say without official results *cough, cough*. At least I got me knee down and that got the monkey off me back (shit he weighed a tonne), didnt get past mark tho, he had a mostly traffic free race thanks to a good start and aggressive in the first few laps.
Race 2
Wheelied it off the start, stunters, hows those apples! I passed a few more than the previous race. Jaden on the 125 high sided INTO turn one making it hard to dodge a) a tumbling bike and b) a flying rider. got past road rash but a 125 and rs250 were holding me up. down pit straight I was coming up on the outside of the 125 and he veered over to block (it was cute how he thought I would back off), he was wrong, I didnt back off and didnt change my line and bumped him at 160+kph, funnily enough that spooked him and I got past. now time for the rs250, lining up to turn 1 on a low line I got underneath the 250 but ran it abit wide mid turn and gave him a love tap (opps my bad!). Raced some more till the chequed flag came out and might have finished 8,9,10th possibley, I would have really like to have known *cough,cough*. Had Jill lined up (the cheeking girl got a row 1 start, what did she have to do to get that I dont know ;>), didnt get past chook chaser tho and didnt quite get past mr love.
Race 3
Good start, got past road rash (fellow ex street stocker), passed tweety (smooth riding nicky), was up marks date but didnt get get past, got some superretard practice in at turn 1 backing it in (easy with no slipper clutch, was getting cronic chatter tho). Again had Jill in my sights but no pass and I came in behind mark. He recon's he got 6th so I got 7th(ish, maybe).
I dont really get on with Taupo much, I much prefer the fast turns so Im looking forward to manfield and puke round of the nats in pro-twins. But before then Im gonna be doin the C.D open day at manfield (all turns have been resealed and baby bum smooth dont ya know) in a couple of weeks. Then will throw a set of continental RACE tyres on and do the Auckland club round with chook chaser so plenty of opportunity to work on my technique. Also have to work on going from upright to on the knee fast while on the brake (fresh tyres should give the confidence).
Any advice on a cheap rear shock setup would be appreciated as I found that I run a little too wide in turn on throttle. A little more rear ride height would make all the difference (spring preload is would up). Current shock is OEM.
Cheers all for an awesome couple of days!!
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Originally Posted by t3mp0r4ry nzr
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