My crash at Meremere, 3 November

[The Reibz]

Had a quick look, like choppa said cold tyre ? (and high pressure ?)
Shit yourself and yanked the front brake ????
Can see you launch slowly which shows doing 11 sec on a Busa.

ps I see you are 24, have you been riding long ?

Been riding 7 years. Last accident was about 3 years ago when I was being a hooligan on my 250.
Brakes felt like they were fading so I did give it a bit more lever than I should of. Should have let them cool off properly before doing another run. Ah well its done now, time to fix up the plastics and get her back out there.

There is visible blueing on the right hand disk and it did look a bit warped. I will take a good look at it when I get home.

A little bit stiff this morning but I still managed to run the 3km's to work. I will get up some pics of the damage to the leathers tonight and a couple more of the bike

[roogazza]

There is visible blueing on the right hand disk and it did look a bit warped. I will take a good look at it when I get home.
A little bit stiff this morning but I still managed to run the 3km's to work. I will get up some pics of the damage to the leathers tonight and a couple more of the bike

Wouldn't have thought brakes would over heat drag racing? Unless the blueing is a pad down to the metal ??
Being a little stiff in the morning is a distant memory I'm afraid, make the most of it !!! lol.

[The Reibz]

Yeah im a bit suspect of the front right brake now, it felt like brake fade (GEN1 Busas are pretty notorious for it) but then all of a sudden it came straight on. I was giving it a bit of lever so im going to call it operator error hahaha. End of the track seemed to be comming up awfully fast and panic braked once the fade started.

Ah well time to start fixing her! Lucky im a hands on sort of guy. All it needs is the brake light replaced (got a spare one in the shed) and a bit of plastic welding to get it road legal again. Im gonna have a go at plastic welding, doesn't look awfully hard compared TIG or overhead stick

[F5 Dave]

What you did wrong?
Yeah you launched it just off idle (which is easy to write from the comparative safety of my keyboard).

But the crash? well clearly something was going on with the keyfob & that likely caused the imbalance pushing you off to the right. I think its probably safer to remove it.

[Thaeos]

You forgot to wave..

[quickbuck]

You grabbed a handful of brake with a high tyre pressure that was cold?
Brake fade wouldn't have resulted in a lock-up, it would be the opposite.

how old is the fluid? If Dot 4 then anything over 12 months and you will have enough water in it to boil when applying brakes hard in quick succession.
The water expands with heat and this can mean your leaver is in a different place so brakes will come on slightly earlier than you expect.... might have been what happened?

I would have taken a few pounds out of the tyres myself. 42psi is for a Busa that is on the road at 100km/hr.... Not down a drag strip...
You would actually want your tyre to be fatter (by being flatter) for the stopping part... There is no need for it to be of a good shape to turn the bike in on a strip.... and it's completely usless for the launch other than weight on the front...

Next time remember to get the springs compressed before applying heaps of pressure.

[JayRacer37]

There is visible blueing on the right hand disk and it did look a bit warped. I will take a good look at it when I get home.

A little bit stiff this morning but I still managed to run the 3km's to work. I will get up some pics of the damage to the leathers tonight and a couple more of the bike

Sounds like a warp or stuck piston to me. Over two stops (even from 140mph) in 5 minutes time, it shouldn't have any significant fade, no matter how crappy the fluid was, and for the one heat up I would suggest you riding back round to the front would have pumped the system back up. Perhaps the lever bite point grew with some temperature (which would be normal) and you grabbed it like the bite point was further down the stroke, as if the system was dead cold? Tyre temp would play a big part too as at that point after sitting it would be damn near dead cold and unresponsive.

You grabbed a handful of brake with a high tyre pressure that was cold?
Brake fade wouldn't have resulted in a lock-up, it would be the opposite.

how old is the fluid? If Dot 4 then anything over 12 months and you will have enough water in it to boil when applying brakes hard in quick succession.
The water expands with heat and this can mean your leaver is in a different place so brakes will come on slightly earlier than you expect.... might have been what happened?

I would have taken a few pounds out of the tyres myself. 42psi is for a Busa that is on the road at 100km/hr.... Not down a drag strip...
You would actually want your tyre to be fatter (by being flatter) for the stopping part... There is no need for it to be of a good shape to turn the bike in on a strip.... and it's completely usless for the launch other than weight on the front...

Next time remember to get the springs compressed before applying heaps of pressure.

Pretty much agree...no tyre flex, no time to warm, high pressure so narrow contact patch - all added up to a mess when a bit much brake was used. Although a disc bluing after just a few stops (remember you do 140mph to slow multiple times a lap on track so no excuses for fade over one stop per 5 mins...) seems a bit sinister, like something else is going on creating heat...

[The Reibz]

Had a quick look over the brakes, left one looks fine but there is still a bit of bluing on the right rotor. Will get it up on a jack over the next couple of days and give it a spin to see if its straight or not. Can't say I noticed anything out of the ordinary with it on the way home.

looks like there are going to be a few late nights in the shed ahead of me.

Thanks for the informative posts Jay and Quickbuck. You both obviously know a shitload more about these things than I do.

[Mom]

By the way I walked away with only a small bruise on the elbow and a cut on my finger. Not to bad for 150kph

I thought speed kills?

[F5 Dave]

Nah it's the sudden stop. So lack of speed kills.

[roogazza]

I thought speed kills?

I'm more jealously concerned with his morning stiffness , Mom !

[SWERVE]

If one of your discs is blue then that would in turn heat up the fluid causing fade...... maybe you pulled a bit harder to compensate and the other disc suddenly took effect. A thorough strip down of the system is what I would advise..IMHO
And try launching around the 7/8 grand mark and using the clutch...... should results in low 10.s

[mossy1200]

If one of your discs is blue then that would in turn heat up the fluid causing fade...... maybe you pulled a bit harder to compensate and the other disc suddenly took effect. A thorough strip down of the system is what I would advise..IMHO
And try launching around the 7/8 grand mark and using the clutch...... should results in low 10.s

I had a look at my weekend runs on the footage and was leaving the line and not dropping under 7k. Managed to get into the 9s just.

[scumdog]

Sounds like a warp or stuck piston to me. Over two stops (even from 140mph) in 5 minutes time, it shouldn't have any significant fade, no matter how crappy the fluid was, and for the one heat up I would suggest you riding back round to the front would have pumped the system back up. .

My thoughts too - the time between the runs would have allowed the brakes to cool significantly.

[300weatherby]

On the subject of brake fade on a Gen1 Busa, I have managed 44's around Ruapuna on mine (just for shits and giggles) and it was good for about 4 laps before brakes were totally gone and I went motorcrossing- the occasional hard stop won't give you fade, that will only come with multiple hard stops in short order. (had braided lines not the OEM lines)

Just the once, wouldn't do it again, too f#^&king hard work and murders perfectly good road tyres, My race bikes are much more obliging (and a damn sight faster!)