| Author | Message | ||
     Duggram |
What would I gain by gearing down with the chain drive swingarm and new sprockets? Is the goal topped out in 6th at the end of the longest straight? At my home track I'm close to the rev limiter in 4th when I get to the end of the longest straight. Would gearing down hurt handling, help acceleration, or what? BTW I'm getting stickier tires this weekend and the bike is track only now. | ||
| Sd26 |
If I race Daytona or Road America, sure, I'll look to be in top gear, topped out, as those places place importance on top speed. Most other tracks, I gear for what works best in the corners. I think my XB is a five speed though...  Gearing can change steering head geometry including trail, weight distribution, etc. Do you know what you want? That's kind of a loaded question, really, as often you don't know if anything is necessarily better until you try it and sort it out a bit...and make sure that it leads to faster laps. | ||
| Duggram |
I was thinking of more acceleration. But I also don't want to be shifting twice as much because of lower gearing. | ||
| Trojan |
The goal should be to get the best drive you can out of corners whilst not running out of steam completely on the straights. Barry Sheene (a bit of a wizard at setup) always concentrated on corner exit rather than top speed, and he did pretty well by it  The stock XB gearbox ratios are pretty pants for track use as they are very widely spaced, so it will alway be a compromise. | ||
| Sd26 |
Duggram, I'm reading in your profile that you're on an 1125? Hence the sixth thing... And NM? I think the track down there is pretty small. Am I correct? A twin should allow you a little more opportunity to not need to use the gear box so much. It might not sound like it's going fast, but sometimes it does actually accelerate faster rather than being able to spin it up so much. But a lean condition in the mid range can kind of make you want to spin it a lot to get it going. I think RRW had a good test of the Ducati 848 with Chris Ulrich where one of the European racing regulars got Chris to use third gear rather than second coming out of a particular corner. It didn't feel or "sound" like it was coming out faster, but it just worked with the 848 Ducati twin. | ||
| Duggram |
Dave, you're right Arroyo Seco is pretty short (~1800' straight). I get what you're saying. Use the power characteristic of the twin which is what I've been doing. I really don't hit the rev limiter any more. But did with my first trackday (been to 4). Now I shift at ~9K. What I'm after is any kind of advantage. I start racing for the first time this weekend. I'm just trying to be competitive. | ||
| Sethbuchbinder |
Best thing you can do to have an advantage is to ride faster than the other racers.. Kidding aside, on your first race weekend I would not worry too much about tweaking the bike for max performance. A stock 1125R is perfectly capable of podium finishes in amature classes. The best thing you can do is focus on riding smooth and not letting the heat of competition push you past your comfort/ability level. Crashing out is a crappy way to start a race career. Since you only have 4 track days under your belt, your first taste of race pace will be a rather interesting experience. Dont get flustered and just try to stay on line and ride smooth. Above all make having FUN and being safe your top priorities. Good luck Seth | ||
| Trojan |
Take a look at the track you are going to race on and try to work out just how much time you will spend flat out in 6th gear. You'll probably find that on a lot of tracks you won't even use 6th, or if you do it will be for extremely short periods and won't get near the redline before shifting back down again. You will spend most of your time on the straights either accelerating or decelerating, so if you want an advanatge these are the areas to concentrate on by either gearing changes or braking improvements. Other areas to concentrate on are suspension and cornering. As it is your first race I would just concentrate on getting round safely and getting used to being on track with other people who want your piece of road Make a note of your suspension settings before you start, so you will have a base setting to go back to if you make a mess when 'twiddling'. Don't be afraid to try different setings just to see what the effect will be. | ||
| Surveyor |
Trojan, I couldn't agree more about setting up the chassis and I'd add make small changes to one setting at a time. However having recently done a trackday at the full Oulton circuit, I kept looking for another gear as my XB9r was revving out in top - its the first time I've ever felt that if a bike had more power I could actually use it! The old Anglesey, Mondello Park and similar tight circuits are the Buell's hunting ground bigger circuits seem to demand more power even if you do carry crazy corner speed. | ||
| Goldrush |
Trojan, I agree with Seth. The first race weekend is alot to get through. Focus on keeping everything your familiar with the same . What I mean is you already are use to riding the bike with the gearing the way it is. When you get finished the race you will have a different perspective than now. You will probably pick up 1/3 a second for however many turns there are. If you are barely going into 6th now you will definitely go into sixth in the race. Its funny when the flag drops you get super focused much more so than practice. Remember it is always better to leave a track thinking you could have gone faster than to leave a track knowing you went too fast! Good Luck! |
