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Buell Motorcycle Forum » Quick Board Archives » Archive through June 16, 2004 » Killing the elephant in Ohio... « Previous Next »

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Reepicheep
Posted on Saturday, June 05, 2004 - 11:39 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

To anyone considering doing a battletrax event...

Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It! Do It!

I did my first today, waaay too much fun. About 15 people showed up and stayed for most of the day... mostly XB's.

Sure enough, right before the timed events, a pickup truck with a Cincinnati Fire Fighter and a Honda 450 with lots of custom work to be tuned for super-motard showed up and smoked the field.

He pulled about a 1:31 on the course. A guy from Lima on a nicely tweaked X1 was smoking along at 1:33 or so. A couple of serious folks on XB's were managing 1:39's or so. After a lot of runs (this was my first Battletrax) I was finally able to break down into 1:39.60 on my Cyclone, which was a huge thrill.

I have a Metzler Z6 road tech on the rear, a Metzler Z4 on the front, and if you look closely at both these tires, you can see a little elephant molded into the rubber at the extreme edge of the usable tire surface.

Today I killed the elephants!

I have never pushed the Cyclone so hard... and was amazed to find I was plain out of room to lean. The Banke pegs were folded all the way in, with them and my riding boots scraping all the way around the turns, as far over as I could get, with good confidence. What fun!

So anyway, the M6 seems to be wearing REALLY well, and was holding great with as much lean as a Cyclone can manage, and felt to have plenty of margin left. Those were great results, given that everyone else riding in that time range was doing it on pure sport rubber, not the sport touring rubber I had.

And let me again sing the praises of my Cyclone. It does SO much SO well.

Next run in two weeks in Eastgate in Cincinnati, I hope to be there. I'm hooked!
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Crusty
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 09:41 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Bill, if you're hooked that quickly on Battletrax, don't EVER try a track day. If you get on a racetrack with your Cyclone, you'll never want to go home. Battletrax is fun (a lot of fun), but racing is a whole order higher.
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R1DynaSquid
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 10:21 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

1:31 for a B-trax course? How frickin big was it? The ones Reg does around here average between 40-60 seconds for the fast guys.

The one we had in Peoria was huge & was still just a little over a minute.
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R1DynaSquid
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 10:23 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Bill, also be very very careful of lowsiding on your left side. The shift linkage for the tube frame buells will get torn up very very easily. In 2002 we had quite a few bikes that it happened to & every single time a tube frame Buell went down on the left side the shift linkage was trashed.
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Reepicheep
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 11:03 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

The course was probably a little bigger then a football field, and they used just about every inch of it, it was like Arena cross, where just about every inch of pavement was used at some point. Very tight and twistie.

Thanks Dyna, I have already thoroughly "race radiused" everything on the left side of the bike from a couple left side low sides... I have the banke shifter and pegs, and they seem to slide quite well, I have always bent them back and been back on my way. Should probably replace the handlebar though, its about half an inch higher on the left side then the right, and it probably won't protect the tank (which is also currently slightly "race radiused) as well anymore.

I would love to do a track day, in a non-competitive "make yourself a better rider without worrying about the other guy" setting. What rocks about battle trax is that I felt like I was pushing the bike to new limits, with only minor risk, and did not have to worry about anyone hitting me or me hitting anyone else. And if I did lowside, the damage would have been measured in the $10-$300 range, not the $500-$3500 range.
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Outrider
Posted on Sunday, June 06, 2004 - 09:38 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Bill...another tip that Bomber gave me a while back was to remove a good percentage of the tabs on the side stand. You might want to send him a note requesting better definition.

Oh yeah, Dyna is spot on about the shift thingy. That's the reason why Spidey carried a spare with him to the B-Trax event at the Buell 20th and ended up having to use it. Good thing he stopped BattleTraxing after he rebuilt Mary Jane this last time. If he didn't, she was going to divorce him. LOL
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Reepicheep
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 02:22 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Checked the slips, it was 39.6, not 1:39.6, Dyna was right, so subtract the leading 1's from the above times. My first run was 45.51, and they went steadily down from there.

Did not get far enough down to hit the kickstand tab...
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Bomber
Posted on Monday, June 07, 2004 - 03:51 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

the rubber kickstand bumper, if left at it's original thickness, ALMOST proved my undoing during my first track day -- I was grounding the lowest portion of the kickstand regularly . . . and fel the rear tire unload just a tad a couple of times. . . . .trimming the rubber bumper to half thickness raises the end of the kickstand a great deal, and, poff, hey, presto . . .clear leaning til the pegs grind!
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Outrider
Posted on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 - 12:52 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Custodian/Admin Only)

Bomber...Thanks for keeping me honest. LOL
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