Track days. Can't beat them. Yeah, yeah, they seem expensive at first but the money stops mattering after your first one. I am almost completely done riding on the street. My eyes are now opened to the real dangers of traffic and all that, but that is not what this thread is about.
TIRE PRESSURE! Check it daily. If ya don't you could get lucky.... so why not just remove LUCK from the equasion? you gotta let your engine warm up first thing anyway, right? RIGHT? A couple minutes of warmup of the engine is perfect time to check your tire pressure.
For the n00bs: stock busa recommends 42 front and rear. And that works most of the time. But if you wonder how rossi, hayden and the rest do it, well, they have super special super stickie tires with tire warmers and you can't run those compounds on the street... effectively. Frist trackday, I learned to lower my PSI to 30 - tires heat up and PSI goes to 34-35 range. still less than 42, bigger contact patch, more rubber getting heated up and stickie due to all those rotating contortions. Great. I run 36 on the street usually, and although the turning feels a little heavier, it's awesome at speed and feels planted.
But what to do what it's cold out? Well, I'm rattling on so I can share my recent experiences on that topic. Cold day at the track. Here's how it went:
It was cold maybe 40s- 50s like, and I lowered my tires to 30 like normal thinking okay they wil heat up fine in a few laps. Nope. I grannied them too much and they only went up 2 PSI. AND the track was cold, tires were not heating up, I felt some ugly sliding happening and was not pleased. So I lowered them to 27 in hopes that would make them heat up a little better, giving me some grip, and increasing the PSI a tad. only went up about 2 again and grip was no better. I sat out a session and messed around on the computer thinking the tires would drop back down to 27 and maybe that is the best I can do on this crappy day. I checked the PSI before the next session and they had DROPPED to 26!! Maybe cuz it was getting colder as the day progressed. Anywho, I thought, screw it, let's give it a shot and hit the track.
It was almost dangerously low for me. The bike took on a brand new experience that must be similar to having a flat. It pushed to the outside of EVERY turn and and that is scarey on a slick track! I backed off and went in after only 3 laps. It sucked! Now I know what the lowest limits if PSI I should run on a twistie track - and I would NEVER run that on bumpy standard roads - track surface is very different, smoother, a lot more trust worthy.
I bumped them up to 32 and my busa went back to railing on the turns and feeling much more planted. I don't know what I was thinking, but it was a great learning experience I wanted to pass on
Anywho, I don't recommend it. Unless you are going in a strait line on a drag strip. That's completely different
42 - high speed, long touring, high way, commuting
36 - having fun on any surface, heating up and sticking
30 - trackdays
you mileage may very
TIRE PRESSURE! Check it daily. If ya don't you could get lucky.... so why not just remove LUCK from the equasion? you gotta let your engine warm up first thing anyway, right? RIGHT? A couple minutes of warmup of the engine is perfect time to check your tire pressure.
For the n00bs: stock busa recommends 42 front and rear. And that works most of the time. But if you wonder how rossi, hayden and the rest do it, well, they have super special super stickie tires with tire warmers and you can't run those compounds on the street... effectively. Frist trackday, I learned to lower my PSI to 30 - tires heat up and PSI goes to 34-35 range. still less than 42, bigger contact patch, more rubber getting heated up and stickie due to all those rotating contortions. Great. I run 36 on the street usually, and although the turning feels a little heavier, it's awesome at speed and feels planted.
But what to do what it's cold out? Well, I'm rattling on so I can share my recent experiences on that topic. Cold day at the track. Here's how it went:
It was cold maybe 40s- 50s like, and I lowered my tires to 30 like normal thinking okay they wil heat up fine in a few laps. Nope. I grannied them too much and they only went up 2 PSI. AND the track was cold, tires were not heating up, I felt some ugly sliding happening and was not pleased. So I lowered them to 27 in hopes that would make them heat up a little better, giving me some grip, and increasing the PSI a tad. only went up about 2 again and grip was no better. I sat out a session and messed around on the computer thinking the tires would drop back down to 27 and maybe that is the best I can do on this crappy day. I checked the PSI before the next session and they had DROPPED to 26!! Maybe cuz it was getting colder as the day progressed. Anywho, I thought, screw it, let's give it a shot and hit the track.
It was almost dangerously low for me. The bike took on a brand new experience that must be similar to having a flat. It pushed to the outside of EVERY turn and and that is scarey on a slick track! I backed off and went in after only 3 laps. It sucked! Now I know what the lowest limits if PSI I should run on a twistie track - and I would NEVER run that on bumpy standard roads - track surface is very different, smoother, a lot more trust worthy.
I bumped them up to 32 and my busa went back to railing on the turns and feeling much more planted. I don't know what I was thinking, but it was a great learning experience I wanted to pass on
Anywho, I don't recommend it. Unless you are going in a strait line on a drag strip. That's completely different
42 - high speed, long touring, high way, commuting
36 - having fun on any surface, heating up and sticking
30 - trackdays
you mileage may very