vir checkin

[daviid]

im home safe.had a great time. nice seeing everyone again

[Paul_E_D]

Pictures?!

[s a x m a n]

Here are some of my favorites from the professional photographer





Chasing down Neal:




These shots were taken just as I passed Larry on the outside (HA! I wish!)




"bye larry ... thanks for the ride"



Had an awesome time and learned a good amount! It was great riding with neal because he has very good corner speed and I think I was able to pick up my entry and mid corner speed up in order to hang with him. It was a h00t to watch him brake into turn 1 ... so much later than everyone else. He was rockin' that thing all day. I was only able to do 3/4 throttle in 6th gear around the kink on the straight ... could never just hold it open ... my balls are still not that big.

I really started to work the bike with my throttle, and was able to hear the tires much more, which was great. I would get some pushing of the front, or slight spin in the rear, but it didn't bother me. It was all controlled. Neal said he noticed a difference in my drives out of the corners at the end of the 2nd day. I hope it translates to loudon now. (=

I'm that much more excited for the loudon season to start up now!

Thanks to degs for putting this together once again! Great track, great organization. Gotta start planning to go down in October now. hehehehe

[Ken C]

Excellent!

[brewmaster]

Got home about 4:00 am this morning. Now it's "time to make the beer". I think today will be a LONG one....

I'd do it all over again though! Great time, track and people!

[Awesome]

Sax, VIR speed definitly transfers to loudon speed. Might want to try loosening up that inside leg and not pushing it out so much. Instead of forcing it to the ground just leave it loose and let it dangle, you'll carry more speed and you can get much more lean angle.

[s a x m a n]

cool ... thanks! Always looking for more stuff to work on! (=

[Paul_E_D]

Nice pics, it's making me jealous. I had the flu all weekend though, and wouldn't have been able to ride anyway. Oh well, soon enough.

[SilverDragon]

What a great track! The ring ding gave me a scare but it turned out it was just the spark plug.. Oddly, as I was trying to figure out what it was, who rides by on a pit bike, but Brian McKraget! He asked if I was rejetting, and I told him what was up, so he helped me open it up and try to figure it out.. eventually we all scratched our heads, and he wandered off to return with a spare plug. What a great set of folks we pitted next to also, tons of great people and great riding.

[SilverDragon]

I will also say that I got some valuable input from a few people as well. I feel like I made some progress, and I have a better idea of what I need to work on.


I'm happy with this one, but its a left hander..


This one wasn't bad, but I sit more upright on right handers.


This is turn 7, from this angle it looks decent to me.


This is turn 7 again, and you can tell I'm crossed up.


There is plenty, but the new suspension has given me the confidence to slide the bike a little here and there. By the end of day 2, my rear was, for lack of a better word, chattering all the way through turns 10 and 11. The front chattered a little when I railed (for me) through 15, and I slid the front out once there and once in 17a leading on to the straight. Interesting feeling. For the front chatter, Paul warned me about that based on Peter Kates' spring rate choice. Its managable at my current pace, I'll talk to Peter about it soon anyway. No need to ride around it if it can be made better. I had some amazingly fun sessions playing cat and teeny tiny mouse with Jamie, but by the end of the day, he had just plain figured it out more than I did and began to pull away more than I could make up. Oh, and I need new legs, mine barely work now.

[highsider]

I just rolled in the door, left after the last session and drove straight home (via Honclfbr's place). Haven't slept since yesterday morning.

More later, but I had an awesome time.

[Paul_E_D]

The 125 shouldn't be pushing or sliding anywhere. That's a sign (along with the chatter) that it's too stiff. Of course, the rider is a factor that can be too stiff as well!

rear chatter is unusual. I'm not sure what's up there. It's not binding is it?

You won't be able to ride around it without losing all your fillings. The 125 is stiff as a board and chatter is punishing.

[SilverDragon]

I admit that I stiffen up a lot when I'm fatigued. To say that I wasn't by the end of the second day would be a big fat lie. The only reason I thought it was the rear is that when I rolled on the gas through 10 and 11, you could hear it in the engine, slip/grab/slip/grab ba-ba-ba-ba-bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I could also chaulk it up to the fact that I'm a newb and I still need to learn to ride the damn thing. heh. One thing about pushing the front, I think I ride the front tire hard in that after I opened the gas earlier in 17a, all was settled.

Paul, have you ever met Brian McKraget? Cool guy.

[s a x m a n]

Paul, have you ever met Brian McKraget? Cool guy.

really cool guy!

funny as shit too

"uhh ... what his name ... shit too many concussions ... damn, i can't remember his name" - Brian

[SilverDragon]

whats funniest is like 30 minutes later, he comes over and blurts out a name. I was like huh? He's like I remembered his name, thats the guy. I laughed.

I was talking about how I want to see the quick kids tear it up and that its gotta be a cool thing watching/helping them go fast. He replies, "I hate em', (laughs) just kidding, but they're just so damn fast". We talked a little bit about PJ from Celtic. I wanna go fast like they do, damnit.

[SilverDragon]

Paul, How long do slow-guy 125 tires last? Because after it started sliding and chattering (rear anyway) I thought, gee, whats different? I was like, oh.. 1 tony's track day, 3 race weekends, avg 2 races per, plus all practice sessions on friday, sat, sun, plus this VIR two day.. I wonder if the tires are just starting to go off. Its easily the equivalent of 1/2 a season I think. But I'm not just gonna go buy tires. I'll ride them at Loudon, talk to Peter about the setup, work the free tweaks first.

[Paul_E_D]

I think that's him next to me!


I only met him briefly that weekend, but he's regarded as the fastest 125 rider in America.

btw, sounds like your tires are done... Don't tune suspension to those things. Start fresh.

[Ken C]

I think that's him next to me!


I only met him briefly that weekend, but he's regarded as the fastest 125 rider in America.

btw, sounds like your tires are done... Don't tune suspension to those things. Start fresh.

And that's Josh Herrin in the green leathers behind you.

[LowSider]

I got home at 7:45, drove straight through behind HighSider. What an amazing time. Hell, I even enjoyed getting kicked out after crashing twice!

Pictues and what not later...

[snaggle]

Just got in, we layed over outside Harrisburg last night. Had a blast, great meeting some new people.

[SilverDragon]

I think that's him next to me!


I only met him briefly that weekend, but he's regarded as the fastest 125 rider in America.

btw, sounds like your tires are done... Don't tune suspension to those things. Start fresh.

Yep, thats him. He was on a silver/black SV at VIR on Monday as an instructor, #473.

Thanks Paul, for all the help with the 125, even from well before I had one. It seems like a really tight knit bunch, and I'm at home here. The bike is pretty nice, too.. lol

[Honclfibr]

I just rolled in the door, left after the last session and drove straight home (via Honclfbr's place). Haven't slept since yesterday morning.

More later, but I had an awesome time.

Glad you didn't die on the way back from vermont. Chris is a fucking machine, we got off the track at 5:30 yesterday and after a minor trailer incident (1 7/8 != 2) he drove straight through on no sleep all the way to my house for 7:30am, only to hop back in the truck and drive another three hours to vermont. And all it took was four redbull, two rockstars, and a few emergency pit stops on the side of the road (caffeiene is a diuretic? Who knew ).

Kickass time, great weather, beautiful track. What better way to start the season? Many thanks to Derek for organizing the event (again) and chris for hauling my shitty ass bike down to VA and back (again).

[zombie]

what a blast.
great time with everyone and got to ride the 600rr with slicks which was an amazing experience when they get hot. That poor bike was ridden by nearly everyone and by the end of day two was blowing smoke like a chimney
took Deg's 999s out and that thing is beautiful , but for grin factor highsider's motard was a blast.
now I'm going to have to go back down in october

[Paul_E_D]

Yep, thats him. He was on a silver/black SV at VIR on Monday as an instructor, #473.

Thanks Paul, for all the help with the 125, even from well before I had one. It seems like a really tight knit bunch, and I'm at home here. The bike is pretty nice, too.. lol

Yeah, wait til you get to race with the USGPRU. It's a great series.

[OreoGaborio]

uh yeah... i just got home 1/2 an hour ago...

Had a good time. Lots of up & downs... LOTS of downs, but a few really big ups to make up for it. As always, the NESR family is one of the best around.... despite a few bad apples like Chad