ECK 576 - LRRS Round 1

[s a x m a n]

FRIDAY/SATURDAY
So this hasn’t been the weekend I hoped for so far. I was in NJ Monday and Tuesday this week working with TonysTrackDays.com and I started to experiance front brake chatter. I thought it was the rotors, so I replaced those with new EBC rotors. I go out for practice and I still have the chatter … great. Work with Peter Kates all day Friday, make some adjustments to the front end, but still there. During practice I’m 4+ seconds off pace. Didn’t end the day too pleased.

Saturday morning rolls around and I just need to ride through this problem, get out for practice finally get back in the 18s and start to feel better.

Race 4 - MWSB
This was the definition of “meat grinder class” today. I get a great start and I’m with the lead group, just what I wanted As we come through 12 a guy highsided two bikes in front of me, which caused a red flag. Restart, I get an awful launch. Front wheel in the air through the gears, 12th or so into 1. We all come into 3 and some guy forgot how to brake for turn 3, screams up the inside of all of us, smoke pouring of his tires as he locks them up and t-bones the guy at the apex taking them both out and a 3rd guy with him. I thought for sure red flag as I look back going up turn 4. No red flag, front group already gone … bummer. Put my head down, couple guys got by me quickly. I ended up riding to a 14th place without too much around me.

Race 13 - MWGP (Dash for Cash)
I got a good start going into turn 1, top 10. Couple of the quick guys zapped me quickly but I was hanging with the front group. On lap 3 three bikes got by me. They pulled a gap quickly so I had to play catch up. Once I start to reel them back in after 1/2 way, they started to hold me up. The front group start to pull away at this point. I worked hard at picking them off one by one. The 2nd of the three blew turn 1, easy advancement. The guy just a head of me I was able to reel him in through 1, 1a, 2. I ended up getting him on the brakes into 3. The final guy I reeled in on the 2nd to last lap. I followed him for the lap to see where I had more on him. 6-9 was my faster section. As we came over 8 I stayed tight and held the gas for a little longer and made the pass on the outside of 9 (fastest I have been through there). He saw me and started to try to pull, but I just applied the throttle as I was not going to give this up after all that work. Ended up finishing 14th out of 33 and got down to the low 17s.

I am hoping to get back into the 16s tomorrow. Everyone seems to be off pace this weekend by several seconds, so I don’t feel so bad for being 1 second off. If I can find the 16s again I should be fighting for a top 10 spot.
Weather is amazing up here this weekend. Couldn’t ask for anything better. I tried a new compound combination with tires today as well. Yellow (medium) front and Blue (super soft) rear. Felt great! I could trail the brakes into the corners much deeper with out the “floating” feel and the blue rear just sticks like glue! Love it!

SUNDAY
Today was a much better day for me. I was still fighting bike issues, but was able to ride around them a little more. Morning practice saw me get down to the 18s pretty quickly, including a high 17. Still slower than I want to be, but it seems to be par for the weekend.

Race 4 - MWSS
I got an awful start, wheel in the air at the line and got buried into turn 1. I was able to get a position back going into 1a, but I couldn’t even tell how far back I was. We get through lap 1 and I’m behind my buddy Ron Poulin, #318. I follow him close through lap 2. As we hit the front straight, red flag. We grid up again, and I get a MUCH better start this time. I’m 6th into turn 1. The front 5 pulled me through 2 faster than I have ever been at the start (1:19 out lap). I quickly get zapped in 3. I hold 7th for the first 2 laps, then #91 gets by me. I hang with him for a couple laps, but he starts to put a gap on me. I keep looking back coming out onto the front straight and see that I have a decent lead on 9th, who happens to be Ron again. I knew I had to keep riding hard to keep him at that distance. The last 4 laps I rode home to a solid 8th place. This is my best expert finish in MWSS, so I’m pretty pumped. My times are still not there (mid to low 17s), but I was able to get a good start and hang onto a top 10 position.

Race 9 - HWSB
Didn’t get a great start this time and almost high sided myself coming out of 2, so I was push back very quickly. I found myself behind Ron Poulin again. It took all I had to stay with him, but I didn’t have anything for him to try and get by. I would close the gap in a couple sections on the track, just to have him pull away in other areas. Ron and I had GREAT battles as Amatuers last year, and he has bumped up to Expert for this year. I really look forward to racing with him again this year! We ended up finishing 12th and 13th. I was exhausted and happy to have finished the race and the weekend on two wheels. (=

It was great to be back at Loudon with LRRS. I just have the best time with everyone up there. Its such a great family there and these weekends are the highlight of my year. Thanks to all that came up to support me and the team this weekend, my parents, Neal and Carrie, Rick and Heidi, Kate, Haley and Nick, Tim, Mark and Julie, and Jason. It was great having everyone up there cheering us on!

2 weeks until we do this again! I have to get this bike sorted out before then.

[nt650hawk]

[QUOTE=s a x m a n;694506]FRIDAY/SATURDAY
So this hasn’t been the weekend I hoped for so far. I was in NJ Monday and Tuesday this week working with TonysTrackDays.com and I started to experiance front brake chatter. I thought it was the rotors, so I replaced those with new EBC rotors. I go out for practice and I still have the chatter … great. Work with Peter Kates all day Friday, make some adjustments to the front end, but still there. During practice I’m 4+ seconds off pace. Didn’t end the day too pleased.

Saturday morning rolls around and I just need to ride through this problem, get out for practice finally get back in the 18s and start to feel better.

Race 4 - MWSBWe all come into 3 and some guy forgot how to brake for turn 3, screams up the inside of all of us, smoke pouring of his tires as he locks them up and t-bones the guy at the apex taking them both out and a 3rd guy with him. I thought for sure red flag as I look back going up turn 4. No red flag
QUOTE]


It was great seeing you out there. I could tell something was not quite right that way you were running. You'll find that go fast button soon enough.

I was working T10 and saw the situation the whole way. I knew this was going to happen. He was 3" from the right side grass the entire way in. "There is no WAY anyone can make this work." Bang..... All the bikes pretty much came off the line. We had to push the 2nd wave over but had everything sorted by the time you guys came back around. To my amazement everyone faired pretty well. Zach was a little sore but fine.

[Gecko]

Race 4 - MWSB
I thought for sure red flag as I look back going up turn 4. No red flag, front group already gone … bummer. Put my head down, couple guys got by me quickly. I ended up riding to a 14th place without too much around me.

Right up until the last lap, last corner.... Great racing with ya again and finally putting a face to the name.

[s a x m a n]

Right up until the last lap, last corner.... Great racing with ya again and finally putting a face to the name.

Looking forward to the next round with ya. Poulin and I were battling it out Sunday. Between us 3 it should be some great battles this year!

Can't wait to see the video! PM. I might have a place for you to upload it too if you have a decent network connection.

[Paul_E_D]

Nice job. Don't worry about not getting to last years pace all at once. That really shouldn't happen. Your timing will be a little off after 6 months away. If you *could* get back there in a day it likley means you weren't really pushing you limit last year...

The number of crashes the first weekend is so high because people think they should do a certain time instead of letting their timing and feel come back naturally.

[BMFR6]

good seeing you again jamie, nice work. i'll be curious to see how you make out with the brakes after a caliper rebuild.

[Paul_E_D]

Oh yeah, Brake chatter. That's a tough one to track down. When you replaced teh rotors did you also replace the carriers? It's usually the soft aluminum carriers that warp, not the actual rotors. Did you check them for runout?

Also, have you crashed since last year? If the bike doesn't have radial calipers, the mounting tabs on the fork bottom can bend...

[s a x m a n]

They are radial calipers. I'm going to rebuild the calipers (due for it anyway) and see if that helps at all.

[seth399]

alex pointed you out to me while you were racing, you were flying good when we watched man!

[Pittenger5]

alex pointed you out to me while you were racing, you were flying good when we watched man!

[s a x m a n]

Thanks guys, I started to feel better as the weekend went on. Its all about the start for me in this expert class. If I can get with the front group going into 1 and I stand a chance of being in the top 10, otherwise I make a lot of work for myself.

[nt650hawk]

Just a shot in the dark.
Maybe the tires.
Break the beads and reseat and rebalance them.

Maybe not so if it happened with 2 separate tires... Just a thought.

[palanon]

It was great seeing you out there. I could tell something was not quite right that way you were running. You'll find that go fast button soon enough.

I was working T10 and saw the situation the whole way. I knew this was going to happen. He was 3" from the right side grass the entire way in. "There is no WAY anyone can make this work." Bang..... All the bikes pretty much came off the line. We had to push the 2nd wave over but had everything sorted by the time you guys came back around. To my amazement everyone faired pretty well. Zach was a little sore but fine.

Sorry if a restart would have helped.

We had a small but really good crew for 3/10. We had quite a few crashes in T#3 and entrance to T#4 that I normally would have called for a red flag. With Gino and the guys, I felt we could clear even the hairy crashes.

I think we had 8 or 9 visitors on Saturday. I only called for the red once. Even though he and the bike were on the line in T#4, we probably could have cleared that one too but, he needed the Bus.

I'm sure you'll get it sorted by next weekend. Everyone seemed a little rusty at first and the grids were pretty big. 12 days to go!

[s a x m a n]

Just a shot in the dark.
Maybe the tires.
Break the beads and reseat and rebalance them.

Maybe not so if it happened with 2 separate tires... Just a thought.

happened with 3 different sets of tires

[Paul_E_D]

What's the exact symptom? where does it start? I chased a brake chatter issue for over a year. I resolved it with less aggressive pads and less aggressive braking technique.

[s a x m a n]

At VIR I had none of these issues. It started at NJ ... nothing changed on the bike.

Under braking heavy braking the there is a vibration in the bars and you can see the dash bouncing up and down. I don't feel anything in the lever though. Occassionally when I was griding up from the warm up lap I would feel pulsing in the front end under light braking.

[Paul_E_D]

Do the bars wag at all? Have you serviced the steering head bearings? I know that's a weak link in the CBR

[s a x m a n]

no wag in the bars, and no sounds from the steering head. I've had that issue before and there was a distinctive "clunk" in the front when I first hit the brakes

I'm going to pull the front end to inspect just in case as well

[nt650hawk]

Replace with needle bearings if you have not done so.

[a13x]

Nice riding Sax! I was off my pace as well but it'll come together.

[OreoGaborio]

Good racin' bro. Ya went fast, kept it upright & stayed safe all while riding around a bike w/ an iffy front end... I'd call that a successful weekend Thanks for the warm welcome to the ECK team.

[NeverlosT]

Could it have anything to do with running the brakes in the wet at NJMP?

My mountain biking team coach always said "you dont need brakes, they will just slow you down!!"

He was crazy though.

good going, I hope to come watch you guys next race weekend.

[TTD]

Could it have anything to do with running the brakes in the wet at NJMP?

I've run in the wet countless times and never had an issue, so I don't think this has anything to do with it.

Anything funky on the trailering trips back from VIR and down to NJ? Somehow possibly tweaking something?

[butcher bergs]

Thinking one of the caliper pots might be seized and is putting uneven pressure on its respective pad and disc.

Just a thought if everything else like the head bearings have been checked.

[TTD]

My problem with the brakes being the issue is that I don't think it would cause "pulsing"... but simply drag?

Who knows though? Gotta be systematic and rule out everything.