Time for an update on my pathetic life.
I will be returning to the Palmer Mass track in approx 2 weeks for Memorial day weekend. I have booked Sunday and Monday. My update here is just to establish my personal goals, in writing. Back in 2019, I solved my big handling/body position issues and have steadily improved since. Enough about boring old me, lets talk riding!
My best lap time around Palmer is currently 1:55.? and my goal is to improve this time to 1:50 on Sunday. I know this sounds like a lofty goal for a guy who was running 2:16 laps this time last year but many things have changed. Let me explain before you make a decision if I am "pushing too much".
After solving my BP issue, I added a set of offset tripples and changed to Pirelli tires vs the Dunlop Q3+ tires I had been running. Since I messed with the geometry of the bike and switched tire MFG's at the same time, I decided to put the stock gearing(which is very high) back on the bike. With the much smaller rear sprocket (6 teeth smaller) I could pull the rear wheel back to its maximum making the wheel base much longer and the bike a little slower to turn in but more stable and less likely to slide/spin the rear. Stock Ducati gearing is crazy high giving the bike a theoretical 178MPH top speed which the motor is incapable of reaching. With my lower gearing I can top 155 and at Palmer, you do not need much more. OK so we have lower gearing now, new tire brand, better geometry and I had the track Guru set my suspension up, so feeling bike turns much better, has better stability, better acceleration and handles the rough stuff much smoother. All this adds up to potentially better lap times(rider dependent). Should you have been following my issues in the above thread, you will be aware of my issue of not holding the throttle wide open-especially on the long straights. My trip to Road Atlanta has cured this for me. The back straight at Road Atlanta is fast and long and if you dont hold it pinned, its much longer!! The throttle on the R6, I was lucky enough to have borrowed, is much heavier(return spring) than my Duc and I still have not regrown the skin on my hands from the blisters I got holding said throttle at the stop for a lllllooooonnnnnggg time! Burrr Burrr Burr goes the rev limiter at 148MPH.
Now we have a bike with better geometry, better suspension and lower gearing along with my new ability to hold open the throttle longer and you can see that 4-5 seconds is not that big a jump. I am not planning on running any harder (at approx 80% my possible pace now) than I have been but all these changes should make this goal obtainable.
I mentioned in the above thread that I have not had any negative feed back from the bike just compliance for anything I have asked of the bike and loads of positive feedback from tires and suspension, telling me its ok to add a little more speed/throttle each session/lap. Ducatis are expensive to fix so I dont want to crash at least as much as you, but the bike is telling me its OK to keep slowly increasing pace and I am happy to do so!! I feel like my current level should be at the 1:50 level but I have been approaching it cautiously. I will, of coarse, be careful not to risk my health and bike nor my fellow riders but I feel that this goal will fall with no danger to bike nor body.
Should anyone disagree, Please speak up. I appreciate any concerns that may be expressed as I only know what I know and nothing more! Ride safe and thank you for listening/reading my babbling on about this stuff
