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Old September 28th, 2016, 05:52 PM   #42
Burphel
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Name: Brian
Location: NW USA
Join Date: Aug 2016

Motorcycle(s): Triumph Bonneville, Ninja 300

Posts: 204
Project Day 8 / Testing Day 1: Sept 23rd

So, the bike is almost ready for tech. Packed it up yesterday and drove out to the track, unloaded late at night and set up the uHaul trailer for camping. The morning was cold and rainy. No refunds for track days, but I didn't want to take an untested bike out on a wet track, so I decided to use the morning as a soggy couple hours of project time.

*Took the bike through track day tech. Passed with flying colors, and nothing seen that they could see needing done for raceday tech.
*Put together my new SVRacingParts front pin stand, using the largest pin. Piece of cake, and nice and sturdy.
*Pulled the front and rear wheels and took them over to the Dunlop trailer to get a set of Alpha 13s and 90 deg valves installed. Kept the stockers for re-sale if anybody wants 'em.
*Stuck in new fork springs. Traxxion Dynamics calculated 0.875s for me, a bit softer than I'd been expecting, but still a good deal stiffer than stock and they turned out OK in the afternoon.
*Wheeled the bike over to KFG, the local suspension guru to check my sag settings (since that's all I got). They gave me a nice discount on their usual baseline service since I didn't really have anything to adjust. Turns out I was way over on the front and way under on the rear. Nothing to be done with the rear as it was already on the highest setting.
*Took the bike back, opened up the forks again (have I mentioned that I hate the guy who designed the circlip cap?) and shaved ~15mm off both preload spacers. Cleaned, deburred and reassembled the forks. Wheeled the bike back over and it was close enough.
*Drilled and wired the exhaust hanger bolts. (Before loading the bike Thurs, I'd stuck the stock muffler back on and RTV'd the heck out of the joint to the header so it had time to cure)

At this point (around noonish), the track was starting to get a dry line, so I threw on the warmers, suited up and took her out as soon as my group rolled around. Turns out the tire warmers I got from SVRP are 3-temp ones. Fancy! I don't know what to do with the other 3 temperatures, but I'll figure it out. If nothing else, I figure I can put it on low to keep my feet warm in the trailer at night. I got about 3 laps in, very gingerly since my brake pads still needed bedding and the "dry line" was about 3ft wide in some places - like the braking zone at the end of the back straight. The big thing I noticed was a shuddering, gravelly sensation in the front when braking. It didn't make things particularly unstable, just didn't feel right in a way I'd never experienced before. Asked around, but no real answers.

Second session, I put in a few more laps, a little hotter since the track was drying nicely. Another rider chased me for a bit and after coming back in commented that my chain was rather loose - thinking maybe that could be part of the problem. So I readjusted and lubed it. About this time, the racer selling me his spare fairings arrived. I decided to leave them off for the time being since I was still unsure what was causing the handling problems and would have been a bit tight on time anyhow.

Third and final session, I went out for the full 20min. Pretty fast, although the shuddering was still there, especially at the end of the straights. Chain maintenance hadn't done much for handling, although it picked me up another 3mph on the front straight.

*After I finished for the day, I noticed gear tech for racing was opened up already. Cool beans, walk over in my dead cow suit and get my stickers!
*Fitted up the fairings and the Zero Gravity Touring screen I'd ordered (I can't get my chin to the tank, so I figure I'll take all the aerodynamic help I can get). The Dzus fasteners I got are too short, but I'm informed by my mentor that zip-ties will do as long as the main bolts are done right.
*Peeled off the old numbers. As soon as I took the backing off to put mine on, it started to rain again .

Cue "screw this, I'm going to bed."
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