Lost the rear

[alex.s]

Coming in hot into turn 2 I held it up a bit longer than normal scrubbing speed before I tipped in, went wot as it was on the way down, weight still up front from scrubbing the speed and the rear tire slid out under gas. Bike spun away. The worst part was dustin coyner making fun of me while I was explaining the crash to melissa Paris.

[Vergil]

You alright? Well, in one piece at least? More importantly, hows the bike?

[skilletmo]

Pics

[EternalNewb]

I'm too much of a newb to understand very well what went wrong, but I hope you're ok. How are the damages to the bike? Did you get to continue riding?

[alex.s]

Minor damage to the bike. Controls were busted so I put on spare sets but the external shift mechanism forks on the transmission seem to have slipped off the drum or something so she needs an engine bottom end rebuild. I hit my head pretty good so I've kinda been a space cadet. My suit is done... I liked that suit but it torn up pretty good. Bodywork needs love

[alex.s]

What went wrong was I applied too much gas when all of the bikes weigh the was shifted forward on the front tire. The rear tire didn't have any weight on it because I was slowing down approaching the corner. When I turned in, the front wheel took even more weight away from the rear tire so when I gassed the crap out of it like a retard while I was turning in just after slowing down, the rear tire spun up and the bike slid away. It was very sudden, there wasn't a whole lot to do to recover except not do what I did

[CC Cowboy]

Was this a trackday or race?

[EternalNewb]

Thanks for explaining. That really sucks. I hope you recover quickly and that getting the bike fixed isn't too expensive or troublesome.

[psych0hans]

Sounds painful bro... Glad you're alright!!! And more importantly you know exactly where you f**ked up, so you can be more careful in the future. Good luck getting her back in shape.

[choneofakind]

Nice. You're the first person I've ever read about to eat it from spinning the rear on a 250.

I hope you got yourself checked out. Bonking your head can be more serious than it initially looks.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by CC Cowboy

Was this a trackday or race?

last lap of qualifying... i was on my hot lap... would have set a great time too if i didn't eat it on the very last corner

[cuong-nutz]

post the vid!

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Nice. You're the first person I've ever read about to eat it from spinning the rear on a 250.

I hope you got yourself checked out. Bonking your head can be more serious than it initially looks.

thats what happens when there is no weight on the rear tire and you snap open a hand full of WOT

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by cuong-nutz

post the vid!

sorry, i had 3 cameras with me and none of them were running

[CC Cowboy]

Originally Posted by alex.s

last lap of qualifying... i was on my hot lap... would have set a great time too if i didn't eat it on the very last corner

Did you still get to race?

[alex.s]

no, i qualified 8th or something but the shift mechanism for the transmission got disconnected inside the engine or something and we were first to race so i didn't have any time to get inside before the races. sunday races got cancelled from wind but i was kinda out of it still so i went home on saturday

[tooblekain]

I remember coming into hot pit to practice a race start and I saw the bike in the small dirt island between the track and hot pit entrance and you off the distance. I remember thinking to myself "WTF???" I first thought you have a brain fart and wanted to come into hot pit and cut through the candy stripe and hit the dirt and dumped it.

Your post explains how you lost it. Fair enough. Odd to see the amount of crashes for the Ninja 250s this weekend. Was thinking its almost like the AM MW SS races.

[alex.s]

lol. that would have been even better than max's crash

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by tooblekain

I remember coming into hot pit to practice a race start and I saw the bike in the small dirt island between the track and hot pit entrance and you off the distance. I remember thinking to myself "WTF???" I first thought you have a brain fart and wanted to come into hot pit and cut through the candy stripe and hit the dirt and dumped it.

Your post explains how you lost it. Fair enough. Odd to see the amount of crashes for the Ninja 250s this weekend. Was thinking its almost like the AM MW SS races.

question... did it look like i was standing in the impact zone afterward? dustin said i walked from a safe zone where my bike was (if my bike is there how is it not an impact zone???) to the main impact zone of the turn.... but i walked like 50 feet straight away from the track... the main impact zone would be from people dropping it braking for turn 2 right? i dont understand where the "safe zone" would be in that situation... walk up pit exit and chill in hot pit?

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by alex.s

What went wrong was I applied too much gas when all of the bikes weigh the was shifted forward on the front tire...........

Very good explanation, Alex.

Could you next explain what happened between the last time that you posted about repairing your engine and this unfortunate mishap?

Have somebody check and compare the size of both of the pupils of your eyes every two hours for 24 hours.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by Motofool

Could you next explain what happened between the last time that you posted about repairing your engine and this unfortunate mishap?

i bought a spare ninja 250 for its engine, put the engine in the race bike and raced that. the clutch is completely different and i'm having a really hard time getting used to the bite on these clutch plates. they require a lot more feathering trying to launch or they just bite closed and either pop the wheel up to quick or make it bog... i hate to say it but i prefer the stock clutch compared to the fancy kevlar race clutch. what's funny is it had brand new rearsets that i put on the race bike... they got about 25 minutes of use before being destroyed. i like the position of the fancy ones but the woodcrafts were so much stronger... i crashed twice on the woodcrafts and only suffered minor damage... first crash on the fancy ones and they were toast.

the head bonk was a good 48 hours ago. feeling alright now. nurse fogle took a look at me and said i was fine so i trust his judgement... he took pole position that day so he probably knows what he is talking about.

edit: "fancy rearsets" == bohemian racing

[BlueHairSar]

Ugh, sorry, dude! Glad you're more-or-less okay!

Originally Posted by alex.s

sorry, i had 3 cameras with me and none of them were running

NOOOO!!! Your crash videos are my favourite!

[alex.s]

it was a fun experience

[tooblekain]

Originally Posted by alex.s

question... did it look like i was standing in the impact zone afterward? dustin said i walked from a safe zone where my bike was (if my bike is there how is it not an impact zone???) to the main impact zone of the turn.... but i walked like 50 feet straight away from the track... the main impact zone would be from people dropping it braking for turn 2 right? i dont understand where the "safe zone" would be in that situation... walk up pit exit and chill in hot pit?

Yea, kinda but IMO you were far enough to be able to avoid anything if something were coming to you. Crashing there is really odd honestly....IMO there is no real safe area other than hopping the fence and being in the pit area.

Off topic...I wanna know how Max crashed his bike without being on the track?!?

[alex.s]

we put new springs in and i told him to check how the preload felt. his sag was too tight, about 25mm... too much preload, but i wanted him to feel it with the preload too high so he could see the difference when we brought it back down to a proper sag... but the brakes and tires were ice cold and the bite when he hit the brakes just locked up the front instantly so he dropped it on the road leaving the pits. oops. my bad.

[cookiebug79]

Oh man! Sucks to hear about your crash! Any pics or video?

[alex.s]

i'll post some pics of the damage next time i'm at the garage. its pretty minor. unfortunately no video... only 2 witnesses which were on the bleachers but they couldn't see very much... max described it as "looked fast, good line, then you were sliding and there was a bunch of dust" so not exactly a detailed look.

[akima]

note to self - if in the states - do not lend alex my 2fiddy.

tracking sounds expensive. what's your wrecks per mile ratio?

off topic, but... do any of you 2fiddy racers use imported FI ninjettes? Would they perform better? Would they be legal to race with?

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by akima

note to self - if in the states - do not lend alex my 2fiddy.

tracking sounds expensive. what's your wrecks per mile ratio?

off topic, but... do any of you 2fiddy racers use imported FI ninjettes? Would they perform better? Would they be legal to race with?

yeah, it is. but if you measure in price per gallon of fun, it's much much cheaper racing. i would estimate about 1 crash every 300 miles on track for me. (2 crashes in my 1.5 years of track riding) note though i would never race someone elses bike unless it was one of those... "i crashed you out, take my bike" kinda deals... and even then i would be doing a victory lap, not a qualifying lap. in fact max even offered me his bike but i was still out of it from bumping my head so i didn't feel like going out again

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by akima

do any of you 2fiddy racers use imported FI ninjettes? Would they perform better? Would they be legal to race with?

Shadowwolf1117 did it. He claims it makes a lot of power and says he has dyno sheets to prove it. I looked into compatibility with my pregen a while back, but he had to swap pick-ups with the FI bike and we weren't sure if that would work with the pregen, so I went with aftermarket EFI stuff instead.

He's selling his ninjette, with imported FI system and everything. Thread is here:
http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=122272

[alex.s]

there are 2 300's in ULWS, the formula rules 250 class i race in (displacement rules- 4stroke 300cc and under)

[Trailerboy531]

Originally Posted by alex.s

we put new springs in and i told him to check how the preload felt. his sag was too tight, about 25mm... too much preload, but i wanted him to feel it with the preload too high so he could see the difference when we brought it back down to a proper sag...

Sounds like something you might want to tell the rider that you're sending off to test that bike...

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by Trailerboy531

Sounds like something you might want to tell the rider that you're sending off to test that bike...

i believe my words were "the preload is too high, about 25mm. but go feel it before we lower it"

[tooblekain]

ideally for race setup you 25-35mm preload. For street its 35-45mm preload

Then again, its all about preference.

IMO, if you're a trailbraker, lean towards the 25mm preload.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by tooblekain

ideally for race setup you 25-35mm preload. For street its 35-45mm preload

Then again, its all about preference.

IMO, if you're a trailbraker, lean towards the 25mm preload.

they showed it to tige and he said it was way too high. i'm going to cut him a pair of preload adjuster fork caps when i get the chance. changing preload with spacers is such a ****** way of doing it. the spring rate was 0.9 (i know, too high i say) so 25 mm was over sprung. combined with frozen brakes and tires and its pretty easy to lock up the front

[Trailerboy531]

Originally Posted by alex.s

i believe my words were "the preload is too high, about 25mm. but go feel it before we lower it"

actually your words were "holy **** it's perfect press on it again *presses* yeah its about 20mm that's where it should be. Go try it out" I remember this because I was thinking how the hell did this guy just stare at it compress and think he knows how many mm it just compressed.

Trust me, I didn't hit my head.

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by Trailerboy531

Trust me, I didn't hit my head.

hmm... i'll concede i can't really remember it very well

[tooblekain]

Originally Posted by alex.s

they showed it to tige and he said it was way too high. i'm going to cut him a pair of preload adjuster fork caps when i get the chance. changing preload with spacers is such a ****** way of doing it. the spring rate was 0.9 (i know, too high i say) so 25 mm was over sprung. combined with frozen brakes and tires and its pretty easy to lock up the front

Do you think you can cut me some preload spacers also? How much are you willing to do that for?

Also, at 0.9 spring rate, how much do you weigh Max? The springs can be way too stiff for you. If you were running the the OEM spacers in the forks and actually had 25mm preload you should be good but may need to adjust your riding to accomodate like emphasize trail braking type of riding and see how it feels.

I know Dean mentioned he was shock to see that Tige did not take measurements to make sure sag is properly set. Its the FIRST thing you should do. If you cannot achieve proper sag numbers first with the spring on there, any adjustments made would be like putting a band aid to a cut artery.

[alex.s]

we had cut some pvc spacers to try to match the uncompressed spring length of the oem springs.

matt, i'll cut you a pair of adjustable caps if you give me your old oem fork caps. (i just drill, tap, silicone and bolt the oem caps to make them adjustable) i should be able to bring a set next round, we can swap them then or whatever... gimme a text if you want them sooner and we can work something out

[bagtf3]

Was this on a 2 fitty? I didn't know they had enough power to do.... any of that.