2016 northeast track day thread CT MA RI NY

[Ducati999]

I sent the $$ paypal this morning. I hope they arrive for the weekend but like you said, there is little chance I will need them. I found some rims on E-Bay for a good price but the wife does not want me to buy right now! I doubt I will need them this season as this may be my last track trip for 2016. I will try to get some nice lightweight rims for the "DRY" tires over the winter and mount the "Wets" to the stock rims for next season.

[Sirref]

I'm looking into getting a second set of rims for the wet as well this winter. Also planning on doing some powdercoating

The black and green is going to get a serious upgrade between actual paint and powdercoating Not to mention a longer list of sponsor stickers. Gonna be running white plates next year too

[nickjpass]

Originally Posted by Sirref

I'm looking into getting a second set of rims for the wet as well this winter. Also planning on doing some powdercoating

The black and green is going to get a serious upgrade between actual paint and powdercoating Not to mention a longer list of sponsor stickers. Gonna be running white plates next year too

Congrats

[backinthesaddleagain]

Good to meet Ant and Andrew today. Too bad our garages were at polar opposites at the track. Glad to finally get back on the track today - should be sore and tired tomorrow.

[backinthesaddleagain]

anyone else in for the TTD Sept 25 or the Razees TTD Sept 26 at Thompson. I'm in for both.

[adouglas]

Maybe 9/25 but can't promise.

[backinthesaddleagain]

Maybe we can get CC Cowboy up to Thompson???

[adouglas]

Ace TTD instructor Paul Duval narrates two laps of Palmer.

What's amazing about this isn't the speed, which is impressive as hell... it's that he's talking like this while riding.

For reference, I something like 25-30 mph slower (or more) everywhere. In the video below my best lap is 2:04. Paul's riding 1:55s here.

Wow.

Link to original page on YouTube.

[adouglas]

Kayso... This weekend was pretty freakin' awesome. Had some kind of breakthrough and was dragging my knee all over the place, very confident, yadda yadda.

During an afternoon session on Saturday, I encountered my buddy and pitmate Ant (Ducati999), so I followed him for a couple of laps, then I passed him and he followed me. REALLY fun stuff....

While preparing this I watched some video I shot in May 2015, at the same track. Last year, lap times were in the 2:27 range. This session, fastest time was 2:04. What a difference a year makes!

Some fun camera angles here, too, including a "Lorenzo cam" angle that I find useful for checking body position.

Link to original page on YouTube.

@Ducati999 @backinthesaddleagain @Sirref @csmith12 @Bigballsofpaint @Koala

[backinthesaddleagain]

Cool video - hey in your other video's what is that overlay program that shows location , speed, lean? is it tied to an onboard gps?

[adouglas]

It's called RaceRender. One of my cameras has GPS, and the program senses that and extracts the data. Very powerful program, not that expensive.

I didn't apply it to this video because there's one part where the camera angles are not a real-time cut... that'd cause the data to go out of sync. I'm sure there's a way around that but frankly I lack the time and dedication to figure it out.

PS: The same company makes a mobile app called TrackAddict, which I also have. I was hoping to just stick my phone in my leathers to capture GPS data, but the update rate on phones is very low. Makes the data unusable.

[backinthesaddleagain]

Guess I'll have to buy this one.

[adouglas]

Arcy didn't catch me with my knee on deck, darnit. SOO close...

[csmith12]

Nice! Look at you two sandbaggers....

[backinthesaddleagain]

Originally Posted by csmith12

Nice! Look at you two sandbaggers....

haha - I got my butt whooped in blue all day as TTD ran 3 groups and not a black group

[Koala]

Nice vid, I totally dig the "Lorenzo cam" lol. A real nice angle to get a good view of the body positioning.

Just curious, why did you guys go for the novice group. I'm pretty sure either you or Ant had said you guys do novice at Mid Ohio but the more advanced groups at Palmer.

[adouglas]

Mostly because it was undersubscribed for the day. Intermediate was pretty full, and passing is fun. There were a couple of freight trains early in the day, but we're so much faster than most of those riders that it really isn't an issue for more than a corner or two. Easy to see in the vid... many passes made with no problem at all.

One of the nice things about Tony's Track Days is that once they're confident that you're not a moron, all you have to do to switch groups is ask. We could have bumped up any time, but we just never felt the need.

We went intermediate the following day.

[backinthesaddleagain]

Steven and John did the same that weekend.

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by adouglas

Had some kind of breakthrough and was dragging my knee all over the place, very confident, yadda yadda.

I challenge you to figure this out for what worked for you. For when you identify it, you can start using it as a base to judge future events.

When I was coming up, your words ring LOUD and CLEAR in my mind. It was like magic... one day I just went faster for no good reason. No smoking gun, no evidence to the cause. It just kinda happened and from what I have seen is fairly common. It took me 2yrs to figure out why and start taking advantage of what the breakthrough was for me. For me, it was vision/throttle/terms. When I saw what my arse (terms) and my eyes agreed upon what my right hand was gunna do, BOOM! I went faster, leaned more. Perhaps yours is similar?

Like I have mentioned to others here, there is yin and yang. You can learn from the positive just as much as the negative. It just takes a flip of the mind.

[Sirref]

Originally Posted by csmith12

I challenge you to figure this out for what worked for you. For when you identify it, you can start using it as a base to judge future events.

When I was coming up, your words ring LOUD and CLEAR in my mind. It was like magic... one day I just went faster for no good reason. No smoking gun, no evidence to the cause. It just kinda happened and from what I have seen is fairly common. It took me 2yrs to figure out why and start taking advantage of what the breakthrough was for me. For me, it was vision/throttle/terms. When I saw what my arse (terms) and my eyes agreed upon what my right hand was gunna do, BOOM! I went faster, leaned more. Perhaps yours is similar?

Like I have mentioned to others here, there is yin and yang. You can learn from the positive just as much as the negative. It just takes a flip of the mind.

This 1000x this, last season I had so many unexplained breakthroughs but wasn't able to keep hold of those streaks of brilliance. Some days I was hot, some days I was cold and I couldn't tell you why because I didn't know.

I made it a point to figure that out this season and it took recovering from a crash for me to finally understand it. My breakthroughs came back when I stopped thinking so much and just directed the bike with the flow. Thinking while riding is great while practicing, but for me thinking too much means I'm not focused entirely on the execution of the task at hand so I can't ride nearly as well.

If I had to put it into a more tangible skill/technique I'd say it's my steering confidence in knowing exactly how the bike will respond to my inputs. Only now am I starting to reach issues that are limitations of the bike rather than limitations of my mind

The amount of confidence that comes from understanding yourself better as a rider cannot be understated.

[Ducati999]

Hey everyone,
I hate to disrupt the discussion above as it is relevant to everyone. I am sorry I have not been able to post for the last week. There are only 3 guys in my Department and we cover 109 conference room over 14 floors supporting 1700 people at this site. The guy who takes care of our servers went on vacation and I had to cover for him along with all my regular responsibilities. Been a really rough week but he is back today! I hope to have time to edit the videos from Palmer and get them posted.

As most all of you know, I crashed my bike. Simple low side caused by (evidenced in the video) poor throttle control and amplified by some other issues I will describe in the write up. Let me know if I should write up the crash story here or in the "Crash Thread".

I would also like to say THANK YOU to everyone for there concern for my safety after the crash. I was not hurt, other than a small bruise on my forearm, and the bump on my head from the FACE PALM I gave my self for hitting the throttle while at max lean and full load on the tires (100% traction + 40% throttle= slide into tire wall)

[adouglas]

Hi Ant...

Seemed a pretty straightforward thing. Biggest lesson learned is workload/distraction, I believe...

If you feel like posting, I suggest doing it here in the spirit of the board. Most members aren't track riders, and the crash board is, I think, intended for street incidents.

[backinthesaddleagain]

Originally Posted by Ducati999

Hey everyone,
I hate to disrupt the discussion above as it is relevant to everyone. I am sorry I have not been able to post for the last week. There are only 3 guys in my Department and we cover 109 conference room over 14 floors supporting 1700 people at this site. The guy who takes care of our servers went on vacation and I had to cover for him along with all my regular responsibilities. Been a really rough week but he is back today! I hope to have time to edit the videos from Palmer and get them posted.

As most all of you know, I crashed my bike. Simple low side caused by (evidenced in the video) poor throttle control and amplified by some other issues I will describe in the write up. Let me know if I should write up the crash story here or in the "Crash Thread".

I would also like to say THANK YOU to everyone for there concern for my safety after the crash. I was not hurt, other than a small bruise on my forearm, and the bump on my head from the FACE PALM I gave my self for hitting the throttle while at max lean and full load on the tires (100% traction + 40% throttle= slide into tire wall)

Main thing is you are ok, and bike can be fixed.

[Ducati999]

Well here it is, the video you all have been waiting for! Enough of the endless posts asking when I will put this video up! You should watch the entire video to see that I was riding fairly well before hand and waited for the tires to warm up before I started to really go faster. I up shifted after the turn #6 just before entering turn 7. When I went to put my foot back on the peg, I did not get it far enough in and my foot was dragging on the ground. You can see the bike twitching as I attempt to get my foot into proper position. I had begun my lean and put my weight onto that side which would not allow me to reposition my foot. Since my foot was dragging I could not get as far off the bike as I had been the previous laps and I had to lean the bike over farther than on other laps. I was fully distracted with my boot (which now has a hole worn into it) dragging on the ground and when I opened the throttle I was a bit to abrupt! The crash is just after 12:30 minutes in but you should compare that lap to the others.

Link to original page on YouTube.








So lets hear what you see VS what I describe. Im not the only one that can learn from this crash!

[Ducati999]

Originally Posted by adouglas

Kayso... This weekend was pretty freakin' awesome. Had some kind of breakthrough and was dragging my knee all over the place, very confident, yadda yadda.

During an afternoon session on Saturday, I encountered my buddy and pitmate Ant (Ducati999), so I followed him for a couple of laps, then I passed him and he followed me. REALLY fun stuff....

While preparing this I watched some video I shot in May 2015, at the same track. Last year, lap times were in the 2:27 range. This session, fastest time was 2:04. What a difference a year makes!

Some fun camera angles here, too, including a "Lorenzo cam" angle that I find useful for checking body position.

Link to original page on YouTube.

@Ducati999 @backinthesaddleagain @Sirref @csmith12 @Bigballsofpaint @Koala

I watched both the videos this one is made from and @adouglas did an incredible job of editing them together! You can really see both of us working and the different camera angles give an awesome perspective of what lines and speeds we were doing. Awsome job! I want a copy of this video for my laptop so I can play it on the 10ft tall video wall at work!

[Ducati999]

Bumping this back to the top of the list! I would like for someone to give me their take on my crash. I don't get upset and just want to learn from my mistake. Even if you agree with my assessment of my mistake, I would like to hear what you see and think. We don't learn much from our own perspective so I would like to hear some feed back on what you all see.

Ant

[adouglas]

Stand by my original take. I think you tried to do one too many things at the limit.

With so much power on tap, the distraction of trying to reposition your foot/stand the bike up to get it off the ground, plus the sudden roll-on... down she goes.

[Ducati999]

Originally Posted by adouglas

Stand by my original take. I think you tried to do one too many things at the limit.

I totally agree with this as noted in my write up. I want to see if anyone sees something we are missing or if some of the really experienced track riders have anything else to add that we may not have noticed.

[csmith12]

Sorry Ant, I have been super busy with work, family and the end of season honey do list items. I briefly watched the event, bummer. Will review it again in more detail ASAP!

[Bigballsofpaint]

I dunno man, from your vid i think you just gave it gas at the wrong time or too much of it and it spun up on you. More of the "rachet" throttle maybe you would have noticed the rear slipping a little, you could have maintained and it sort itself out. Not sure really, this is why i really like the idea of having traction control but it isnt the end all. THe most surprising thing to me is it happening coming out of the bowl, we're always told how much grip it has.

Also, from watching Andys vid following you im seeing your BP is pretty off. Im not sure at the time of the lowside but in the video you seem kind of crossed up the entire time. Butt is off the seat but your head is behind the windscreen or straight up. Your head should be lower and more to the mirror.

Im a victim of the same BP i think, its really tough. Im glad your OK and the bike can be fixed, and on that note.....Complete Race motor for the 848 has been ordered, with slipper clutch, along with a Bazzaz unit with the T/C option and quickshifter. Simple drop and swap as hes including the radiator, oil cooler, everything with it. Gonna try and have it together to maybe get the last lime rock day in, or possibly take a trip to NJMP in early October.

[adouglas]

My name is Andrew Douglas and I approve this message.

[adouglas]

Club Motorsports at Tamworth NH is coming on line next year (yay!).

For those who don't know, this is a brand-new track about an hour north of NHMS. Looks like Tony will be running there.

The @ttd crew was invited up for a test last week, and naturally Ken gave us some video to drool over. Word has it that speeds are similar to Palmer.

Video starts on the front straight, about at pit-out.

Link to original page on YouTube.

[Bigballsofpaint]

Yup, already excited for it and will make sure i do a 2 day up there. I thought it was going to be private by there website and everything, maybe they didnt get the memberships they thought they would which is good for us right now.

[ttd]

This was definitely a fun place... couple of 100mph corners (one left and one right), along with some long sweepers that are slower.

Real small bikes will be struggling a bit on the uphill half, but then enjoying the downhill half.

Larger bikes (I am on a 1000cc Honda) will use mainly second gear and only shift on the front straight... which is the same I do for Palmer.

[ttd]

FWIW, it sounds like the members that did buy in are going to get first opportunity at the beginning of the year (or as soon as the track is actually ready).

Like any new thing, I am sure the members will go a lot at first... and then as the newness wears off they will slow down... and that's when dates will start opening up.

I don't have any high hopes of riding there before August or September of next year.

[Ducati999]

Originally Posted by Bigballsofpaint

I dunno man, from your vid i think you just gave it gas at the wrong time or too much of it and it spun up on you. More of the "rachet" throttle maybe you would have noticed the rear slipping a little, you could have maintained and it sort itself out. Not sure really, this is why i really like the idea of having traction control but it isnt the end all. THe most surprising thing to me is it happening coming out of the bowl, we're always told how much grip it has.

Also, from watching Andys vid following you im seeing your BP is pretty off. Im not sure at the time of the lowside but in the video you seem kind of crossed up the entire time. Butt is off the seat but your head is behind the windscreen or straight up. Your head should be lower and more to the mirror.

Im a victim of the same BP i think, its really tough. Im glad your OK and the bike can be fixed, and on that note.....Complete Race motor for the 848 has been ordered, with slipper clutch, along with a Bazzaz unit with the T/C option and quickshifter. Simple drop and swap as hes including the radiator, oil cooler, everything with it. Gonna try and have it together to maybe get the last lime rock day in, or possibly take a trip to NJMP in early October.

Jay,
I don't know if you read my write up but I had to lean the bike over more than usual (read the post for why) and I got way too aggressive with the throttle. Traction control would have saved me but so would me not being stupid with the throttle! I know I need to get my head lower but I am still learning and have improved a lot over the last season. Still need more work but as I get better I also get faster and then need to improve certain areas as they become more obvious. Great score on the "race" motor for the 848! Cant wait to get back out on the track with you next season!

PM: SENT

[backinthesaddleagain]

Sweet. Another track. Awesome. Looking forward to two days at Thompson Sunday and Monday.

[adouglas]

More good news for those who like the way @ttd runs things...

Announced today is a deal that will have Tony's Track days running at NYST in 2017. Dates will be Sundays and Mondays.

[ttd]

Originally Posted by adouglas

More good news for those who like the way @ttd runs things...

Announced today is a deal that will have Tony's Track days running at NYST in 2017. Dates will be Sundays and Mondays.

To clarify, we are running ONE event for 2017 ... it will be a Sun/Mon combo.

Depending how that goes, we'll see what happens for 2018 and beyond.

Most likely, Palmer and Thompson will be the majority of our dates... with NYST and Club Motorsports rounding out the calendar... with an occasional Loudon thrown in.

Considering we will run NYST and Thompson in both directions... and maybe even Palmer... this should give riders quite the variety.

[Sirref]

@Ducati999

Link to original page on YouTube.