Racing a K@#$ in July

[Monsterdood]

So I had been working on a new Kawi race bike to chase more contingency and have actually sold the SV. So although I am still a SocalTwinRider, I am not specifically a SocalSVRider anymore.

It was 107F air temp on Saturday and 114F at the corner workers station. The track surface was around 130F-140F. In short, it was hot.

I only got in two practice sessions on Saturday and then chased Cody around in the Solo race. I had some suspension setup issues mainly in the way of a loose upper triple clamp. I didn't discover this until Sunday morning though and once I saw it, the sensation I had of a flat rear tire sudenly made sense.

I had the forks redone by Catalyst Reaction courtesy of Tige at cyclemall.net and after a couple of tweaks and after I tightened the triple clamp down (like I should have done in the first place), they were feeling really good and giving great feel and feedback. Note Tige did not install the forks, I did, he just revalved and resprung them. We worked on the penske settings too and got the bike pretty darn close to where I like it.

The biggest issue I have is that the motor feels soft around 7k-8k and there are one or two corners where I lose time if I downshift one more to get the revs up and I lose time when the engine is in the 7500 rpm range. I need to work on those corners..... and maybe the mapping there to help a little too.

A couple of distinct impressions now that the bike is set up similar to my old and pretty fast SV650.

The bike turns easier and transitions easier than the SV. I was hitting some lines I would not have hit on the SV because this bike turned in that much quicker.

The motor up top is now similar to my old SV, but the SV was more stock than this one. Hopefully with a little more tuning and switching to Full Synthetic, I can get it slightly stronger than the SV. The mid range is worse than the SV by ~5HP or so. I can definitely tell it has a softer drive out of turn 1 and turn 3 where I was still just doing 1 downshift.

There is a lot more engine braking than the SV and this is slowing me down in places where I could maybe use 2 downshifts instead of just one. I think this might be related to a heavier crank and the use of the counter balancer. A lightened crank and counter balancer might pay some divedends or a simpler way might be a slipper clutch. I still have some work to do to figure out the engine characteristics.

The bike is about 15-20 pounds heavier than my SV with a similar build. I think the steel frame and subframe (what's left of mine) are driving the weight up. I would have thought a parallel engine would be lighter than a V, but Kawi may have added some extra beef in a few places for reliability, low vibraiton, cost, or something else. Not sure which engine is lighter. Oh yeah, the fuel injection system surely weighs more than the flat slides with pod filters on the SV.

Oh yeah, how did I do on Sunday? I got within 1.7 seconds of my previous best with a couple of places I know I was losing time due to the soft mid-range / engine braking effect. I got a 1st, a 2nd, and a 3rd. I got 2nd to Curtis Adams who built an 89HP Kawi and who teaches at the track. No shame there. And I got 3rd to a couple of Ducati's, 748 and a 749, and I didn't finish that far behind them. So it was a really good weekend. Did I mention I lost 5 pounds in the heat? Forget Jenny Craig, just go racing at Willow in the summer!

[Kurt'sSV]

It's kind of fun to develope a new bike, yeah?

I'm surprised Curtis bothered with that much motor work with his Kawi. He could run on one park plug and still win, no offense.

[Monsterdood]

Originally Posted by Kurt'sSV

It's kind of fun to develope a new bike, yeah?

I'm surprised Curtis bothered with that much motor work with his Kawi. He could run on one park plug and still win, no offense.

He could beat you with one spark plug , but I'd take that challenge

It has been 80% not fun working on / fixing / developing the new bike and 20% fun when it kinda worked a little.

Getting the mapping and suspension a little better were fun and rewarding, but not enough to overcome 5 months of angst building up.....

[Kurt'sSV]

Originally Posted by Monsterdood

It has been 80% not fun working on / fixing / developing the new bike and 20% fun when it kinda worked a little.

Getting the mapping and suspension a little better were fun and rewarding, but not enough to overcome 5 months of angst building up.....

Hahaha, yeah, what you've been through the past 5 months have sucked. You should have just stuck with the SV.

[live2suck]

Originally Posted by Monsterdood

He could beat you with one spark plug , but I'd take that challenge

It has been 80% not fun working on / fixing / developing the new bike and 20% fun when it kinda worked a little.

Getting the mapping and suspension a little better were fun and rewarding, but not enough to overcome 5 months of angst building up.....

Been there, done that ... come to appreciate the uneventful days at the track. Good luck with the new bike, I'm sure you'll get it dialed in and get used to it soon.

Congratulations on your finishes.