WERA Vintage racing Summit Point 6/2/13
 

Here is some footage of my races at Summit Point raceway this past weekend. I was in the Vintage V7 Heavyweight and V7 Middleweight races. The MW race was awesome, I battled for first and was able to make a pass out of the last turn for a 0.031 second victory!


Then in the HW race there was a downpour on the second lap in turn 4, the fastest turn of the track. The guy in first I was following didn't see the rain flag, and committed into turn 4 right as the downpour dropped. He went down and took out an airfence, but walked away ok.

Great video what camera are you using? Cant be a Gopro it sounds too good. I'll be at Summit Point next weekend for the NASA race - cant wait. Going to Mid Ohio this year??

What bike were you on? Doesnt look vtr-ish.

Looking good!!!!


A little DMr action would help get rid of that chatter..........

.....I couldn't resist, sorry!

Yup, it's a GoPro Hero, front and back, with the non-waterproof rear door. Yes I'll be going to the Vintage Motorcycle Days at Mid Ohio this year, CANT WAIT!

It's a 1990 Yamaha FZR400 frame with a 2002 YZF600 motor, R6 forks, ect ect....read my build thread in my sig below for more details.

Thanks!, Where is the chatter? What min/second of the which Video? I'll review and think back about it...

It has 99-03 R6 forks with racetech springs for my weight, their recommended fluid and level. A freshly rebuild fox TC shock sprung for my weight. I could use a little geometry fine tuning I believe, but I couldn't drop the forks more without rubbing my belly pan. I have aftermarket dog bones to raise the rear a little, but my spring contacts the swingarm at full extension, I need to clearance the swingarm a little more

It looked to be bouncing around in all corners. I know Summit is rough but that looked like your suspension to me. The R6 forks need A LOT of valving help, and if you changed the springs that has only gotten worse. The problem is the Soqi valving is terrible and it needs replaced completely, both compression and rebound. I offer discounts to racers so let me know if there is anything I can do to help you out.

It sounds like you are running a really aggressive chassis setup too. I'd raise the front and drop the rear a bit and I think you would be a lot happier. Of course, that assumes correct valving up front. Very often people compensate for bad valving with chassis adjustments. Don't be surprised if you end up with a much more conservative setup after damping improvements.

Yea summit is a little rough, especially T3, I trust your advice, I might be up for a front valving replacement...What would a replacement set cost me from you? We can discuss through PM if you prefer. I'm always looking to make improvements. I have not messed with the compression/damping adjustments much, if at all. I'm not knowledgeable yet suspension wise to know what adjustments would need to be made.

I don't know my exact fork/swingarm angles. It seems the rule of thumb around the track is to lower the front(bring the forks up through the triples) until the bike gets unstable and starts to head shake, then bring it back up some...I tried lowering the front but I was dragging my belly pan before I got any instability, so I figure I could still go lower on the front.

Shoot me an email (preferably not a PM) and I'll get you a quote.


That's what a lot of guys do, but that doesn't make it right! I think you are probably suffering from some stability problems with the bike setup like that. I've seen it a lot. I call it Rule #1 of Suspension - only make adjustments to correct a problem with the bike. That means you need to know what the bike is doing (or not doing) and adjust to correct it. Dropping the forks because "some guys online say to do it" is a recipe for disaster. Understand what your bike is doing and you'll be miles ahead of most club level racers.

Also, Jamie, the GoPro camera is run mounted on the suction cup mount, with extention arm reaching forward. It does move around a lot over bumps, so maybe some of the chattering you see is being exaggerated by that movement?

Possibly. If your R6 forks have the stock internals I can tell you for sure there is a LOT of room for improvement. Those Soqi forks are pretty terrible. They are a royal pain the rear to work on too. Luckily once you are finished they perform just fine.

I'm always up for an improvement :)

email was just sent, thanks