• Grattan Raceway – Practice/Testing Time

  Often titled Monday Morning Grind, today's column is in fact that.  After riding with NESBA this past weekend at Grattan, I'm tired and sore … all over.  It seems no matter how much I hit the gym, run and/or pedal, I can never fully duplicate the muscles that are used when riding a motorcycle around a track.  Grattan is the most technical of the tracks we visit – which is great, except for the Monday following the first time out of the year.  A good reminder to start upping the amount of cardio and bicycling during the week.

  The weekend went well though.  I was flying solo, but met Doug Saturday morning, as he had come to help out which was great.  With the new Ohlins 25mm cartridge kit and some new valving on the shock, suspension and generally shaking out the bike were the top orders of the day.  We went through the process of checking sag numbers over lunch; something we should have done first thing in the morning, as the numbers were way off (47mm of rider sag is not a good number).  Initially we didn't want to mess with suspension though, as I just wanted to ride the bike and get some laps under my belt before we started turning screws.  However given what our numbers were, we should have done that first.  In any event, we got our numbers in the ballpark and the bike was immediately better for the rest of the afternoon.

  Sunday was run counter-clockwise, so I was essentially dealing with a new track.  I just wanted to focus more on riding and not so much suspension.  I continued to drop time and while not as fast as I wanted to be, I wasn't too far off either.  I did end up making a couple damping changes in the afternoon – one of which made a noticeable improvement as I instantly dropped a second a lap and could initiate the turn better with the bike.  I'm not completely confident that the bike is good to go as it is now, in regard to suspension damping.  We've got our sag numbers dialed in for the most part, but I still have damping questions I'd like to have answered.  Hopefully in the next week or so I can get those answers.

  Overall it was a good weekend.  The weather was perfect and the R6 ran strong.  James did a great job freshening up the motor and writing maps over the past couple months, and the bike felt as good as it did back at Mid-Ohio last September.  The only bike noticeably pulling me was Jonas' new Yamaha R6 (which is just a sweet-looking bike), but I was at least able to chase him around a little bit which was fun.

  Some track time at Mid-Ohio this weekend possibly, and then the first race of the season at Nelson Ledges in two weeks …

   

  Monday, April 23rd, 2007 | POSTED AT: 6:10 AM
  FILED UNDER: General, Race Reports

  

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• You're currently reading "Grattan Raceway – Practice/Testing Time," an entry on Witchkraft Racing.
• Published: 04.23.07 / 6am
• Category: General, Race Reports

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