Witchkraft Racing: The Search for Speed

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Monday Morning Grind

Gina and I went out to Grattan this past Saturday, participating at an Apex 2 Apex track day; a company run by fellow racers Brent Bennett and Eric Spector. They had a good turnout and ran a really smooth program, especially considering they just started running track days this year. Brent had the whole family involved. Dave (his brother) was changing tires. His wife and parents were helping out in registration. It was very reminiscent of how our mini-series (GLMMRS) was run (basically how I dragged Gina into helping run a large part of it :).

As for the bike, it ran well since being freshened up (I couldn't even tell the 1hp loss in power!). The only real problem we encountered was a leaky left fork seal. It was noticeably visible after several sessions on Saturday and has to be fixed, so new seals are on the way. I'm sure the amount of fluid isn't very much, but given my attention to detail, I can't help but think that the forks work noticeably different when one of them contains less fluid than the other.

Later in the day, I played around with some different chain lengths, as the gearing I was running was using all the possible wheelbase of the R6, and the chain was still loose enough that I could feel it slopping around on the track (not a good feeling to think about the chain flying off as you're coming onto the Grattan straight). I went with a shorter chain, which fixed the chain slack issue, but effectively shortened the wheelbase quite a bit. This was noticeable out on the track in how the bike handled, which I didn't particularly like.

I was also trying a new little trick on the R6 that fellow racer Greg Melka recommended. I haven't been able to determine if it's better or worse for feel in how the bike handles, but it definitely is a noticeable difference. At the end of the day, I was able to get within a half-second of my best lap time around Grattan, which wasn't too bad considering the above.

After looking at some info on the drive home, I also found a gearing change that I think will prove beneficial in the future. It will push the wheelbase out a little further with the shorter chain (which with this bike, makes the bike more stable at full lean) and help power-wise in several areas around the track – especially once running race gas. We'll see next time we're there ..

Cheers,

- eddie

Monday, August 6th, 2007 | POSTED AT: 6:15 AM
FILED UNDER: General