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Preparing For New Jersey

Fresh motor, check. Fresh suspension, check. Bike prepped and ready to go, check.

After Mid-Ohio's good results with Kyle, we're going to give it a go again and put him on the bike for this weekend's AMA Pro season finale at New Jersey Motorsports Park. I won't be making the trip, but Joe, Matt, Doug and Marion will be going, meeting up with Kyle and his dad Bob to again run in Daytona Sportbike.

Preparations on the bike included a fresh motor, as we went from 3rd in the trap speeds in Saturday's Mid-O race, to much further down the charts on Sunday. With "Dr" Jamie Hanshaw's help, the powerplant is back and should be as fast and maybe even faster than it was. Thank you to Doug for picking up the motor from Jamie this past week and helping with the install Wednesday night - that was a huge help.

Joe freshened up and rebuilt the forks and shock yesterday (the fluid showed signs of wear after just one weekend), so the suspension is good to go. I went through the brakes, took the pistons apart and ensured all four pistons on each side were moving smoothly inside the calipers (sometimes one or two can stick if they are left to get dirty and that of course hurts braking) and properly rebled them. Wheels, airbox, air filter and more were all part of maintenance tasks of going through the bike. We also made a small change that should help the engine run cooler, which will hopefully help speed as well since the R6 has a tendency to run hot in warm conditions. Lastly, we have our New Jersey settings plugged in so the bike should be dialed in to turn fast laps. I do have a small dent in the Graves exhaust can which is killing me, but it doesn't hurt the speed of the bike, just the appearance if you're paying attention. Thanks for noticing Doug. :)

Hopefully the crew will have good weather for the weekend. I feel we surpassed our expectations at Mid-Ohio in terms of results with Kyle, with it being our first time working together and his first time on the bike. It will certainly be a tall task to challenge further up the finishing order in Daytona Sportbike, but I feel we have the right pieces in place to make a run at it - a good bike, great crew and very strong rider being the key ingredients. Throw in some hard work and a little good fortune and we just might get there. It would be a nice way to end the season. We'll see ..

Monday, August 29th, 2011 | POSTED AT: 5:22 AM
FILED UNDER: General