05/23/05 The first trackday for the Duc in quite some time. Years, in fact. This one is put on by a group I've never ran with before - Cascade Tracktime. This is actually a two-day event and I signed up for both... After several weeks of rain (in fact it was still raining last night) we finally got a break and after the morning fog lifts the weather is gorgeous. The Duc looks just right in its black-taped, mirrorless battle dress. And the Box makes a great support vehicle, when I can find someone to drive it that is. Speaking of the Box, the trackday people have a neat 'official' vehicle :)

Now to the day itself. It's fairly crowded. I'm still runing in B group, which is faster than the novices but slower than the all-out racers in A. The B group has a lot of relatively slow people in it and I have some fun passing them, as the short video clip shows.

Looking at the lap times on camera I am quite slow overall - the best I could work up to was 1:27 which is quite a bit off my earlier pace even on this bike.

The shocker about this particular trackday is how many crashes took place. I've never seen it this bad. By noon the ambulance rolls three times (nothing really serious that I know of but it's certainly not good). Pretty much every session gets a red flag. As a result, around 3 pm, having only gotten 49 miles on the track I give up and go sea kayaking on the river downtown instead, hoping the next day would be better. Quite a change of pace, that.

05/24/05 The second day. Didn't get much sleep (it seems to happen to me before some trackdays - it's not that I'm nervous or anything, just can't sleep). So mindful of that I took it fairly easy to start. There were fewer people than Monday and fewer crashes, but still a number of riders did go sliding across pavement and grass. Two did so right in front of me, scattering oil and bike parts all over the place. Fortunately I was able to navigate the mess but the track was shut down for nearly an hour to get it cleaned up. Despite all of that I managed a few clean laps and looking at the video there are quite a few consistently in the 1:23-1:24 range, including this one.

The reason I picked this lap to digitize is to show that while I might be going at a decent pace, there are always people who are faster. Two instructors in this case (identified by orange vests) . On the plus side, this is only a couple seconds slower than I've gone on the R1 (see this lap for comparison). The point here being that the 748 is a 90 hp, 450 lb machine and the R1 is a 180 hp, 380 lb machine. The rider is limiting factor. And this does prove that I was right to sell the R1 - it's just too much bike for me. The 748 is a lot of fun and I look forward to improving my skills on it this summer. An interesting point for comparison, when I ran the Elise without the chicane at the last trackday the times were in the 1:26 range (on a slightly damp track so I could probably do 1:24 under bettter conditions). So my car and bike times are only a couple seconds apart. The bike is definitely a much more intense and physical experience though.

In other news, the folks from MotoCzysz were there testing their GP bike.

The thing does sound cool and it looks good. It's fun to watch.

So a nice two-day event, spoiled a bit by all the crashes but I am just thankful I wasn't one of them. The quick improvement in lap times is also encouraging, I got back in the saddle pretty easily. Much to work on this year. It'll be fun.

07/31/05 The batteries in the Ducs haven't been holding up to my disuse and abuse, so I ordered Odyssey PC-680 drycell replacements (also see the 900 section). In the 900 the install was quite straightforward, but the drycell is a bit too wide for an easy fit in the 748. So I ended up tweaking the tray a little and then using zip ties to hold the thing in place. Only 2 ties are shown below, several more should be added for good measure (just have to run out and get some before the trackday tomorrow). Also had to make spacers for the formed connectors to properly fit flat terminals on the Odyssey. Ended up taking the inserts out of the old battery and drilling them out - worked great.

The fairing fits OK over the drycell (although it's tight) and would probably hold it in place should the zip ties fail. I also put a rubber spacer in front of the battery (not shown in pic) to keep it from trying to slide forward under braking.

The swap completed, I adjusted the chain slightly. The Duc is now ready for track duty. More on that tomorrow.

08/01/05 Another trackday for the 748 - its 15th in our 6 years and 5,000 miles together. This underscores the fact that it's a great track toy but a demanding and occasionally painful street mount. Actually, I find the street to be a painful environment to begin with but that's another story. Anyway, back to the trackday. The weather cooperated beautifully. It has been quite hot for a couple of weeks and it will be quite hot for at least one more. But just for today, we got some cloud cover and temperatures remained in the mid to high 70's. Perfect. My helmet cam finally gave up the ghost and so without a timing device I just took it relatively easy and worked on smoothness and corner speed. I think I made some progress. I ran in B group again but was one of the faster people in it. Each session I started in front of the pack and got a bunch of clean laps before catching up to the back of the group and practicing some passing for the last quarter of the session. Occasionally I'd find someone to play with which was fun. With all that, my tires started getting a bit greasy towards the end of the day...

The bike never did anything scary or unpleasant though, only little steps sideways here and there to let me know the limits are just around the corner. For all the progress made, I've still a lot to learn. One of these days I'll get a new video setup and/or wire up the GPS on the bike so that I can look at lap times again as an objective gauge. In the meantime, subjectively it was fun and felt good so that'll have to do :) And of course I couldn't resist the hand-on-ground and stare-at-the-camera foolishness for the photographer (images copyright tranquil velocity):

I really ought to stop doing that because the fingertips of my left glove are starting to get worn out. Maybe I should try dragging knuckles instead? :)

The usual assortment of machinery turned up, with the most notable being an old Ducati single. It came complete with mechanical drum brakes on both ends, skinny tires and a decidedly low-tech starter. The sound is way cool.

Overall, another nice day with a bit over 120 miles on the track. Now I need to exercise the 900 a bit before the summer is over.

09/19/05 Today was probably the final bike trackday for the year since the weather gets really iffy from here on. For this day it was perfect though - sunny, no wind, about 70 degrees. I ran the 900 for three sessions in the morning, then over lunch went home and swapped to the 748 for the remaining three. Jumping from one bike directly to the other is a huge change. The riding position, the handling, the power delivery, the overall character - all are quite different. It's cool to be able to do this. Today also was the first day I was able to run GPS on the bikes and the results are interesting. There is a lot more on that in today's entry on the 900 page, but some of it is useful to discuss here. You may recall that when I sold the R1, having done a best lap of 1:20 flat, I had the feeling that the 748 should be able to match and beat that time if I learned to ride it well enough. While today I definitely made progress towards that goal, recording a best of 1:22.4, the key was having Michael Czysz ride a few laps on my bike. Michael is the guy behind the American MotoGP effort with his own bike design which has been mentioned a few times on this site (and quite a bit in the press lately). He is a very experienced rider and frequently instructs at trackdays. True to form, after just a dozen laps on the 748 he turned a 1:19.9. So yes, the bike can in fact do it, and probably a bit more since he was being relatively conservative. What's interesting is what GPS shows about what he and I do differently (his trace is red, mine is black):

The first spot of interest is braking at the end of the front straight, for turn 4 (bikes don't use the chicane which is turns 1-2-3 so only turns 4-12 are relevant here). Notice that he brakes at about the same spot but not as hard, carrying about 3 mph more into the turn. The net result is he ends up going faster over the whole length of the braking zone, gaining 0.65 seconds right off the bat. This is the first place where I could improve - just don't brake quite as hard. He then accelerates out of the turn where I mostly just coast which is another place I can look for gains. The next interesting spot is the next turn:

Michael brakes after accelerating whereas I just back off the gas a bit and I end up carrying 3.5 mph more speed through the apex. This pattern repeats all through the esses, with me carrying more steady corner speed and Michael accelerating and braking. My trace is actually from the final session where I'd already looked at the data and was trying to accelerate a bit. In earlier runs my speed climbed a lot less between turns. Still, the net result is that Michael again gains some time on me here, the higher speeds from acceleration more than offsetting lower mid-corner velocity. He makes further gains by accelerating harder onto the back straight and carrying a couple more mph there. At the point shown below Michael is 1.15 seconds ahead of me.

Our braking into 10 and corner speed through it are virtually identical, however again as I coast through the turn exit and all of 11, he accelerates out of 10 and again a touch out of 11, once more carrying slightly lower apex speed in 12 but accelerating harder on the way out. At the point below I lag by 1.60 sec and at the exit of 12 I'm 1.75 seconds behind. The rest of the time difference is made on the front straight.

All this adds up to a lap time gap of 2.5 seconds in his favor - same bike, same track, same day. The lesson here is that there are two main things I need to improve. First is more controlled braking at the end of the front straight, the second and more important one is accelerating better out of turns. If I can do that without losing mid-corner speed my gains will be even better. So obviously getting below 1:20 is a realistic goal and thanks to the data I have some very specific things to work on. Cool :)

See today's entry on the 900 page for more data analysis stuff.

01/03/06 In all the years I've owned this bike (getting close to seven now) I've managed to keep it pretty much stock. Sure, there've been several tire replacements and some minor cosmetic stuff like turn signals, but other than that I've left it alone. I always did keep it in the back of my mind that I'd like to change the sound - stock exhaust is just too quiet and Ducs sound so good with aftermarket pipes. So when I saw that Ducati was clearing out the Termignoni carbon pipes for the 748 at half price, I couldn't resist and picked up a set. The parts sure are pretty:

One of the great things about the 748 design is how easy it is to work on... Even sitting up against the wall in my livingroom everything was accessible and I didn't even have to move it.

The EPROM did prove a tad tricky to get at - it needed to be replaced with the chip supplied with the exhaust. Fortunately I have more practice at EPROM swapping than I care to remember so all went smoothly (I used to do firmware development before the FLASH days - dates me a bit, don't it? ;). A couple minor issues, like one mounting point on the exhaust not lining up (not a big deal) and the stock heatshield not fitting the new pipes (had to order a replacement). All in all, about 1.5 hours of work at a leisurely pace and the 748 is looking pretty snazzy. Of course with the weather we're having it'll be a while before I get to hear it. Not quite up for firing it up inside the house - even I have my limits :) Doubt the new pipes will do much performance-wise, but the sound alone should be worth it. The upgrade does save 8 lbs weight vs stock for what it's worth.

In separate news, Metzeler was having a promo on their RaceTec tires (buy a rear and get a front free) so I picked up a set of those, too. The Diablo Corsas on the 748 still have plenty of tread but they're about 3 years old now and have been through quite a few heat cycles. I might run them for one more trackday (also to set a baseline for this year) and then swap to the new rubber.

OK, I'm ready for spring and the new trackday season now.