Let the race tweaking begin!

Well friends, another week has passed and I find myself trying to remember all that happened since my last post. Time keeps passing and my memory doesn't seem to get any sharper. I was busy in the garage and had a family road trip. I made it out to the Flat Track and spent more money than I'd like my wife to know about on motorbike things. Hopefully it makes for a good story. Read on down and see if it does!

I have been reading all that I can find on the internet with regards to Flat Track bike suspension set up. I have also been asking tons of questions to the more experienced riders at the track when I get out to Milestone. I haven't come up with much, but having spent lots of time trying to tune the Ninja 250's suspension, I believe I have some ideas to try. One of those ideas was to try and shorten the wheelbase to quicken up the steering. My thought is that I want the bike to rotate into the corners a bit easier so I can get set up for the arc of the corner earlier. I want to get the bike settled as I initiate my corner entry so I can hold a smooth drifting line and power out for a fast run down the straights. I can buy a shortened rear swingarm from Cheney Engineering, but that will cost too much money for my current skill level. Another way to do it is to drop the forks a bit in the triple trees. Since the second idea is free, I decided to try that.

The previous pic showed my solution to raising the front of the bike up. I sold my old bike jack a month ago and still haven't picked up a replacement so I had to get a bit creative with my truck's jack. Since I have the underslung exhaust on the bike, I have remove the exhaust system every time I need to do something with the front wheel. Think about that kids before you go with custom, Flat Track exhaust systems. I got the front end up, and was able to quickly raise the fork legs in the triple trees by 10mm. This has the effect of shortening the wheelbase and steepening up the tail. These two changes should help to get the back end of the bike to rotate around without using the rear brake when I charge into the corner. I had a chance to test this yesterday at Milestone and found that I was able to get the rear end to come around easier. This was great when the track had some moisture and grip. As the track dried out the tail end of the bike got a little whippy. My other tweak was to soften up the suspension compression dampening by a couple of clicks both front and rear. This really transformed the stability I had through a couple of rough zones at corners one and three entry points. I may tweak it a bit softer just to see if I can find any more improvement.

I mentioned a family road trip earlier in this post. We went back to our old stomping grounds to see some friends during my oldest daughter's spring break. It was awesome to hang out with some old friends and visit some of my favorite places. I made it to downtown Ventura for a bit of me-time just window shopping at some of my favorite shops. I did find something new. The picture above is from a shop that sold infused olive oils from small batch casks. That isn't what got me interested however. They had a much bigger selection of small batch craft whiskey's there as well. They do some tastings and I was tempted, but alas I was driving. There were too many to choose from without getting some hint of what I may like so I put off buying any until my next visit.

Another place I like to go even though I almost never buy anything from them is Iron and Resin. They specialize in high end surf, skate and motorcycle themed apparel and accessories. They always have some neat bikes as decoration including this Triumph. Before I could even think of asking I saw the "Not for Sale" label and my dreams were dashed before they could form. Since I'm not familiar with British bikes, I have no idea of what year or model. Based on the copious amounts of oil in the drip pan under the bike, I'd have to say it is something from the mid 60's through the late 70's. It would look good cleaned up and ridden around town. It might look even better fender-less with 19" Flat Track tires front and rear. Maybe next time the sign won't be there and I'll have a wad of cash in my pocket.

Another cool bike on display or used to display some expensive T-shirts was this little BSA single. Again not a clue as to the year and model, but the bike was ready to go for a night of vintage Flat Tracking! It had a number plate and was true British bike with the shifter on the right and the rear brake on the left. The tires may be older, but they looked ready to hit the track. I think it is a 350cc bike and probably is only pushing 20 bhp or so in running condition, but I'd guess it only weighs around 250 lbs. with a tank of fuel. As usual they had some cool shirts and other Moto-related clothes, but at a significant hipster mark up. I did pick up a nice copy of Sideburn magazine. This is a quarterly British magazine that focuses on Flat Track, vintage motocross and lots of other cool, fun motorcycle things. I will have to subscribe to it soon!

When we got back home, I hit up the local Cycle Gear for some supplies. Above is some new coolant for the FZ1. This time I'm using Red Line Super Cool with Waterwetter. It is a non-antifreeze coolant intended for use in race applications where antifreeze is a no no thanks to its super slippery properties and difficulty in cleaning up after a spill. I used the Yamalube coolant in the Ninja 250 and it works great and keeps me race legal. I'm not thinking of racing the FZ1, but I am going to do a track day and one of the requirements is a non-antifreeze coolant. According to my FZ1's maintenance log, changing the coolant is required every 24 months or 16,000 miles. It just so happens the my mileage is 15, 965 miles at the time of doing the work, great timing.

I picked up some track spares for the CRF450. I wanted to have a spare clutch lever since the chances of a left sided low-side spill are quite high. I may get some brush guards to protect the levers and my hands, but for now the spare lever gets thrown into the tool box for a just-in-case situation. The other thing I needed was some random nut-and-bolts. The little box has the most common sizes and styles for Japanese bikes with just enough pieces to help me fix almost anything in case of a get off during a race. It is better to have and not need then need and not have. For all of less than $20, it was easy to do.

I changed the FZ1's coolant in about an hour. Of course I made a mess. I rode the bike to work this week after changing the coolant and it smelled like an over heating engine thanks to coolant that got into some nooks and crannies around the exhaust header. The coolant advertises cooler running. I'm not sure about that, but in my ride home from work the bike did seam to be running a little lower temps than usual. I'll know for sure after a few more rides of various types. If it appears to actually run cooler I'll use it in my CRF450. I still need to finish getting the bike ready for the track. I want to change out the front brake fluid for some of the Motul race fluid I used on the Ninja. For the speeds I may reach at the track, I'll want some brake fluid that will keep me from having brake fade.

There are some races this weekend for both AFT and MotoGP. I also want to get out and ride the FZ1 in my local canyon roads. I haven't put many miles on the street bike since getting the Flat Tracker and I need to get back into the swing of things before hitting the track. I also have another project for the CRF that I will be writing up for the blog. Come on back by when you have minute and read up on that! Until then, ride safe friends.

Blue