Gearing
A common mistake at Eastern Creek is to gear the bike for the super-long front straight. You must gear it for the corners because there are so many second and third gear corners that if the bike isn’t jumping out of them the lap time will never come.

Check out all of our track guides here…

Grid Position
Not as critical here as some places because there is such a long drag to and through turn one. Most bikes don’t even need to brake for turn one off the start. The ideal position though is on the outside where pole is, or even seventh or eighth which places you on the outside of the second row. A good start can get you around everyone into turn one.

TURN ONE
This is a really awesome corner regardless of your bike size because it is so fast and open that you can make up so much time through this turn when you get it right and feel comfortable running into it. The bike always gets a little light going into it over the bumps from the dragsters. On the 250 Production bike it was top gear and some say it could be done flat out. I tried it once while leading the Australian Championship race in 1996 and lost the front on the bump that is halfway around it. In Supersport it was fifth or fourth gear depending on gearing and the Superbike was fourth. One of the only real overtaking places is into turn one out of the slipstream and up the inside if your bike is fast enough.

TURN TWO
What you could do into turn two depended on your run through turn one. Other than that it’s a pretty boring double apex corner where you could lose more than you could gain if you tried too hard. It’s about getting out of it well then short shifting to get the run over the tunnel that could open up another passing opportunity down the inside.

TURN THREE
This is the first right hand corner on the track so you have to make sure the rear is up to temperature because getting the right run through here could open up a passing chance into four. Keeping the front wheel down over the tunnel is an issue on the bigger bikes.

TURN FOUR
You need to hit the inside apex early here over the bump because keeping it tight all the way around is important for setting up turn five. Pick the throttle up early through the right but not too aggressive so you can set up turn five in third gear.

TURN FIVE
As soon as you flick it left, pick up the throttle even before apexing the left to get the run up the hill. Getting it right means you drift out onto the ripple strip exiting the turn. I remember the first time I tested Kev Curtain’s race winning ZX-6R. I was loving the fact that for the first time on the road I could spin the rear in third gear.

TURN SIX 
Turn Six used to actually be two corners but in recent years SMSP have straightened out the entry and eliminated a turn. Back to second on the ZX-7R Superbike the exit here is really fun in spinning it until it’s upright. The drive is really important out of here because a passing opportunity into turn nine starts here.

TURN SEVEN
Corporate Hill, as it was called, is a fun corner on any bike. Blind on entry over a bit of a rise and as soon as the bike is settled, it’s straight back on the throttle again. Many people get in trouble getting into turn seven so it’s one of those turns you have to sacrifice a little going in so you can get a super exit on opening up the possibility of diving up the inside of someone into turn nine.

TURN EIGHT
I found you can pretty much use any line going into nine without losing anything as long as you get it stopped and can open the throttle quickly on the exit.

TURN NINE
Really fast entry here that doesn’t need a lot of braking, mostly when you are upright picking it up to tip into turn 10. I found out the hard way grabbing a big handful of brakes just as I tipped in one day on the RGV 250.

TURN 10
You need to pay attention to the inside kerb on a Production based bike because I have seen many people touch the case on the inside kerb here and go down. Once into 11 you need to pick the throttle up again drifting out to the kerb before pulling it back in for the entry to turn 11.

TURN 11
Along with turn one, this is probably the most important corner on the track because the exit out of here determines your straight-line speed and chances of getting a slipstream or stopping someone getting in your slipstream. Getting it turned and pointing down the straight before you open the throttle allows you to open it very quickly and get all the important drive over the rise and down the hill.

OTHER THINGS
Among other things that stand out in my mind at Eastern Creek is the afternoon sun. Any time after about 4:00pm going into turn one becomes pretty tough, along with corporate hill as you’re suddenly blinded going into turn nine.

The pit roof is another unique aspect to Eastern Creek with everybody going up there to watch the races and then running from one side to another to see the bikes come down the straight, over the tunnel and into turn nine.

The lovely NSW Police Force also set up on Brabham Drive under the expressway, at the roundabout and behind the huge spectator mound outside turn one. A cynical person would say that this is purely to book people as they enter and leave the area…

The post Track Guide: Sydney Motorsports Park GP Layout appeared first on Racing, Riding, Motorcycle Reviews, Race bikes, Tech Tips, Rider Training....

Show Up In The Right Gear
This is a huge one, it might sound simple but it’ll save you some heartache of being turned away from the track. At the bare minimum, most tracks will require you to have one or two piece leathers, leather gloves, riding boots (most tracks will not allow riding shoes) and an Australian/European approved helmet. Some tracks will require a back protector, this is something you should chuck on anyway as it could save you from being paralyzed.

Now, that’s the bare minimum. To ensure your safety it’s best to have a GOOD CONDITION one piece set of leathers, an ill fitting and damaged set could cause you harm in the instance of a crash. Buy yourself a decent helmet, lid’s aren’t meant to be used after being dropped so if you dust of that helmet that’s fallen off your handlebars multiple times, you’re only putting yourself at risk.

Set Up Your Bike Property
We have a fair few articles on bike preparation but the rules for a track day are straight forward, no fluids leaking, no ear-drum rupturing exhausts and decent tread on your hoops. Not only will the scrutineer turn you away if they see your tyres have no tread, but you’ll have a terrible time battling the bike with crusty old tyres on.

Check out our tech articles here…

Oil and fluid leaks are self-explanatory. If your bike is leaking oil while road riding, imagine how much will flow out while revving it to the redline. Don’t ruin someone else’s day by spewing oil down the track, check those drain and filler plugs.

Find The Right Group For You
You’ve bought yourself the top-of-the-line 1000cc machine? Awesome! However fast you think you are on the road, you’ll probably be quite slow learning a track. Don’t choose the “Fast” or “Racer” group just because you have the fastest bike in a straight line. There is absolutely no harm in starting in the slow and intermediate groups while you get to grips. If you’re too fast, the organisers will move you up a skill group.

If you’re off the pace but are unleashing all the power on the straights in the fast group, you are a bit of a danger to the other riders on the course, especially those on smaller capacity machines. Entering the “Race” or “Fast” groups, most riders will be expecting you to be on the racing line, so if they go to overtake and you suddenly chop them up you could end up injuring someone. No one cares what colour your wristband is…

Relax And Stay Calm
Say someone hasn’t taken the last bit of advice and they’re slow as all hell in the fast group. Just drop back and give them space, it’s no use dicing with an unpredictable rider. If you have serious concerns then you can bring it up with the organisers.

I’ve had this happen to me on plenty of occasions, in fact, one of my biggest accidents was caused by not letting a YZF-R6 go while I was on a CBR250RR. The YZF-R6 rider took an unpredictable line and grabbed the brakes mid corner, I was on the pace and fully committed to the downhill at Wakefield Park when I speared off the track to avoid them, resulting in me and the bike cartwheeling through the air. This would’ve been avoided if I had just taken a slow down through the pits and raised my concerns with the organisers.

Tape Up Those Mirrors And Speedo
You do not need to be looking at your Speedo on a track day. 100% of your focus should be on the road, the world passes by very fast when you’re at full pelt on a motorcycle, taking that split second to look at your speedo could result in you missing your braking point or running up the back of someone. If you really want to know how fast you’re going, strap a GPS tracker or GoPro to your bike.

Check out our article on transporting your bike to the track here…

The mirrors have the same theory but it also comes back to that unpredictability too. If there is a faster rider behind you, they’ll find a way past, don’t distract yourself by constantly looking in the mirrors. It’s best to just fold them in or cover them.

Helmet Cameras
Most tracks will not allow you to have anything on your helmet. This goes for add-on intercoms too. Find a nice spot for you to put your camera, my preference is on the tail or the tank, and make sure it’s stuck down well and proper. Last thing you want is the camera to be lost the first time you accelerate!

“No one remembers the fastest person, they remember the one who crashed.”

Have Fun, It’s Not MotoGP
This is the most important point of the lot. Go out to have fun, not to break a lap record (which probably wont happen). All the track days I attend, I don’t even check the lap times, I’m there to have fun and I can improve on my times at the next race meeting.

I find that not bothering to time myself will allow me to leave the track glowing with happiness rather than disappointment. Some track day organisers don’t offer timing too, which I believe is a good thing, it stops people from pushing too hard and going beyond their abilities. Just go out and have fun, a MotoGP rider spotter isn’t going to be at your local track day. As the saying goes: no one ever remembers the fastest person, they remember the one that crashed.

That’s about all to have a nice time during your first track day. Don’t be afraid to ask fellow riders for some help, make some friends and enjoy your time! You’re not racing for sheep stations so don’t be a dick.

Additional Advice 

• Trailer your bikes – You are going to be knackered at the end of the day, last thing you’ll want to do is ride home in your leathers.
• Bring your own lunch and water – Every track I’ve been to charges a bonza for food and drinks. Pack a nice lunch and plenty of water.
• Bring spare fuel – The fuel at the track will be expensive. It doesn’t hurt to fill up some jerry cans.

The post Advice: The Do’s And Don’t’s Of A Track Day appeared first on Racing, Riding, Motorcycle Reviews, Race bikes, Tech Tips, Rider Training....

However he worked on his weakness so well that these days if there is rain the lad is considered the master. Tony Hatton was also exceptional in the rain, so what skills do Anthony and Tony share, given that both these riders are generations apart? The one constant is that both Tony and Anthony have enjoyed the benefit of dirt track racing. Dirt track racing teaches you the feel for grip; the trick to road racing is to be able to ride on the edge and to be able to ride as if you are out of control but staying in control.

Check out our other riding training articles here…

Wet weather riding requires a brilliant system of control, smooth efficient riding style, knowledge of body English skills, what the bike is doing is just paramount, heck if you are untidy, lack discipline and can’t find the same line two laps in a row in the dry, then you are in for a rude shock come your first wet weather session.

So what makes your wet weather race or track day successful? The answer is a good plan! This includes bike set up, personal riding equipment, rider technique, mental focus, race start and race plan, and the ability to shift and plan ahead in changing conditions with a cool head is paramount! Slow and steady will always win the race. 

Concentration is and should be heightened in the wet, however in a relaxed state of mind by planning ahead, scanning the track for puddles, camber, humps and bumps.

 The sensation and intensity that riding in the wet offers is awesome, very satisfying, if you don’t feel this way work on it!

Remember the job is to be the first bike and rider over then line on the last lap. Trust your plan, let it work and you could be crossing the line first like a top rider with ease.

BIKE SET-UP
Back off the springs and damping without to create a softer suspension setting allows the rider more feel for grip, obviously the rain affects our grip level. We can afford to make the bike softer as we are not going to run the cornering forces or ride the motorcycle the same as we do in the dry, sacrificing the stiffness that offers a more precise ride for grip in a sense. If you have a steering damper get rid of it or at least turn it off or to the lightest settings, remember a steering damper will take the sensitivity and feel of the bike away.

Incorrect tyres will lead to spending way too much time on your backside! In the rain it is so important to have the best rubber available and a spare set of wheels fitted up with some nice new wets is a must. Trying to get a motorcycle around a wet track on the latest dry weather sports tyre is going to be a real test of your skills and can I say you will need also a lot of luck to stay on board. So invest in a set of wheels so you can have the best set of wets available, it’s no good turning up to a gunfight with a knife! 

Tyre pressures are also critical, the ability to be able to drain water form the tyre and cut a path through the water creating a good contact patch and grip is all part of the tyre performance while out in the wet. 

If you have an adjustable fuel map and or ignition map you may even consider making adjustment of how the power to the rear wheel is being delivered, getting power to the ground without wheelspin is what we are looking for in the wet, also using the throttle to gain grip in the front of the bike to help the motorcycle turn is very important, without a nice throttle response, riding a bike in the wet is really difficult in acceleration and turning.

Making sure the chain is adjusted is critical, ensuring you have exact throttle response to the rear wheel, not only does the throttle accelerate and turn bike it also can stop or slow bike in the rain that can create a range of issues and I am not just talking about power slides but also engine brake slides.

GEAR
I can still remember John Koncinski, a sponsored Honda rider at Honda’s home track event, the prestigious Suzuki 8 Hour race. John’s helmet would not demist properly and it lost him the race. Helmets need to be able to vent and deal with anti fogging, plenty of venting and a visor that seals well is essential, especially when you are riding in a deluge. Clean your visor with Mr Sheen or a cleaner that has a silicone content…

A wet weather suit will protect you from the elements as well as look after your leathers, ensure that the suit does not interfere with your movement. This restriction will affect how you control your bike.

Keep an eye on the weather app to see when and where the rain will be, the radar will be a few steps ahead of you so you can begin preparing…

Your equipment must be functional and is a large part of whether you do the job well or just get the job done. Concentration skills and extra attention time available to you enables you to see and take advantage of opportunities that the opposition may not have, all because they are not prepared.

THE TRACK
The advantage of a good track walk in the morning and after every day’s ride especially if it’s wet is huge. The rain drainage and the natural terrain around the circuit will have a big impact on what happens during a heavy deluge of rain.

Understanding the track and where it is going, the type of turns, humps, bumps, negative and positive cambers, drainage and possible problems that will create issues like puddles forming on clipping points, can all be noted.

TECHNIQUE
So we now have the bike set-up, the correct riding equipment, knowledge of the track and where we can expect the puddles and rivers etc to come from. We can work on our body English now.

The important skill of using your posture cannot be underestimated. The bike’s lean angle and ride in the wet is so much different to a dry ride. The lean angles and grip differ, the aggression of acceleration, the braking points and overlapping of the brakes are all affected, making what we do on the bike very different. Use your body English to stand the motorcycle up and gain maximum drive out of the turns reducing wheel slip, using your legs and top half of your body.

Weighing your feet to help with sudden shifts and slides is essential, pinning your knees to the tank while heavy braking in a straight line. We are really trying to relax our arms and hands so we can feel any feedback from the handlebars, the bar movements are giving us the feel of loss and gain of grip, a relaxed grip also allows us to use the throttle as required to make the motorcycle steer while also assisting in controlling slides.

Being able to effectively rev back during down changes is so important, the use of a small amount of clutch slip is just as important; we need rear stabilising and engine braking and don’t need engine lock ups from abrupt gear changes.

RACE STARTS
Remember on the startline, try to keep your head from sitting over the hot engine, otherwise you may be affected by steam fogging the visor. A minor burnout to get some heat into the rear tyre could save on wheel spin off the line if it is allowed.

Getting ahead of the group or the front is pretty important especially if it is heavy in rain in an attempt to minimise the effects of spray especially if there is a huge group of riders the spray of other bikes can restrict vision so badly that you can barely see what is happening in front of you, making your job very dangerous.

Never position yourself on the outside of another competitor or a rider, your success will be in their hands, if the inside rider throws it away (which is a good possibility in the rain) he/she will be taking you with them. 

RACE PLAN
Planning an overtake can be difficult on a drying track as you are required to get of the fast line to pass the opposition, work out your strengths and plan a clean over take A drying line will have changing grip level which comes with some complications especially if you are on wets you may have to go searching for puddles to cool west so you can survive the race, as the track dries be aware of wet patches, where will I stand up the bike…

A drying track means developing more speed and slightly different lines every time we are getting around the track, ensure you are used to picking brake off points and scanning into turns is essential, keep looking for the drying line.

The post Rider Tips: Wet Weather Track Riding appeared first on Racing, Riding, Motorcycle Reviews, Race bikes, Tech Tips, Rider Training....

Being humans, we are very individual in the way we think, act and appear, clothing is a very personal and individual thing, it is for some a way of expressing who they are, who they follow in racing, what they want to project to another person or they just simply want to have protection from the elements and in the worst case scenario, from a crash.

This thought can then be extended into the different areas of motor cycling, trail riders, Motocross riders, Trials riders, Road racers, weekend riders, commuters, tourers, learners, pillions and casual riders.

Open any motorcycle magazine and you will find pages of ads that are promoting a certain brand, style, comfort level and safety level in their clothing. Clothing also extends to Helmets, boots, gloves, eye protection, body armour and so on. For all of us this can be quite daunting when trying to work out what may be the best or in many cases the most affordable items to by for your riding style and type.

Looks or Style:
To many riders, this is a very important part of their individuality and motorcycle life. We can have extremes at both ends of this, ie, the outlaw bikie, the tattooed and unwashed of the motorcycle world, they wear nothing but what the club has laid down in their laws, as riders they tend to shun away from safety gear, wear open face, cheap helmets, sunglasses are optional for eye protection, Jeans, boots rarely gloves and plenty of patches. 

We can also have the weekend warrior, the Claytons clubbie, they can usually be found in groups outside the local Cafe sipping on latté, they are normally much cleaner, the bikes are cleaner and they also have the open face helmets, although they tend to be less stubborn on this subject and will wear a full face if the weather is bad.

Then we have the Beach rider, thongs, board shorts and singlet, these guys are actually good value, their bikes are always very low in kilometres when they sell them, probably to do with the amount of time they sit in the shed waiting for the owner to re grow skin to 90% of his or her body after the crash on the first day of summer two years ago.

There are also a lot of us that have our hero’s in the racing scene, many of us buy replica leathers, helmets, gloves, boots and so on, even the bikes we ride we copy our hero’s, I swear, last weekend I saw Rossi, Stoner and Baylis on the Old Road! For others, it is nothing more than being very practical in what we wear and ride in, we look for weather protection and safety first and then think about the style of the item.

Weather protection:
Everyone has a comfort zone, everyone has a expected or accepted level of protection they want. We see it every time we go for a ride. On hot days, the guys that wear T shirts because it’s hot, the guys that still wear leather jackets in the heat. The riders that at the first drop of rain stop, normally under a bridge or overpass and put the wet weather suit out, or the rider that will take the gamble and not have a wet weather suit.

The distance of your ride can have a big impact on your choice of weather protection, there’s nothing worse than getting soaked to the skin in the first km’s of a thousand km trip. It can also be just as frustrating to spend 15 mins getting into your wet weather gear to find it turns into a 38 degree day just 10 mins up the road.

Budget:
One of the biggest influences on what we buy. Everyone has a budget, everyone has an opinion on what is too expensive or too cheap. This is where you have to do your home work, shopping around with different suppliers of product, getting feedback from people about a particular brand or style of clothing or helmet, getting into stores and physically trying stuff on. These things all help to give you a chance to make a valued decision on how much you are prepared to spend.

Safety Helmets are required by law in Australia to meet a certain level of safety, from the very cheap helmet to the most expensive, they all must meet that level of safety to be sold in this country. The more exotic the materials the more you pay, the flasher the paint work, the more you pay. Yes some brands offer a much higher level of protection, but the final choice is yours. There are no regulatory standards for clothing for road use, different suppliers offer certain information on their product, abrasive tests and so on. Try to buy what you can afford but with the highest level of protection for your money.

Understanding:
A strange category. What I mean by this, is an understanding of what you want from your safety gear. Do you want the maximum protection from a crash? The maximum protection from the elements? Clothing that offers some built in protection but not over the top in both price or safety? Do you want to just ride in jeans and T shirt and not  be concerned about the consequences? Many riders don’t understand these questions and don’t know how to come to a decision as to what is best or needed by them. Experience is one of the ways to learn how to make that choice, but experience can come at a cost, you may learn the hard way after a crash and then realise that the thongs and shorts weren’t such a good idea after all. Each rider has to make that decision before he rides, and each of us as individuals, will make different decisions. Let’s all hope we make the right ones.

Type of riding:
This goes back to what was said earlier, there are so many different forms of riding, from racing to road riding. If you were doing a track day, you wouldn’t turn up in jeans and runners, you would make sure that you had the appropriate clothing for the day, the same goes for riding down to the corner shop, it’s easier to leave the thongs and shorts on, but is it really the correct way to ride? The old saying, horses for courses is true, pick you clothing to suit the riding. Types of safety gear out there is immense, let’s look at what you can get and what you really need for a particular discipline of riding.

Trail riding / motocross:
Weekend trail riding in one of the biggest actives in the world. Protective clothing is a must, There are very few of us that go all day on the trails without some sort of fall or obstacle being flung at you. Helmets are different to road helmets, usually very light, large peaks and open frontal areas for goggles to fit. Boots are very tough robust and rigid to support the foot, ankle and lower leg from injury and obstacle ( rocks, stumps and the like) that may be in your way or you land on.

Body armour is very extensive, Back, chest, knee, elbow, neck and hands all need to be protected. The type and style of this can vary, but it is very very different from what you may have as a road rider. Pants and shirts are usually light and offer minimal protection, the armour is relied on quite heavily to do this task. Cuts, grazes, bruising and broken limbs are part of the sport so protection is a must.

The Scratcher
This type of rider is there in big numbers, many have a type of bike that has some form of link to racing or has been modified to be better than stock. The riders usually take pride in what they ride, as a result they know that protection is vital if they are going to have a play on their favourite bit of road. These riders tend to have two piece or one piece leathers, back protectors, armour in their leathers, good quality gloves and good quality helmets. 

The track rider / racer
At the high end of the sport where speed and pushing to the limits is an everyday occurrence, the need for top quality safety gear is a must. One piece leathers with built in armour, additional back protector and chest protector are the norm, quality gloves, top level boots and helmets are also a must for these riders. Coming off the bike at extreme high speed requires a very, very high level of safety gear.

The post Riding Tips: Choosing The Right Riding Gear appeared first on Racing, Riding, Motorcycle Reviews, Race bikes, Tech Tips, Rider Training....

In this fitment guide we cover the main points of properly fitting fairings, in what order to tackle the job, as well as showing you some of the tricks used to do a good job and help you get around some of the problems that can arise when fitting aftermarket race fairings to your bike.

Check out our other tech tips here…

Firstly, there is a proper order to things. You’ll want to fit the fairings before you paint them, then take them off to be painted. It takes us around four hours in the shop with all the tools and know-how, so allow yourself six hours or more to finish the job. Make sure you have the bike clean and set up on stands or a workbench with plenty of room to move around. 

You will need the correct tools. A compressor and a die grinder is a must for cleaning up rough areas and drilling holes. Some sand paper – 180 dry for rubbing down moulding seams and 320 dry for cleaning up edges and finishing off for paint (keep in mind that your spray painter will be able to take care of most of this when prepping). Plus all the usual workshop tools. Make sure all drill bits are sharp and ready for use!

When fitting race fairings you need to be patient. Sometimes you’ll find bolt marks that don’t line up. Often it’s simply a matter of taking a quick breather then getting back into it and you’ll find it will be something simple like the fairing not mounted correctly.

Sometimes the fairings may have warped a little during shipping, this is not a problem, it’s just a matter of bending them back into shape and fitting them to the bike in the correct position. Once the bike has been through a couple of heat cycles the fairings will re-set to that position.

You need to keep in mind that race fairings do not fit as well as factory plastics, so you may find areas where there are small inconsistencies. This is quite normal and not usually noticeable once the paint and stickers are on. If you check out other race bikes at the track you’ll be surprised how good they look from a distance but upon closer inspection the fibreglass fairings rarely look as neat as street fairings.

Start with the tank cover (if you have one), then seat support, ducktail, ducktail lower, upper fairing, lower fairing and finally the windscreen. You will need to be prepared to remove and refit panels a number of times to confirm correct fitting – be patient! 

You will need to use the original factory bolts to mount the fairing to the frame of the bike. Taper bolts allow you to make accurate marks in fairing panels so you know where to drill. Keep in mind that sometimes mounting points on bikes will be not perfectly aligned. If your bike has been in any kind of crash, it will be likely that things such as the subframe, radiator or other mount points will be not exactly aligned. If this is the case then you may need to straighten them before fitting the glass. 

Sometimes you may need to grind areas off the fairing so that they fit around corners/over edges or if there are parts on the fairing that you do not require. If this is the case do not panic! Fibreglass is very easy to work with and can be easily shaped using a die grinder, electric grinder or even a hand file. If you need to remove a section of panel, simply mark what you need to remove with a marker pen and grind off the area. Finish the ground edge off with some sandpaper. 

When fitting upper and lower fairings, sometimes you will find that a mount point will not line up exactly to the area on the fairing that has the recess to mark where the hole should be drilled. If this happens do not panic! Sometimes previous accidents can cause alignments to go out but it is not a problem. You can simply drill the hole in the appropriate position or you may need to space the fairing out a little from the frame with some spacers.

Dzus Fasteners are great for connecting upper and lower fairings; however you need to be careful. Dzus Fasteners come in different shaft lengths and you’ll need the correct length for them to work properly. The Dzus Fasteners supplied with Doctor Glass fairing kits have 10mm shafts and are suitable for most applications so long as the fibreglass being connected is not too thick.

If the glass is too thick, such as in situations where carbon bordering has been chosen as an option, you may need to sand or grind the contact points between the fairings so that they reach the correct thickness for the Dzus Fastener to function correctly. Rivnuts also work as an excellent replacement for Dzus Fasteners if available. 

When mounting the windscreen for the first time it’s best to do so with the upper fairing off the bike. Get someone to hold the screen in position then mark any holes in the fairing or screen that need to be drilled. Some windscreens come pre-drilled but sometimes you will need to drill yourself. If you need to drill holes in the screen make sure you put tape over the area first (both sides), then use the drill in reverse at a very high speed. Don’t push too hard or you’ll crack the Perspex. 

Another point that is worth making is that it’s important to try to keep contaminants such as oil, grease and especially silicon off the unpainted fairings as this will make them much harder to paint. 

There you have it! It might sound like a big job but if you take your time, measure twice and only cut once it’ll fit great. Then its off to the painters for your fairing and you’ll have a great looking track bike in no time!

Words and Photography: Doctor Glass

The post Tech Tips: Race Fairing Fitment appeared first on Racing, Riding, Motorcycle Reviews, Race bikes, Tech Tips, Rider Training....

Obviously, we all want to make sure our pride and joy is going to be transported safely and arrive at the destination in the same condition as when we started. This is where it can be difficult if you don’t know or understand what the bike needs and what you need to do to make sure that all is safe and all is not damaged.

Check out our other tech tips here…

First and for most is how you get the bike into the transportation you have decided to use. I can’t think of many examples where you can just roll the bike in without having to climb some sort of gradient, so, we are going to need a ramp. Now, I mean a ramp, not a lump of timber, not a section of U channel from a building site and not a convenient couple of mates to help you lift it on. Mind you I have one ingenious rider at Eastern Creek load and unload his and hers bikes using a hydraulic crane off the side of his truck using slings to support the bike! Very clever.

The height that you have to get the bike to, ute or trailer or van, can be made far easier if you obtain a ramp that can be long enough to make the ramp angle more shallow, this alone will make the job of pushing or riding, yes riding, you bike into or onto your transport.

There are many types and styles of aftermarket ramps, most are aluminium and most fold for convenient storing; some have supports to the ground in the middle and so on.  One of the most important things you can do with your ramp is have it lock in, in some fashion to the trailer, van or ute. This obviously stops the ramp from moving when loading or unloading, a secure ramp gives you confidence to hit the ramp with speed when loading. If it slips to the side you will drop the bike from a fair height. You might even end up under it and injured. 

Once the bike is on board, it has to be secured; many bike trailers have a built in front wheel support area. Box trailers, vans and utes don’t so you need to make sure that the front will stay where you want it to. There are many aftermarket support stands that can be bolted down to the floor of a trailer, van or ute. Most will hold the bike upright when the front wheel is in place giving the luxury to then move around the bike without the fear of it falling while you tie it down, these are a must if you are doing this a lot on your own.

Tying the bike down is the most critical and misunderstood aspect of the job. This is where damage can occur to your bike, forks and fork seals can damage very quickly if you tie the bike down incorrectly.

The bike, even when tied down, must be able to move, the suspension must be able to go through it’s normal movement without being hindered. The bike needs to be able to bounce but not come loose. If you lock in both the front and rear wheels absolutely solid with no back and forth movement the bikes suspension can’t move or travel. Think about it, the wheel base of you bike changes as you ride, the suspension when fully extended gives the longest wheel base to the bike, when the suspension compresses the wheel base shortens because the forks are angled, the swingarm also changes the wheel base.

So, if you lock both wheels, there is nowhere for the suspension to move except to try and compress and as a result damage will happen to your bike. Most common is fork seals and steering stem bearings, but the longer the bike is tied down and the longer the distance of transport, more damage can occur. You also need to ensure that hooks or soft ties are secured in a way that when the suspension of the bike compresses over bumps, the strap or tie down won’t become unhooked from the bike when the strap goes slack momentarily. 

The answer is to only lock down one wheel, if the front is your choice, lock it by the axle or lower section of the forks near the axle, not by the triple trees pulling the front down, this will cause damage. If by the rear wheel, the same applies, only by the wheel, there are some very good tie down systems for rear wheel on the market. There are also many types and brands of tie downs, I prefer the ratchet type, fitted properly they never come undone. To support the bike from rocking from side to side, use points on the frame about mid point and about at wheel height. This will support the bike but not put strain on it.

Think about where you put your fuel can, tools and any other gear including the ramp, if these are just placed in the vehicle or trailer and not secured they will move, they can then rub or scrap your bike, rub or scrape on other gear, it wouldn’t be good to have you fuel can rubbed through on a trip and end with 20 litres of fuel sloshing around in the back of the van or trailer. 

And one thing I always remember – Mark Stenburg, our contributor and lawyer, once represented a man who’s bike ramp bounced off his trailer, went through a car windscreen and seriously injured the driver. He did jail time. So always secure your ramp!

If your bike falls off on the freeway, it’s gonna cost you big bucks! Words: Paul Bailey

The post Tech Tips: Transporting Your Bike To The Track appeared first on Racing, Riding, Motorcycle Reviews, Race bikes, Tech Tips, Rider Training....

Firstly, any motorcycle used for competition, in our case, road racing, must by National and State motorcycle racing governing bodies standards, have certain parts lock wired for safety reasons. Parts including, drain plugs, oil filters – either spin on type or cartridge type oil filters, filler caps, radiator caps, water overflow caps front brake calliper mounting bolts and any other plug or drain that can allow the escape of any fluid from the motorcycle must be lock wired and inspected before the motorcycle can be used for any competition.

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Track bikes, although not race bikes, should still be lock wired. Track bikes are under far more stress over a short period of time than a road bike. Any mechanical device has an inherent vibration or harmonic point that can loosen bolts, nuts and fittings with great ease, everything may be tightened to torque specifications, but with constant high rpm many of these fittings will loosen and can then cause a weep or a spill of fluid.

Obviously any fluid spilt onto a track during racing or track days is a highly dangerous event. It can sometimes take half a lap or more before a rider of a leaking bike may realise he has a oil or fluid leak, or it may cause him or her to crash as a result of the same fluid leak, it can also of course, cause other riders to crash when they run over the spilt fluids. As you can imagine this can seriously delay any racing or any track sessions while the offending fluid spill is cleaned up from the track to then allow racing or track sessions to continue. As a racer and track day manager of Eastern Creek Ride Days I’ve seen the results of these spills in both lost track time, damage to machinery and personal injuries.

By adopting the attitude of safety and lock wiring the motorcycles drain plugs, filters, filler caps and radiator caps; these unnecessary track incidents could almost be eliminated completely. I can hear some of you saying, if I lock wire my road bike, when I sell it people will think it has been raced. It only takes a few dollars to replace the drilled parts with new; no one will really know what you have done. The reality is most race bikes sold as road bikes have had this done already. The benefit is, you have made your bike safer for you for either on the track or road.

Special lock wire tools are available from most good car or bike performance centres. Stainless steel wire of different gauges are available also, but too light a gauge wire may break too easily during fitting, so a reasonably strong wire is best that is also flexible enough to be twisted by the tool.

Once you have identified the bolts and plugs that need to be lock wired, use a sharp drill bit, use either a bench drill (for more control) or a variable speed hand drill to do the necessary drilling of the parts. Try to think about where you are drilling, thinking ahead to where you will attach the lock wire from the part to another securing point on the bike. Try to position the two points so that the plug or part can’t unwind any distance, imagine how the plug would unwind, and attach the wire so it can’t rotate from the locked position.

If you have a spin on oil filter, attach a good quality hose clamp around it and have that clamp pinching the lock wire under it, then you can use the tool to spin the two strands of wire and then attach the wire to another point on the bike, again think about the direction that the filter will unwind and counter that with the anchoring of the lock wire.

The tool is simple to use, cut a length of lock wire, pass it through the pre drilled hole you have created in the plug or part, then double up the wire so you have the two strands next to each other. Hold the wires to where you are going to attach to the frame or other anchor point, at this distance place the tool over the wire and clamp the wires tightly, then lock the pliers shut.

You can then pull on the spiral knob at the end of the plies and they will automatically twist the wires together. Do this a number of times till the wires are twisted like a rope, be careful not to over twist or you will break them and have to start again. Find the anchor point you are using and pass one wire either side of the anchor point and then lock and twist the wires around the anchor point, you can then trim and fold the twisted wires out of the way. You have now successfully lock wired your bike!

Lock Wiring Costs

• Lock wire tool  $35 – $70
• Stainless steel wire per container   $30

Lockwiring is one of the most important things you should do to your bike before heading on track… Words & Photography: Paul Bailey

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There are four levels of advanced rider training offered at CSS all designed to teach you step by step how to improve the stability of your bike around a corner by refining riding technique. I enrolled for Level 1, which teaches the fundamentals, gets you comfortable with the track and corrects bad habits.

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My riding experience surmounts to a little over a year of inner-city Sydney commuting. So although I am quite proficient at dodging apparently blinker-less cars at speeds less than 80km/h, I had never graced the track. As the date for the event drew closer and closer, my trepidation grew and grew. 

My pride and joy is a 2013 Honda CBR250R Moriwaki Edition, a bike that until the morning of the CSS day, I felt had more than enough power. Arriving at Eastern Creek Raceway at 7am sharp, my nervousness was compounded as my little bike seemed to shrink in the company of the other motorcycles lining up to be inspected by the CSS staff. 

As I fretted about potentially being the only person to never have ridden on a track before, I struck up a conversation with some gentlemen waiting in line next to me. Both had been riding for over a decade, but had never set tyre to track either. Throughout the day I met a huge variety of people, mainly participating in Levels 1 and 2, and it became clear to me that CSS caters for every rider.

After my bike was inspected and deemed ‘track-worthy’, the charismatic Steve Brouggy, the co-founder and managing director of CSS, gave us an introductory safety briefing. Steve was quick to establish a sense of ease and excitement among the students, peppering his talk with jokes that bordered on inappropriate, but were nonetheless hilarious. After this initial talk, we were split into our respective classes and assigned coaches with no more than three students allocated to each coach. 

Our group was the first on the track – a daunting prospect for any first-timer. The first session was an orientation lap, where we could only use fourth gear and absolutely no brakes. I was mildly terrified at this announcement, thinking it would be a virtually impossible task based on my winding, convoluted map of the track. These first laps were also designed to get us comfortable with the entry speeds of each corner of the track.

Shaking with adrenalin after the initial slow but nerve-wracking session on the track, we were marched directly upstairs for our first lesson with Steve – throttle control, arguably the most important control for cornering. On the track, the coaches would locate each of us in turn and ride ahead, signalling with a specific hand movement when and how much to throttle-on in the corner. Out of all the drills, this was probably the one I had least trouble with. I found my normal pattern of acceleration was similar to what my coach was instructing, if a little early in the corner. The second drill however, had a profound effect on my mindset and consequently on my riding. 

In this drill we studied turn points, or simply the spot you aim for in a curve that will give you the straightest line through the corner and the most predictable exit line. The turn points for each corner were marked with a white cross and on the first lap, all of the turn points felt very late in the corner and about a quarter of them felt nearly impossible to hit. It was then I learned that I had been inadvertently increasing the curve of my line around a corner by turning too early. 

By the end of the 20-minute track session, I was getting accustomed to the new turn points with the most significant improvement being a tight finishing line, rather than the usual line, consistently wide and less-predictable. 

Up until that point, I am ashamed to admit that I had never been aware of counter-steering. This drill was a revelation, and from talking to the other participates, I believe it was enlightening for everyone. The drill involved weaving at a constant speed down a straight line by consciously counter-steering. Two coaches watched from the start line and corrected positioning and technique. We all had to repeat the laps of the straight at least five times before the coaches were satisfied. Although the drill was tricky to get the hang of, once I had the hang of it, achieving the turn points on the track became easy as I learnt to quick steer later in the turn to avoid correcting in the middle of the corner.

The next drill also had a profound effect on all the riders present. The drill was called ‘rider input’ and focused on allowing the motorcycle to have its head in a corner, not trying to fight against bike. All of us found that since we were concentrating hard to put all our learning into practice, as well as the fact that we were repeatedly putting our bodies into a stressful, adrenalin-ridden state, we tended to grip the handlebars for dear life, tensing our upper bodies. 

As we discovered, this makes the vehicle unstable in a corner. A bike oscillates within a natural degree of lateral movement, particularly when headed around a corner. By allowing the motorcycle to move within its own framework by relaxing the grip on the bars and dropping the elbows into a relaxed state, the motorbike becomes perceivably more stable. Coming out of the infamous turn two hairpin, I audibly gasped in amazement at the difference in stability exiting the curve compared to the previous session. However old habits die hard and I still had to fight my body at each corner as it attempted to tense up at the prospect of leaning closer to the asphalt.

Early in the day I had felt the unexpected thrill of terror and then triumph as my boot scraped the ground around my favourite hairpin on the track (turn 9). The concentration I held on the track gave me a symbiosis with the bike and I didn’t even realise how far I was leaning until this sudden jolt. 

Naturally, I freaked out and immediately backed off the throttle, ending up with a wide exit line. After this and as the day wore on, I felt as if I was actually decreasing my speed into the corners and each one began to feel laboured. I thought this may be a result of muscle fatigue after four separate adrenalin shots around the track. On the fifth and final drill, the reason for my discomfort became apparent. Since the second drill teaching us about turn points, I had had my attention focused too much on meeting the white crosses on the track. This meant as I approached the cross, I reduced entry speed too much and was tense moving into the corner. Drill five was called ‘two-step turning’ and focussed on teaching us to locate the turn point on the road, then once it is clear that you will hit that mark, change your eye line to focus on the apex of your corner.

“Once I understood this, all the other drills and skills I learnt throughout the day fell together, the corners felt much more natural and it became an immensely thrilling last hurrah around the track. I was cornering faster and with much more stability and I now had the confidence I was lacking previously.”

The first few laps on the track are frightening because the experience was completely foreign to me. I had never had somebody tape up my rear vision mirrors and speedometer and tell me ride – presumably at high speed – with no cars and your control of the motorcycle being the only potential hazard. Besides forcing myself to stop trying to check my mirrors, as the day wore on and with the help of Steve and the coaches I became immensely comfortable in this environment. There is something entirely euphoric about the experience. You become removed from your body as you execute a series of actions to bring you successfully around a corner at ludicrous speeds. 

In your mind you know you are putting yourself in danger, but the risk is confined entirely to the accuracy of your actions. As a result, leaving at the end of the day to putt once more through Sydney traffic felt as foreign and dangerous to me as the initial laps around the track did at 8am that morning. As I grew accustomed once again to city riding, I found I had a new confidence in my abilities to handle my motorcycle. 

I found myself consciously applying each drill we learnt into my riding and felt my old habits – the ones I hadn’t realised were there – gradually dissipate. The school exceeded my expectations 10-fold and I was utterly spent after the long day – both mentally and physically – having crammed so much information into a single day. The skills learned are so important to any rider, I fervently believe everyone with a newly acquired full riders licence should participate in a day at California Superbike School and set their standard of riding early for an inherently safer and undoubtedly more enjoyable ride.

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