Story time!
2022 was officially a disaster, with every race cancelled, save for the season opener in May that we didn't make it to.
2023 is a mixed bag so far. The bike has been untouched since the middle of last year... a little battery resurrection and she fired right up, and we made it out to the May season opener @ El Mirage. I was going mostly just for data, and primarily to help a friend and customer field his new MPS-650 Turbocharged bike we built, and also break in a new rookie. In hindsight it was a little bit too much to take on in one meet for myself (3 bikes/riders with one support vehicle, and me trying to race on top of that). Decided to run her nekkid (no fairing), as I don't think I have the aero quite right for how fast it's going to go yet.
Conditions were good, at first. Track had a light tailwind all day, which was piling up a little bit of dust mid track, but nothing too crazy. Sadly our line up numbers were 168 & 169! we had over 170 line up numbers run before us, a mix of cars and bikes that had done a pretty good job chewing up the track, and absolutely destroying the shutdown area after the timing lights.
Not really knowing how all the new changes were going to react, I took a real easy approach for the first run. Rolled her off the line in second and immediately tried to move over as far right as I could in the lane to find some unchewed dirt. I Immediately noticed how 'top heavy' the bike felt with super narrow, angled bars... not a comfortable feeling at all. Straightened it out and put a little throttle in it and it immediately felt better as it picked up speed. I reached down and short shifted up into 5th, maybe putting a couple thousand rpm in each gear. So far it felt like an absolute diesel tank... even in 5th gear it just connects the throttle to the rear wheel, never gets a hint that it is bogging or needs more rpm to move. It breaks loose up around 140 pretty good at maybe half throttle and starts to wag the tail a bit... a really heavy low oscillation that feels MUCH different from the little tail wiggles I'm used to feeling on the Japanese sportbikes. I back out of it a little bit and it straightens out, and I roll back into it... it just grips and grunts itself forward like it was still in 3nd gear. At this point I all of the sudden start to notice the wind blast on the outside of my calves, shoulders, and the top of my head. It's been about 5 years since I've ridden a nekked bike at speed, so I took a couple seconds to adjust... pulled the limbs in tight, tucked the chin in deeper, and just kind felt what it felt like again. It was a nice Zen moment, until I realize I was just sitting there at part throttle eating up track. That woke my brain up and I glanced over at the tach for the first time; 6700rpm. ****, that's not enough. Brain immediate goes from "let's do a shakedown pass" to "let's see how fast this f'ing thing goes". End of the 1.3 mile is coming up quick, so I roll into it a little more abruptly than I probably should have. It digs in and accelerates hard for a split second, and then immediately noses over as the tach shoots up into the low 8K rpm range... wheel slip killing any real speed as it slid through the traps. Like a **** rookie I jump off the throttle too quick, but the bike stays straight... swear at myself briefly, ease onto the rear brake (the only brake actually... the hand lever just controls the rear) move my vision up the course, and see some absolutely nasty ruts closing in and quick. I don't think I got off the brake lever fast enough, at it actually hops/skips over the ruts.... the back end slides out a little to the right. Then a little more to the left. The more to the right. More left. It gets worse, until it sliding back and forth, steering lock to lock but with the front wheel tracking dead forward, for what feels like the better part of 3 or 4 seconds at well over 140mph. At one point I made the mental preparations to abandon ship, picking the left side to roll off when it eventually lowsides. As I started to move my body over the weaving didn't get any better, but it didnt get any worse, and I paused to think. Having exhausted all the normal options, I started feeding the throttle back it.... it actually hooked the tire back up and almost immediately started driving it straight again. I put my butt back in the seat and slooooowly rolled off the gas, and made my way of the course... maybe 100 yards from the end of the 1 mile shutdown. I sat in the dirt for a while waiting for the ZX6R to come down track behind me, hoping like hell he missed the spots I found out there.
Bike went 174mph at part throttle, spinning & sliding through the traps. The Turbo 600 found some of the chop and got squirrelly, but had a slightly better time of it going 182mph on a 160 mph record. The next rider after that similarly had some instability/come to Jesus moments, so we decided no more runs on that surface... we'd wait for the next day when they moved the track over. Sadly, the rain showed up in the evening and turned the lakebed into a mudbed, ending the meet for May. We certified the record for the 600, and it was a big enough clobbering that he actually leads the overall points into the next race. I've done some thinking on the setup... and while I think the conditions (and rider error/rust) caused the majority of the problems, I may have a liiittle too much weight too far back on the bike. I may move the water tank up to the nose of the bike to help offset the center of gravity shift. It's likely going to really need it when I put the bodywork on anyway. Lots of work to do before Bonneville!
