Adelaide ride Mon 24DEC07

[Twatty]

Righto lads, who's up for a ride on Monday?

Meet at 0930 at the BP on the corner of Magill and Portrush Rd

Hopefully the weather will be better this time!

[OwenS]

Im in.

[Greeny]

Yeah i will be there.

[KTM39]

I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet, but bugger it - count me in.

[OwenS]

I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet

Me neither! It can ALWAYS wait til later :)

[OwenS]

Is this a full leathers kind of ride? Or a santa hat and singlet kind of ride?

[Greeny]

Its your skin.

But I will be wearing my new Jackson Motosuit.

[KTM39]

Look at the pic of my leg from the last ride.
My leathers will be along for the ride this time.

[Twatty]

Leathers and MX boots for me, might do some off roading (we'll take a vote)

[Twatty]

So far we've got 5 confirmed, Tom and Vaughn are out.

[OwenS]

Very humbling. Had a blast fellas, my first group ride ever and really appreciate how accepting you were of me and my slowness. Cant wait to get out some more and hopefully one day keep up with some of you in the twisties!

[albonator316]

How'd the bike feel through the twistes owen?

[OwenS]

How'd the bike feel through the twistes owen?

I really didnt feel confident at the start but after some tips from KTM39 it started to feel a lot better, had a really nice run up corkscrew road, some of the fastest-tightest corners ive ever done thats for sure.

We also went to the dirt for a little bit and i came off, not a big deal but it took all my confidence in dirt riding away, i could not believe how fast these guys are on both dirt and road. Inspirational :D

Plus the endless endos, monos and fishtails kept me grinning for the full 3 hours or so. :lol:

[SM93]

sounds like ur getting there mate, someone is always faster but as long as ur smiling thats the main thing

[Greeny]

Very humbling. Had a blast fellas, my first group ride ever and really appreciate how accepting you were of me and my slowness. Cant wait to get out some more and hopefully one day keep up with some of you in the twisties!

Was a good ride.

Owen
Dont worry about making people wait. Ride your own ride and if that is not as fast as others then so be it. As long as you are enjoying yourself and have a smile in your lid then thats all that matters.

At some stage all of us have had people waiting for us.
Mate you are more than welcome to join us agian for a ride and Twatty and I will be posting up more rides to come ovet the next weeks and months.

[Twatty]

Today was a heap of fun for sure.
I just cant wait to wear out these CRAP Distanzias so I can start applying power while leaning the bike over again.
Owen, you're going O.K. It was only a couple of months ago I was waiting longer than that for Greeny, now he's as fast as me, in a couple of months he'll be at stretch's pace if he keeps improving at this rate.
Just relax and have fun!

[OwenS]

Im real bad with names to boys so i cant remember who was who. Was greeny on the crf?

[Twatty]

Greeny's the endo master on the Husky.

[OwenS]

Oh right and you were the wheelie master on the DRZ?

[albonator316]

Im real bad with names
So am I, took me 15 months to get everyones names at work right, and i'm still stuffing em up!!

[shane]

your not the only one , i have trouble remembering my own how the hell can remember someone elses so mate or champ works for me :-}}}}}}}}}

[timo]

I only just noticed this .Sorry i missed it .would have been nice to meet the crew.Maybe next time.
Cheers and Merry Chrissy.

[Twatty]

Oh right and you were the wheelie master on the DRZ?

Yeah, It's almost impossible to keep both wheels on the ground with all those rampaging horses and crazy brakes on the DR-Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz! ;)

Timo, keep you eye on this forum, we'll squeeze a couple more rides in before we go to Melbourne on the 3rd. Always keen to meet and do skids with new people. Be carefull though, so far we have a 100% strike rate of guys we ride with from here taking excursions into the undergrowth! Maybe it's me?

[OwenS]

so far we have a 100% strike rate of guys we ride with from here taking excursions into the undergrowth! Maybe it's me?

Oh come now you make it sound so much worse than it was! :lol:

[KTM39]

Thanks for another great ride guys.

Owen - you did fine and improved noticeably throughout the day. It just takes a bit of time and riding with the right people certainly helps.

Just never forget - we're on public roads. I always ride with a larger safety margin on the road, (let's not talk about my little battle with that wire fence last week...). I keep it to about 80% pace. It's not worth getting hurt for the sake of keeping up with people on the street - there's no prizes for winning the street race.
Save that for the race track. It's all about having fun, (and being injured is not fun).

These pics aren't very exciting, but I'm too scared to take my SLR along, in case I damage it.

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb97/Liam39/2412075.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb97/Liam39/2412074.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb97/Liam39/2412072.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb97/Liam39/2412073.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb97/Liam39/NewImage.jpg

[Wobbly]

Looks like fun :)

[OwenS]

Lol i love the one of me inspecting my hands after crashing on the dirt. What a wuss!

[Muzzard]

Get the power on leaned over?
Crap Distanzias?
I'm not following you there mate..

[Twatty]

Get the power on leaned over?
Crap Distanzias?
I'm not following you there mate..

If I get the pegs scraping, tyres slide
If I apply the throttle whilst at heavy lean angle (without the pegs touching down) the rear snaps sideways
If I enter a corner hot, the front pushes
All these things are happening at lower speeds / less angle of lean than on the previous tryes and cause me to ride a lot slower than before
Distanzias are shit for fast riding.

[Muzzard]

And in most of those instances they were predictable and controlled I would assume ..
I have used them for years, but it can also be a matter of riding styles.
Bikes and rider weight also play into it of course,
IMO opinion still the best all round tyre for street motards, your sport tyres aren't worth a knob of goat shit on a wet road compared to these.
Take into account the aggressive cutting in the tyre of the tread and theres your differential between it and a sport tyre in the dry.
Same compound as the Azaro AV50 Sport ;)
It comes down to what suits you and the style of riding you do most I suppose :)

[dangermouse1100]

Get the power on leaned over?
Crap Distanzias?
I'm not following you there mate..

If I get the pegs scraping, tyres slide
If I apply the throttle whilst at heavy lean angle (without the pegs touching down) the rear snaps sideways
If I enter a corner hot, the front pushes
All these things are happening at lower speeds / less angle of lean than on the previous tryes and cause me to ride a lot slower than before
Distanzias are shit for fast riding.
Hmmm, you sure they are the motard specific Distanzias? theres a pic in the gallery of a blue dr scraping pegs & it always felt surefooted to me, unti l i put it on the pegbolts and frame that is :lol:
http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q89/dangermouse650/Track%20days/leanitover.jpg

[Wobbly]

I wonder about the variability sometimes, as some people seem to have dramas with them and some not. I can't say that I ever have, and though I'm not the fastest bloke about I do carry a reasonable amount of lean angle and kyle keeps on telling me I carry too much corner entry speed :lol2:

Around TT they seemed to be quite happy dragging pegs even on the wobbly KDX, but dan seems to struggle with them as well. So, in summary, dunno :shrug: :lol2:

[Flash]

My last front wore badly and was impossible in the wet!! So you could be onto something there Neil!

[Wobbly]

Yours was from track time though right?

[Flash]

I think the majourity of it was

[Twatty]

My Distanzias (cantstandyas) are NEVER predictable or smooth when they let go.
I weigh 100kg and my bike is no lightweight either, so that could be a factor. The massive gaps between the tread blocks are the problem, just not enough rubber on the road when leant over. I'm more than happy to sacrifice riding slower in the rain and off road for decent grip when I need it most.
That blue DR is CRANKED! but the corner looks to tight for there to be much speed invoved, very happy to be wrong though!
I'm trying to upload some photos for you to see the wear patterns.
Also, I just checked the pressures and they seem a bit low, so I'll set 26/28 in them and see how that goes tomorow.

[MarkeeMark]

And thats me in the background nearly scraping my pegs on my old DRZ using Distanzia's as well.
I found them ok but did have them let go under power on the rear at times and have the front wash out as well when leaned over to far on slower corners. But the grip in the dirt over a normal road tyre was awesome.

[Twatty]

I guess you can't have it all when it comes to tyres!

My tyre pressures were out, so I'll try again tomorow.

I'm looking forward to the analysis when you guys see me ride at TT, can't wait to get over there for the 5th!

[Flash]

Which Distanzias do you have? are they the 50's or the 60's?

[Twatty]

120/70-17 and 150/60-17 both H-rated.

Didn't have any mojo today so wasn't riding agressively at all, but even at a 7/10ths pace and deliberatly being as smooth and progressive as possible they were still sliding around a little.

I was going to try GPR10 alphas next, but Greeny has just destroyed one in 800 road km's, maybe pilots or BT014's. At least the cantstandyas will get me through the Melbourne trip next week.

[Flash]

There is 2 types one is hard the other is excellent. They all will slide but they are very predictable. I've done a fair bit of liding on slicks so I guess everything will slide if you open the throttle enough leaned over far enough!

[Flash]

What about tyre pressures and also suspension set up?

I was having huge drama's getting out of corners and with the help of Kyle and Shane got it sorted now it will still slide but I seem to catch people while doing it! It isn't always the tyre!

[Twatty]

Yeah I'm going to have a play with the damping this week, but I still say the problem is the massive distance between tread blocks at the edge of the tyre. It is a good compound, there's just not enough of it on the road.
My DR-Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz gets out of corners OK, The Husky 450 and KTM 525 dont gain that much (despite the extra 20hp) but my mates CRF 450 smashes all of us easily with stock springs and valving just wound up clickers.

[STRETCH]

just as a quick fix, max comp on the front and rear and slow rebound down-not sure but maybe max on front and close to max on the rear. also wind the spring down to take all the static sag out of it leve maybe 2-5 mm. you will probably run out of spring before it gets that far tho. i set up juices DR in the Qld nationals like that and it felt pretty good for a dr, had distanzias on it too. the beast should keep up with the crf pretty much everywhere on the road. hope it helps mate.

[Twatty]

Cheers mate!
2-5 mm static sag sounds crazy, but I'll give it a go! wish I had preload adj on the front to balance it out. I assume you mean max out both high and low speed at the rear?

[shane]

set your rider sag at between 60-70 mm , most times you end up with no static sag unless you respring it

[Twatty]

You guys are awesome!
I stiffened up the suspension this arvo and took it for a quick lap in the hills. The difference is amazing! I now have feedback from the rear on acceleration, and no real slides, though I cant say I was really pushing it.
The front felt much better under brakes, but a little vague in corners, so I might try working on that as I did have a front end lose in a corner that doesn't usually cause any problems.
Thanks to everyone for all the constructive comments.

[Muzzard]

It can only get better from here then mate ;)