Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles.racing
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 02:52:27 -0400 
From: Mark Joseph Andy <ma1w+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Thanks!

Howdy,

It occurred to me while I was trying to stay awake driving back from
Nelson Ledges Sunday that my RZ is entirely a product of the net.  I
bought it from a guy in Mass. who advertised a stock RZ350 with 3500
miles for $700 on rec.mc, put Mikuni 30mm carbs and Spec II pipes on
it that I got from Chris Denzler, and mounted up some Comp K's I got
from Janet Gunn.  Not to mention all the specific set-up advice I've
gotten over the past months from Peter Eccelsine (sp probably), Jim
Brewer, and Chris; and then there's the general set-up advice and
encouragement I've gotten from all the rest of you folks...

Anyway, it struck me that I owe a lot to you folks on the net.  Just
wanted to say thank you.

So... This weekend I finally got the RZ out at an open practice at
Nelson ($50 for the day, about 5 hours of track time).  Actually, this
weekend started on the previous Monday, with me working to get the RZ,
that was pretty much down to it's components, back together in
preperation for Saturday and Sunday.

Come Fri. night at 1am, I had yet to get the tank cleaned up (rust on
inside), the tires mounted, and the Seca (which I was also taking)
prepped.  It also turned out that I had to put fork oil back into the
forks (which had drained when i drilled the fork drains for safety
wire), but there will be more on that later...

I decided then that since I would save $50 if I didn't run Sat and
that since I would get no sleep if I got the bike prepped, I'd just go
up to Nelson and watch on Sat. and finish the RZ that evening.  Two
friends of mine (Pete Marcanio and Axel Essbaum) were in the street
riders group that was being run, and I watched them and hung out all
day.

Sat. night I was wishing that I'd stayed home and gotten the bike
prepped, but with Pete, Axel, and Butch's help we got everything
together by 1:30am, and got to get 3 hours of sleep before we headed
off to Nelson for Saturday.  Axel was taking the TrakSport school, and
I was running the open practice.

I started out in the morning session on the Seca, getting a feel for
the lines and taking it pretty easy.  It was cold as hell, so I was
coming in every 12 laps or so.  The new pavement definately helped the
place.  13 (turn 8 by M. Tiberio's track description) had been
completely smoothed out, and it was now possible to take pretty much
any line that you wanted, rather than being restricted to only a tight
inside or outside line like the last time I was there.  Turns one and
two (turn one in description) had also been repaved, which was great
when you were on the new pavement, but the transition from old to new
happened as you were already heeled over for one, causing me grief and
limiting my entrance speed.  Turn 4 (3 in desc) was as smooth as I
remembered, and the Carosal, turns 5,6,7,8,9 (turns 4 and 4a in desc),
was ok, with the bumps on the exit of 9 a little better.  The first
kink, turn 10 (5 in desc) requires no thought, as you aren't going
fast enough for it to be an issue at that point.  The second kink,
turn 11 (6 in desc) is an issue however, with a few small bumps on the
enterance, but basically smooth through the corner (I think they
re-paved here as well).  Turn 12 (7 in desc) was very smooth, but I
don't remember if it had been before.  After that, it was 13 and then
back down the front straight.

Anyway, after reacquanting myself with the track and getting to know
the changes, I came in and got the RZ running.  It fired up on the
second kick and seemed to be running well.  I got the bike teched, and
took it out for the second session.  The first thing I noticed was
that I had forgotten to replace the fork oil mentioned above.  The
fork was incredibly soft, casuing the fork to bottom and slam around
under hard braking with *any* bumps at all.  This was a big problem
going into 12 where, with a normal braking point, I had the fork
slamming up and down with the front wheel momentarily locking and
releasing.  I was forced to start braking very early to feel
comfortable here.  In addition, the pavement transition going into 1
had the bike bouncing up, not breaking traction but I was extremely
leary of increasing my speed there and this slowed me down later on.

The bike rode completely different from anything else I had ridden.
There was no power at all below 7000 rpm and I had to learn to
downshift with the tach and by memory as opposed to by sound as I was
used to on the 4 strokes I had ridden.  I knew that engine braking
would be non-existant, but I hadn't realized how much I used it.  On
the plus side, there was this two-stroke scream all the time and the
lack of engine braking made it possible for me to downshift halfway
through the carosal, needed to keep my entrance speed in the powerband
while still giving me a good shot onto the back straight.

Going onto the back straight was often a pucker experience as the
essentially undamped, unbraced, and unsteering-dampered front end
danced around on the bumps.  It threatened to tank slap a couple times
but was never a real problem.  I was hitting 9500 rpm in 5th by the
time I got to 11, and then I had to brake early for 12 due to the
bumps on the entrance.  13 was fine, with the exit being right in the
meat of 2nd causing the front wheel to be pretty light on the exit
over some small bumps, but it wasn't a problem.

I made fairly large improvements over the day.  By the time Butch got
to the track at 1pm or so, I had had the RZ out for a couple sessions
and had gotten used to the fork limitations.  He timed me at fairly
consistant 1:33's, which I wasn't very happy with.  I didn't feel that
I was pushing as hard as I could, especially through 11, where I was
backing off and downshifting before the corner (I had been shifting
into 6th just before the corner), and I knew my speed through the
entrance of the carosal was too slow (I had been leaving it in the
gear I would be using for the tighter exit and was rev-limited).

I was able to over come my pucker inhibitions on 11, eventually
getting so that I went WFO from the exit of the carosal to the
entrance of the kink (hitting 9500 in 5th then), dropping back to half
throttle momantarily to settle the suspension, throwing the bike over
and at full throttle through the kink.  Once I got used to it, the
bike felt great going through this way, but I was using most of the
track and usually wasn't able to pass in the kink at that speed,
causing me to have to slow for folks that didn't want to hit it as
fast as I did.

In turn 4 I was forced to have to upshift halfway through the corner
(slightly increasing radius), which was a coordination problem.  I hit
a couple false neutrals there because I wasn't able to give the
shifter a good kick upward.  I eventually got used to it, but that
corner convinced me of the good-ness of a reversed shifting pattern.
I left the bike in that gear (4th probably) all through the beginning
part of the carosal, clicking down about halfway through and trailing
throttle as i drifted outside and set up to square off the exit and
get a good shot down the back straight (had to stay to the inside of
the exit of 9 due to all the bumps on the outside and memories of
highsiding the EX there last season because of 'em).  That line was
apparently working ok, I was getting a better drive than most folks I
saw, though I suspect that was because all the good riders were racing
somewhere else! :-)

Turn 3 was giving me a little trouble due to bumps until I found a
smooth way through, apexing about 6" from the inside of the track.  I
usually clicked down into third there and after I threw the bike over,
was on the gas hard all the way through the corner, giving me a pretty
good drive onto the short straight before 4.

One of the incentives to speed up came from another guy on an RZ
running the same carbs and Factory pipes.  He started out faster than
me, especially through turn 4 and the carosal, though I made up time
on the exit of the carosal and through the kink.  For some reason, he
was also braking early for 12, so I didn't loose out there.  I seemed
to have a little more motor than him, and was able to eat up some of
his advantage that way.  Eventually, I got so that I was taking 4 as
fast as him, and was able to stay with him in the carosal, giving me
the advantage as we came out.  He was never far behind however.

In the last session, he and I were dicing for about 10 laps, with me
getting by with 3 laps to go (of course we didn't know that at the
time).  I was ahead until 4, where I hit a @#$###!! false neutral and
he took me on the outside.  I was able to close up the distance on the
back straight, and got a good drive through 13 onto the front
straight, just getting past him before one with 1 lap to go (which we
now did know, curtesy of a checkered indicating the end of the
session).  I knew then that as long as I didn't screw up, he wouldn't
be able to get by, and made damn sure of the shift in 4 :-).  I ended
up beating him to turn 12, where we both backed off and pulled into
the pits.  I had a smile that nearly burst my helmet and couldn't stop
bouncing around for 5 minutes.  That was the first time that I had
raced against someone that was that close to me, and I was excited
that I had been able to speed up and stay within my limits.  Maybe I'm
finally over the crashing phase...  I guess it probably sounds weird
to some of you folks, who run one hell of a lot faster than me, but I
was as excited as if I'd just won a national.

Anyway, the riders school was then having some practice starts and a
couple 4 lap practice races, which we were invited to join.  RZ's are
a bitch to start.  My first attempt resulted in a bog, and a bunch of
guys going past, most of whom I got past by the end of the lap where
we re-gridded.  In this start I was on the front line of the second
wave, and took the Tiberio approach.  I kept the bike tached up and
started back behind my grid position a little so that when I sorta
jumped the start it wouldn't look too bad.  The guy was definately not
a professional starter.  He twitched and I started feeding in the
clutch, but he didn't throw the flag.  I was almost to the start of my
grid line by the time he did, and I was able to abuse the clutch and
got out ahead of everyone.  I managed to hold off the zx-7's, ninja's,
et all for one lap, then we regridded yet again.  Butch, and
apparently everyone else in the upper section of the press box (or
whatever the hell that is) seemed to think that I had jumped the
start, but I think it was probably just jeleousy on their part :-).

On the regrid they changed the order of the waves, and my leading on
the last start gave me a front position on the inside (first time
that's every happened).  Of course, I fed in too much clutch, wheelied
and had to back off, causing the bike to bog, whereupon I slipped the
clutch and the bike wheelied, etc.  I think I got passed by at least 6
people.  This start led to a practice race, and preditibly, I was soon
dicing with the other guy on the RZ.  Traffic was a new experience :-/
Going through 4 on the third lap, I was leading with him right behind
and we came up on a slower rider.  I had to let off for an instant to
tighten my line and take him on the inside, and when I did I saw the
other RZ go by him on the outside.  I caught up to him through the
carosal and was right on his butt by the end of the back straight.  We
hit another back marker there (turned out to be Axel), and he was able
to get by on the inside line without letting off, while I again had to
slow a bit and take him on the outside.  I braked a little later going
into 12 and was on his ass through 13.  I would've gotten him, but
they then red-flagged the race.  Throughout the race at least 3 folks
had crashed (all riders school I think), and even though they were all
off the surface, they decided to stop the race since they only had one
ambulance.  

The next, and last, race, was the "real" 4 lap race.  I got my
starting to be quite irritating poor start, and was once again dicing
with the other guy on the RZ, while Arland and some other seriously
fast folks had jumped out in front (they were turning around 1:15's
according to what I heard).  I was right behind him on the 2nd lap
when I lost power exiting the carosal.  Fearing the worst, I got off
it and took it real easy into the pits (apparently some of the riders
school folks hadn't listened too well, as many slowed way down and
stuck a hand out behind me, only to eventually get straight that I had
a problem, whereupon they finally went by).  In the pits, the bike ran
ok, and I suspected that what had happened was that I was close to the
limit on the normal part of the tank and that the long right hander
had most of the gas on the right side of the tank, leaving me nothing
for the motor.  Needless to say, I was quite relieved that I hadn't
blown up the thing on my first day out! :-)

Butch told me that some guy in the the tower had gotten a time on my
of 1:29, but I don't know when that was.  In any event, that was a 4
second improvement over my earlier times, all with a bike that
couldn't go full speed through 1 and 2 and had to brake early for most
of the corners.  I can't wait to try it with a real suspension.
Another guy there who raced RZ's sorta questioned my sanity at running
the RZ the way that it was, but I felt fairly safe the whole time.

Needless to say, I was pretty pleased with last weekend.  The RZ ran
quite well, and seemed to have more power than the EX that I raced
with Butch last season (of course, it has to, since the RZ is only
legal for D superbike now, as opposed to D prod. which the EX was in
last year).  I was running 3 seconds under my fastest time last year,
but I suspect that most of that can be attributed to the new pavement
and a bike with perhaps a little more power.  I can't wait to try it
with a decent suspension and good brakes, but I don't have the $800
I'll need to put on a shock, fork springs, fork brace, steering
damper, steel lines, and Ferodo's.  To say nothing of adding rear sets
and some dropped bars.  Racing with a budget that isn't nothing must
be more fun...

Anyway, if you've made it this far through the ramblings, you're
probably aware that I'm still pretty psyched by the whole weekend.  I
had a great time.  Thanks again to all you folks that helped to make
this possible.

Mark

| Mark J. Andy			WERA NV #813		DoD #813	|
| ma1w+@andrew.cmu.edu		AMA/CCS AM #811		AMA #700560	|
| Co-founder/Rider, Team RISC and Two Geeks Racing			|
| '82 Seca 650 (street), '85 RZ350 (track), '78 KM100 (commute-in-snow)	|
| I want RZ350 parts like steering damper, fork brace, exhaust, etc...  |