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My First Track Day


klrtovfr

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I just did my first track day with Sportbike Track Time Novice at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. I had a blast and was dragging my knees around just about every right hand turn including the full carousel. Also hit 154mph on the front straight with stock gearing. Unfortunately my go pro did not like my sdcard so it stopped recording after 12 minutes. I ended up crashing at the end of session 6 on canada corner before the turn as I got too greedy tryiing to pass on braking. As we are not allowed to pass in turns in novice I tried to slow down enough to get back in the racing line but couldn't and tried to scrub enough speed to let the 2 guys to my left have the racing line but it was too much for the front and it locked the wheel up and threw me to the ground before turning and before knowing it happened at aprox 50mph. The bike ended up sliding into the gravel pit. I ended up somewhere near the apex of the turn.

I just bruised my elbow and somehow got a huge blister on my hand even though it did not burn through the gloves. The bike scraped the right fairing up pretty good and scraped/cracked the right side crankcase cover which broke one of the bolts out of the clutch center so I had a little trouble getting it back into gear. But I was able to drive back to the pits.

Even with that I was not too bummed, I had a lot of fun and learned many things I did not not know were possible on the vfr. I was hanging with the 1000cc bikes and even passed a a ducati 848 and 1098. The day before I had lowered the front by 10mm and shimmed the rear with two 2mm washers. It handled like a completly different bike. Im 145lbs steet clothes and have all stock suspension with the front set at full hard and rear at 3 clicks.

Also if anyone can tell me what is causing it to slip or lose power suddenly at around 10,000rpm and then jump to 13,000 please let me know. I ended up starting to shift earlier to avoid that.

session 6

Session 5

Heres someone that drove by my crash afterwards

My friend who also owns a 98 vfr rode his 02 f4i he runs 2:50s on his second track day. I was running about 3:05-3:10

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Sounds its down shifting own it own, then shifting back up ?


Session 6 07:50 it does it and it's definitely shifting down to 5th gear and backup to 6th gear .


Sessions 6 was $uck up !!


Then it hits the rev limiter and shifts backup !!!

You did good !!

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That may have been the sound of the clutch slipping and grabbing again, maybe not it shifting back and forth from 5th to 6th. Not sure. Either way, its broke now, so time to get a new center clutch.

Anyone have a used right side engine case cover he could buy?

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Dont see a crash ..

ya I had the same link twice fixed now. Im hoping someone behind me got some video but no one has posted any yet. My go pro stopped recording about a 3/4 of a lap before. The go pro which was mounted to the right mirror mount snapped the mount and the tether and went flying off but it still survived. I will probably replace the center clutch as well as the friction discs and look around while its apart for any other damage. Im wondering if the bolt was already broken before the crash but i had no problem shifting. But I had a hard time getting it into gear while it was in the sand pit. I was clutchless upshifting most of the time and was using the clutch for downshifting. The slipping seemed to always happen in 5th gear at about 138mph and then I would shift to 6th. Sometimes it did it in 4th gear as well. It didnt seem to go down a gear but just felt like it was slipping or ignition was cutting out similar to the rev limiter but well before the rev limiter. Vtec was very smooth and worked well. I am all stock with no power commander. The only things I have done is gut the stock exhaust, removed pair valves, evap canister, and snorkel/flapper. I did have 02 resisters in before, but took them out and rehooked the o2 sensors back up for the track.

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The next time when you shift into 6th gear(at 130mph) hold pressure on the shifter with your foot and see if that stops it .

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The next time when you shift into 6th gear(at 130mph) hold pressure on the shifter with your foot and see if that stops it .

Im actually not shifting when it does it. It does it on its own at around 10-11,000 rpm while still in 5th gear. Feels exactly like the clutch would be pulled in, however I am not doing anything but pinning the throttle. I shift after its hits redline and it does not slip when I shift it. It did not seem to do it in 1st through 3rd gear.

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That is your clutch slipping. Are you CERTAIN you didn't have your hand resting on the clutch handle & accidently touched it? If it's adjusted out too far the slightest touch can cause it to slip at those RPMs.

Excellent riding for your first track day! Sorry you dumped your bike but it could certainly have been worse~

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