1199R trackbike project.

hey, i did find the movie !

Cham,

Frankly, i knew that the bike wouldn’t need the gear lever, but when I first saw it with the levers gone, it took some getting used to J
Now I did give this mod quit some thought before doing this . As it is quit major as a change and is not the cheapest thing on earth.

And I sure got some frowned looks and worried techs when I mentioned I was considering this. Not to speak from the ‘old fart’ –buttons remarks … J


Even Steve gave me the ‘ oh dear, what did you just do?’ look.. which got me worried. But still I decided to go ahead. And much more from a ‘how bad can it be?’ p.o.v to assess the risk of it ruining the gearbox, riding and perhaps the whole bike as a result of a wrong button induced crash.

It s good to know the position I started off from: I’m not the short, superfit and adept rider. And the fact that my gear foot seems to be on of the stiffer parts in my body has led to the given that I miss gears twice a session. Mostly ending up between gears. I could have blamed that on the pegs not being in the right place or the QS not being well tuned but I also had it on the 999 and it was a major contributor to not going to race mode on the lever. As it always seemed to be difficult to get my foot under that lever to tick it upwards… and when under lean that is not a good feeling. It also meant that it lengthened the time I need for my foot to get in the right place. So , in a manoeuvre , that would shorten the time is had to move around on the bike and the flexibility to further adjust once I got in the ‘get you foot right’ phase of the move.

To me , the brakes today are of such standards and presence of slipperclutches made sure I did not learn to blip so fast I could do it to the effect that it actually assisted to controlling the bike. So my style of downshifting was the one whereby I try to just clutch in /clutch out fast enough to follow the action on the lever. And the clutch just had to do the rest. Which , so far , had worked fine. But shortening the brake zones is one of The goals this year and so this sequence of actions will have to get even shorter. Another challenge ..

So where can it help? Well , what does it do: in all honesty it only does what my foot would do. Change the gear. So not much difference there, but it will do so much better than I will do it. As the PS3.5 is now to a level that it is more intelligent than ever. Especially on the trickiest part ; the downshifting. It recognises the gear you’re in and is will then look for the settings you gave it in the sense of how high you want to rev it between gears and will then decide how much time you’ll take to feed in the ignition again, simulating a fast or feathered release of the clutch.

The vid may not show it but the rate of downshifting is quit fast.. probably not as fast as Guilliani or Davies but still a lot faster than me.. J

So what should it bring me : first of all, the road ahead will be a very steep learning curve. Dropping times at Spa to 2:45 will take me to be focused on rider development ( braking points, bodypostioning, flipping through the chicanes, keeping the bike tighter and more upright out of the turns so I can get on the gas earlier… ) and on handling the extra punch the MR exercise has brought. getting out of the corner faster with the bike pulling harder will also shrink the road ahead. Something I will have to get used to.. So my final considerations before I decided to get the system put on were of decluttering my mind woth thiings to do. So I can focus on the really important things. Those mentioned. And reducing the loss of time I’m spending all the things is do so badly. Shifting gears being a major issue in the first place. I should free my mind.

And I felt reassured when I learned that Chaz stated he missed having no clutchless downshift on the F014 whe he first rode it. And that all wsbk bike do the same thing electronically but with the foot.
And if you look at race cars : paddles have been around for 15 years now. Now even being standard in WRC, so the dirvers can keep their hands on the wheel..

And what can go wrong ? Shifting up accidentally ? so what? Shifting down accidentally? Ok , not a good thing , but when this happens, it will be better than when I did it by foot and clutch ..

So , when it comes to riding, quit some crucial things to gain, and not much to loose… not a bad deal…

Frankly, I ‘m counting the days to roll it out on Barcalona and Valencia, 2 different types of tracks. After that week I should know all about it ! J

 

i truly hope the PS3 will be the acquired taste i think it will be... why would you want a foot to mess up your bodypostioning.. Luc is now fixin the very last little things... he tested it and is taking to it rapidly i feel... and he certainly was a sceptic , if not synic.. but i guess its the same PORSCHE=HANDSHIFT reaction that i respect..

 

and some bro-love !

 

thanks guys...

i don't see the brave thing as it looks like it does the shifting of gears a lot better than i do them...

 

The engine job revealed that the 3rd and 5th neede changing . Either that was the cause of all the mis shifts or threy were a result of them .. And this system has the movement of the foot on the lever replaced with a steady and calibrated mechanical jerk .. Connected directly to the gear wheel . If were confident enough to trust electronics over mechanics with our throtlle abd ignition , we can easily trust it with button that triggers the piston that moves the jerk , no ?

 

March 10 11 im thinking of putting up a spa day to get some guys from the forum over would be nice !

 

Thanks for pointing out

i already picked up 2 pairs with discs at MR. BSB is going 17" and Steve is a very reasonable man...

A second set for slicks in black and gold disk combo and a set for wets in gold and black disk combo..
added a sturdy Lightech front ( triple-pinned ) and rear paddock stand. And a good buddy of us will let us use his ex Ten Kate 8 set -tyre warmer / holding rack.. so now we're next to fully kitted..

at least we'll look the part...

 

the bars are VALTER MOTO 52MM and the clipons come from hps.. they do look the part..

 

SO guys ! here we go ! 2014 season got rolling... had to shake off a bout of the worst flew since i can remember.. but finally it was time to pack up for Spain ... Barcelona next monday and tuesday and Valencia next thursday and friday...


i feel e bit weary and anxious as i'll have to tame that beast now... and there's so much to do and learn on many issues...

still confident that the bike is now set up ... the more i think of it the less i can comprehend that i could hold the pace with a bike so badly set up... and the unknown risks i was taking... grrrr....


but that's all gone now , stocked up on tires and wheels so no holding us back now... weather seems it s going to be optimal...

taking the 999 as a reserve bike and then 2 bikes of friends.. it's the first time the Sprinter is fully loaded. Happy how it worked out ...