the bb trackday thread.

[graeme4130]

Had a spin on my boys Pitbike today as they were having a trial day at Lyneham Karting, and it's just up the road from me.
These things only make about 14bhp, but they're a lot of fun, and on the grippy track at Lynham, you barely need to scrub off any speed on the corners. Ground a good chunk of my boot away though

[horico]

Birky_41 said:

Capit they were the ones people said are simply the best right now... Couldn't remember the name

Thanks for the replies chaps - looks like Capit then. Next to look into are generators - do the Capit warmers take any extra power than normal ones?

[graeme4130]

horico said:

Birky_41 said:

Capit they were the ones people said are simply the best right now... Couldn't remember the name

Thanks for the replies chaps - looks like Capit then. Next to look into are generators - do the Capit warmers take any extra power than normal ones?

Nope, they're about 1100w or 1.1Kw per pair

[Birky_41]

horico said:

Thanks for the replies chaps - looks like Capit then. Next to look into are generators - do the Capit warmers take any extra power than normal ones?

I did loads of research. Unless you have honda i20 money

The below is by far the best in value, warranty, power and fuel capicity

https://www.sgs-engineering.com/spg2200-portable-p...

[George29]

horico said:

Thanks for the replies chaps - looks like Capit then. Next to look into are generators - do the Capit warmers take any extra power than normal ones?

They actually take a lot less than a normal set. I can run 3 sets off my 2kw Honda generator.

I recommend Honda generators too. Expensive but they hold their cash and are spot on in terms of reliability

[horico]

I've been looking at the Capit warmers and the sizes on the rear are listed at either

Medium <=180/55/17 or
XL 180/60/17 <= 205-17

The rear of the track bike is 180/55 - will there be an issue using the XLs to allow These to fit my 1199 which has a 200 rear? I can't see what the issue would be given the only difference is a 9mm sidewall height difference...

[stew-STR160]

graeme4130 said:

Had a spin on my boys Pitbike today as they were having a trial day at Lyneham Karting, and it's just up the road from me.
These things only make about 14bhp, but they're a lot of fun, and on the grippy track at Lynham, you barely need to scrub off any speed on the corners. Ground a good chunk of my boot away though

I'm looking at getting another as they're so much fun, for not a lot of money.

Seems to be a bit of a void around Cambridge though. Other than Red Lodge who host once a month, there is Whilton Mill(50 miles) and another one or two around that far.

[George29]

horico said:

I've been looking at the Capit warmers and the sizes on the rear are listed at either

Medium <=180/55/17 or
XL 180/60/17 <= 205-17

The rear of the track bike is 180/55 - will there be an issue using the XLs to allow These to fit my 1199 which has a 200 rear? I can't see what the issue would be given the only difference is a 9mm sidewall height difference...

Will be fine I’ve used mine on mates bikes with 180 tyres on without issue

[graeme4130]

stew-STR160 said:

graeme4130 said:

Had a spin on my boys Pitbike today as they were having a trial day at Lyneham Karting, and it's just up the road from me.
These things only make about 14bhp, but they're a lot of fun, and on the grippy track at Lynham, you barely need to scrub off any speed on the corners. Ground a good chunk of my boot away though

I'm looking at getting another as they're so much fun, for not a lot of money.

Seems to be a bit of a void around Cambridge though. Other than Red Lodge who host once a month, there is Whilton Mill(50 miles) and another one or two around that far.

It's loads of fun, but mechanically, they're utter crap and the quality is super poor - Bits are really cheap through, and a full engine and gearbox replacement is around £300 !
I took a trip up to Stretton Circuit today, which looks a load of fun on a pit bike - Not that I found out properly as the gearbox chewed itself to bits today as I was pulling out the pitlane, bloody thing.

Im sure there's loads of places over the summer that open up to Pitbikes. I'll be up at Whilton Mill quite a few Tuesday's as it's a good chance for my son to get out on his Mini moto outdoors and only around 90mins from here.
Me and him are off to Spain in a couple of weeks. He's got 4 days at Finestrat circuit in Benidorm for a bit of track time and racing (they call it the European Championships, but that's largely just to allow kids to get off school for a bit of sunny riding before the race season starts, and dads to go on the lash in Benidorm in an all Inclusive hotel)
Then on the Friday, we're both heading off to Cartagena again, and he can be my pit crew for 3 days on track.
This time I'm planning on crashing less and riding more


George, how did your trip to Cartagena go this week ? What did you think of the circuit, as it's pretty much the polar opposite of your last trip to Almeria

Edited by graeme4130 on Wednesday 21st February 15:50

[George29]

graeme4130 said:

George, how did your trip to Cartagena go this week ? What did you think of the circuit, as it's pretty much the polar opposite of your last trip to Almeria

Still here now, got one more day on track tomorrow.

It's been alright but i've had constant bike issues all related to the clutch switch making the quick shifter/autoblipper work intermittently, tried loads of fixes to sort it but have ordered a replacement part which should sort it when I get back.

Also they started me off in the novice group on the first day and wouldn't move me up until they could find someone to move down, so I ended up running into the gravel and dropping the bike to avoid T boning a much slower rider at one of the hairpins. No damage apart from paint which doesn't matter because it's getting a new colour scheme when it get's back home. My airbag went off in my leathers though! Quite impressed with it actually, gives me more confidence if I ever do have a high side again (fingers crossed I won't).

When the bike's been working it's been good. Got down to 1:42 today, but got maybe a couple of seconds I could get off that if I man up at turn 1 as I'm braking way too early, and a few other places, only got about 20 laps in all 7 sessions though yesterday when the weather was at it's best Weather isn't forecast to be great tomorrow so will probably just keep it steady away.

It's a lot different to Almeria but I like it, the double left over the crest takes some getting used to, just basically seems to be late apexes everywhere. I think I prefer the more flowing nature of Almeria to the stop start of here though.

[pitlane]

When we use Trackdays for rider time we always try to use a Euro company as they are mostly Chrono. The sooner this becomes the norm the better, 1.42 around Cartagena pace in novice group is mad, that's only 10 seconds of a fast Moto2 time there!

[George29]

pitlane said:

When we use Trackdays for rider time we always try to use a Euro company as they are mostly Chrono. The sooner this becomes the norm the better, 1.42 around Cartagena pace in novice group is mad, that's only 10 seconds of a fast Moto2 time there!

This is a chrono event too but the groups were kept the same until the end of the first day when the laptimes were reviewed. I was only doing 47s in the novice group and they did finally move me up the 3rd time I asked (and annoyingly after I dropped it). I’m sure there were loads of other people asking to move up too so I can see why they didn’t straight away

[horico]

George29 said:

Will be fine I’ve used mine on mates bikes with 180 tyres on without issue

I did think it would be - and one person agreeing with me makes it fact!

[pitlane]

George29 said:

This is a chrono event too but the groups were kept the same until the end of the first day when the laptimes were reviewed. I was only doing 47s in the novice group and they did finally move me up the 3rd time I asked (and annoyingly after I dropped it). I’m sure there were loads of other people asking to move up too so I can see why they didn’t straight away

Ah fair enough, the end of the day seems a little late to leave it to change the groups though!

[Biker's Nemesis]

Portimao booked 14th - 16th October with Redline.

[Bikesalot]

Portimao booked in July with NL!

[cookie42]

Portimao booked October with no limits

[ar-em-en]

Portimao (genuinely) booked in september with no limits!

[graeme4130]

pitlane said:

When we use Trackdays for rider time we always try to use a Euro company as they are mostly Chrono. The sooner this becomes the norm the better, 1.42 around Cartagena pace in novice group is mad, that's only 10 seconds of a fast Moto2 time there!

That's a lot less than 10 seconds off a moto2 time. The lap record there is only 1:32 by Luke Mossey this time last year, and a fast moto2 rider would be nearer 1:36-7

[graeme4130]

pitlane said:

George29 said:

This is a chrono event too but the groups were kept the same until the end of the first day when the laptimes were reviewed. I was only doing 47s in the novice group and they did finally move me up the 3rd time I asked (and annoyingly after I dropped it). I’m sure there were loads of other people asking to move up too so I can see why they didn’t straight away

Ah fair enough, the end of the day seems a little late to leave it to change the groups though!

I thought the whole idea of running those adhesive transponders was to sort anomalies like this early on.
When I was there last month, there was a guy in with us in fast2 who was clearly novice group paced despite it still being the first morning, and he was moved down after a couple of sessions.
The NL guys were moving people around fairly constantly as there were a lot more riders in fast 2 than in the other two groups.
Anyway, 1:42's a great time George, and sorry to hear you binned it. I like to think that only the really good riders crash at Cartagena - I've crashed twice there now, and McKeen went down there too
Quickshifter issues are pain in the arse, as there's normally a million things that can be causing it, most of which can't be fixed simply trackside
Hope you're enjoying the last day today, looks like the sun's out from the pics I've seen on the NL facebook today