I'm thinking either stock 16-48 or possibly 16-46 since it's a high speed track. Never rode this bike @ RA so I'm not sure. Suggestions???
Hope you don't mind me taggin along in your post, but I was wondering the same for my 996....
-Ski
Hard to go wrong starting with stock gearing (or even +1 or +2 in the back) at Road America. Unless your dealing with a ton of extra power, or your carrying some awesome cornerspeed onto the 3 fast sections, your probably not going to need to over-gear your bikes beyond stock gearing for more top speed at RA. I generally run +1 or even +2 in the back on my '02 GSXR750, but my combined (bike+rider) Power to Weight ratio is almost exactly 5 lbs per HP - the lower your lbs per HP the more top end gearing your going to need if your carrying good corner speed. :thumb:
Quote from: SV88 on April 24, 2009, 11:29:30 AM
I'm thinking either stock 16-48 or possibly 16-46 since it's a high speed track. Never rode this bike @ RA so I'm not sure. Suggestions???
Hi,
I have an 03 R6 that I raced at Road America this weekend and my gearing was 1 down in front and up 2 in the rear... 15/50 with the 520 conversion. I thought that combo worked great!!!
I may be wrong... but my thinking was that you want the gearing so when your on the fastest part of the track, you want your bike to be in the top gear just about to hit the rev limiter. I just bought a 52 rear for Blackhawk, I'll have to see how that goes =)
Ended up running 16-47 which I felt was a little tall. The worst part was dropping below 7k coming out of 5. I've got the Graves intake kit which puts a significant dip in power around there. Guess I should have shifted down 4 times or carried much more corner speed there. I'll probably go 16-50 @ BHF
Quote from: SV88 on May 06, 2009, 08:34:21 AM
Guess I should have shifted down 4 times or carried much more corner speed there.
Steve - you should have carried more corner speed. How many times do I have to beat that into your thick scull? Untill you feel the tires slide and force you to drift out to the paint on the exit you need to take off the skirt and carry more speed!
George
Quote from: spymoto on May 06, 2009, 05:14:05 AM
Hi,
I have an 03 R6 that I raced at Road America this weekend and my gearing was 1 down in front and up 2 in the rear... 15/50 with the 520 conversion. I thought that combo worked great!!!
That's how you pulled on me a little. I only went up 1 in the rear and stock front. Didn't you run out of top end. That's even shorter gearing than my BHF setup.
Quote from: spymoto on May 06, 2009, 05:21:06 AM
I may be wrong... but my thinking was that you want the gearing so when your on the fastest part of the track, you want your bike to be in the top gear just about to hit the rev limiter. I just bought a 52 rear for Blackhawk, I'll have to see how that goes =)
Are you going to launch in 2nd? My very first year racing I tried a 15/51 set up, first gear was just about useless.
Quote from: spymoto on May 06, 2009, 05:14:05 AMI have an 03 R6 that I raced at Road America this weekend and my gearing was 1 down in front and up 2 in the rear... 15/50 with the 520 conversion. I thought that combo worked great!!!
The ratio of most sportbikes today is about 3:1 when comparing the rear and front sprocket tooth counts. That would mean you were running what would work out to be apx a +5 gear on the back (if using a stock front gear - original 16/48 gearing came on that bike new). I'm finding that gearing hard to believe for Road America, unless your corner speed was on the slower side, your letting off / braking really early, or your really heavy (or some combo of those)? With a +2 set-up on my bike I will run out of gear at the very end of the front straight, I find it hard to believe you would make it very much past the Start / Finish line with a +5 set-up before running out of gear. Could you confirm that those are actually what is still on the bike from last weekend?
Quote from: spymoto on May 06, 2009, 05:21:06 AMI may be wrong... but my thinking was that you want the gearing so when your on the fastest part of the track, you want your bike to be in the top gear just about to hit the rev limiter.
Yes........and No.
In a perfect world It sounds good, but racetracks are designed to challenge both rider and machine. Even though Road America is a top end track it's different than Daytona because most people will only top out their bike for a few seconds at RA (if at all) - unlike Daytona where you can be topped out for some distance, depending on your bike. For that reason if you sacrifice a few seconds (at most) of ultimate top speed in exchange for better acceleration around the entire track (thru more aggressive gearing) you may find it results in faster lap times. At a comparatively slower track like Blackhawk or Barber you also need to consider shift points, you may find not using all your gears works better because you don't have to shift as much and by changing gearing you can ultimately create a compromise as to where your shift points are going to be out on the track. I saw an interview with Mat Mladin a couple years ago and he said that at Barber he generally only uses 2 gears around the entire track once the race gets up to pace (with a very brief occasional click of 1 more gear on some laps) - If I remember correctly he was only using 3rd and 4th gear around the entire track. :thumb:
Quote from: superspud on May 06, 2009, 10:50:28 AM
That's how you pulled on me a little. I only went up 1 in the rear and stock front. Didn't you run out of top end. That's even shorter gearing than my BHF setup.
Nope, never hit the rev limiter
Quote from: superspud on May 06, 2009, 10:52:10 AM
Are you going to launch in 2nd? My very first year racing I tried a 15/51 set up, first gear was just about useless.
I never tried a 2nd gear start, other than when I raced MX. I got pretty good starts since I'm always in the last row of the grid =)
Quote from: GSXR RACER MIKE on May 07, 2009, 12:16:08 AM
The ratio of most sportbikes today is about 3:1 when comparing the rear and front sprocket tooth counts. That would mean you were running what would work out to be apx a +5 gear on the back (if using a stock front gear - original 16/48 gearing came on that bike new). I'm finding that gearing hard to believe for Road America, unless your corner speed was on the slower side, your letting off / braking really early, or your really heavy (or some combo of those)? With a +2 set-up on my bike I will run out of gear at the very end of the front straight, I find it hard to believe you would make it very much past the Start / Finish line with a +5 set-up before running out of gear. Could you confirm that those are actually what is still on the bike from last weekend?
I went out and looked at the bike. It is 15 front and 50 rear. I was running a 190 rear tire if that makes any difference with the added weight of rotating mass.
Well I weigh about 180 and when I went into most corners, I was thinking I could have braked a bit later and had a higher corner speed. That Race Saturday @ RA was my first day on a bike this year and low sided in T-5 during the second warm up, so I was a bit weary of putting it down again. My quick shifter rod broke, so I went back to normal shifting. I'm not that fast, I think my fastest lap time was a 2:38. I didn't hit the rev limiter at all on the main straight or coming into T-5. Maybe my power Commander moved my rev limiter back??? But I sure hope not!
Quote from: spymoto on May 18, 2009, 07:55:44 AMI was running a 190 rear tire if that makes any difference.....
There's what I was looking for!
While it's true the original tire size for your bike is a 180, it's made for the original 5.5" wheel width of your 2003 R6. Most likely the 190 width tire you have on there is intended for a 6" wide wheel, if it is then (even though it will fit) the profile of the tire is not as intended by the manufacturer because it's being squeezed together on the sides which makes it taller and narrower. If you were to take a tape measure and measure around the largest circumference of that tire (when mounted and properly inflated) you would find it would be larger in diameter than the original 180/55-17 that's designed to be on that 5.5" width wheel.
Can you use that tire? Sure. But have you tried using the original 180/55-17 tire size? I personally wonder if the distorted profile of the 190 tire MAY have been a factor in your crash? Doing a quick search online I found the 180 vs 190 on a 5.5" width wheel has been a topic in quite a few forums with somewhat of a split in preference as to using the 190 or not. The general consensus seems to be that the tires profile is indeed changed and that more aggressive gearing changes need to be made to compensate for the larger diameter.
Once I saw the tire width the gearing you were using at Road America made sense! :thumb:
hmmmm... Now you've got me worried! The reason I run the 190 is because I use my friends take offs that he only uses for one race and tosses them. I'd rather run the 180's I think because they are 1 pound lighter and thats a lot for rotating mass in my mind. He's been running a 07 GSXR 750 and a 07 R6r... I didn't realize the rims were different widths. Thanks for the good info! Now what to do??? Looks like I may have to spend 3x more money on tires again =(
Before you ask... personally I can't really tell differences between tires. 180 vs. 190 vs. slicks vs. Dunlop vs. Mich vs. Pirelli vs. (round vs. "V" shape front tires) As long as they are steady and don't let go in corners I'll like them. I'm not finniky about little tweeks, my riding adapts to the set-up, with no real opinion on the set-up good or bad unless it's really out of line. I'm guessing that's a bad thing! I've never done back to back tire tests, so I guess it's hard for me to tell the difference between the different types of tires when there is a minimum of 2 week gaps between rides... I guess I can relate it to beer, I like beer and drink what ever is on tap and will not complain because they all taste like beer. But if I had 10 beers lined up in a row and could taste them at once, I'd be able to pick which one tastes best to me and order that when ever possible =)