The Five Stages of a Crash (at the track)

When I was in Los Angeles last year, at around two A.M. I went out to a gas station to buy some beef jerky because I was really hungry. A sheriff's deputy decided that I was a dangerous criminal and pulled me over, handcuffed me and put me in the back of his car. 'You are not under arrest' he said.  I don't think you can get more arrested than being physically detained.  Despite my pleas he did not waver in his firm conviction that I 'might have been, and perhaps still is, a contract killer.'  An embarrassing thirty minutes of him fishing to get consent to search my car, he let me go.  No ticket for whatever traffic infraction, he said. 

So my racing nickname was born. 'Hitman' they call me.  Despite this etymology I think my nickname actually means that I hit things a lot. In my past life, punching bags and people's faces.  In more recent days its things like the tarmac, grass, dirt, impact barriers, tire walls and such. I don't know what it is about mini moto but I crash a lot.  I have never been in a big wreck on the street, or on full size bikes on the track.  Just in miniGP bikes.  Knock on wood!

Since my local track (Sandy Hook Raceway) hasn't opened its season yet, I went down to Virginia International Raceway Kart Track to get some seat time on my XR100.  Amazing track, well worth the four hour drive.  I learned a lot about the XR, and got myself to mid-pack laptimes.  I have a second or two I'm leaving on the table that I can see, but otherwise it was a productive day.  I gotta learn to use engine braking and conserving brakes though.  Since braking is one of my strong points, I love to late brake and get on the brakes hard.  The XR's drum brakes can't handle that and it would fade after three or four laps.  So you can imagine what happened.  I crashed many times.  I got to be intimately familiar with the feeling and I thought I'd share my findings.  

There are five distinct stages to a crash.  It is amazing how fast your mind can run in these situations isn't it?  This post isn't taken to be seriously, so don't think you'll get some ninja-tips on how to get out of a hairy situation.  Speaking of ninjas though, I probably tell you how to land well in a fall though.

1. Realization that you fucked up
Oh shit.  Like when your mother caught you with your hand in the cookie jar.  Or when your friends catch you making out with a fat chick.  You came in too hot into this corner.  You misjudged your new line.  Whatever it is, you know you fucked up.  You haven't thought about your options yet (denial, excuses, or ignoring the situation).  Your mind just gets bitch-slapped with that jolt of what feels like regret.  It kicks your mind up a notch to hyperspeed, which is good, because you'll need it for the next stage.. (not that it will do you any good!)

2. Quick run down of your options
Instantly you start thinking about what to do.  What CAN you do?  Take a wider line and scrub off speed?  Downshift, hoping to kick out the rear end and slide through?  Is there any more grip left for braking?  If you are smart, you know that all of these options have one thing in common: none of them will work!  Its too late!  Isn't it funny that when you do manage to save yourself from a crash, you never really think about it?

3. Have an urge to 'let go' of your bike
As you run out of time and realize your efforts are all futile, millions of years of evolution forces your subconscious to realize that your piss-poor conscious thought is useless.  It tells your brain to resort to your instincts, honed by millions of years of evolution.  All the beasts that had to die to make you, you, has to be right.  WRONG!

My favorite dog that I've had hated being held at chest-height, being in the truck bed at speed, being in the water, or anything like that.  At all of those moments his only thought was extracting himself from the situation, and his reaction was universally to struggle as hard as he could to jump, most of the time to his detriment.  Did I mention he wasn't very smart?  So basically your amazingly complex data processing and decision making center gets reduced to a Florida Black Dog's level of cognitive power.  You want to get out of there.  It feels right to let go of this bike.

But you aren't some n00b who rides a flying couch, oblivious to motorcycle physics.  You're a racer.  You're a track junkie.  You are the elite.  You stay on the bike, and maybe even keep a relaxed grip.

4. Attempt to stick to your guns
Wait a minute, I'm not a F.B. dog!  You know what the right thing to do is.  Stick to your guns.  All the elite self-training in repeating mantras, recalling Keith Code (the DVD rip on youtube, not the book because who reads a book?), your MSF class teacher, and all the keyboard warrior wisdom you subscribed to on the forums will pay off now.  Get your head out of the ditch and lean more!  Don't chop the throttle, keep rolling on.  You are confident.  After all, this is the 'right' thing to do.  Ignore that whimpering whisper in the back of your head, you can't hear it anyways.  It says..

'I am really not sure if this will work.'

5. Give up
Whelp.  The bike is still sliding off the road.  Its too late.  I don't think I'll hit that tire wall, but I might.  I know it will be quick.  But will it be painless?  My favorite body part to hit anything with is my buttchee--- 

Of course, after all that, you pick yourself up and get back on the bike.  I can't think of a good way to conclude this topic, so I'll end it with my VIR crashfest video. 

'Making' the dots before connecting them - Streets of Willow track day - 11/30/14

Wow, time flew and I'm four months behind on this update.  I am going to backdate this entry to

To get a 'baseline' feel for my bike, I decided to take my bike out to Streets of Willow before I left California.  Bone-stock.  Tire of choice was the BT-S20 in 110 and 160.
November 30th, but I am writing this one on Feb. 27th 2015.

I've never been on SOW and I haven't done a track day since 2009.  Since a week before, I crashed plenty of times at mini-moto clinic and supermoto school, I decided to make it a mental goal to add little bits at a time.  I always perform better when I mentally hold myself back a bit, focusing on consistency and form more than out-right aggression.


We went counter-clockwise this time.  Aside from going overall faster, I lost a lot of time on the bowl-- I am sure I could attack it a lot faster with all the banking.  I also lost a lot of time in the two corners after the bowl.  Focused soley on setting up for those corners rather than minimizing off-throttle time on the straights.

Overall, I need a lot more seat time.  I'm still not putting together a clean lap-- especially inconsistent in the sections after the skidpad.  I can also benefit from cleaner, quicker inputs to the motorcycle and get more aggressive on the throttle.  Overall, not too bad for one of the first track days, after a 6 year break.

Erm, Mike, sorry for assuring you that we'll be able to fit both bikes on the truck.  Mike soldiered the 100 mile ride back in a thunderstorm on his screamin' GSF400F Bandit because we could not figure out how to load both bikes onto the truck.

Merry Christmas! - Revival progress

When I got my bike, it looked bad.  Really bad.  Well, the bike was in a lot better shape than it looked, but regardless, it looked bad.

About to leave sweet sweet
Southern California :(

Earlier this month I finished my assignment in Los Angeles and drove back to D.C.  I didn't get to enjoy a few days in Florida since I had another short assignment starting, so I drove straight to D.C. after spending a night in Orlando.  Since I don't have a garage here in D.C. and it is fairly cold, I haven't done some of the more involved modifications just yet.  But here is a list of what I have done, mostly while I was in California.

1. Replaced gas tank with a non-rusted out one from a red hawk

2. Re-painted the shit green paint job on the rear fairing and front fender

3. Installed Delkevic shorty exhaust and UNI pod filters

4. Rejet with Factory Pro jet kit, cleaned carbs
Final setting: 162/160 mains (f/r), 42 pilots, 1st clip position on needle, 2.5 turns out on AFM

5. Cleaned up bike a little bit


Things still to be done

1. Install racing shock that I've bought

2. Install springs and emulators, and rebuild forks

3. Install frame sliders (on order)

4. Replace chain and sprockets - the current ones are actually okay, but I'd like a fresh start for 2015

I have a bunch of more posts to do.  I haven't done my Streets of Willow post, my Socal Supermoto post nor my how to do a really good rattle-can job post.

Anyways, here is how my bike looks like now:

M1GP Mini Moto Clinic 11/22/14

I took the M1GP mini moto clinic about ten days ago on a Saturday.  It is an event run by Young Lee of M1GP.  The clinic mainly involves renting CRF50s and doing hot laps around a kart track, but there is some instruction involved.  I had an absolute blast.

There is much to learn about riding from this clinic.  First of all, it is an excellent tool to learn racecraft.  Passing, blocking, and other wheel to wheel related stuff can be practiced in relative safety.  It will be really hard to get seriously injured on these minibikes, so you can try some moves that you didn't have the guts to on a full sized bike. 

It will help with general riding too, especially if you are a beginner.  Body positioning is really important on these little bikes.  The short wheelbase makes front-rear balance very important, and the low position of the footpegs means that you really need to hang off the motorcycle to get your knee down, or else it is too easy to lever off the rear wheel while dragging a peg. 

You also have to be really smooth, as the inputs are amplified on little bikes.  It also punishes you for mistakes since the mini bikes have such little power.  You really have to carry momentum through the corners.

I am sure this isn't the right way to do it, but I went 'balls out.'  I ignored the usual steps I take when I get on a new machine or a new track.  It is the most aggressive I've ever been on two wheels.  I believe I crashed over three times, including one where I went right over the bike and into a hay bale.  Even at these low speeds, I was really glad I was wearing full leathers.  Another benefit of being able to push hard like this is learning how bikes behave at the limit, and how to correct it. It is probably a great place to work out your survival reactions.

You do stay quite busy on these bikes.  Kart tracks have a lot more corners packed onto the racetrack.  You'll constantly be moving around on the bike.  You can practice a lot of basics, such as looking ahead, hitting the apexes, and using all of the track. 

As the time of this writing, the entry fees are 50 dollars.  This includes the CRF50 rental.  While these rental bikes are relatively indestructible, if you destroy a bike or really break something, then you owe the cost of repairs. 

This event helped me plan out my two-wheel future.  I am going to either get an XR100 or a mini GP bike like the NSR50 or the new Kayo 125.  The XR100 allows for some really, really, cheap racing but I hear the replica racebikes will carry over to full sized bikes better.  I haven't made up my mind yet. 

If you want to try it out, please check out the facebook page linked in the first paragraph of this post.  I highly recommend it!

The group was much bigger (25 people, but plenty of seat time!), but we were the guys who perverted until the end of the day :)

Photo credit: Kevin Hipp

Bike is running! ..a bit rough.

A bunch of things happened since my last entry.  I haven't asked Moyers fuel tank repair to start work on my tank yet; I sourced a used one.  I really need to call them and tell them to get started; my rusted out tank has been sitting there for a month now. 

I got the Delkevic shorty silencer and the UNI pods installed.  Since I haven't opened a CV motorcycle carb in a long time, my friend and auto mechanic Jason Kwon came and helped me rejet the bike.  Actually, he did 90% of the work and I watched. 

For those who are curious, I'm running 162F, 160R main jets, 42 Pilots (stock size), 2nd notch in the needles (2nd from top; closest to stock height) with 2.5 turns out on the fuel mixture screw. 

I installed an aftermarket fuel pump.  The previous owner had installed a mystery fuel pump.  It wasn't even mounted.  Fuel lines were everywhere, sticking outside the frame.  That is bad.  In a crash, it would surely get cut and spray fuel everywhere.  I tidied all of that up, and found a cheap, small unit to run.

I did a few other things here and there.  Replaced float bowl gasket.  Tinkerd some more with the idle mixture screw.  In the end, I got the bike running well enough for me to ride to work.  Still, I was getting a lot of popping upon deceleration and my idle was rough.  My off-idle performance was crappy though it pulled hard throughout the rest of the rev range. 

Before I could get this sorted out, a funny thing happened today.  At the end of my 30 mile commute, when I got off the freeway, I noticed that my idle with the bike fully warmed up, was at 2200 RPMs.  I started turning out the idle stop screw to lower it.  I turned it out so much that it had effectively no idle.  I don't know what happened, but when I turned it back in, it settled at 1200 (perfect) and all of the previous problems were gone.  Great off-idle performance, no deceleration popping. 

Something definitely happened then.  I still haven't figured it out yet.  The only explanation I can think of is that something that was clogging up something in the carburetors is no longer clogging up that something.  Or a vacuum line got un-pinched. 

I'll make a separate post about the fuel pump install.  I'll also do a simple write up on which part of the carb is what, for complete n00bs so that they feel less intimidated with opening up the carbs. 

 

 

Things to do:

-Sand and paint rear fairing
-Obtain fairing stickers
-Change out front tire
-Bathe, polish, wax bike

After this, my bike will be ready for actual go-fast mods.  Before that I'm going to do a track day at Streets of Willow to do a baseline run.  This upcoming weekend I have a mini-motorcycle racing clinic, and a Supermoto school.  I am very excited!



Completely rusted out tank - Tank repair

This is a cheater post--no DYI projects here.  I bought my hawk for dirt cheap.  Dirt cheap for a hawk.  Most vintage bikes from the 80's will be worth about 1500 dollars in working, good condition.  My hawk was working, low mileage, but it had a completely rusted out tank.  I realized that when I picked at some bubbles on the paint with my fingernail; gas started pissing out.  Uh-oh.  Unfortunately it is super-hard to find an intact NT650 gas tank.

There are some options.  The most simple one is to get a tank off of a CBR600F2 or 600F3.  These
are widely available for cheap.  (Sub 100 on Ebay)  Put a modern Harley right side petcock, which is not vacuum operated--just like the Hawk-- and are universal.  By modern, I mean post 1975.  Put some spacers, extend the tabs, bolt on and widen your seat.  Done!  However, I won't be going that route. 

On an NT650, you have this tiny 3 gallon tank.  Which means you can go 150 miles on a trip.  That is another reason people install the F2/F3 tank; its bigger.

One great thing about this small tank is that it is super narrow.  This is the primary reason I will not be going with an F2/F3 tank.  Also, I love the looks of the stock tank.

I don't have any exterior photos of the tank, but here is what it looks like on the inside:

The horror!! The horror!!

What it is is an epic crap POR-15 coating.  So what will I do?

Fortunately I found these guys:  http://www.gas-tank.com/
They'll take the tank, sand-blast the outer surface to get all of the paint off.  Then they'll bake it to burn out the previous coating.  They'll cut a hole in the tank to sandblast the inside as well.  Any pinholes (which I have plenty of) in the tank that go through the tank walls will be filled in, any parts of the tank that need welding will be welded in.  The inside will be coated with a badass proprietary coating and the outside will get a few coats of primer.  Apparently the tank will never rust again. 

I am not bad at rattle can paint jobs.  I did side covers on my old '72 scrambler and it looked glorious.  I'm going to do the same to this tank.  I'm thinking about a crazy color like yellow or a light orange, but I have a feeling that darker colors contrast better with the aluminum frame.  I'll keep you guys posted. 

I am back! New project- Honda Hawk GT NT650 (RC31)

Well, a long time has gone by since my last entry.  I am 29, single again, and I've relocated to the Washington, D.C. area.  I took a few years off of motorsports, except for the few kart rental races I've done at Orlando Karting Center.  I have steadier income now, so I wanted to get back into motorsports.

Honda CL450 Scrambler

Before I moved to this area, which I did two months ago, I lived in Orlando, Florida.  Even though I Cafe Moto group.  Cafe Moto is one of the biggest vintage motorcycle clubs in the USA.  I rode a 1972 Honda CL450 Scrambler, then a 1982 CB750SC Nighthawk.  (I think that second link is pretty funny.)  Besides that, back in law school and before I started the LoHP Miata project, I dabbled in motorcycle track days.  I also rode motorcycles before I did my first moto-track day.
haven't been on the motorsports scene, I still got my gasoline kicks with the

So it is appropriate for me to return to motorcycle track days.  I bought the ultimate modern hipster-motorcycle, and a great beginner racing bike that you do not grow out of.  The Honda Hawk GT, also known as the NT650 RC31.  This is a lightweight, small, single side swingarm (SSA or SSSA as my old autocross friend Mike calls it, for Sexy Single Side Swingarm) bike.  This is by far the best handling motorcycle I've been on.  It is very easy to get into turns, and I imagine its cornering speeds are high.

Yours truly.  This bike actually needs a LOT of work.

I have project goals as well.  Of course, first and foremost is to make myself a faster rider.  But the other, more tangible and less wishy-washy goal is to build a street-track dual purpose bike.  Eventually, and hopefully within a few years, the bike will have fairings and will be raced in vintage motorcycle series.

The gist of it is to build a bike that will fly around a track, but is easily converted back into streetable form.  I have very interesting ideas to execute.  For example, a high priority on this project is to make it as easy and least time consuming as possible to get the bike ready for the track.

Anyways, I hope this blog continues to be read.  I apologize for the huge gap of absence and the abrupt change in the theme (4 wheels to 2 wheels), but I don't think I'll disappoint you with the contents.

PS: The Nighthawk is for sale.  Kept indoors in Orlando, FL.  17k miles, just had valve adjustment done with new chain and sprockets.  The only real blemish is in the right side of the tank.  Dented in from when I dropped it on my truck bed.  Oops. 

Till next time,
dwkfym

Happy New Year!

Hi everyone.  Sorry for my late update.
I haven't been karting since the last time I went.  I did however, replace my missing GPS transponder.  The same one I used on the Miata to do all of my lap timing.  As you know, the 'reasonably priced data logging solution' is very handy.  I can probably get by with it by keeping it in my suit pocket, but I will probably buy another cheap symbian phone that I wouldn't mind breaking and figure out a way to mount it on my kart.  Does anyone know of good Andriod based apps that will support 10hz?

I've been busy studying for my second attempt at the bar exam.  That, and work.  At the risk of not having a job after the exams, I asked for substantial time off of work.  We'll see.  At this point, my bar exam is way more important than my job.

Since I don't have any racing related posts to make, here is a fun video with various clips from the Isle of Man TT.

I'd hate to be the guy at 1:30

Track Day Report - 12/03/11 - Calspeed Karting

I have a plathora of hobbies.  I'm not always into all of them, but I take all of them seriously.  My two other big hobbies are martial arts and practical shooting competitions.  They all have something in common with driving.  I think you'll all know what I'm talking about.  I love the focus.  I love the never-ending search for perfection.  And I sure as hell know that before you reach this type of zen-feeling, you need to be proficient in the basics of the craft.  This past event, I felt that.  Not the actual, euphoric feeling of enlightenment, but the feeling that I'm beginning on my way to that feeling.

After some problems with my storage unit, I finally got in and hauled my kart out to the track.  Calspeed again.  I am growing to love that track.

Because I have no idea what I am doing, I did not get the damage from my last event fixed.  So the first hour or so, Stu fixed my kart.  Oh boy I'm glad here is there to help.  I probably would have given up on karting altogether by now if it were not for him.  Furthermore, knowing that I'll be out at the track again no matter what I do, except of course, completely destroy my kart, is priceless.

Boy was it windy.  And cold.  I did 4 sessions that day.  Tom, a cool guy that drives with us, took my kart out to see how it does.  He said it handled well; so no excuses for me!

For the first few sessions I was still spooked from the last crash.  I tried my best to not look at the walls.  Last thing I need is destroying my kart again.  Stu commented: you're still spinning?  Yes, I did spin a couple of times.  That prompted me to clean up my driving.  I did the same thing I did to improve my autocross times; slow down. 

"X" does not mark the target for you to aim at,
but to avoid and look out for unpredictable behavior!

One of the things that kept me from driving faster was dealing with other karts.  My friend Chris who has written on this blog tells me that is 80% of the fun.  Not for me, at least not yet.  When I hear a kart behind me or see it in my prehiperal vision, I lose concentration.  Worse, when a kart actually passes me, I tend to focus on it, remembering details like "oh thats a TAG."  "oh, that is a shifter."

One of the sessions, a shifter guy spun out on his warm-up lap.  I think I could have totally avoided it, but being the newbie I am, I spun behind him.  After I pulled my kart behind the tire wall and helped him pull his, he said "Sorry about that."  After a few seconds, he added "Can you give me a push?"  I did, and there I stood until I could be picked up by the track staff.

Anyways, I finally got to go on the novice session.  Less karts.  I caught up to a lot more people, even some guys in a TAG.  I was finally able to focus on my driving.  I worked on looking ahead, and tried to adjust braking, turn-in, and acelleration points on one or two corners at a time.  It felt great.  I started to get that feeling of being in the groove.  I did not start losing concentration at the straights, and when I did encounter other karts, I found myself able to focus much better.  In particular, I worked on the entry to turns 1-2, which are two minor left handers leading up to the 'Kornakuva' turn.  (who names these turns?)  I worked it up to the point where my foot is still on the gas until the entry to turn 3.  Stu and a bunch of friends I drive with said I looked much better.  Its good to end the track day on a good note.

The biggest lesson I got was to not fixate and look ahead, no matter what.

Gear Review - Aisics Matflex Wrestling Shoes

I used to wear converses when I drove the old Miata.  With my kart, I was going to stick to these cheap wal-mart shoes I bought which had a fairly thin sole.  When I crashed last week, I thought about that choice again and bought these shoes, which I believe are a bit safer.

I wanted something with a bit more ankle support and maintained great feedback.  Dedicated karting shoes may have been the best choice, but my past experiences with racing dedicated shoes have not been that great.  They'd fall apart after some hard use (for instance, running around the paddock).  Maybe it is because racing apparel manufacturers don't have much expertise in making shoes.  Who knows.

I read online that wrestling shoes lasts longer and has great feedback.  So off to the store I went.  My shoes cost me about 50 dollars.

Three things: the shoe is very well ventilation.  My last event was very windy and cold.  My feet got somewhat cold, but that didn't seem to affect my driving that much.  Secondly, some parts of the shoe seem to be able to give me some abrasion protection, but the vent mesh probably won't hold up that well if I slide a lot on the wrong side of my feet.  However, if I do end up somehow sliding on my feet, it will probably be on the beefier parts of the shoe.  Lastly, the ankle support is only so-so.  Much better than the shoes I was using before, but it is only a mid-top.

One more thing.  The sole of my shoe has these bumps, which I thought was for gripping the wrestling mat.  It bothered me a bit at first, but I got used to it.  I had no problems walking and running around the asphalt.  I wore them all day, including the drive to and from the track.

The build quality is great.  Aisics probably knows how to make shoes better than most racing equipment manufacturers do.  And it shows.  I believe it when they say these will last longer.

It also has these flaps that secure by velcro that help you sort out the laces.  This is helpful as it keeps the laces out of the way so they don't get caught on your pedals.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it.  If you want to save some money at the expense of a little bit of abrasion resistance, get a pair of these shoes.

Track Day Report - 11/25/2011 - Calspeed Karting

This is what I get for posting late.  I don't remember that much about this day, and I've already gone to another practice session since then.  I'll have to post back-to-back reports now.

That day, we went to the Auto Club Speedway's karting circuit.  A course layout is here.  This was more of a horsepower track, and it was important to know which part of the track was grippy and which was not.  Track times changed a lot depending on the air and surface conditions.

I spent this day getting comfortable with driving the kart, and getting over the fear, much like the day before.  More importantly, spent this time trying to at least vaguely understand where the limits of the kart is.  Looking back, every minute of seat time was very valuable because I needed every bit of it to help me get more comfortable with the kart.

The memorable part of the day was when I crashed, crashed decently hard by karting standards.  It happened on the exit of turn 9, the "silk."  This corner has a lot of runoff space, and it can actually be taken at full throttle in my kart.  Well, I tried that, and thought I had nailed it.  I expected to use every inch of available space.  I noticed I might have misjudged it, and right when I glanced at the wall, my front left wheel just barely touched it.  The kart bounced off and it spun me so that I was pointing to the left, which changed the direction of my momentum.  I plowed into the tire wall hard.  My upper crotch went right into the steering wheel.

The damage?  Front left spindle bent (again), bearings inside front left spindle broken, left side tie rod broken, rod end broken, steering shaft bent.  We also discovered that the rear axle was bent at the next event.  I have no idea how the axle damage happened.

Lesson learned: never never never look at anywhere but where you want to be.

Little bit bruised at Fontana

I'm posting from my phone. Here is a sneak preview for my next update:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving!  The picture above is my lead-up meals to thanksgiving.  Meals, at lunch, at work, at the cafeteria in my building.  Isn't that awesome?  By the way, the super turkey meal in the middle features gourmet cranberry sauce and delicious gravy.  With a drink and apple pie for under 9 bucks!  On top of that, I ate Korean food with my wife the night I ate the delicious turkey meal.  The next day, my friend came over from San Diego with his family so we had unlimited Korean BBQ.  I think its time to watch my cholesterol.

Actually, I've been steadily gaining weight since after bar exam.  I started running again, but it isn't cutting it.
When I used to have kickboxing matches coming up and the kickboxing club to be an example to, I was in much better shape.  Now that I'm a working man, I find it both hard to find the time or to have the motivation to be in good shape.

I think it is time to diet.  And for the first time in my life, to diet not to make weight or to get ready for an upcoming match, but just to stay healthy.  That'll also help me in my racing ventures.  I'm still in fairly good shape and being on the track doesn't beat me up that much, but that can't last if I keep this up.

My next practice session is at Fontana this Friday.  I'm going to continue my goal of simply learning to drive the kart.  I'll try to put in 50 laps, but that may be much harder at Calspeed than it was at Apex.  I can't wait :)

Don't buy that shit! - Track day report - 11/19/11 - First time out @ Apex

I haven't been in a Kart for over 4 years, and when I was in one I had very limited exposure to it.  I haven't been in any sort of track for almost a full year.  90% of my seat time comes from a Miata, and the other 9% is probably from indoor karting.  So I was in for 'a real something' when I went out for my first session.

First things first.  Stu Hayner held my hand through everything.  He installed everything on my kart, fixed my carb, fixed my brakes, hooked me up with a set of used tires, and when he found out both of my motors were KPV junior motors, he even took off one of the motors off of his other karts and put it on mine.  I'm probably forgetting something.  Most importantly, he gave me tons and tons of advice.  One thing that was stressed to me repeatedly was  "Don't buy anything!" That still rings in my ear.  I really don't need to buy anything.  Robert sold me everything I needed, trailer, safety equipment included. (thanks Robert!)

Before we get into details; here are stats:
"off's" - 4 or 5 times (lol)
"off's" that caused other "off's" - once (included in above figure)
Broken parts - 1
Time behind Stu's pace: 7 seconds (In a 43-45 second course. lol!)

I also found out my kart is good at shoveling up gravel, and how good gravel is for slowing down a kart.

I got there around 10AM, and by 11AM I was already out on the track.  I got about 60 laps in.  Kart seemed to handle pretty well, with a hint of understeer.  Stu was worried it might handle badly, because many of the components were from other karts, and because my steering shaft was bent.  It didn't matter though, there is nothing much wrong about driving with a bent steering shaft, and I'm not good enough to notice subtle differences in handling.  Or at least I think.

Turns out the kart handled just fine.  Slightly understeery, but thats good for a newbie like me.
The whole day was spent learning to drive the kart.  Took me many laps to figure out that I need to go fast enough for the kart to even get around the corner.  Took me many more laps to figure out that leaning out helps the kart turn.  Took me many more laps to figure out I can't turn my head enough with the neck brace I got.  And it took me many laps to figure out that noise and surge in acceleration in a particular left hander was my leg flinging out and pushing on the throttle cable (lol!)

Some memorable events.  I spun (completely due to driver error-forgot to put enough heat into the tires) on a left hander and was pointed the other way.  I saw two, three more people spin out trying to avoid me.  Oops. Bad spot to lose it.  Another idiot error:  I was trying to push it a bit and felt that I was going a wee bit too fast.  Momentarily, I thought "what if..?" and looked at that "what if" spot.  Off I went right into that spot, which happened to be a barrier after a gravel pit.  Scooped up a bunch of gravel and went right into the barrier.  Thank goodness for movable barriers.  No noticeable damage in any of my "offs," except I think I chipped my brake rotors a bit more.

I learned a lot.  A challenge for me is getting over the fear and trusting my kart.  You know those sections on a racetrack with lots of kinks and bends that lead into a slow corner with a hard braking zone, which series of turns can be taken flat-out if you do it properly?  There was one of those at Apex, which you probably know of, and it took me the third session to get the guts enough to try it flat-out.  I felt each time my kart would fly off the track.  Each time before the braking zone my kart would start a four wheel drift.  Kinda scary for a newbie like me.  But the kart will do it over and over again, as long as I ask properly.  Much of the high-speed corners can be taken with a simple lift of the throttle or a small jab at the brakes.  I always braked early and hard for them, like I was in a car.  Not only was it sometimes even harder to get around the corner that way, it killed my exit speed since my.. erm.. entry speed was so very very low.  No wonder I'm 7 seconds off.

However, in the beginning of the day I told myself I'll do a 50.  I couldn't figure out how to use the Mychron 2 unit that my kart came with, but I finally figured out that one of the digits that looked messed up was supposed to say "5," and that is when I figured out that I was hovering around 50.2 - 50.5s.  At least that is somewhat consistent, by Jerry standards.  (I'd stay within 0.5 seconds each lap on the Miata also.)

Can you tell if my eyes are open or closed?

I have so much to learn.  And the learning curve is steep. I'm so thankful that I am getting help.  Stu, thank you very much and I very appreciate all of the help.



What a blast.  It was so good to get time off work.  If I can practice at least once a month until March, I think I will be ready for my first race.  I know one thing for sure; This old kart is 100% sufficient for me.  I am not going to buy anything!

Beginning of a new phase of my life

Okay, so lets look at my situation.
I got married.  I started a job, albeit temporary.  I have income.  All of these things are very new to me.
I also bought a kart.  Not that new to me, but I only have 1 race under my belt and I never got to learn as much as I wanted about karting. 

In about 45 minutes, I will also find out if I'm a California attorney when I check my bar exam results.  During the two or three months I studied, I spent my time doing shooting competitions and toying with the idea of starting a business.  My excuse was that I needed time off; I really have a hard time functioning without something other than studying to do.  So, in a way, I don't feel like I deserve to pass.  Also, based on the calculations I did after taking the bar exam, I figured out that I have a greater chance of not passing.  This gives me a feeling of preparedness for the results.

But I'll be lying if I say I don't hope I pass.  Everyone tells me "you never know."  A bunch of my classmates and attorneys I know told me they were sure they did not pass, but they did.  I'm not one to get nervous and question my performance; I generally know when I did well and when I did not, but of course, I have indeed surprised myself by excelling at something I was sure I was going to fail in.  This happened exclusively at law school.

Either way, this weekend I'll start a new phase of my motorsports life also.  Please read the following:

My kart package came with almost everything I need to run.  Lots of spares, lots of tuning parts, tools, etc. Even came with old fuel still in the can.  I'll probably put it in my car and buy a new can.
The kart was set up for its previous owner, who was of similar weight but much taller than me.  I'm hoping I wouldn't have to do much to get it handling.

I live in a 1 bedroom with no garage.  Kart stays in a storage unit.  I can do little things here and there, but I can't do a major overhaul. 

The only thing the kart needed was a brake overhaul, since the seals had rotted away, and getting the motor mounted and ready to go.  I probably need tires as well; the ones on the kart seem to be very hard and thus hard to drive on.

Stu H., yes, that Stu who used to race SCCA pro GT cars, offered his help.  I'm so grateful for someone like that has offered his help.  I think I'll be able to go drive this weekend.

My friend Chris Cullen told me I should make it a goal to put in 50 laps every time I go to the track.  So that is a goal this weekend.

This weekend's goals:
Get kart handling reasonably. 
Learn to tune the carburator
Put in 50 laps.

No specific goals today, as I want to just spend my time familiarizing myself with the kart.
I'm really excited! 

Revival of the blog?

Hi everyone. 
As you know, ever since I sold the Brokecore LOHP car I haven't been on this blog in a long time.  What has happened then?

Continuing to persue my dream, I've moved to California. 

Bad news is that I still don't have a permenant job.

Good news is that I do have temporary income.

Even better news is that I may get back into Karting.  If I do, I will be reviving this journal.  It will be much less focused on development and technology, but about driving.  I hope you all continue to read my journal, and thanks for keeping the readership alive; I guess my tech posts are doing some good across the world.

The Ending - GIR Track Day Report 3/26/11

The Brokecore car and Luis' turbo Miata

Well, before I knew it I got there.  59.3 at Gainesville International Raceway's test course.  Wow.  An eye-opener for me.

First of all, I'd like to apologize for my long absence.  A lot of things happened since.  I was at first busy preparing for and taking my final final examinations at law school.  Yes I passed all my classes.  I did pretty well this semester in this class, so I'm happy.  Bunch of my classmates are pissed at me because they felt that they studied harder yet I beat them.  Call it the 3L effect; a third year law student in his final semester is generally very keen on studying smart, studying just enough while slacking off and getting the grades he wants.  Besides, they usually only have 3 classes or something like that.  I was no exception.  3 classes and a clinic.

So I graduated, and my sister came to visit and met her sister-in-law for the first time.  At the time, I was also in a hurry to move from one house to another.  Oh, and I'm very sorry to say this, but I was also in a hurry to sell my car; after this summer, I will probably have to relocate.  After all that, I have been studying for the California bar exam, pondering about my future, exploring career options.  I don't have a job yet so if anyone can help me with that, I'll be forever grateful!

Yes, so this will be my last entry in my blog.  Thank you everyone for the support, encouragement, and readership.  I am truly thankful for it and I am very happy that you all made it possible for me to do my first successful blog.  I had such a fun run at this and learned a lot from the experience.  Thank you for my supporters; Airtab® and One Greek Store.

Well, time to get on with the track report.  Thank goodness I took notes right after the event.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This day, my student organization, Asian Pacific American Law Student Association was putting together a big conference.  I'd been part of the conference effort from the get-go.  Furthermore, I had personally invited a speaker to talk about a very cool topic at the event, so I really should have been there.  Unfortunately I had already signed up, and although the guys who put on the event usually let me cancel, I had a feeling that this was my last true opportunity to do the road course.  So, I compromised; I was going to do the first half of the day (till noon) and the rest of the event would be done by someone else.  Hey, Luis, thanks a lot for the help! After I left, Luis' brother Lou drove his 240sx for the remainder of the day.

My day only lasted from around 10:40am to 12:00pm.  Oh wells, I'm happy because I still achieved my time goal.

Tire pressures:
I ran 36psi and 31psi cold for the first feeler session, then bled them down to the same.  Therefore, 36/31psi hot after the 1st session.

Changes in car:
NB tophats with cut NA bumpstops
15x8 wheels wrapped in 225 RS-3s
1.8L miata front brakes
fresh front brake pads


First Session 
I was trying to get used to the new tires. The difference in feel wasn't shocking, but it was quite different. The steering response was just a tad bit slower than the azenis. The tires also understeered a little bit compared to the Azenis. I think the tires were a bit more forgiving, but I didn't get to drive consistently enough on the new tires to really feel out how it was compared to my old tires. They start to make noise a bit earlier than azenis, which helped me figure out the braking a little bit. I needed to adjust my driving quite a bit.

Second Session
Air temps were already rising.  By this time I realized these tires don't fade.  Awesome!  In fact, throughout the first session the tires just got grippier.  My splitter loosened up and ran at an angle not so optimal though, because I didn't tighten some things very well.  I think it happened after the first session, when I had to drive through grass in the paddock the splitter got caught on something.  So the car was more understeery.

I got to analyse the driving a bit in this session.

-Right after turn 1, where the first skidpad turn starts, I can immediately get on the gas and accelerate at full throttle until I can see the corner exit, then I have to ease off.  Point-and-shoot. Wow!
-It is much easier to get on the correct line for turn 3.
-I can get on the gas immediately after the first apex for the double apex left hander, which I've been calling turns 5-6.
-The chicane dive-bombing hasn't changed much

The increasing radius turn was an eye opener. As soon as I get the car turned around (I do it as tight and quickly as possible), I can get on full throttle. From there I never have to lift, and my stupid viscous tLSD action only kicked in once or twice, when my splitter was still properly mounted. Talk about lack of power and excess grip.  In all the sessions I ran I was trying to figure out a way to carry more speed into that turn but I couldn't.

The car handled much better, even with the increased understeer. There is barely any post apex snap oversteer, and it behaves much more predictably to bumpy surfaces and going over curbs.

I only got to do two sessions. First session out I finally broke the 60 second mark @ 59.8, and on my second session I got a 59.3. I was having trouble putting together all the elements of a fast lap.

Things to work on if I did another event
Get turns 5-6 dialed in; I tihnk I am lifting much more than necessary. I also want to try jumping onto the right side curbing before turning in.  However, Grant told me its more important to jump on the inside curbing.  Last time I got on the outside curbing I almost spun, but maybe with the new suspension I'll be able to use the extra road. (stupid idea?)

Well, once again thank you very much!  I will be back on track at a future point of my life, but now I've moved onto less time-consuming hobbies while I get my life together.  Thanks Grant! Drew, Kevin, David, all the Lemons guys!  Eric, for supporting me with fab equipment.  Thanks everyone on IMV boards, other local guys who recognized me and my car.  Thanks to everyone at clubroadster.net and miata.net.  Thanks Carl for buying the car, I'm glad another motorhead owns it now! And thank you readers everywhere in the world!

Updates are coming!

Hey everyone.
I've been busy writing papers and studying for my LAST LAW SCHOOL FINAL EXAMS!
Yes, possibly the last set of academic exams I will have to take, ever!

I will post up some updates, for example my last track day report, after finals.  Then if I have time I have a bundle of stuff I want to test and experiment with, so there will be another stream of good posts!

Thanks for being patient.

APRIL FOOLS!

APRIL FOOLS!

Of course, my original post is untrue. My car does not have all those cool mods, I made no money on this blog, and of course I don't have substantial savings.  I'm what you call "Judgement-proof" right now.  Also, I haven't been notified of any sort of intellectual property infringement.

Gotcha!

Click on photo to see original April fools post.  You shoulda seen my facebook.  People were even talking about NSX performance. Oh man I love pranks.

Flow visualization Techniques - Vortex Generators Part 2

We know that a typical hardtop will see flow separation a few inches below the roofline.  I wanted to see what the Airtab® vortex generators did to help delay separation.  One simple flow visualization technique is tufts testing.  I did the testing on the rear surface of my car.  My wife really didn't want to help, but she did.  Bless her.

Tufts testing is really easy.  Stick on a bunch of strings onto the surfaces that you want to test at.  Now, a lot of people use yarn.  Yarn might be good enough for these purposes but it really isn't ideal because it is too heavy.  A good choice is a lightweight monafilament string, such as fishing line.  The compromise you have to find is visibility, weight, and cross section of the string.  I think a florescent colored fishing line would work well.

I just used very lightweight nylon strings for this experiment.  The strings should be 4-5 inches, not too long and not too close together to tangle themselves.  I used varying lengths from 4-20 inches just to see what it does.

What you are shooting for is turbulent but attached airflow.  This means a gyration of 20-30 degrees or so is acceptable.  What you don't want to see is strings circling, moving irratically, which is an indicator of detached flow.

Hard to see, but this photo is from a higher quality HD video. The video shows the movement of the tufts pretty well.

Previously seen photo of the VGs

Surprising results.  Flow stays attached all the way to the bottom of the hardtop; at about the bottom 2-3 inches it separates a little bit, then reattaches on the trunklid.  It shows attached flow all the way to the end of the spoiler.  Sucess!  Looks like the Airtab® Vortex Generators are doing a great job.

Another interesting thing to note is that air seems to leak out to the side edges, under the spoiler.  It affects the flow on the quarter panels.  Interesting.  No doubt I'm losing out on some lift there.


Some other interesting, lo-cost flow visualization methods.  Pictures tell a thousand words:


This was done by Jeff at Slick Auto using a high velocity air gun.  The model is Guardair 80LJ.  There is a piece of 5' cotton string taped on.  Thanks for the tips Jeff!

Technical Advisors:
Andrew Brilliant, well-known aerodynamicist in the motorsports industry.
Unnamed engineer who worked on developing the Airtab® VGs. www.airtab.com
Jeff @ Slickauto www.slickauto.com