Not too sure on the Dunlop Q2's

Had a slippery day at Collie yesterday, but managed a PB the bike was just so much better than the rubber.
The tyres sounded like scraping plastic when cranked over.
Tried everything from 32/28 to 28/24psi

Sounds like you scraped something else there - should have kept it nailed and it would have been all good

We dont have the Q2s here and im not sure what our equivilant is? I think it may be SportsSmarts which are a good tyre right up until you get to the fast group!

Track looks like theres alot of dust and sh1t on it in fairness

That sound is the tyres, front and rear...
First session I came in and went right over the bike and raised my rearsets by 15mm to be sure but no scuffs.
Only worked out after the 3rd session that the sound was the only warning before they let go.

it wasnt your pipes that scraped?

i have always found the q2's the be great... and what i loved about them was that they would start to let you know when you were running out of grip.
i could even push the front tyre coming into a corner to wash off some speed... bizarre.

but you were travelling well there, especially compared to the other bikes

You know what I'm going to say..pirel...diab ros ..cor

Check your suspension settings, as per convention start with the sag etc.
Any pics of the state of the tyres, maybe can give an indication what happened.

I'm not a big fan of dunslops as I had one let go on me in a similar way, they seem to harden after been very hot. If you did a trackday with them before that might be the case.

I'll go to my book and remeasure my sags tomorrow as well as put a photo of the tyre which looks very clean and even looks to be under worn and was brand new at the start of play.
To put things in perspective, I set a PB of 51.6 and was consistently sitting in the high 51 low 52 mark.
This is a link to the last modern/thunderbike round of 2011
http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/resul ... 11.COLI.R4
I couldn't find any scraping but will re check

Dont sound like tyre to me. Nothing worse than sneaking suspiscions of inferior grip into a track day experiance.
Confidence is such an important part of a good aggresive day at the track and any little niggle to sneak its way into the ceribellum, erodes the aforementioned adverbs place.
It does not matter which tyre, I believe at the level the major tyre manufactures are playing at these days, you need to FEEL your choice will stick you at the top of your podium.
Look for scraping and was the bike a wash out in the rear only? it appeared to happen at the exact instant th throtle was introduced. May have needed a little more body english at that apex.
Good luck and go wash out your skivies

Yeah that does not sound like rubber sounds metalic.

I scaped engine casings before so check them too you may not be able to see it when side stand down, side stand and exhaust as mentioned.

I had to get stiffer springs but never got any "moments" like you did, I just tend to hiside out the park

Is Collie in Collie? I went there on one of the boating lakes doing some wakeboarding once bit inland was a few miles from Bunbury where I was staying.

First off, nice save. That scraping sounds metallic though.

Since it happens when you are pushing it, make sure its not something that is dragging while under stress. A dealer once didn't tighten the swing arm on my GSXR, and it felt like the rear end was moving all over the place, because IT WAS. After your issues with your last journey to the dealer and your rear brake, make sure they replaced all the spacers and assure your cush bolts are not digging into your swing arm.

Ive watched it through too many times now and aint noway thats tyres scraping, not unless your Q2s are made of plastic?

Have you checked your toe sliders?

Before id set my sags correctly i was dragging the following -

Exhaust
Foot pegs (even with risers fitted)
Chin spoiler
Engine casings
Side stand
Toe sliders
Knees

Plenty to choose from thier then

Huh ... Those ass-puckering moments ... Nice lines BTW. That track looks like a hooligan boot camp.

Like the others, the video suggests (to me) hard-part contact with the tarmac. But, if you say that wasn't the case, who are we to argue? Didn't see it, and weren't there on the bike.

That said, there have been times at the track where I've had similar "oh shit" moments, and was convinced I touched something down. Inspection of the bike suggested no. Then sometime later (in a couple of cases - months later!), I'd be servicing the bike and I'd see a scrape on a pipe, the frame, or some other place normally obscured from typical view of the bike. I always laugh and think "... sooooo, that's where I touched down that day ...". Hard to imagine anything being obscured like that on a SuperDuke, but who knows. That lower cowl (black plastic) may not show rash real well.

Maybe a dumb question (or 3), but what did the tyre look like after the session (or day)? Is the rear wheel properly aligned? Was there any kind of dip entering or mid-corner (didn't look like it)?

Out of curiosity, how hot was it? Any idea how hot the track surface might have been? Even the highest performance street tyres aren't designed for high sustained heat of a bike in expert hands. Not knowing how coarse that tarmac is, its hard to gauge whether that sound is characteristic for a step out, but I would expect a tyre like the Q2 to be a little more progressive in warning you first if it was as simple as a loss of traction (assuming no debris or a 'slick' spot).

Then there's the other part of this: Maybe you're beyond using a street tyre for your track sorties. Something to think about.

" The tyres sounded like scraping plastic"

I never heard tyres sound like that. Look at the bike in the day light. Look for plastic as your first thought....My guess...chin guard.

I have bottomed my SD out....Hot Bodies race fairing thou.

That was not the tyres.

Ok first pics of the underside of my bike.
The scuff on the gear lever is from last time and that was not enough to make the tyres let go.




Now tyre looking good.




Front


Checked Sag by myself the rear might be a little out but not by much.

Rear
Static: 18mm
Rider: 48mm

Any advice is appreciated will wind on a turn and a half on rear, but no scuffs.
This sound persisted through morning and I eventually eased on the hard lefts (including turn 1) but set a fastest of 51.6.
The bike felt good and I had drive where I've had none before but felt that I should be able to go much harder on the lefts.


Front
Static: 26mm
Rider: 38mm

tyre doesn't look bad. Shagged as I might expect. It doesn't look overcooked in the pictures, but did get pretty hot on the outsides. It could self-clean a little better. Maybe start up a few psi higher next time, and work down another one or two PSI lower at a time, see how it cleans - assuming no compromise in traction.

Maybe too much squat ... rear is undersprung IMO, and while you're numbers aren't bad up front, I wonder where the preload is at (again perhaps, somewhat undersprung). Also, not easy to determine how bumpy this course is, which will have some bearing on one's choice of suspension settings.

Is it possible you again collected the shifter, only this time it grabbed more? Hard to judge from the photo, but that grind looks kind of fresh to me ...

I'm no track expert but those sag numbers sound unusually high... Ss nerd feel free to correct me if I'm wrong but for an SD I would expect around 30mm rider sag with 5-10mm static sag. The guys I know who track their gsxrs run 0-5mm static and 25mm rider sag. Granted gixxers have a lot less travel but I did qoute higher sag numbers. That would give you an extra 10mm of clearance pretty much as a minimum. You can make up for the extra height in the rear with your fancy height adjuster that you have just installed

Well at the moment he is running a lot more sag in the rear... If he were to reduce both front and rear sag to 30mm, the rear would then be running much higher than before... Steepening the head angle&trail... Not what you want when you no longer have faith in the bikes grip

Hence the adjuster... Or run the front through the triples and back off the angle that way.

What would be your suggestions on springs then fellas?

What do you weigh? I have spreadsheet that I put together to work out spring rates depending on your desired static and rider sags. Bare in mind that it was based off the assumption that the 06 spring rates were for someone who weighed 70kg kitted up

But at a guess knowing that you aren't heavy (just very tall).... I would go with the 07+ spring rates of .95kg front and 17kg rear.

I have a pair of .95s that you can have... Don't have the 17 anymore though. I run .85f and 16r.

78kg without gear
82-83kg? with gear

I agree as the bike was more stable and faster than the last day, just that now I felt as if not enough grip but still stable.
DrSwade has chucked a few goodies in the crate for me so I'll look at those tomorrow or wednesday.
I have just gone to 07 geo with forks pushed a little and am now feeling the front where as before pushing hard I was still 5mm from the edge.
I just was not feeling it build up to a slide.
This was my only major slide but all day I was slipping more than usual on the lefts.

You should get your Moto<MFG stand soon too MrZ

Awesome... Can't wait for the stand. I should have my materials any day too for the dvs.

Not sure as yet as there are two variables that I soul like to test. Just make sure that whatever you do... Make sure that the bottom of the dvs does not exceed 10mm below the bottom of the rc8 stack... Otherwise this will impeed performance.

I will also be machining up the lip for the rc8 stack... Should release another 3hp over the standard rc8 stack alone before the dvs

fully spandoed... Hood up

For non R SD.


38mm front rider sag. Then watch travel o ring and tweak from there.

33mm rear rider sag. Then add 1mm sag at a time to get the feel you need from the rear.

I'll PM you better numbers after next weekend but I've went for 5mm through on Nichols with 08geo as a base. Rear is std length 05 shock.

The Superduke doesn't actually have that much more travel than a sportsbike so it's not miles different.

I've lost a stone and a half so we're not much different on weight now Linga. (all those Facebook updates about Project Racing Snake has paid off ) I had to go to 0.95's up front to get sag after oil height was lowered a bit. Std oil height had it binding up at bottom of stroke even with weak std springs.

Q2's and Sportsmarts aren't full bhuna Ntech, just sold as Ntech technology for marketing.. Looking for 32front and 31rear HOT straight from track. Worked for me.


All just IMO though. What works for one will be crap for another.

what about that abrasion on the chin fairing?

Paint the grind marks on the shift lever red to make sure you are not draging there again. It will be e-zer to see on the track after you touch down. Any chance to walk the track?