Detail of the Beaver
Ok, For all of the intimate details of Beaver Run.
This is a picture animated story, so open this link in a new window and follow along! Also be sure to click on the pictures to see the specific details for each picture.
Photo Album of the experience (crash)
The weekend before I got a chance to see Vadim's new bike, a Suzuki SV 650 Race Prepped.(picture 1) It's got a custom paint job and everthing. It's light nimble and quick as hell.
I left Sat. at about 5 for a late night drive out to Pittsburg, PA. I get there around 10:30 and quickly set up camp. I unloaded my bike, and set up my bed in the back of the Suburban. Let me tell you, you can live like a king in that thing. (picture 2) I had the fouton matress laid out in the back and my laptop on the center console playing DVDs. Vadim ended up getting in at about 12:30 in his new pickup truck.
So we wake up early (6:30) Sunday morning and enjoy the track in the early sunrise (Picture 3-4). Here is a good look at the track. ran the North track this weekend.
We'll come back to this for a turn by turn study of the track by your's truely. Picture 5 is just some bikes I saw there, nothing too fancy, and picture 6 is my bike race prepped. It takes a little effort to remove the turn signals, tape up all the lights, remove mirrors, put on numbers etc. We'll save the rest of the pictures for the crash story.
So Sunday was Awesome, I learned a lot, and made some friends too. Vadim spent most of the day complainig that there was too much lap traffic, and he couldn't work on his riding that much, but I didn't have any problems like that. That night we went out to dinner with the guys and I turned in at 10 for a good night's sleep. We woke up at 7, just in time to register and get tek'd for the next day.
I guess now is as good of a time as any to give you a track description, so go and load your pictures of the track again.
So, we start at Pit out which is in the bottom left of the track. You can see it as where the two yellow lines merge into one. This actually drops you into the middle of turn 2, which you're quickly up to speed for because it's only a 45 mph turn. You hold that line through turn 3 and swing them so that they seem like one long turn. You have about 5 feet to relax before you drop it again hard for turn 4. This is where I crashed last time, so I was pretty uneasy going into this turn. You get a good run up to 65mph before turn 5 (on the map the left most turn). 5 is an uphill right hander 90 degrees, but as soon as your done that turn, you quick thrown the bike to the left to right that fast left hander. That was tons of fun because you have to lean to the left when turning right (the exact opposite of normal) to get it to pull to the left as soon as you're done. On the F4i (my bike) it would just flick so easily from leaning hard right to hard left. (too easy i found out). Then you shift into 3rd (70 mph) before heading down the steep and blind turn 6 onto the back straight. Turns 9 and 10 are those light kinks before the 180 turn (11). Turn 11 was my favorite on the track because you could make it a perfect double apex turn. So instead of hugging the inside, you would turn in early and then float wide and then turn in again and hit the middle twice (once in the beginning and once in the end).. make sense? Either way, I had a lot of help from the instructors on that and eventually could get much more speed than anyone else on that section. You then have a fast light left to get back onto the front straight. It's balls out there to 6th gear (130 mph) before slamming the bike down to 2nd again at about 40 to do a hard left (turn 1). You then get to flick it again into turn two and like after pit out, hold that turn through 3 and almost to 4.
So that's a good summary of the Beaver. Now I guess you are all curious about my Crash experience. It actually comes with a good story. I had made friends with this guy on a Ducati 900 (fast as bawls bike), and we were playing cat and mouse most of Monday. We set good paces for each other and then would just pass each other back and forth. So on the session I crashed we were doing it again, but I got stuck in lap traffic. So, I started a good pace to catch back up, and after about 2 laps had him passed. That was the last I saw of him (you can't see behind you). The story after the crash is that, I just kept pulling away, and he couldn't keep up with me. He was going to recomend that I try and get bumped up into the intermediate group, becuase he had been riding beginner for a while and couldn't keep up with me, each turn he said i got 5-10 feet on him, consistantly through the whole session, but aparently I pushed it too much.
It was turn 6, the fast flick left hander after going up hill. All I can think is that i either gassed it too hard or maybe upset the rear suspension when I flicked it, but at 65 mph I spun the rear tire harder than a sun of a gun. I panicked and cut the throttle (what NOT to do) which cause the rear tire to suddenly gain traction again and came back from the slide fast enough to just throw me off the front of the bike. I landed right on my head and slid for a good distance. it was enough of a knock to have me crawling around on my hands and knees trying to find the ground. So if you follow the pictures I'll show you the damage that high-side caused. So the tail section (pic 8) got rubbed a whole bunch which actually wore it down to a hole on the tail, and ruined my new number plates I also put a nice scratch on my tank. if you look at pic 9, you can see my frame slider (or what's left). So they are an aftermarket piece that keeps valuable parts from touching the ground when you crash. and it worked, until it dissapeared like a pencil eraser. If you look at the next picture, that's what it used to look like, but the road just wore it straight off. You can also see in pic 9 i lost some paint on the plastics. Pic 11 shows the rash on the front part as well as a nasty crack I got when the windshield hit the pavement. Pic 12 is the proof of my high-side. That's actually a scuff mark of my book of the gas tank, which normally sits in my crotch, but I was a few feet above it, trying to hold on with my feet. I got some nice burn marks on my arm (pic 13) but nothign too major, it'll just burn in the shower. My favorite though is the last one. Look at that helmet. Thank goodness for that. I would be slurring my words right now if it wern't for good helmets.
Well that's it, my story. I'll post some picture of the repairs, I think i'm going to just repaint the plastics instead of replacing them, I'll grab a new helmet, and I have to put some work into the front suspension before I do anything too.
(:
Keep it tank side up!
This is a picture animated story, so open this link in a new window and follow along! Also be sure to click on the pictures to see the specific details for each picture.
Photo Album of the experience (crash)
The weekend before I got a chance to see Vadim's new bike, a Suzuki SV 650 Race Prepped.(picture 1) It's got a custom paint job and everthing. It's light nimble and quick as hell.
I left Sat. at about 5 for a late night drive out to Pittsburg, PA. I get there around 10:30 and quickly set up camp. I unloaded my bike, and set up my bed in the back of the Suburban. Let me tell you, you can live like a king in that thing. (picture 2) I had the fouton matress laid out in the back and my laptop on the center console playing DVDs. Vadim ended up getting in at about 12:30 in his new pickup truck.
So we wake up early (6:30) Sunday morning and enjoy the track in the early sunrise (Picture 3-4). Here is a good look at the track. ran the North track this weekend.
We'll come back to this for a turn by turn study of the track by your's truely. Picture 5 is just some bikes I saw there, nothing too fancy, and picture 6 is my bike race prepped. It takes a little effort to remove the turn signals, tape up all the lights, remove mirrors, put on numbers etc. We'll save the rest of the pictures for the crash story.
So Sunday was Awesome, I learned a lot, and made some friends too. Vadim spent most of the day complainig that there was too much lap traffic, and he couldn't work on his riding that much, but I didn't have any problems like that. That night we went out to dinner with the guys and I turned in at 10 for a good night's sleep. We woke up at 7, just in time to register and get tek'd for the next day.
I guess now is as good of a time as any to give you a track description, so go and load your pictures of the track again.
So, we start at Pit out which is in the bottom left of the track. You can see it as where the two yellow lines merge into one. This actually drops you into the middle of turn 2, which you're quickly up to speed for because it's only a 45 mph turn. You hold that line through turn 3 and swing them so that they seem like one long turn. You have about 5 feet to relax before you drop it again hard for turn 4. This is where I crashed last time, so I was pretty uneasy going into this turn. You get a good run up to 65mph before turn 5 (on the map the left most turn). 5 is an uphill right hander 90 degrees, but as soon as your done that turn, you quick thrown the bike to the left to right that fast left hander. That was tons of fun because you have to lean to the left when turning right (the exact opposite of normal) to get it to pull to the left as soon as you're done. On the F4i (my bike) it would just flick so easily from leaning hard right to hard left. (too easy i found out). Then you shift into 3rd (70 mph) before heading down the steep and blind turn 6 onto the back straight. Turns 9 and 10 are those light kinks before the 180 turn (11). Turn 11 was my favorite on the track because you could make it a perfect double apex turn. So instead of hugging the inside, you would turn in early and then float wide and then turn in again and hit the middle twice (once in the beginning and once in the end).. make sense? Either way, I had a lot of help from the instructors on that and eventually could get much more speed than anyone else on that section. You then have a fast light left to get back onto the front straight. It's balls out there to 6th gear (130 mph) before slamming the bike down to 2nd again at about 40 to do a hard left (turn 1). You then get to flick it again into turn two and like after pit out, hold that turn through 3 and almost to 4.
So that's a good summary of the Beaver. Now I guess you are all curious about my Crash experience. It actually comes with a good story. I had made friends with this guy on a Ducati 900 (fast as bawls bike), and we were playing cat and mouse most of Monday. We set good paces for each other and then would just pass each other back and forth. So on the session I crashed we were doing it again, but I got stuck in lap traffic. So, I started a good pace to catch back up, and after about 2 laps had him passed. That was the last I saw of him (you can't see behind you). The story after the crash is that, I just kept pulling away, and he couldn't keep up with me. He was going to recomend that I try and get bumped up into the intermediate group, becuase he had been riding beginner for a while and couldn't keep up with me, each turn he said i got 5-10 feet on him, consistantly through the whole session, but aparently I pushed it too much.
It was turn 6, the fast flick left hander after going up hill. All I can think is that i either gassed it too hard or maybe upset the rear suspension when I flicked it, but at 65 mph I spun the rear tire harder than a sun of a gun. I panicked and cut the throttle (what NOT to do) which cause the rear tire to suddenly gain traction again and came back from the slide fast enough to just throw me off the front of the bike. I landed right on my head and slid for a good distance. it was enough of a knock to have me crawling around on my hands and knees trying to find the ground. So if you follow the pictures I'll show you the damage that high-side caused. So the tail section (pic 8) got rubbed a whole bunch which actually wore it down to a hole on the tail, and ruined my new number plates I also put a nice scratch on my tank. if you look at pic 9, you can see my frame slider (or what's left). So they are an aftermarket piece that keeps valuable parts from touching the ground when you crash. and it worked, until it dissapeared like a pencil eraser. If you look at the next picture, that's what it used to look like, but the road just wore it straight off. You can also see in pic 9 i lost some paint on the plastics. Pic 11 shows the rash on the front part as well as a nasty crack I got when the windshield hit the pavement. Pic 12 is the proof of my high-side. That's actually a scuff mark of my book of the gas tank, which normally sits in my crotch, but I was a few feet above it, trying to hold on with my feet. I got some nice burn marks on my arm (pic 13) but nothign too major, it'll just burn in the shower. My favorite though is the last one. Look at that helmet. Thank goodness for that. I would be slurring my words right now if it wern't for good helmets.
Well that's it, my story. I'll post some picture of the repairs, I think i'm going to just repaint the plastics instead of replacing them, I'll grab a new helmet, and I have to put some work into the front suspension before I do anything too.
(:
Keep it tank side up!