I rock... and roll, all day long

new helmet! woohoo

Loving the weekday ride!

I went up the Old Road yesterday with a friend of mine (he's in the A group on Eastern Creek Track Days), and got him to stay behind me and critique my riding.

After a lap, he gave me a break down of things I wasnt doing. I took these on board for the next few laps and my riding improved a crap load (and so did my cornering confidence!).

As for photos, here are some from this year's pink ribbon ride:

Old Road Saturday

Did the old road on saturday morning with some new suspension settings (which was terrible - it was hard to tip in, and went wide on exit). Managed to do a couple of wheelies in the closed section too (Somersby) !!

Since then, I've been able to tweak my suspension based on the feedback I got from the ride. I havent really had the chance to try it out, but so far so good - the bike's tipping in a lot faster on suburban roads. I'm hoping to take it out to the old pack next weekend.

Wheelie Bin

Woot. Pulled off another roll on coming home last night. Got a bit higher than last time!

Roll Ons

Tried my first roll on wheelie tonight. I couldnt feel the bike lift off, but i did feel it dropping back onto the road.

Great success!

I'll be wheeling the machine in the not so distant future.

Power Commander

I spent this morning re-routing my rear brake line (i found it was done incorrectly after reading the service manual) which was a pain in the ass. I also took my chances with fluid leaking out of the banjo bolts because I didn't bother replacing the copper washers (these help create a seal between the brake system and the brake lines). Luckily everything worked out for me.

Stock:

Before:

After:

Excess fluid:

The next thing I did was plug my motorbike to my laptop via the power commander unit. My throttle position was a tiny bit off relative to my power commander. The power commander itself has a bar graph which is made up of 10 LED lights. At idle, the LED was hopping between the 2nd and 3rd LEDs. After my calibration, the LEDs now hop between the 1st and 2nd LEDs. Ideally, only the 1st LED should illuminate, but the SV1000's have a flawed throttle position sensor which can be fixed by readjusting where it sits on the throttle body (a task that is too complicated for me).

Hopefully this should improve my economy (currently 6.8L / 100km) slightly because it won't pump fuel when the throttle is closed. The problem before was that it thought I was giving it 2 or 3 bars worth of throttle when infact i'm actually just giving it nothing (1 bar)

Dynojet Power Commander III:

S/S of the Power Commander Software (taken off the net)

I'm almost a happy camper except for a couple of issues:
1) Slow speed braking requires more effort than before. This isnt too much of an issue because it's very effective at shaving off top speeds.

2) Leaking clutch fluid is leaking out of the threading on the bleeder nipple. I'll keep close watch on this...

Braided Lines

I bought these lines a couple of months ago, but have only just got around to installing them. While I was at it, I also flushed out my hydraulic clutch system. End result: Better brakes and clean fluids.

Stock brake line (rubber):

Stainless steel braided lines:

Old Brake Fluid:

Fresh Brake & Clutch Fluid:

You can take a look at the old clutch fluid here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximumstick/2523323975/sizes/l/in/set-72157605261656819/

Oran Park - 31st May

Had my first experience at Oran Park yesterday. I dont like this track
as much as I do Eastern Creek. This track smaller and much more
technical than Eastern Creek. Three things I didnt like about this
track include:
1) The rules: Overtaking on the outside only
2) Track conditions: Very dirty and patchy
3) Too many distractions: Lots of off runs & walls that right on the
edge of the track

I had 3 close calls:

1) My boot scraped on turn three (the right turn after the tunnel)
which caught me by surprised. That caused me to chop my throttle mid
corner causing my bike to shake like hell.
2) I had a little too much speed for my liking when entering turn 4
(the turn before the bridge). I was too scared to commit to the turn,
so I left the bike stood up and went for some hard braking. I thought
I was going to go off the track into the grass, but the bike was able
to stop in time.
3) I was overtaking on the outside lane of two bikes at the quick
right/left section (the second right hander after the bridge). These
guys went really wide after the right hander's apex and forced me off
the track. I went flying onto the grass and steered my bike to the
finish of the left hander portion of that section (refer to forsters
dip in the image below - it might make my description a bit clearer).
As soon as I went on the grass, i thought i was going to fall over.
Lucky the ground was solid and there wasn't any gravel/mud to bog my
wheels.

I timed myself twice (out of the seven sessions):
Fastest Lap on Round 5 = 1.46.7
Fastest Lap on Round 7 = 1.49.*

Photos are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximumstick/sets/72157605354527389/

Track Day Special

For anyone that cares, the Suzuki SV1000S (K6) has a magnetic sump plug as a stock standard feature. I was quite impressed by this when I did my oil change over the weekend. I tried googling for this information prior to doing my oil change to work out whether i was going to order one from the states - but couldnt find anything. Hopefully google picks this up for other people.

It's been a while since I posted here... here's some photos from last month.

Anzac Day Double (25th and 26th)
On the track:
Click here for all the pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/maximumstick/sets/72157604889520988/