899 Track Bike

It's done (at least for now, still have a few more upgrades planned):

Looks great Jarel!!! Is one of the planned mods getting rid of that butt ugly swing arm???

Jarel that's a great looking bike.

Looking forward to hear how it handles

Stw said:

Looks great Jarel!!! Is one of the planned mods getting rid of that butt ugly swing arm???

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Why would I want to put a big long heavy swing arm on my bike??

jarelj said:

Why would I want to put a big long heavy swing arm on my bike??

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Good point.... I will get back to you on that one...

We had a great first weekend at the track this weekend, perfect weather in the 80's and sunny both days! Pretty much unheard of in April in the Midwest, so we were very fortunate. My verdict on the 899 is IT ROCKS!

Envy!

jarelj said:

We had a great first weekend at the track this weekend, perfect weather in the 80's and sunny both days! Pretty much unheard of in April in the Midwest, so we were very fortunate. My verdict on the 899 is IT ROCKS!

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What? No lap time comparisons between the 899 and 1199 like we were promised?

JeffD said:

What? No lap time comparisons between the 899 and 1199 like we were promised?

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Oh I got lots of data, don't worry Jeff, and video! First event of the year, so green track, green brain, green body, not going to set the lap record, but overall I was very happy with the 899. I have a couple issues to take care of to cure my "Max Biaggi" syndrome where I must have everything perfect or I'm not comfortable going faster. One is brake dive under initial hard braking, and two is the off-on throttle transition in Race mode being too abrupt. I also need to raise the pegs up. After those issues are sorted it's game on! Here's a DDA overlay of a lap on the 1199 (not my first time on it, this was later in the 2012 season after some seat time), fully setup with Ohlins TTX and NIX, mag wheels, etc. lap time 1:43 vs. my best lap on the 899 yesterday of 1:45. Several things of note:
1) Top speed advantage to 1199 on the straight is only 6mph
2) Throttle graph shows twice as much time at full throttle on the 899
3) DTC on 899 works great with the Bridgestone slicks, I had it on Level 1 and it was kicking in pretty much where I expected it to, graph shows it kicked up to 24 on the bumpy exit to the last turn
4) The 899 is a fast bike, blows by 600's on the straight, it's WAY faster than an 848 stock vs. stock. I'd say the 899 is as fast as my fully-built 848 race bike was.
5) The 899 turns quicker than the 1199 did with mag wheels on it, and not just a little quicker it's very noticeable.
SIDE NOTE: My friend Phil who is one of our most experience track instructors rode it on Sunday, and commented that it turns quicker than his 2011 R6. He also rode another friend's BMW HP4 and said the motor was amazing but the bike felt like a minivan in the turns compared to the 899.

Here's video of a generic lap, just the first lap I had on my camera so nothing too exciting other than you can see how the downshift blipper works if you listen to the 3 downshifts at the end of the straight after I pass the 600 at the beginning. This is completely clutchless downshifting, pretty cool! Once I was going faster and braking later, I could drop 3 gears in a shorter time than I could drop 2 gears on my old bike without the blipper.

899 Panigale MAM April 2014 - YouTube

Great info, thanks for sharing Jarel!

I wish you still had your 1199 all set-up and could ride them back-to-back. I can't help but think your excitement over the new toy is clouding your memory of the 1199's characteristics.

Which auto-blipper is that again? Is this the one where you had to get a push-pull strain gauge? I remember the thread but I'm forgetting the product. How much for whole setup?

Thanks and looking forward to your updates throughout the season.

JeffD said:

Great info, thanks for sharing Jarel!

I wish you still had your 1199 all set-up and could ride them back-to-back. I can't help but think your excitement over the new toy is clouding your memory of the 1199's characteristics.

Which auto-blipper is that again? Is this the one where you had to get a push-pull strain gauge? I remember the thread but I'm forgetting the product. How much for whole setup?

Thanks and looking forward to your updates throughout the season.

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Don't really need to ride them back to back, I've been riding at the same tracks for 10+ years and do 25+ track days a year, so have a pretty good feel for any changes. But I still have several friends running 1199's so I can ride one of those any time as well if I need a refresher! And with the DDA data from all the sessions it's pretty easy to see where the differences are since I'm not really changing my riding style much at this point with all of the ingrained bad habits I have!

The auto-blipper is via the TuneBoy system and yes it does use a push-pull pressure switch.

Ok, I want the Akra and this tuneboy tune with blipper now.

Be warned, the auto-blipper is also a wallet-drainer at $1500!

Jarel, thank you for all the info on the 899 track bike.

Here's the latest addition, being installed today and will try them out at the track on Monday:

jarelj said:

Why would I want to put a big long heavy swing arm on my bike??

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Lets not forget the advantages of not having to changing the ride height every time you adjust the chain like you do on the single sided swing arm bikes. I love that about the 899!

why did I read this thread, I just convinced myself the 750 was going to work this season .... wheres that wrecked 899 again (pulls out wallet)


Cant wait to see more.

jarelj said:

It's done (at least for now, still have a few more upgrades planned):

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Beautiful!! Congrats!! Must be a blast on the track! It's all about corner speed!!

I almost stopped by yesterday on the way back through from CA picking up a sprinter. I sent you an email about the switches for my 1199 and didn't hear back. Let me know some prices...

Red Dawn said:

I almost stopped by yesterday on the way back through from CA picking up a sprinter. I sent you an email about the switches for my 1199 and didn't hear back. Let me know some prices...

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Shoulda stopped by!! I replied to your e-mail a couple weeks ago, I'll copy-paste into a PM for you since the e-mail didn't make it.