Back in the shop

Steven31371 said:

Exactly, that’s a lap and a half ahead, about 3.5 to 4 MILES ahead at the finish line of a race, same rider, on different bikes, that’s actually a huge amount of time and distance.

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Like Paul said, you can’t do multiple laps back to back 5 secs off GP pace for 27 laps. That’s what differentiates the GP bike from the street bike. The street bike probably has 1 flyer and then progressively drift way off pace. In fact, I don’t think a street bike would be able to maintain even a competitive pace for over 12 laps let alone 20+, which I think has been mentioned before.

SuperDomestique said:

Like Paul said, you can’t do multiple laps back to back 5 secs off GP pace for 27 laps. That’s what differentiates the GP bike from the street bike. The street bike probably has 1 flyer and then progressively drift way off pace. In fact, I don’t think a street bike would be able to maintain even a competitive pace for over 12 laps let alone 20+, which I think has been mentioned before.

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I think mine would hold up better than most with the Sicom Rotors and H20 radiator.

No brake fade or excessive heat buildup in the brakes and that radiator performs remarkably well on heat management.

Still though, a 20 minute track session with a group B rider is wholly different on the bike than a 40 minute session at professional rider pace.

Out with the old, in with the new.

The AGV I shrunk out of is replaced by the Shark.

1st impressions…they weren’t lying when they said the Shark is a snug fit to sizing. Once on its great, I like a snug helmet, but putting that thing on the 1st time was painful lol.

After wearing it for a ride it’s bearable taking it off and on now. Lots of wiggling to get the ears unfolded in the helmet though haha.

Also, I didn’t weight them side by side, but the Shark Medium shell is noticeably lighter than the ML AGV shell.







Ignore the silver bits for now, playing around with mocking up some metallic silver flames.

I put in ear plugs then wear a skull cap which at a minimum covers the tops of my ears precisely covers the tops of my ears so they don't get folded over. Makes a helmet much easier to get on and off. I'm bald though, YMMV.

Dressed up the helmet a bit, I bought the color way I did precisely because it was a plain red design.

But then I decided to see if I could make it look cooler.

I like the helmet in the short little test run on the road, but won’t really have a full assessment until my next track day this Friday.

Steven31371 said:

Dressed up the helmet a bit, I bought the color way I did precisely because it was a plain red design.

But then I decided to see if I could make it look cooler.

I like the helmet in the short little test run on the road, but won’t really have a full assessment until my next track day this Friday.



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Is it quieter than the AGV? Did you ever try the agv w the vents closed?

Yeah it’s quieter than the AGV with or without the vents closed on the AGV. One other difference is that while the neck area is more form fitting around the neck and chin I can actually breath better in the Shark, the mouth vent is more robust and there is a healthy nose guard that keeps your warm breath from filling up the helmet. I was concerned that the visor not having a provision for the pinlock anti fog insert was gunna become an issue. But the combination of the ample rubber nose guard and the heavy ventilation in the mouth area combine to make fogging on the lens a non issue, at least so far.

They did some cool trickery on the visor itself too, it’s thicker in the middle, that combined with no pinlock means there is zero visual field distortion.

On the negative, in full tuck looking up you get the tiniest bit less vertical field of vision than the AGV, though the difference is so minor that it’s hardly perceptible, but still, it is a bit less however tiny.

And while it is noticibly quieter than the AGV, it’s still a track helmet and not so quiet that you should run without earplugs. Though my bike is so loud that even with my Arai street helmet I need plugs.

Looking forward to seeing how the stability of the helmet feels at speed at Big Willow compared the the AGV.

The neck opening is the smallest I’ve seen on any helmet lol…but it’s flexible and stretchy so it works.

There is almost a self contained cavity that’s well ventilated that holds your breathing in that area, which I think is pretty cool.

I was at Big Willow today, the new helmet worked really well, very stable at speeds, and does what a well made helmet is supposed to do, disappear from your consciousness while riding on track. Still a bear to put on and take off though, if I were using it every day I think I’d get Cauliflower ear like wrestlers from putting it on a taking it off. It might be the best track helmet I’ve owned, but you can really ONLY use it on track if it’s fitted right.

I set some PB’s on that track today, but was very inconsistent. Laps ranging in times from 1:35 to 1:43 in the same session.

I did however have one perfect lap, that unfortunately I think the lap timer glitched on, because there is no way I went that fast.

Annoyed that lap didn’t seem to record right, but almost don’t care too.

For two years now I’ve been chasing that feeling of doing a perfect lap. (For me)

I had one session where I only did three laps that I wish I would have gotten an accurate time on. The first lap was just staging and a warm-up and getting my mind relaxed into a kind of still silent mind meditation technique. The 2nd lap I did the best lap I ever did in my life. No lapses in concentration, no wandering mind, eyes kind of unfocused and smoothly flowing way down track for the entire lap, and on a line that felt smooth and right for the entire lap, it literally felt like a hyper alert and hyper relaxed out of body experience, the 3rd lap I sorta snapped out of it and coasted the outside of the track to exit.

There were no other bikes around to gauge my speed, no idea how fast I was going because I never saw the speedometer, I only touched the brake lever three times, at turns one, three, and five. I dove into turn eight without letting off the throttle until about halfway through the corner and going into turn two I just let engine braking and lean angle slow me on the turn in.

I came off the track to check my time, and it showed like nine minutes for the first lap, but that’s because of staging and getting on the track, the third lap it didn’t record at all, and the second lap showed a time that can’t be accurate.


It was definitely faster than my fastest lap that I think recorded accurately which was the 1:35.29

I’m also finally using my whole tire lol



I’ve always had a quarter inch unused, where that weird line is how I did the last cool down lap and where my tire utilization usually ended until today. No more chicken strip yay lol

Wish this were accurate lol

It felt like a perfect lap but the GPS signal only had one bar. My buddy was doing 1:28’s and he’s usually the 1st or 2nd fastest guy at every track day we do. Time to quit talking about it and get the Aim Solo 2.

The real benefit of yesterday was breaking past a lean angle barrier. About 5 track days ago my lean angle just stopped progressing until yesterday.

See you next Saturday Steve, I’ll track you down for us to go out together. A little rusty from my east coast fall pause but I think we are close to comparable times.

Kev242 said:

See you next Saturday Steve, I’ll track you down for us to go out together. A little rusty from my east coast fall pause but I think we are close to comparable times.

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Maybe on my best outlier laps where everything goes perfect lol

I was wildly inconsistent yesterday, good laps followed by horrible laps. But at least I know I have some decent laps in me, and broke through a few barriers yesterday.

I did some coaching with RoadracerX the last track day before this one and was digesting what he was showing me about the line and corner exit etc but a lot of it didn’t really sink in until yesterday, I have a long way to go but I was getting more out of the bikes power and using more of the track more effectively than I had previously.

Steven31371 said:

Wish this were accurate lol

It felt like a perfect lap but the GPS signal only had one bar. My buddy was doing 1:28’s and he’s usually the 1st or 2nd fastest guy at every track day we do. Time to quit talking about it and get the Aim Solo 2.

The real benefit of yesterday was breaking past a lean angle barrier. About 5 track days ago my lean angle just stopped progressing until yesterday.

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And the lean angle was…

I’m also seriously considering the AIM Solo kit, primarily to get the braking data as well as making overlays better than with the built-in DDA.

I’m

spooky said:

And the lean angle was…

I’m also seriously considering the AIM Solo kit, primarily to get the braking data as well as making overlays better than with the built-in DDA.

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Man I just want an accurate lap timer at this point. Before I wanted data to look at, but after yesterday I realized that I’m thinking my way through each lap way too much, when I just stop thinking, keep my vision wide and eyes way down track, twist the throttle more, and use the brakes less, I go much faster. Too much thinking and analyzing for me has been holding me back.

Lean angle percentage? I used the edge of the tire, good enough indicator for me lol

Steven31371 said:

I’m


Man I just want an accurate lap timer at this point. Before I wanted data to look at, but after yesterday I realized that I’m thinking my way through each lap way too much, when I just stop thinking, keep my vision wide and eyes way down track, twist the throttle more, and use the brakes less, I go much faster. Too much thinking and analyzing for me has been holding me back.

Lean angle percentage? I used the edge of the tire, good enough indicator for me lol

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Fully agree.

What helps me tho is to see splits. Gives more motivation to push harder when in green

Steven31371 said:

I’m


Man I just want an accurate lap timer at this point. Before I wanted data to look at, but after yesterday I realized that I’m thinking my way through each lap way too much, when I just stop thinking, keep my vision wide and eyes way down track, twist the throttle more, and use the brakes less, I go much faster. Too much thinking and analyzing for me has been holding me back.

Lean angle percentage? I used the edge of the tire, good enough indicator for me lol

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I find data very useful. As an example, while working on body position I noted 5 degrees less lean angle yet a significantly faster lap time, which very clearly showed me the difference made by improving my body position (body position was all I was working on for that session and throttle had been kept to 90% maximum, top speed about 25kph lower). Rather than a much faster lap simply being a good lap, ‘things just came together’, etc, but not necessarily knowing why, the data allowed me to see exactly what difference the improved body position had made beyond just the lap time being better.

Having facts instead of feelings gives me confidence.

It was the same with golf - sufficient time paying attention to the flight of the ball and you can see what difference particular changes to the swing make, or determine what changes are needed to effect a particular change in ball flight, but it’s nowhere near as good as a launch monitor telling you exactly what difference to launch angle and spin rate a particular change makes.

I’m considering AIM primarily because I’m interested in the braking data - I want to see if I am actually trail braking in the way I think I am...

Some people get ‘paralysis by analysis’ but I find data extremely useful to show what’s working and to confirm if what I feel is happening is actually happening (what you feel isn’t always what’s real). I agree about vision and keeping it simple but I think having data can support that and work with it rather than being mutually exclusive.

Each to their own, but I think data is very useful if it’s used correctly.

AIM solo dl2 is useless for braking data.

On Ducati - I think you're looking at Motec or Magnetti Marelli ECUs that support braking sensors.

I had one on BMW, was quite useful for data.

panibadboy said:

AIM solo dl2 is useless for braking data.

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Could you explain why and what that opinion is based on?

I guess it uses data from the ABS pump to extrapolate brake pressure data.

spooky said:

Could you explain why and what that opinion is based on?

I guess it uses data from the ABS pump to extrapolate brake pressure data.

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right, I replied under assumption brake lines are direct and not going into ABS.