So, it has only been 2.5 months after my accident on my old 848 where I broke my right neck of femur. Recovery has been good so far, and I was back on my feet within 4 weeks, my new Panigale S within 6 weeks, and yesterday I took the panigale to the track for the first time after the incident.
My brother has a CBr 600RR, and we only looked at our local track seriously for the past 1 year. It was fun in the beginning....then the arms race began. He started putting new rearsets, i did. Then I put sticky tires, he did. And so on and so forth he ended up with quickshifter, lightweight rear body, laptimer, etc.
We still drew a line on anything in the engine: slipper clutch, abs, etc were deemed as "against regulation" except if they were to come with the bike. It is to prevent poor team (i.e., me) from not being able to compete.
My last accident was due to me losing rear traction on the road. The solution is simple: I need a bike with traction control. Since I like Ducati, it is only logical that I get......
Anyway, yesterday was the last trackday of this year, it is only good that I attend, I thought.
Set the tyre pressure at 30F 25R on the OEM supercorsa pro SP for 36C track temperature, with the ohlins resprung to my weight, I was thinking about setting the damping for the Race settings a bit closer to Sport (my road) settings due to our track being very ( giant bumps midcorner!!!!) bumpy. But I ended up doing the first session in standard Race.
Sag was at 35mm front and 39mm rear with rider
Without entering the Konami Code, the bike instantly felt like I was cheating real hard. I was at medium-fast group on my 848, and this bike propelled me instantly into that group despite me still limping with weak right leg. Braking (with ABS set at 1) is just an impossibility-made-real, where I would just get into GP braking mode (bum slightly off to the side), grab a handful at over 250kph at 150m braking marker, reduce slightly while still carrying quite a bit of braking with the bike tipped over till the apex, then let the brake go and flick it to the other side for the 2nd part of the S bend.
Flicking over was unreal. i thought my 848 was superflickable, but this new frameless design is just....ah.....I am a true believer now.
And the power. Ah, the power! Coming out of a 90 degree righthander at 100kph, twist the throttle and whaaaap the front didn't go light. Instead, it rocketed toward my face only to be tamed and brought back to the ground by the traction control (DTC 2).
The bike felt very bumpy/bouncy during the first session, and the front fork was bottoming out under heavy braking, so I upped the compression and rebound damping by 3 clicks (up the damping = go down in numbers on the screen).
Session two, the suspension was instantly changed. The handling through the bumps was just beautiful now (just 3 clicks different!) and the fork has 1.5mm movement left despite me braking harder. I think it needs 5ml of oil to be added in there to fully cure the problem. The lack of reserve resulted in the rear wiggling a bit during hard braking. That, or the rear need a slight extra preload.
Edit: to give perspective on the adjustability of these Ohlins forks, let us compare these with my previous 848 Showa forks with Racetech valves, or my brother's CBR600RR Shiwa forks with stock valving. The damping would only feel different with a change of more than 5 clicks, or with revalving/reshimming. Being bathed and cared by the Swedish female hockey team from right after the manufacturing line (I can only assume so) seems to really help these Ohlins forks to be ultra sensitive to adjustments.
I got more aggressive in session 2, and started to whip the throttle while leaned. The orange DTC light on the dash lit up very regularly now on every slow corner exit. The beautiful thing is that it is the only notification you get on the DTC saving your arse. No abrupt cut-power feeling, no sound, nothing. Just that light. What an unsung hero!
The EBC (and slipper clutch?) meant that downshifting was enjoyable, instead of scary as on the 848. Bang...bang....bang....three rapid succession of downshift from 5 to 2 in less than 30-50 metres is just super enjoyable.
And the reverse is true. With DTC and DQS it is only a matter of opening up the throttle as large as you can (I still need to work on this skill, I think I am still too slow and not maxed out), let the bike wheelie or anything, and then just Bam bam bam upshift after another upshift till braking marker comes.
I still need to work on my shifting though. Coming from 848, I did not expect the shift rpm to be that high. I ended up shifting at too low rpm constantly since I more often shift by the engine sound, rather than the rpm dash or the shift light. Definitely a different twin characteristics from the previous ducatis, and I can understand where some were complaining from. In my opinion, it is not bad at all, just need a little brain recalibration with the crisper lighter engine noise and the lack of torquepunch on your seat (yes, slightly unfortunately). The bike behaves a lot like an inline 4 under power, indeed.
Session 3 I decided the bike was good enough for me, and. I began to ride it more aggressively, while staying well inside my comfort zone due to my right leg still not good enough. Cornering was still slightly difficult for me, particularly on moving my body weigt. But the bike and riding position made it easier.
In the end, I was passing everyone, except some national racers who were practising with their race bikes.
Highlight of the day: passing another aggressively-ridden Aprilia RSV4 APRC (it also has ABS etc) round the outside of an uphill corner yeah Ducati is the better Italian, you hear????
Another highlight of the day: passing another Panigale S with Termignoni exhaust while letting mine powerwheelie.
How it went:
I was regularly doing 1:21 on my 848 with personal best of 1:19mid.
Despite my leg injury and first time in 3 months and bad traffic due to the number of riders, I ended up mid 1:20 for session 1/2, and 1:19.2 for session 3. My brother on his CBR600RR who regularly pulled 1:21 couldn't go below 1:22 yesterday.
Front tyre wear was perfect, but rear tyre wear was slightly balling due to power (and perhaps the suspension setting needs some work).
Handling during midcorner massive bumps at 170kph was 9/10 in my book.
The steering damper needs tightening up. Probably I should've maxed it.
No lost bolts, that was great.
Clutch fluid reservoir and rear brake reservoir (those small plastic ones) had the cap not tight, so the fluid was squirting everywhere. This resulted in slight dots on the tank. Damn. Hopefully they can be polished out.
Suspension setting: Front: 9C 11R, Rear: 6C 8R.
Front clear plastic sticker saved the face. Definitely worth buying.
What I want to change:
the footpegs need to go up at least 1 inch.
I need to shift at proper RPM.
Throttle opening needs to be faster.
I need to learn to tuck in behind the screen at over 150kph. Today I had the gopro camera on tank which prevented me doing that.
A few people did call me as cheating with al, those electronics. i don't care. Safer bikes for everyone, guys
My brother has a CBr 600RR, and we only looked at our local track seriously for the past 1 year. It was fun in the beginning....then the arms race began. He started putting new rearsets, i did. Then I put sticky tires, he did. And so on and so forth he ended up with quickshifter, lightweight rear body, laptimer, etc.
We still drew a line on anything in the engine: slipper clutch, abs, etc were deemed as "against regulation" except if they were to come with the bike. It is to prevent poor team (i.e., me) from not being able to compete.
My last accident was due to me losing rear traction on the road. The solution is simple: I need a bike with traction control. Since I like Ducati, it is only logical that I get......
Anyway, yesterday was the last trackday of this year, it is only good that I attend, I thought.
Set the tyre pressure at 30F 25R on the OEM supercorsa pro SP for 36C track temperature, with the ohlins resprung to my weight, I was thinking about setting the damping for the Race settings a bit closer to Sport (my road) settings due to our track being very ( giant bumps midcorner!!!!) bumpy. But I ended up doing the first session in standard Race.
Sag was at 35mm front and 39mm rear with rider
Without entering the Konami Code, the bike instantly felt like I was cheating real hard. I was at medium-fast group on my 848, and this bike propelled me instantly into that group despite me still limping with weak right leg. Braking (with ABS set at 1) is just an impossibility-made-real, where I would just get into GP braking mode (bum slightly off to the side), grab a handful at over 250kph at 150m braking marker, reduce slightly while still carrying quite a bit of braking with the bike tipped over till the apex, then let the brake go and flick it to the other side for the 2nd part of the S bend.
Flicking over was unreal. i thought my 848 was superflickable, but this new frameless design is just....ah.....I am a true believer now.
And the power. Ah, the power! Coming out of a 90 degree righthander at 100kph, twist the throttle and whaaaap the front didn't go light. Instead, it rocketed toward my face only to be tamed and brought back to the ground by the traction control (DTC 2).
The bike felt very bumpy/bouncy during the first session, and the front fork was bottoming out under heavy braking, so I upped the compression and rebound damping by 3 clicks (up the damping = go down in numbers on the screen).
Session two, the suspension was instantly changed. The handling through the bumps was just beautiful now (just 3 clicks different!) and the fork has 1.5mm movement left despite me braking harder. I think it needs 5ml of oil to be added in there to fully cure the problem. The lack of reserve resulted in the rear wiggling a bit during hard braking. That, or the rear need a slight extra preload.
Edit: to give perspective on the adjustability of these Ohlins forks, let us compare these with my previous 848 Showa forks with Racetech valves, or my brother's CBR600RR Shiwa forks with stock valving. The damping would only feel different with a change of more than 5 clicks, or with revalving/reshimming. Being bathed and cared by the Swedish female hockey team from right after the manufacturing line (I can only assume so) seems to really help these Ohlins forks to be ultra sensitive to adjustments.
I got more aggressive in session 2, and started to whip the throttle while leaned. The orange DTC light on the dash lit up very regularly now on every slow corner exit. The beautiful thing is that it is the only notification you get on the DTC saving your arse. No abrupt cut-power feeling, no sound, nothing. Just that light. What an unsung hero!
The EBC (and slipper clutch?) meant that downshifting was enjoyable, instead of scary as on the 848. Bang...bang....bang....three rapid succession of downshift from 5 to 2 in less than 30-50 metres is just super enjoyable.
And the reverse is true. With DTC and DQS it is only a matter of opening up the throttle as large as you can (I still need to work on this skill, I think I am still too slow and not maxed out), let the bike wheelie or anything, and then just Bam bam bam upshift after another upshift till braking marker comes.
I still need to work on my shifting though. Coming from 848, I did not expect the shift rpm to be that high. I ended up shifting at too low rpm constantly since I more often shift by the engine sound, rather than the rpm dash or the shift light. Definitely a different twin characteristics from the previous ducatis, and I can understand where some were complaining from. In my opinion, it is not bad at all, just need a little brain recalibration with the crisper lighter engine noise and the lack of torquepunch on your seat (yes, slightly unfortunately). The bike behaves a lot like an inline 4 under power, indeed.
Session 3 I decided the bike was good enough for me, and. I began to ride it more aggressively, while staying well inside my comfort zone due to my right leg still not good enough. Cornering was still slightly difficult for me, particularly on moving my body weigt. But the bike and riding position made it easier.
In the end, I was passing everyone, except some national racers who were practising with their race bikes.
Highlight of the day: passing another aggressively-ridden Aprilia RSV4 APRC (it also has ABS etc) round the outside of an uphill corner
yeah Ducati is the better Italian, you hear????Another highlight of the day: passing another Panigale S with Termignoni exhaust while letting mine powerwheelie.
How it went:
I was regularly doing 1:21 on my 848 with personal best of 1:19mid.
Despite my leg injury and first time in 3 months and bad traffic due to the number of riders, I ended up mid 1:20 for session 1/2, and 1:19.2 for session 3. My brother on his CBR600RR who regularly pulled 1:21 couldn't go below 1:22 yesterday.
Front tyre wear was perfect, but rear tyre wear was slightly balling due to power (and perhaps the suspension setting needs some work).
Handling during midcorner massive bumps at 170kph was 9/10 in my book.
The steering damper needs tightening up. Probably I should've maxed it.
No lost bolts, that was great.
Clutch fluid reservoir and rear brake reservoir (those small plastic ones) had the cap not tight, so the fluid was squirting everywhere. This resulted in slight dots on the tank. Damn. Hopefully they can be polished out.
Suspension setting: Front: 9C 11R, Rear: 6C 8R.
Front clear plastic sticker saved the face. Definitely worth buying.
What I want to change:
the footpegs need to go up at least 1 inch.
I need to shift at proper RPM.
Throttle opening needs to be faster.
I need to learn to tuck in behind the screen at over 150kph. Today I had the gopro camera on tank which prevented me doing that.
A few people did call me as cheating with al, those electronics. i don't care. Safer bikes for everyone, guys
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