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`Optimization
Street riders tend to do one of two
things with all the suspension settings
on a new sportbike. They: (A) Leave ev-
erything exactly where it was set when
it came from the factory; or (B) Turn ev-
erything to full stiff, because that's what
racers do, right? Wrong!
Many track day events will have a
suspension technician on hand. In some
cases, they can repair leaking fork seals
or replace springs. But the most import-
ant thing they have is experience on how
sportbike suspension should feel, and
they can spin adjusters to get a motorcy-
cle closer to that range than the rider can.
A track day suspension technician
likely will ask you to bring the bike over
and wear all your riding gear. With the
bike in a chock, you'll hop on board and
get into a racing tuck. The technician
will measure and set sag front and rear.
Then, with you standing safely back, she
or he will push on the handlebars to get
the forks to compress and rebound—and
then adjust the, um, compression and
rebound settings. Same at the rear. At
the end of the process, you'll wind up
with a bike that is better balanced—the
front and rear working in harmony rath-
er than independently.
The really good technicians will of-
fer you one more service: The repeat visit.
They'll ask you to come back to their ga-
rage or pit after each session, push on the
bike again, and ask you questions about
what you experienced on the track. Based
on that feedback, they will make further
adjustments. It's like having your own
crew chief for the single most important
setting adjustment you can make at the
track. It's an incredible confi dence-build-
er to have someone listen to you, run thatthrough the fi lter of their own experience,
and turn knobs to optimize the handling
of your bike.
Typically, this service will run be-
tween $40 and $60 for the day. And as
a well set-up machine is easier on tires,
not only will you ride faster and with
more control, there's a very good chance
that over a season, you'll save money on
tires as well.`Rider
Almost every track day offers fi rst-
time riders an orientation lap or two at
the beginning of the day. If you're still a
bit shaky, or if you're going to a new track
for the fi rst time, take advantage of the
opportunity. It's a great time to carefully
note how to correctly enter and exit the
actual racetrack, and where the fl ag sta-
tions are. If it rained overnight, it’s also a
good time to see where any damp patches
are, which can defi nitely be a handy bit
of information.
If the track day organization has
control riders that will do a lead/follow
session with you, take advantage of that,
too. It's remarkably helpful to have some-
one watch what you're doing real-time
and then show you how to change your
lines, your turn-in points, etc., to make
it easier to get around the track. Having
someone who knows braking points and
turn-in points tell you what you are doing
is so helpful that words almost fail.
You can hire riding coaches, sign up
for advanced riding classes, even get a
fast rider to follow you with a video cam-
era. It's all the same idea: To give you
feedback on what you're doing and how
you can do it better. Help is there, right at
trackside. Use it when you can.Dax Vance of Sportbike Suspension Tuning looks at the rear shock on his Honda
CBR1000RR, during a Fastrack Riders track day event at Auto Club Speedway.Trackside Improvements CONTINUED FROM PAGE 32
RWRoadracing World, Trackday Directory 2019—81