My Race Bike + Huge Parts Review

[tecknojoe]

I made a call to Driven Racing and got my hands on the Mantis Infrared Tire Temperature Sensor Kit. It'll provide live temps as I'm riding, in the pits, etc. I'm curious to see my temps at the next track, since there's a long time on the right side of the tire. Sometimes the left side can cool down and cause a crash(like I did on this out lap last year), so I want to know exactly what my temperatures are doing. I'm also going to simulate waiting in pre grid, and a delayed start, just out of curiosity.

It even features a quick disconnect so I can stay legal on race day

More updates coming soon....

 

[tecknojoe]

Learned a few things this weekend:

I crashed out of race 1. The great news is that I was able to cling on to the front group without them pulling away, the bad news is that I tucked the front while doing that. It's so hard because you have to be on the very limit in every single corner to stay with those guys.

Race 2 on sunday, I lead the first lap and ultimately ended up getting 2nd (the guy who really won was from another club and had illegal modifications, so he forfeited points). Last year's champ got me in the last corner of the last lap to take 1st.

Here's some feedback from the crash:

Most important, my driven clip on and footpeg took most of the damage. Why don't I buy cheap parts? Because all I had to do was swap out the peg and clip on bar and I was racing within the hour. HUGE props to driven, the rearsets didn't bend a single millimeter. My Tyga carbon tail piece from Formula390 also took a hit, but it's incredibly strong stuff. Even after the damage, I didn't need to do anything to it to keep it together. The R&G case saver has the slider puck in the right place. You'll see in the picture it's ground through in one spot, that's actually from riding and leaning over too far, but the other damage is from the crash. One last thing you'll see in the pics: the bolt that holds the side fairing on, just below the scrapes in my picture, is actually right where a metal bracket is supporting the fairing. So when I crashed on it, it has a lot of support to hold the bike up. it's an interesting design and I think very useful.

The other thing is that I need to change my riding style. You'll see in one photo, I'm grinding my case cover, shift linkage rose joint, shift knob, and belly pan. At least with the Driven rearsets the knobs fold up, allowing it to scrape without unloading the weight to cause a crash. Now I'm working to hang off more, but keep the bike more upright. I was trying all day Sunday but it's a lot more work than I thought it would be.

The Driven Mantis tire temp monitor: I used it during friday practice, and it was great to see when my temps were increasing / decreasing. It's a fun experiment.

 

[mdabyo]

hey, i see you put a new rear sprocket on, did you change the gearing or was it just for weight savings? I am in the process of building a bike for for a very technical track with small straights. My r6 i have -1 front and +2 rear.. trying to decide what if anything to do with the RC

 

[nhenneman]

hey, i see you put a new rear sprocket on, did you change the gearing or was it just for weight savings? I am in the process of building a bike for for a very technical track with small straights. My r6 i have -1 front and +2 rear.. trying to decide what if anything to do with the RC

I did -1 front and +2 rear on mine and while there is noticeable acceleration increase, the gearing is a bit too short for my liking. WOT you are changing gears incredibly often and I'm thinking I will go back to stock 15 in the front and leave the +2 in the back. My top speed with this set up was 103, which is a little less than 7-8 mph under what most riders are getting. But depending on how small the straights are on the track you plan on riding it on it could be a useful setup.

 

[tecknojoe]

I do it for gearing. I ordered a few Driven sprockets so I could match the gearing to different tracks.

 

[mdabyo]

I may have to try out a +2 in the rear to see how it feels out there.