1st Track Day in 3 years!

[Rand]

I decided to go to Thunderhill for my first day back, since I know and love the track.

Here's the story of my first track day in 3 years:

I tried to start the bike on Tuesday evening for the first time.  I had a nice leisurely list of things to get done before I loaded up for the track on Friday.  I installed the tank and put gas in it, put the kill switch in RUN.  The gauge cluster lights up, self-diagnostics pass, but no fuel pump.

So I send the next 3 evenings, trying to troubleshoot why the ECU would not enable the fuel pump.  I was comparing pinouts between the SP1, SP2 and race wiring harnesses.  I talked with Bob Hayashida about it, and he said it's something simple, you'll find it.  I tired everything, checked for good grounds, checked for shorts in the harness, tried 2 different bank angle sensors.  Nothing worked.  I took Friday off and started at 6 AM.  Either I'm going to figure it out, or I'm staying home.  Bob called and said "I just though of something.  There is a resistor diode in the ignition switch for anti-theft, that needs to be wired in to the ECU."  That had to be it.  So i took the ignition switch apart, checked for continuity across all the contacts - no diode, no resistor.  I guess it's in the wiring harness somewhere on the SP2.  I searched on line.  Nobody knows anything about it.  They were all telling me to bypass the bank angle sensor.  Well, I didn't have a bank angle sensor problem, so I didn't do that.

I took the stock wiring harness and draped it over the bike and plugged it in and sure enough, the fuel pump came on.  Its getting on about 2:30 in the afternoon. So, now I have to wrestle the wiring harness out, and really wrestle the big, bulky, connector-ridden stock harness in around the cooling system.  Got it all in place and remounted the throttle bodys, airbox and fuel tank.  Turn on the ignition and the fuel pump whirs to life.  Hit the start button and she fires right up.  So I get all of the bodywork mounted.  Damn, she's pretty.  Put my helmet on, wheel it out of the garage, thumb the starter.  RUM, RUM.  Pull in the clutch, click it in to first, PUH.  Dead.  S%^&, no side stand switch.  Back in the garage.  Up with the tank, out with the airbox, find the sidestand switch connector, tape the switch in the ON position, zip tie it down, back in with the airbox, 6:00 PM or so, haven't eaten since breakfast, working as fast as I can. 

My dear, sweet and lovely wife comes in to the garage and wants to talk about paddling outrigger canoes (we're on an outrigger race team).  I'm trying not to be distracted.  We finish our brief conversation and I install the top on the airbox, get everything buttoned down, bodywork on, helmet on, quick blast around the block, everything works, don't like working in a frenzy...

So I go to the neighbors, borrow the trailer, load up, grab some tools, put stuff away, sort of clean up my mess, eat a couple of bites of cold spaghetti and roll out of town about 8:30, for a 3.5 hour drive to Chico.

Then it's up at 6 AM for coffee and off to the track.  I missed the first session, taking care or the final details - lube the chain, set the tire pressure, top off the oil, quick once-over, tech inspection.  Bob and Dave are off on their first session.  In to the leathers, a couple deep breaths, feeling calm and cool.  Got lots of compliments on my bike. 

Out on to the track.  The first couple laps are just of getting back on the bike, becoming familiar with it.  Feeling really good.  The part throttle response is quite abrupt, especially between turns 6 and 7, so I'm working on getting that smooth.  I start to pick it up a bit.  I know from past experience that you can carry lots of speed in to turn 1, so I'm wicking it on down the front straight.  Man that motor is phenomenal.  I was gaining and passing people on the front straight that had 30-40 yards on me.  What a fantastic motorcycle!

So now I'm picking up some corner speed.  There's a short chute between 2 and 3, where I could roll it on aggressively and pas a groups of 3 riders.  We spent the next couple of laps trading positions.  I'm just working on staying relaxed and really getting in to a groove.

On about lap 8 or 9, I opened the throttle to close the gap, because I was a bit slow through 6 and 7.  Close the throttle for turn 8 and the throttle is stuck wide-fuken-open.  OH SHIT! I went out of body for a second and grabbed the front brake, which was barely in contact with the ground.  So as my baby and I are out mowing the grass on the north 40, I'm thinking "kill switch, kill switch, man this grass is slippery, I should have hit the kill switch."   I must have gone off at about 9000 RPM in 3rd gear.  The bank angle sensor worked like a champ.  My next thought is, "Good, the bike didn't tumble."  Followed immediately by, "shit, I don't get to ride any more!"

So I spent the rest of the day being Bob and Dave's pit bitch, helping push Dave's shoulder pad from the bra position, to the shoulder position.

I had to figure out what made the throttle stick.  My friend Greg came by and felt the throttle and it felt perfect.  He say's, with that look in his eye "are you sure your throttle stuck open?"  "Fuk yes, it stuck open!"  So I lift the tank and remove the airbox lid, and there's the rear velocity stack, sitting upside down on top of the throttle body.  So I grabbed it and opened the throttle, and sure enough, if you stick the thing in sideways, it holds the throttle damn near wide open.  Hmmm, that's exactly what I was putting in when my wife came out to chit-chat.

Oh well, it's nothing that $1500 and the next 5 weeks of spare time won't fricken fix. 

At least I am uninjured and didn't take anyone else out.

Here's a couple pics, while things were good:

[Mike]

Rand 
Good to see you back at it man. Sorry about the off track excursion.
When is your next track day planned for?

[Adiggity]

Dammit Rand! Glad you are ok. That is one sexy bike! What did you think of the new blacktop at Thill?

[Rand]

First of all, I don't want to sound like I'm blaming my wife.  I blame myself for not checking the fuel pump and wiring 3 weeks ago, before I went on vacation.  I was in too much of a rush and din't have time to check things over carefully - dangerous!!

I love the flow of Thunderhill.  I found the patches between 3 and 4 a bit disconcerting at first, but they were fine.  I can't say I was testing the tire grip by any means.  I was still shaking the cobwebs out.  It is a really great track!

Can't wait to go back!  I hope to make the SSA day at RFR.  See if I can figure that track out.  It looks like it takes some practice.