We are getting closer. A lot to do yet but with a bike still not ready to race we turned some decent laps. I never wrote about round 3 because we lost an exhaust valve shim on the launch of our first race Saturday. I heard the motor ticking from turn one all the way to the finish. Funny how loud ticks don't go away on their own. Anyway that was the end of our weekend. We won the F-40 race then spectated all day Sunday. I took the bike apart Tuesday and no damage, just a missing shim. The 1290 I bought was a Calmoto demo with 2,400 miles on it. That plus about 60 laps on track and the exhaust valves were all out of range - too tight. They're all proper now.

My talks with Bazzaz about rectifying the 1290 quick shifter shim-popping issue fell on defiant ears. They say it's KTM's drive train that has issues, not their quick shifter. I call bullshit on that. Doesn't matter the drive train, doesn't matter the brand, doesn't matter the product. If you manufacture a product, label a product, and sell a product for a specific motorcycle, to a specific customer, for a specific use - it's on you to be sure it works properly with that bike. I don't care if it's a quirky KTM 1290 drive train or a 32 valve NR750 - if you sell a quick shifter for "IT" make sure it works on "IT". And especially make sure it doesn't blow it up. I did two full throttle short shifts off that launch and never over-revved anything. Valves don't float or spit out shims on 1290s without help. Especially 1 or 2000rpm below redline. Those short shifts were Bazzaz quick shifts that instantly popped our shim. I just ran seven Bazzaz-less practice sessions and three races wringing that 1290s neck the whole way and no shim-popping problems...

It's inappropriate that I have not yet written about our GP Suspension cartridge kit which is now special-made for 1290 Superdukes. That's what we are running now and they feel so good I could cry. I still have yet to brake hard enough or dive deep enough to push these forks past their comfort zone. Great feedback, excellent range of adjust-ability, stout on the brakes. Really a top shelf cartridge kit, an easy step above the Ohlins RT forks we ran on our RC8R last year. Even adds @12mm to the fork cap so you can push the forks into the triple clamps if you want. Right side rebound, left side compression, both sides pre-load adjustment. All problems solved. Contact Barry Wressel, he's the master behind them.

Our biggest issue this weekend was not the missing quickshifter. I chicken-winged it all weekend long, it felt like coming home. Our issue was, and still is, our rear shock. Originally I stole the shock we are using now from our trusty fallen hero - the 990SDR - that lays still unfixed at Calmoto. That old WP shock is the proper length for this 1290 but its reservoir is in the wrong place for the battery tray and the spring that's on it is far too soft. I'm enjoying working with Barry this year but his plan to get us on a Penske shock is not working out. Apparently Penske is over-booked, or their focus is more on Moto America this year, or I don't know what. But two weeks turned to four weeks which turned to eight weeks which turned to... well you get the idea. The latest promise took us to this Saturday, 8:30am at the track, special delivery. So there we were Saturday morning at 8:30 looking for FedEx. Then it was 9:00, 9:30, 10:15 and still no shock. WTF. Kenny looked at me and without speaking told me we we'd have to run it how it sits, and so we did.

I don't mind if a bike is too soft, or too stiff, usually you can ride your way through. But the hardest to ride are the bikes out of balance. And now with the GP Suspension kit up front, half of our 1290 really wants to fly. The other half though, not so much. More than one time I got passed on the outside of a very long 180 degree turn. Anytime that happens you know something's wrong. And what was wrong was the attitude and movement of our bike from mid-turn to the end of the exit and onward. Turning force compressed our tail, driving force compressed our tail, flying through Thunderhill's notorious turn 7 dog-leg compressed our tail with so much force the front wheel got air one lap. It was hell to ride that fast but in a very rare way I enjoyed it. I kind of felt like we, as a team, were faced with a choice to either give up and just ride around or give it our best and go race. I wish you too could have enjoyed some of the expressions our bike instigated out on track this weekend. Apparently it was something to witness.

I blame myself. Nobody else. And really that was my goal this year - to have no one to blame but myself. While waiting for Penske to deliver on their promise I should have chased down a solution to get the shock I have in the bike working now. Instead I chose the easy option - to sit back and wait for others to deliver. My error. Not happening again.

I am no suspension guy. Trust me I am my own worst enemy when it comes to suspension. But I do know some basics - like sag for instance. A decent number for rear sag is about 30mm, give or take a few. Our 1290 measures 57mm sag with the 990 WP shock in it, about twice what we should have. Nobody at the track had a 1200lb spring, which is what we need to get this right. We tried winding preload into it as a feeble attempt at a fix but it bound up, the shock lost it's travel. We tried slowing down the movement with low speed compression, with high speed, with combinations of all of the above. Most combinations made the bike worse or even un-ridable. In the end the fastest setting was 12mm preload and just enough valving to slow its pumping, but not bind it too much. Let it kick and buck like a stallion and hang on - that was our weekend's motto.

Our clutch must be worn, it's engaging very far out in the lever. Launches suck now, nothing to modulate, we were 5th into turn one for Saturday's race. Traffic can be tough on a 1290 not setup well. I couldn't motor litre bikes on the straights so it all had to be on the brakes or drives - both of which you need to be close enough to pull off. It took a few laps but we made it to the front, however that only started the fight. There are new R1s popping up all over now. What a beautiful bike. It seems to handle well and it's real fast out of the box. Hard to make passes stick against these bikes unless you put a few tuns together before the next straight, which is what we did. We ran Open GP on Sunday with an old tyre and it was a disaster. Struggling so badly like that really put our tyres into perspective for me. We are using our Michelins as band-aids for our suspension. Our bike is so far from right. I don't even know what place we finished but it was disrespectful. We only had one rear tyre to use on Saturday so we skipped Formula Pacific which would have been futile with our rear shock like this anyway. Instead we focused on Open Twins later in the day. Tiger got the launch on his Panigale and we gave a surprisingly close chase for second. He blew the entrance to turn 9 going real wide and I pounced like a Rhyno driving my shoulder through his as he came way back into the racing line. I'd rather tangle shoulders than bars. We led that lap until the far-too-long front straight, where he shot by again like I was parked checking tyre pressures. I was able to stay surprisingly close in the following laps, making up the hp differences on the brakes and through some of the super high speed sections like turn 8 or the entrance to turn one. With two laps to go though I lost the front pretty bad and couldn't pick it back up. I crashed really deep in turn three, at the exact location quite a few top guys went down both this round and last. I need to walk that turn at night with a flashlight, there must be some ripples in the pavement, or a seam I don't see at speed. It's pretty rare to see that many bikes all crash in the very same place, the same way. Especially losing the front at a turn's 3/4 mark.

That ended our weekend on a downer but I didn't feel down at all. I knew we were on pace if we were that close to Tigerboy that deep in a race. ...And with our shock that out of whack. That is a very good sign for the future. They tell me we did 52s in the Open Twins race. For reference we regularly managed 51s on the RC8R with 2mm pistons, cam timing, the WP race shock, Ohlins forks and an airbox. Sometimes we got to low 50s but it was rare. So generally speaking we are just a second or so off our last years RC8R times, and that bike was dialed. This 1290 is still so far off it's laughable. At least the rear is.

As we wrapped the weekend up Tigerboy came by to sign off. Neither of us mentioned the Rhyno incident, but what did get discussed was very telling indeed. For once he offered some insight on a perspective I don't ever get to see - what happens behind our bike. He mentioned an advantage our bike seems to have over his. Before I say what it is I have to tell you that his Panigale is a legit "un-obtanium" WSB spec Superbike. I don't dare ask it's worth. So what is our advantage you ask?

...wait for it.

Our 1290 gets out of turns quicker. And this is from the horse's (Tiger's) mouth. He said initially we get the jump on him, but once we go straight up and down our bike falls flat on it's face. The more I think about this the more it makes sense. I've heard others come by and tell me just the same things, so what needs to change? I think it's the airbox. Over getting the motor built, over doing cams, I think the most vital mod right now is an airbox. Yes I know Rotweiller makes something for the 1290 but I want more than that. I would like to build a pressurized airbox system for this 1290. A big one, kind of like what we did with the 990, only bigger, better. Maybe I'll use their filter but I want a bigger box and I'll use the tank as it's top. If it's true, a motor is basically a pump, and we opened up one end of the pump with the Akro exhaust, we now need to open up the other. Before anything else.

More to come

That makes interesting reading GoGo, very well written, looking forward to the next installments

Hmmmm ... 1200 Lbs/in. you say - 6 or 7" long?



or



I have to look through my pile, but I may have a 1200 in 7" ...

Great read GoGo! Looking forward to more.... especially after you've sorted shock and airbox
(gotta get me one of those cartridge forks)
Cheers!