Summary—In short, I didn’t get to race the SV. It had issues. I had to race a different bike. I won my first race* (massive disclaimer). I ran pretty good.
Bike Setup and Goals
After running the bike through three full race weekends, it dawned on me that there were three separate things that should have tipped me off to a pretty significant issue in my setup…
- At PittRace, a friend and fellow competitor (that has since moved from his SV to a ZX6R) said that my bike looked wild on the rear coming out of the fast turn 15 at PittRace. I knew it was unsteady, but I was just dealing with it
- I have been eating rear tires every outing with what now look like geometry induced cold tears to me. I can usually make a rear last like two race weekends if need be
- I was complaining about how huge the bump in turn 5 got at Blackhawk Farms after the winter. I figured the cold had done a number on it.
I never put any rebound into the rear shock. So while it had compression, it didn’t have any rebound damping. Which was making it a bit unsteady. I had swapped to a brand new Penske 8983 with a 600# spring instead of my tired 650# that I ran last year. I try not to focus too much on suspension stuff and just run the damn bike. It wasn’t until I was looking the bike over next to my other bike and pressed on both tails that the issue dawned on me.
Previous best at Blackhawk Farms from last round is a 1:18.3. I want to get into the 1:17’s.
Practice Day Friday
Morning started overcast and drizzly the first few sessions, so I’m just getting loosened up. Once we get to the fourth session, I start turning up the wick a bit after putting in some new brake pads. I’m back into the low 19’s and upper 18’s a few times. Session 5 I hit another 18. I’m still practicing on the shagged rear I ran from last round, and it’s actually clearing up a bit, but it’s traction isn’t great. I’m sliding the rear out of turn 4 and turn 6 on acceleration and it’s actually exciting because it feels in control, and I’ve never really done this. I’m feeling really good. I ran an 18.6 in that practice with no carrot in front and no real incentive to push. I’m positive I’m gonna hit 17’s on race weekend.
Then towards the end of the 6th session, I’m going into turn 1 and it just loses all power at full leans. Fucking hell. Not again. Scared me, I rode off to the side, took the truck of shame back to my pits, and figured it was fueling again. Got the tank propped up ready to swap fuel pump and new OEM petcock. Fuel’s pumping fine. We check spark…. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Wait til it gets cooler. Still nothing (still didn’t fire when I got it home). So something has gone awry in the electrical again. It’s probably the same issue I’ve been fighting since Daytona. I went through all the obvious checks and couldn’t get it.
Decision time
I have another bike I was planning to start riding in conjunction with the SV once I break through a few mental barriers and hit that 1:17 at Blackhawk on the SV. Well, my paddock mates and teammates know this bike exists, and they were already furious at me that I didn’t bring it this weekend. So realizing I was probably going to end up having to go back home to Milwaukee to work on the SV and maybe miss racing the entire weekend altogether, I went and made the bike swap for the bike I hadn’t really ridden yet.
Saturday – Qualifying and Warmup
I’m on my new 2024 Kramer 690R. I don’t know anything about this bike yet, and the only thing I’ve done is attach a tether for my airbag and gotten some number plates on it. I rode it one session in June when I entered a race nobody else was in just to get a few laps on it. Qualifying on Saturday was the second time I’d even sat on it. It’s 280lb and feels like a bicycle in comparison to my 387lb SV. Running on pump gas with the low engine braking map, so it has 75HP and feels to have the same power as the SV, but everything about the feel, the stiffness, the braking distance, the turning ability… it’s all different. And I really don’t want to put this thing on the ground.
Qualifying one I just putted around and got used to things. Qualifying 2 I tried going a bit quicker and qualified with a 1:18.1 which put me just in front of my buddy and pit partner that I know we’re gonna push each other all weekend.
This bike does not want to go slow. If you’re not throwing it in hard and braking late and rolling corners much faster than you expect to, then it is not happy. And you would be better off on an SV.
Races – To Be Continued
I’ll continue this post a little bit later today with more information from the races themselves on Saturday and Sunday. Hoping to get a few pictures.
I’ve also been asked by multiple people on the track and youtube if everything’s all right because I haven’t been doing race recaps for the last two weekends. My bad! I just didn’t have video because my GoPro was being a bitch and didn’t think me just talking would be interesting enough. But I’ll hopefully have a PittRace+Blackhawk 1 video up this week.
Blackhawk 2 video will need to follow next week since I need front/rear video from my buddy I was racing against since we were glued together all weekend, and I didn’t get any onboard from the Kramer. I hadn’t put a camera on it yet since I wasn’t expecting to run it yet.
Fast Forward to July 21, 2025 at a MotoVid Track Day
Well, that sucked. I don’t have to worry about keeping the Kramer looking clean anymore.
2nd session, first lap. I’m going out easy since it’s a warmup lap and T4 is the first time you’re on the left side of the tire. I’m committed to just running 1:22-23 all day (slow) and working on lines since track days don’t gel with me mentally to actually pushing. And I just lost the front before I even got back on the gas (I think, no camera). It’s a no-brake corner on a lightweight, so that wasn’t the cause. Truth is I rode too hard for the conditions before I was up to temperature, and I should have known better.
Me and the bike launched off the curbing (see: ramps) and ended up in the air fence. Bike was on top of it nearly upside down. I hit the air fence (my Helite vest went off) with my back. Thank god for that air fence. Once I did inventory and knew I wasn’t seriously hurt, I jumped over the barrels and tires to get off the track. I’m pretty sure they were planning on rolling an ambulance after that one, but I’m relatively unharmed. I just feel like I got hit by a truck in my whole upper body (rear ribs especially). Elbow took a hit and swelled up, but besides that, no distinct pain points. I’ll be good to go before the August ASRA races here. Blackhawk safety workers were awesome, and I just feel dumb for messing up a session for everyone. Have never done that on a track day before. The ego-bruise is the most sore thing I’ve got.
Physically I expect to be totally fine within a few weeks. Mentally I’m going to have to process why I lost it so suddenly and get over the fear that it happened for no reason–it did happen for a reason. I’ve been through that turn 1000 times before without issue. Most of them much faster. But I got lazy and complacent on what had become routine for me, and it bit me.
I think I should have parts in time to fix the bike. I also think I have a sort of decent plan to have the SV running more reliably with that electrical issue I pointed out. So either way, I’m running August. Just not certain which bike(s) it’ll be on.
This may have been my last true track day on a race bike for a while. I think mentally it puts me in a different spot than I need to be compared to a race day/race practice.
