Phillip Island Ride Day - Friday December 17^th, 2004

Honda CBR954	Paul Southwell (Leader)	2 bikes
Yamaha YZF1000R	Trevor Harris (Rear Rider)	2 people

06:40. On the bike and heading for the Island. Stop for fuel near home (fuel light on after last Sunday’s Mt Baw Baw ride) and top up the tank near the circuit; fill up the lawn-mower can to get me through the day. Direct route today: Eastern Freeway – Springvale Rd – Monash Freeway – South Gippy Hwy. Bugger all traffic, as it appears that the school holidays have started.

08:30. GP Circuit main gates. They are closed as usual, as a red bike turns in from the other direction. It follows me into the truck entrance and we head down the gravel road to Gate x. As the other bike pulls up behind me I see that it’s Paul, who has stayed in Cowes overnight. I flash my drivers’ license to the gatekeeper, and then with an armband attached, it’s into the tunnel under the main straight and around to the pits. Paul leads me to “a spot that’ll be shady in the afternoon” near one of the stairs leading to the pit roof. We park and commence getting the bikes track-ready i.e. remove luggage racks, mirrors and hero knobs and Paul adjusts his tyre pressures and fiddles with his suspension. Pre-ride briefing, scrutineering and rider registration (another armband) takes and we are ready to go in what is described as the medium-fast group. Today is a four-group day with slow / medium-slow / medium-fast and fast groups. Or so they said; it turned out that the fast group was for dedicated race bikes. Paul was here yesterday in a three-group day, and I request that he passes me no more than three times per session otherwise it would be really demoralising for me. Unless stated otherwise, he passed me once per session; that guy has turns 11 and 12 sorted and gets moving down the straight…

09:40 Session 1. I leave my suspension and tyres ‘as is’ for this session, working on my usual theory that I’ll begin with what I’m used to. I’m the fourth one out with Paul behind me, easing into the first of two quiet laps to reacquaint myself with the track and get some heat into the tyres. The updated pit exit is new to me, now entering the track at turn 1 and lets you get a good bit of speed up. Second lap, and a red/black CBR passes me; Mr Southwell taking his quiet laps a little quicker than I did. He was obviously still in the groove from yesterday. I passed a few people and a few people passed me. My tyres are getting chewed up more than I want, and Paul’s look very good – everything seems to be pretty close to what he wants.

11:00 Session 2. We head out again, Paul having checked/adjusted his tyre pressures and convinced me to do the same, so we dropped the front about 4 psi and the rear about 6 psi. Starting the second lap, we head down the straight and a bunch of bikes exit pit lane just as I get there, with plenty of pace to get by. Paul was not so lucky and had to sit behind them for a few corners while they got up to speed before making his way through; at least that meant it was a few laps before he passed me. Nothing to report apart from I’m still working on getting MG ‘right’ and that I’m not getting into it through turns 11 and 12, where I get passed at times. Although I’m pleased to report that I’m going through turn 1 about 10 k’s faster today than my last ride day. And that some people are way slower into/through this corner than me – this is good for my ego. Noted that I’m doing around mid 170s through turn three, and that we can outbrake a good number of people into Honda. A ZX6 or CBR600 is seen to be having a lie-down in the kitty litter at Siberia, with the rider walking around behind the tyre wall.

12:20 Session 3. We drop a couple more pounds of pressure from my front tyre, and Paul fine-tunes his once more. Wholesale changes are made to my suspension settings based on a UK magazine article for the YZF which has generally had good feedback from the Thunderace mailing list (more front and rear preload; more rebound and compression damping front and rear) and we head out. The bike is noticeably harder to corner and I can describe the feeling as “not happy, Jan”. It is most noticeable in Southern Loop and Siberia, with the other turns being mostly OK. About three laps in, and I get wide on the exit at Siberia and find myself on the outside of the track where the crap gets thrown during the day – you know those little balls of rubber that get spat off the tyres. This really puts me off, and so I stand it up, get off the gas and head into the kitty litter about 45° to the track with the chant in my head of “I’m NOT going to drop this!”. A very firm grip on the bars, no brakes and it’s going well. For some reason I get back on the throttle – this does not aid stopping…. Off the gas again, pull in the clutch and then I’m stopped, shiny side up. Time to ride out, and the back end digs down into what is very soft stuff. I make it to the edge and onto the grass as Paul rides past. With the leader in sight, I get back onto the circuit and take it easy for the rest of the session.

12:45 Lunch. We discuss what happened, how the bike felt after the adjustments and what direction to take next. I propose going halfway back to where we started, and Paul rightly suggests that we talk to the Suspension Guy.

13:40 Session 4. Suspension Guy is enticed over, asks a few questions, bounces the bike up and down and sets the front preload back to where I had it to start with, as the original change had the (obvious) effect of making the bike slower steering. A little off the rebound damping at both ends and out we go again. I take it easy and Paul takes off. This is the first post-lunch session and we take into account the body’s natural reflex to want to have a snooze at this time, with a tummy full of food. The bike is happy to go around corners again and so am I. The times for this session show that I’m in cruising mode, even going down the front straight around 160-180 k’s on some laps instead of 200+. Paul says that the current R1s have some go when they get pointed down the straight.

15:00 Session 5. My tyres look a lot happier than they did after the first session, showing that the changes made to suspension and pressure were in the right direction. The pace picks up and everyone stays upright.

16:20 Session 6. This is always the intended ‘take it easy’ session to end the day. And once again it was the fastest session of the day with the highest maximum and average speeds. I check over my shoulder between Honda and Siberia to check out what’s behind me, and an early (919/929) CBR goes past with a wave, thinking that I was being courteous. So I follow him. He’s good in some of the corners, not so good in others and about the same speed down the front straight. This was a good lesson in where having six gears (him) instead of five (me) can be a distinct advantage, as the CBR often pulled out a little exiting the corners.

17:14pm. On the bike and leaving the track for home. $10 petrol at San Remo to get us home and its highway/freeway/Richmond/Fairfield and into the garage, passing on Paul’s offer of a beer, as I’m to be the taxi for my wife after her works Christmas party later in the evening.

At no time during the ride day did any Club member pass the leader, as per normal Club Rules. No Club member was passed by the rear rider, also as per normal club rules. Thanks to Paul for leading; it was obvious that he had put a lot of effort into planning the route so as to ensure the day went smoothly. Right, left, left, right, left, left, right, left, right, left, left, left. Repeat until flag comes out.

Track statistics from my Sigma BC800 cycle computer. Note that these are from the ‘dummy grid’ and back to the pits i.e. not 100% track time.

Session	Distance km	Average km/h	Time mm:ss	Maximum km/h	Complete Laps
1	40.16	118.88	20:18	223.7	8
2	35.66	119.29	17:58	231.3	7
3	31.23	113.75	16:30	232.6	6
4	40.34	113.53	21:21	222.7	8
5	35.61	118.00	18:01	228.1	7
6	31.08	119.77	15:36	229.1	6

Trevor Harris (YZF1000R)