Рет қаралды 3,611
This is my 3rd trackday, 2nd at this track. Was feeling great the entire day. Went from lap times of 1m40s to 1m27.98s, my best, which was in the session before this one. This is in the last 5 minutes of the last session of the day. I wasn't too worn out & I was riding at about 90% effort when this happened. I rode the beginning of this session for 5-6 good laps and pulled into pit for a couple minutes' rest & to capture my thoughts. I never felt like I was "behind the bike" or going too fast for my comfort. This is the first and only time I've gotten a false neutral on a downshift at speed. Damage is surprisingly minimal & I sustained zero injuries except for a broken heart for my banged-up bike.
Analysis of the crash; My bike+rearset setup requires dual linkage with a pivot point for GP shift. The session before this one I had to raise my rearsets because I dragged my toe twice, which raised my shift lever about 3/4 inch. I've done 1000+ street miles with this same shifter height, but only about 15 or so prior on this day. The dual linkage also has some slack in it because of the pivot point. Those things considered I'm guessing I didn't use enough pressure on the downshift, even though I'd done maybe 15 laps before with no issue. When the false neutral happened I was spooked (obviously), as this is the 2nd hardest braking zone on the track. I knew that my only chance at not crashing was to commit. I did my best in the moment but I was probably somewhere halfway between full commitment & target fixation. I stayed on the brakes hard while I was upright & held a bit more pressure while leaning than I had been, but without engine braking I couldn't scrub enough speed to either make the turn, or convince myself to commit fully.