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Lockdown #2 - Recreational Riding Allowed – However there are restrictions

With how fast lockdown #2 was put into place for Melbourne Metro and Mitchell Shire it can be hard to know what is actually allowed. Especially as all the noise has been around only 4 reasons to leave home. The good news for those affected by the latest lockdown is this time it’s a bit different. Activities such as golf, fishing and recreational driving/riding are actually allowed, and you can leave your house to do these things. The main points on this is that if you are covered in the restricted areas you must not leave the boundaries of the restricted zones. Namely Melbourne metro and Mitchell shire. As with exercise you can only do these activities with 1 other person. So no group rides are allowed. When you stop you must also observe a minimum of 1.5meters distance. The great news is if your live in Melbourne metro you are allowed to go for a ride as long as you observe the rules. And we reckon that is great for people’s mental health! FY! While we are allowed to go for a ride we all still need to do our part. Keep your distance and stay safe. The more we adhere to these things the sooner things will get better. For full details see the information on the DHHS website and keep an eye out for changes as they update this site from time to time and the info on the DHHS site is the official one. In particular read the paragraph titled “I live in Melbourne. Can I undertake recreational activities like fishing?” For more info on our COVID policy click here

Yes were are on and Yes you can leave your house to pick up or drop off your bike

Race Center will remain open during Melbourne's latest lock-down and under the new restrictions you can still pick up and drop off your bike. We have strict COVID measures in place for yours and our safety plus we are able to arrange contact free pick up and drop offs from you house if you prefer. You will also receive a booking email that you can show police if you are pulled over. Full details see our COVID Policy

Saucy’s Birthday!!!

A big happy 26th birthday to our new workshop Manager Mr Harley Saucy Side. What better birthday gift than to be given the opportunity to sit on the on and only Jake Drew’s Yamaha R1 Superbike! WoooWee We could write a whole bunch more but no one probably gives a crap anyway. Happy birthday Sauce

COVID Update - Business as Usual

COVID Update: We are currently open and fully operational 😊 Our postcode is NOT one that is affected by the latest lock downs so there is no restrictions on visiting our workshop. There has been some confusion as we are in Brunswick 3056, however it Brunswick West and South 3055 in lock down not Brunswick itself. So your can come in or call anytime but please just observe social distancing which we all should still be doing everywhere anyways…. Unless you’re a security guard that is, apparently they don’t need to follow any of the rules.

Congratulations – Saucy Receives Promotion 😊

It’s with great pleasure we announce our young Saucy man (a.k.a. Harley Side) has received a promotion, Saucy is now our Workshop Manager. It’s not only reward for his great efforts and work ethic since he joined us but also because he has displayed great skills in helping manage and plan upcoming work. Saucy will remain on the tools, as we all are however he will take over more of the work scheduling, planning and customer communication activities. Soucy’s new role will compliment Flex’s (a.k.a Matthew Gregory) existing Master Technician Role as both the boys continue to develop their careers in slightly different ways. Being a small business there is always a lot of overlap between each role however there is a need to have individuals specialise and take the responsibility for certain aspects of our work. With Flex it is ensuring the work is done correctly, helping others when things get pretty technical and being assigned the more involved jobs such as performance engine builds. Now Saucy will step up to the plate and manage work scheduling and ensuring we keep up with customer expectations. The development of these two roles has been an important step for us in order to give as a strong foundation for the future. A future where we will be looking to hire another tech soon 😊 Daz will continue to do stuff all…oops, we mean be on the tools, specialise in bike setup, rider mentoring and the business management, just the new structure allows us to spread the load between the 3 of us. We have to say a massive thanks to big El’ Sauco for all his hard work and commitment to his job. You may be surprised but he is actually a smart little cockie….albeit a bit of cheeky prick at times 😊 Well done and thanks Saucy, you deserve it!

Slow News Day sees Sauce & Daz in Print

While we may joke it’s awesome that the Riverine Herald ran a story on our Salasa man. Local papers are always looking for content so any aspiring or up and coming racer should get in touch with their local rag and see if they can get some media time. Doing little things like this gives real value to your sponsors and you may be a little surprised at just how many people read the local paper. Especially if your sponsor is local to your area, a great way for locals to look after locals. Country papers are normally easy and great to deal with but so too are the local council papers in the big smoke. Any of the RC family wanting to do something similar should get in touch with Russell Colvin to see if he can assist. So get onto it! Well done Auntie Sauce, thanks Russ and thanks Riverine Herald!

The Importance of Gearing your Bike Correctly – With Gearing Recommendations

Correct Gearing Equals Lap Time

The importance of gearing your track bike correctly cannot be overstated. It is one of the single most important things to achieving faster lap times, it really is. Not only does it allow you to access the power of your bike properly, it also has a big effect on the handling your motorcycle. Some of the benefits of the correct gearing are: · Improved corner speed · Improved drive out of turns · Better and smoother throttle response · Less rider fatigue · Makes your bike easier to ride · Better tyre wear · Easier to pass other riders · And of course, improved lap time Some of the key elements to consider when gearing your bike are: · Your bike’s power curve, you need to know where you bike makes it’s usable power · Optimum gear change points and minimising any awkward or difficult changes · Minimising compromises · The RPM mid turn · The roll of the tyre into turns So let’s explore all these things and don’t stress too much if it’s all too hard, we have also provided the recommended gearing for you bike 😉 Jump Straight to Gearing Recommendations Understanding your bikes power curve As a rider, understanding your bike’s power curve is super important to achieve fast lap times. The best riders will do this by instinct and feel. You certainly don’t want to be looking down at your tacho or anything crazy like that. If you have got time to look at your dash you’re not going fast enough. A good way to get a feel for your bikes power curve is to let it hit the rev limiter on purpose a few times in a practice session. This ensures you have sampled the full power range, you may be surprised how far your bike can rev! SAFETY TIP: if you are going to do this, only do it briefly OR check that there is no one close behind you. The other key element is just to feel how the bike accelerates. You really need to develop this feel in order to be fast. It’s an important skill. RPM is critical and partial throttle is much more important than you think The below Yamaha R6 dyno graphs illustrate just how important RPM is. Let’s explain. At 8,000rpm and at 100% throttle the bike makes about 55hp. Whereas at 12,000rpm and at just 40% throttle the bike make 62hp. Not much right? But here is the real kicker! On throttle pick up it takes you some time to roll from 0% throttle to say 40%, even longer too 100%. Even if it’s only a few tenths of a second, we are talking about being fast here, so it matters! If we take the 8,000rpm example, even if you smack it to 100%, you’ll have to wait for the engine to spool up and develop power itself. By the time it does that, rider B who used 12,000 rpm will already be into next week and will have smoked your ass. Another key is how easy extra power is to access. If you used 12,000rpm and less throttle, as soon as you roll on even a little bit more the bike responds immediately. In the below pic just look at how much extra power you access when opening just 20% more. A very common thing for novice riders to do is use too high a gear and lower RPM to make the power less scary. If this is you, you need to change your ways and you need to do so ASAP! Most importantly because if you use low rpm the bike is in control of you rather than the other way around. If instead you use higher RPM and manage the power yourself with the throttle, you are in control! If you are not in control of the power delivery than your risk of a high side is actually greater even if the rpm is lower. While method B takes more effort and training to learn, this is how to become fast. If you are on a bike that has way too much power for you (very common these days), you have 3 options if you truly want to become a good and fast rider. Get a bike with less power and more suited to your ability. Master that before going back to a more powerful bike. If it’s a ride by wire bike, come see us and we can load in a throttle map that will help you manage the power using the correct higher RPM method Do the hard yards and persist with doing it correctly, not the best way to learn though. Using low RPM to control the power will never result in you becoming a fast rider, sorry it just won’t. The other great thing is using the higher RPM and learning how to use the throttle properly will result in the power delivery being much smoother. We hope this makes you realise just how important a good tune for your lap time is. It’s not just 100% throttle that makes lap time, it’s the roll on. Luckily we know a race shop that focusses on this stuff when they tune bikes 😊 Tyre Roll Ok this may be a tad technical but it’s shit you need to know, so pay attention. When you’re at lean angle the effective tyre circumference is smaller than when you’re upright. This means at lean angle the overall gearing is shorter (more revy) than when upright. So if you keep the same speed the revs will rise as you increase lean angle. Going back to when we talked about RPM above, it makes riding the bike in the higher RPM and correct power curve on corner exit even more important. This is because as you start to stand the bike up on exit the gearing gets taller and harder for the bike to build revs. Thus if you are already too low in the revs, as you stand the bike up it will get worse and your going to be slower on exit than a snail with a hangover. Understanding how revs behave when you lean the bike is also very important for corners where you enter with the throttle open or are accelerating into. Some really good examples of this are turn 3 (Stoner) and turn 8 (hayshed) at Phillip Island. Also turn 5 (the big sweeper) at Winton. If we take Turn 3 at Phillip Island for example, if you click the next gear up say 4th to 5th just before your tip in, even if it may seem a bit too early to shift gear (called short shift). As soon as you hit some lean angle the revs will rise automatically and put you in the right area of the power curve. This will give you free lap time. If you instead don’t do this, the revs will be too high when you lean, limiting corner speed and costing massive lap time. Stuff that! We see people make this mistake into the hayshed all the time. You MUST be aware of this and you need to develop a feel for it. RPM Mid Turn This brings us onto the RPM mid turn, it’s another critical element. Remember that if revs are too high it will limit corner speed, the engine can only rev so far. Also close to the rev limit, the bikes engine brake will be far greater and if you have a small throttle dip mid turn you will wash off heaps of your corner speed. If the RPM is too low, then as we have already covered, your corner exit and lap time will be poo. Thus getting the bike in the sweet spot for as many corners on any given track is mega important. This may take you a little while to get the feel of but it’s a skill set and feel you need to learn. The best riders will feel all of this by instinct without needing to think, this needs to be your goal. Getting the gearing right is so, so important for your lap time. It allows you to use the power of your bike to produce a better lap time. This can be another area novice riders, guided by wannabe google experts can make gearing mistakes. We often hear riders gearing their bike for the right RPM at the end of Phillip Island Straight. This is completely wrong because the speed through turn 12 and the exit will dictate your straight-line speed anyway and have a much bigger impact on your lap time. So gearing the bike for all the corners is way, way more important than the end of the straight. The only reason people gear bikes for the end of the straight is it is much simpler than doing it properly and they don’t understand all this stuff we are talking about. So if you are having a chat with someone crapping on about gearing the bike for the straight, walk away. Minimising Compromises Unfortunately, especially with production gearboxes, at most tracks there are compromises. The RPM won’t be perfect for all corners. Another factor we must consider is avoiding awkward gear changes. You don’t want to need a gear change mid turn if you can avoid it. Top level riders can sometimes do that stuff but leave it to the pro’s because it’s hard. You should always prioritise fast corners and corners that lead onto straights 😉 Why does the correct gearing make a motorcycle handle better? It’s to do with the ‘chain pull affect’. In simple terms there are 3 main forces that act on your bike in a turn when applying the gas. 1. The corner load, this tries to compress the rear end. 2. The weight transfer, again this tries to compress the rear shock. 3. The chain pull affect or acceleration affect. This guy tries to extend the rear suspension and we like that on corner exit 😊. If you’re too low in the RPM the acceleration affect will be minimal, the bike will squat too much and run wide. It’s a bit more complex than that but that will do for now. Getting the RPM in the sweet spot is mental important! Summary In isolation each of these factors can be simple enough, taking them all into consideration at once can be a bit more complex though. Especially at a track you don’t know so well. Luckily we have done all the hard work for you with our gearing recommendations 😊 Go to Gearing Recommendations Go to Phillip Island Gear Change Points Go to Broadford Gear Change Points Go to Winton Gear Change Points Click to purchase chain and sprocket conversion

Gearing Recommendations

This is only a short list for some common model bikes. It's also a guide to a really good starting point. As you get more experienced you may wish to experiment a little to see what works best for you. If your bike is not listed, flick us an email and we will see if we can add it :) Click to purchase chain and sprocket conversion

Winton Gear Change Points

Winton gear change guide

Broadford Gear Change Points

The below is a quick guide where to change gears at Broadford

Phillip Island Gear Change Points

The below is a quick guide where to change gears at the ultra fast Phillip Island circuit