ROADRACE MOTORCYCLES

CCS at CMP 2011, Saturday,Middleweight GP, Turn 2

I know it says proof but I actually typed my info in MotoHD’s website and it posted it here automatically. I think it is a great pic and thought I would share it. Go to www.motohd.net and look at the rest of the pics from this last weekends racing. The dude took some great pics. Darcie and I had a great time. It was our first time back on the track since last year so we didn’t go as fast as we would have liked but we know which direction we need to go to go faster next round at VIR. I would like to thank Full Spectrum Power, Pitbull, Digital Decals, and my wife for helping me this weekend. She drove all night after staying up for a 19 hour shift the day before to be at the races with me. She then was the 33Pitboss and ran everything the way it is supposed to be run.

Full Spectrum Poweris owned by Jason Levitt. Here he talks with Fred from OTTabout the benefits of running a lightweight battery.

Full Spectrum Power produces the worlds smallest, lightest, and most powerful motorcycle batteries. Full Spectrum Power’s award winningPulseandGenesislightweight motorcycle batteries are hand built in the US, one at a time, using the highest quality components.Full Spectrum Powerequipped machines have won more AMA Roadracing and AMA Drag Bike races than all other lightweight motorcycle batteries combined.

Inevitably as it stands, I have to tear my broken bike down and repair all the damage I did after two relative high speed low-sides at VIR. I will be doing a full tear down report and build-up of it with pictures. So stay tuned!

The season is over. After thousands of miles travelled and thousands of dollars spent I have one thing to say. Man, what a ride! I would like to thank some people for helping me out this year:

My wife, Darcie, for being there at every round and putting up with my shit. I can get cranky at the track for whatever reason but she was always the cool head in the paddock. She was there every single time to put on my rear stand, warmers, hand me a bottle of water, help me out of my leathers, make the beds, cook the food, talk to me about how everything went on the track, taking my laptimes, telling me when I was slow, hand me a beer at the end of the day, and a buttload of other things.

Jim Cohrs, who the hell is number 54? He was there as my suspension tech even though he was in the same races as me. He was there to listen to all my suspension issues, talk to me to help me make sense of things, and just general bench racing things.

Rick Johnson, #29, one of the funniest guys in the paddock. My wife and I would lay up at night talking about some of the goofy stuff he said. He was there racing as well but always had time to give advice.

Russ Proctor, is one fast dude and was always there to help, just like Jim Cohrs. Always willing to lend a hand or an ear. Great guy.

Dan Ronca, Gian Bojanovich, Chris Cooke, and Garrett Shifflett, I owe you guys BIG time! You saved my race weekend by helping…hell, not helping, doing…putting my bike together during the last race of the season after I had landed on my ear in T17. Not a fun place to go down but you guys made it so much easier to deal with. I would have never been able to continue my weekend without you guys. Sucks that I crashed the very next day.

Danny and Gian thanks so much for helping me out all season long. I loved pitting with you guys and hearing all of your funny stories. Danny, you saved my race weekend at Summit. I should have listened to you the first time about my fuel pump going out instead of trying all kinds of other crazy things. Also dude, you pushed me and pushed me. I was tired of seeing your tail all year. You definitely made the most improvement out of everyone in the middleweight experts class.

Brett Hickman, Steve Levow, Lory Shifflet, James “JRay” Ray, Kent Marquess, Scott Tucker, Mark Miller, Drew Kessler, Jonathan “Carnage” Elias, and anyone else I forgot…you guys are the best! It was fun hanging out with everyone, racing, bench racing, wrenching, arguing, eating, drinking, or whatever!!!

Willow Downs definitely helped too…so thank you Willow Downs. (JRay knows what I am talking about)

2010 was definitely my funnest year racing and I will never forget it.

Here are my final point standing for each class I was entered in:

Southeast Region

Middleweight Superbike: 7th

Middleweight Grand Prix: 9th

GTU: 5th

Middleweight Supersport: 6th

Heavyweight Superbike: 23rd (only entered in one race the entire year!)

Heavyweight Supersport: 11th

Mid-Atlantic

Middleweight Superbike: 8th

Middleweight Grand Prix: 5th

GTU: 10th

Middleweight Supersport: 11th

See you next year!!!

I got this off the WERA BBS from user m0rtal1ty. It will help you when you try and bypass the clutch switch and instead your bike goes into limp mode. Here are the detailed instructions with pictures. 

Writeup: GSXR 600 clutch switch bypass relay mod w/ pics

---

I finished up the clutch switch bypass mod on a K6 GSXR with great success. This mod is an alternative to putting a switch on or bridging the clutch wires for starting the bike and also avoiding the limp map the ECU uses under a continuously disengaged clutch scenario. This mod is very easy to follow with some basic understanding of electronics. At any rate I’ll try to make this tutorial fairly clear and comprehensive and I apologize in advance for the length.I originally did this mod out of necessity; I sold my turn signal control pod on my new-to-me 06 GSXR 600 thinking it wasn’t necessary for starting the bike. It was. None of the other bikes I’ve ever had needed the clutch disengaged for starting in neutral… but whatever. Here’s whats involved:- 12v automotive relay, RadioShack part #275-001 or similar
- A few female quick disconnect terminals.
- Soldering iron or some splice connectors.
- Electrical tape and some wire.
- K6 GSXR or bike with similar problem.

As said earlier I’ve done this on an ’06 GSXR but I imagine other bikes are similar if not identical.

Start by removing the turn signal control pod and selling it on eBay. Was already ahead of myself there. You could get about $40 for it but hurry up before everyone else does this mod and floods eBay with used K6 gixxer control pods. As there’s no need for it on a race-only bike you can use that space for something like a switch, camera mount, or a GPS if you get lost during your race. Anyways.. The rest of the work we’re going to do is under the seat.

Next, unplug both of the main battery cables and remove the starter relay and wiring from its mount. Go ahead and unplug the black wiring connector from the relay and make a cut down its wiring sheath to expose the 4 wires; two red wires for power, a yellow/green one from the start switch, and a black/yellow wire from the clutch switch. Both of these yellow wires also plug into the ECU so it knows whats going on with each of these.

What we’re going to do next is trick the ECU into thinking the clutch is disengaged every time you push the start button. *Caution: This will also make the bike start when its in gear. That could make a very embarrassing or very hilarious situation in the paddock depending on which side of the bike you’re on. Mmmkay?

We need to tap into the Y/G and B/Y wires since we’ll be plugging those into our RadioShack relay. You can use a number of types of splicing connectors but considering the space and that we want this to work 100% of the time I decided to solder the wires on. Cut some of the jacket off of both the Y/G and B/Y wires to expose the copper wire, but don’t cut the wire. Just like in the movie Speed with Sandra Bullock and Neo. Then solder your two pieces of wire on (white wire in my case) and wrap it tight in electrical tape then crimp your disconnects on. I drew a black line on one indicating it was the clutch wire. We haven’t got to this part yet but the black wires with blue disconnects is the ground wire I put together.

We’ll continue with the B/Y clutch wire next. We want to plug this into our RadioShack relay. Since this is the wire we want to be grounded when the starter is pushed we’ll plug it into the 87 terminal on the relay. The other end of this circuit, 30, will be grounded to the battery all the time. If you have a double throw relay you can ignore the additional terminal 87a.

The remaining Y/G wire will be plugged into the 85 terminal and the other end, 86, grounded to the battery as well but it should also work in reverse although it didn’t with mine for some reason. What will happen is when the starter button is pushed and +12V runs through the Y/G starter wire it will activate the relay and bridge the B/Y clutch wire to ground and then release it when the push starter button is depressed and the starter wire deactivates. If you’re in doubt on which wire is the starter switch-connected wire you can start to poke around with a multimeter. With the ignition ‘on’ but the engine switch set to ‘off’ look for a wire that has about +3v standby which then outputs +12v when the starter button is depressed.

Make sure both ground terminals are grounded to the batteries’ negative terminal. Below is a cable I made with a ring terminal on the battery end and two female quick disconnects on the relay end. I soldered the additional wire in place for a rugged ‘Y’ connection to both grounds on the relay. You can do this a variety of different ways though.

Try to start the bike and see if it works. After it does go ahead and stash your relay in the subframe out of the way. I zip tied mine to a wiring harness in the tail for some shock absorption so it will continue to work after I inevitably crash on the track I did all this work for.

Now put the new clipon space to use. I put a start/run switch from a CBR on mine to power a data acquisition setup and I also have a free momentary switch for something else.. like a horn that plays dixie. Or not.

This setup either works or it doesn’t; check your wiring if it doesn’t start or if the relay makes a buzzing noise. In other words… if the bike starts up and promptly proceeds to run away into the nearest tree, parked car, pack of school children or gaggle of church nuns then you’ve done something wrong. If you’re reading this now and its actually worked then be sure to report in with any comments or petitions for addendums or any funny stories about the bike running away into arbitrary things the first time you started it and forgot it was in gear.

m0rtal1ty

Mid-Atlantic Roadracing Championship
Feb 26-27-28 Daytona Intl Speedway
Apr 10 Carolina MP
Apr 11 Carolina MP
May 1-2 New Jersey MP
May 29-30-31 Summit Point Circuit
June 19-20 Virginia Intl
July 3-4 Summit Point Circuit
July 24-25 New Jersey MP
Aug 27-28-29 Summit Point Circuit
Sep 25-26 Virginia Intl

Hopefully I will be able to attend more than the two events I did last year.

I made it to my second race weekend of the year. It was pretty uneventful but I did manage to get some pictures snapped of me and some friends. Now to get ready for next year. I can’t wait! During this event my wife got to get a two up ride with Steve Broadstreet. Pretty sweet if you ask me. Be sure to check out my Useful Files For Racers page. Also for all the stuff you need for your bike at a great price visit Sportbiketrackgear.com

Recent email I received from Steve Levow of Patriot Racing:

“Hi everyone! As most of you know JP and I met up with Derek Donovan of the Fisher House and shot a segment with On The Throttle; a motorcycle road racing web-zine. It took a little while for them to release the final product, but it is well worth the wait. Visit OTT http://onthethrottle.tv and select “Patriot Racing’s Fisher House” – it is the second link on the right margin I am trying to sort out a direct link and we will definitely have this on our website, http://www.patriotracing.us soon. Please forward this information to anyone who you feel may be interested in supporting us and the Fisher House. Thanks and enjoy!

Steve”

Can’t wait for next season to start!

Patriot Racing is the brainchild of a good racer friend of mine, Steve Levow. Him and his dad decided to give back to the community all the while trying to go racing at the same time. They get nothing from this. They thought “Heck, since I’m out here racing, I might as well try and do it for a great cause.”

Here is a press release from Patriot Racing:

Patriot Racing is very happy to announce our partnership with The Fisher House.
 
Fisher House provides “a home away from home” for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. The homes are normally located within walking distance of the treatment facility or have transportation available. There are 38 Fisher Houses located on 18 military installations and nine VA medical centers.
http://www.fisherhouse.org/

 
Having family members so close, helps our wounded veterans recover from their injuries.  Enabling family members to do this without the added burden of paying for their lodging, allows them to stay together for the entire recovery period. 
 
Patriot Racing is seeking sponsorship pledges to generate tax-deductable funds for The Fisher House. 
Prospective sponsors can pledge a dollar amount per lap, per finishing place or by a fixed dollar amount.
The total number of laps completed by both members of Patriot Racing over the course of a race event is dictated by race course length, scheduling and other issues that may arise over the course of the weekend.  For our home track, Summit Point, WV we complete approximately 90 laps in a race weekend.
 
We are in the process of building our website ( http://www.patriotracing.us/ ) which will have more detailed information on our race program, pledge sponsorship programs, The Fisher House, and our other sponsors.
 
In the meantime, please visit: http://www.active.com/donate/teamfisherhouse/PatriotRacing
This is our site on The Fisher House’s on-line donation program.  It is a secure and efficient means to make your donation.
ALL FUNDS GO DIRECTLY TO THE FISHER HOUSE.
The Fisher House will provide you with a receipt of your tax-deductable donation for your next tax return.
Our goal is to generate $500 per race event for the Fisher House.

 
The link to a donation pledge form follows.  It may be easiest to take note of all pertinent information and email that to me so that I am aware of your pledge and can follow up with you after the race:

A Fisher House brochure has been scanned.  Please review it for more information on the mission and goals of the Fisher House.

 
We hope to have http://www.patriotracing.us/ up and running within the next week or so.  Please feel free to email me for any reason at:
bel-biv76@fcmaa.com
 
Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested in helping us help our military families.
Thank-you for your support and consideration. 
 
Patriot Racing is:
Steve Levow
CCS #176
bel-biv76@fcmaa.com
 
John Porter
CCS #76
porter253@aol.com
 
Patriot Racing competes in the Championship Cup Series – Mid-Atlantic region
http://www.ccsracing.us/

Our upcoming race events are:
Virginia International Raceway – June 21 – 22
Summit Point Motorsports Park – July 5 – 6
Barber Motorsports Park – August 9 – 10
Virginia International Raceway – September 20 – 21
 
Again, our goal is to raise $500 per event.
 
Thank-you