Obsessive Compulsive Order
I knocked over my glass of ice tea. Once you start, you might as well do it right. To me it’s not a disorder. OCO, make it work for you!
The Twelve Intangibles Of Racing … #26
Racers Michael Gougis and Ed Sorbo discuss World Superbike, inter-team dynamics and why the new guy on the Kawasaki squad is kicking the snot out of the World Champion who has been with the team for years. Sorbo, a top-level crew chief who’s worked with top-flight riders, offers his insights from the inside. A discussion about sea cucumber ensues, with Gougis and Sorbo in complete agreement that it tastes awful.
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Breakfast At Sorbo’s Shop #25
In Episode 25 of Deep Thinking, the motorcycle road racing podcast, racers Ed Sorbo and Michael Gougis talk about the MotoGP race at Jerez as Gougis eats breakfast. A discussion ensues over Marc Marquez’ newest and most committed fan, the guy who is hoping against hope that the Honda rider wins the championship – the guy who ran over his finger! A guy named Robert behaves in much the same manner as Sorbo’s cats, in that he makes a cameo appearance at the podcast but refuses to comment.
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Useful Skill
I started being a mechanic when got my first bicycle but my career as a mechanic started at Castle Park Hawaii working on Go-Karts and Bumper-Boats. Along the way I worked on my motorcycles. Then I got my first motorcycle shop job and soon after, started racing, in ’82.
Growing up in Hawaii, I had to deal with a lot of stuck bolts. There are two fork banjo bolts in this photo. The one at the bottom is intact. It holds the cartridge rod to the bottom of the fork. Both of these were over tightened.
On a side note, torque is not set by how worried you are about how important a bolt is, it’s determined by the strength of the bolt.
Anyway, the top bolt was also rounded out where the Allen wrench goes. Because the bolt is up inside the foot of the fork there is no other way to get a hold of the bolt. My solution was to drill down the center of the bolt, with a hand drill, with larger and larger bits till I removed the head of the bolt from the shaft.
If I can get at the head of the damaged/stuck bolt I have a bunch of tools made to grip the head or the shaft. Another good trick for screw heads is to use a chisel and a small hammer to drive the bolt around.
So far, much like how you never see a cat skeleton up in a tree, I have always found a way to remove stuck bolts.
Righty-tighty. Lefty-loosey.
No Dice
Valve caps with blinking lights, dice or other stuff may look neat as an impulse idea near the cash register but they are just un-sprung spinning mass and worse, to me.
The job of your valve cap is to form an air tight seal so that no air can escape from your tire even when the valve core is forced to open by centrifugal force. I’ve yet to find a seal inside any of these toy caps.
If you still have rubber valve stems you may be surprised to learn that the weight of a toy cap times the rotating speed of the wheel is more than enough to fold the stem over till the cap is pressed against the rim. Do you really want to be folding the thing that keeps the air in your tires?
On my bikes you will only find a properly tightened metal valve cap with a seal inside. You will also find that I have all the air pressure I started with and no extra spinning mass.
How to Adjust your Suspension
The most common suspension adjusters are pre-load, compression and rebound. This is a guide to help you understand what they do.
Springs: Hold up the weight of you and the bike. Think of them as stronger or weaker.
Pre-load: Only stores energy in a spring, it does not make the spring stronger.
Damping: Controls how fast or slow the suspension moves up and down. Think of damping as faster or slower.
Compression damping controls how fast or slow the suspension gets shorter. Braking, the front of a bump and the start of a turn all compress the suspension.
Rebound damping controls how fast or slow the suspension gets taller. Acceleration, the back of a bump and the end of a turn all let the suspension rebound.
Now to turn these ideas into feelings. This is best done at a track day but you can also pick out a mile or so loop with slow and medium speed turns, bumps and smooth bits. Throughout this test you must ride under control and consistently. Crashing is on you.
First ride your loop to set a base. Then ride the same loop with these different changes. You will need to write down what the bike did/how it felt after each ride.
One ride each, set the adjuster back where it was after each test: Forks & shock together. Compression out, Comp in. Rebound out, Reb in. That’s four rides so far. Now look at your notes. Some changes let the bike move more, some changes make the bike move less. Now you know what they all do and it will be easier for you to find the sweet spot.
Never be afraid to do the wrong thing, you will learn something and you will know to go the other way.
How smart are you? If you make the changes and do the riding, the idea of what you think the bike should do after each change will taint your results. There are four tests here. Ask a friend to make up the order and to repeat two of the tests for a total of six rides. Now you don’t know what has been changed so your test will yield better data. If you give the same feed back for both of the tests that are repeats you know you are a good test rider. If you don’t, then you need to work on your riding skills. This is your control test.
Call me with your questions. If your suspension is stock the changes will be small and sometimes hard to notice. If you have LE suspension the changes will be big and easy to notice.
This is just the beginning. There are many things I left out because you have to start somewhere. The most difficult part is that everything is always changing because the bike is so dynamic.
Good luck Grasshopper.
Reverse Osmosis #24
In Episode 24 of Deep Thinking, the motorcycle road racing (and apparently anything else) podcast, racers Ed Sorbo and Michael Gougis discuss how cool new bike technology requires racers to think about even the simplest of maintenance tasks differently. A discussion ensues about doing tech inspection correctly at the club racing level. Sorbo receives a compliment and is nearly rendered speechless.
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Lindemann Engineering = Full Service
Brandon’s plan for his new Zero was to have me take it from Willow after the races so Lindemann Engineering could improve his suspension. Then he could pick the bike up on Tuesday in time to drive to his next race. A good plan is always a good thing…
Then in his race he got bummed off track and crashed. Not much damage but he needed the broken frame tab welded. He did not know a welder and he thought the weld repair would take up the suspension work time.
I said it would be great if there was a suspension shop owned by a guy who can weld good enough.
Gearheads and Vapor Trails #23
In Episode 23 of Deep Thinking, racers Michael Gougis and Ed Sorbo engage in Dharma Combat over airliner vapor trails and whether Valentino Rossi’s strong early-season showing in MotoGP is a real renaissance or a false dawn. Gougis questions Jorge Lorenzo’s motivation. Sorbo eats a burrito, as nothing has yet turned up from Hickory Farms.
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Bandits, Bac-Os and Blackbirds #22
Racers Ed Sorbo and Michael Gougis discuss technology, racing, and why it’s dumb to make someone take the stock ECU off of a streetbike before it is eligible to race in a Superbike class! A discussion ensues about the relative merits of fake bacon-flavored bits and a Suzuki GSF1200 Bandit, with the Bandit coming out ahead. The Honda Blackbird CBR1100XX is praised. It becomes increasingly clear that Gougis is unclear on the easter egg concept.
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