ArkansasDave
New Member
This was the first weekend with my Ktm and I started out with a street version and added a jri double adjuster shock, been Brake pads, rbf600 brake fluid and the race windscreen. Everything else was stock with street stuff removed.
First race with the Ktm report:
Things I learned:
I need to remove the abs system.
The front end is too soft.
I love small hp bikes.
Rc390 is definitely way better than the ninja/cbr
Geometry can make huge differences.
Loud exhaust would have gotten me an extra place in a race.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, they haven't been posted yet. For Friday practice I got 3 session in the morning and corner worked the afternoon sessions. It took a little while to get used to the bike and get over the new shinyness of it. After 3 sessions I was still 3-4 seconds down on my best lap on the ninja 300. After raising the ride height in the rear and a good nights sleep it was race time.
There were 9 rc390's in my first race including 3 of the top 10 cup series riders and 27 total riders combined expert and novice. Really wanting to do well I pushed a lot harder and had a good battle with a group of novice riders. One by one I picked them off and made it to the front of the second pack. I finished 11 out of 27, 3rd novice rider.
My second race is a little different, there are 3 classes and a 2 wave start. The second wave has some very fast ninja 250 riders. So having more confidence I pulled away from the same people I battled with earlier and was able to hold off the fast 250 riders for several laps and even played a game of how late can you brake with one of them. I did my fastest lap and beat my ninja 300 time by 1.5 seconds. I got 10th in class and 2nd novice racer.
3rd race was cut short due to a serious crash earlier shutting down the track for a while. This was combined with sv650's and the "300" class. Going into the first slow speed turn someone checked up in front of me and I got seriously mugged by 5-6 people. That's fine, I knew I would get them back and plenty of time to practice my passing. I came up to a pack of 4-5 riders that was stuck behind a noob on a sv650. 5 turns left on the last lap and the group fans out to brake into a turn(moto3 style) and I passed every last one of them besides the noob on the sv650. So I setup a pass and right when I'm getting ready to execute the pass I hit the rev limiter(I guess I picked up extra speed that I hadn't before). So that kills it for that turn. I've got 3 turns left to pass this noob, the last 3 turns are more like a triple apex turn than 3 separate turns. I go to dive underneath him before the last apex and you guessed it. I hit the rev limiter which ran me wide and killed my drive and the sv650 ran away to the finish line. Luckily we had gapped the others enough that I didn't get passed on my way to the finish line. Had I had an exhaust that allowed me to hear my engine better I may have been able to make that pass happen.
It was a great weekend and I had a ton of fun despite my less than desirable results.
First race with the Ktm report:
Things I learned:
I need to remove the abs system.
The front end is too soft.
I love small hp bikes.
Rc390 is definitely way better than the ninja/cbr
Geometry can make huge differences.
Loud exhaust would have gotten me an extra place in a race.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, they haven't been posted yet. For Friday practice I got 3 session in the morning and corner worked the afternoon sessions. It took a little while to get used to the bike and get over the new shinyness of it. After 3 sessions I was still 3-4 seconds down on my best lap on the ninja 300. After raising the ride height in the rear and a good nights sleep it was race time.
There were 9 rc390's in my first race including 3 of the top 10 cup series riders and 27 total riders combined expert and novice. Really wanting to do well I pushed a lot harder and had a good battle with a group of novice riders. One by one I picked them off and made it to the front of the second pack. I finished 11 out of 27, 3rd novice rider.
My second race is a little different, there are 3 classes and a 2 wave start. The second wave has some very fast ninja 250 riders. So having more confidence I pulled away from the same people I battled with earlier and was able to hold off the fast 250 riders for several laps and even played a game of how late can you brake with one of them. I did my fastest lap and beat my ninja 300 time by 1.5 seconds. I got 10th in class and 2nd novice racer.
3rd race was cut short due to a serious crash earlier shutting down the track for a while. This was combined with sv650's and the "300" class. Going into the first slow speed turn someone checked up in front of me and I got seriously mugged by 5-6 people. That's fine, I knew I would get them back and plenty of time to practice my passing. I came up to a pack of 4-5 riders that was stuck behind a noob on a sv650. 5 turns left on the last lap and the group fans out to brake into a turn(moto3 style) and I passed every last one of them besides the noob on the sv650. So I setup a pass and right when I'm getting ready to execute the pass I hit the rev limiter(I guess I picked up extra speed that I hadn't before). So that kills it for that turn. I've got 3 turns left to pass this noob, the last 3 turns are more like a triple apex turn than 3 separate turns. I go to dive underneath him before the last apex and you guessed it. I hit the rev limiter which ran me wide and killed my drive and the sv650 ran away to the finish line. Luckily we had gapped the others enough that I didn't get passed on my way to the finish line. Had I had an exhaust that allowed me to hear my engine better I may have been able to make that pass happen.
It was a great weekend and I had a ton of fun despite my less than desirable results.
