A great start for our new team.

[rajflyboy]

Congrats Miles

Keep on burning up that wonderful race fuel and kick butt for wins!!

even though you are a left wing loon    

just kidding

[miles]

Here's a shot from Buttonwillow.  I hope to have more to update soon, but here are a few developments.

210 RWHP on U4.4 race gas, no engine mods- just a pipe and PC V.  As it turns out, the ECU on these BMWs are smarter than we are... almost everything we try the ECU just compensates for it and no change happens.  Different pipe?  Same HP.  Change the cam timing?  Same HP.  It's crazy.

There looks to be some room for improvement with cam work, though.  A little more lift should pay off nicely.  The flow looks really good, so a port and polish won't make much difference, but while we are in there we'll just go ahead and do it.



The super spiffy stuff we ordered from Germany hasn't gotten here yet, and the 2D electronics package was missing a bunch of connectors for the sensors, but we should have that stuff together soon.  Soon isn't as quickly as we might like, though, since tomorrow we have to pack up for Utah, and Miller Motorsports Park.

Here's another shot from Buttonwillow.  This photo was just too good to not post:

[phoenix]

We're in discussion with UFO...  but at this point he's asking for a bit too much money.

 

I thought sponsors make donations to a team, rather than get paid to have their endorsement on a bike?
Maybe I am missing the point.

[miles]

 

I thought sponsors make donations to a team, rather than get paid to have their endorsement on a bike?
Maybe I am missing the point.

It was a joke.  Expect to see ST.N stickers on the bike in Miller photos.

[dagor6]

Won all races entered at WERA Miller this weekend, F1 & Open Superbike. Dipped into the 1:52.2's which for people who know the track is blisteringly fast given that it was 50 degrees and overcast.

Good warmup for next weekend but I think we'll have to run in the 51's or 50's next weekend to guarantee the wins.

For perspective, today's times would have been 1-2 seconds off of Ben Spies' times at Miller last year. Although I'd expect the WSBK guys to run in the 49-51 range next week if the weather is good.

[Mr Sunshine]

Yeah no kidding it was cold out.  Glad you guys did so well.

[dagor6]

How did you do? Were you able to run good laps in the cold?? We had terrible setup problems, got to 52.2 but unbelievable front chatter, plus the suspension linkage is terrible, massive squat on throttle. And those stock BM-888 shocks that Ohlins provides are pure bullshit, lowest quality/design Ohlins shock seen in awhile.... we've got to get to 50.0 flat next weekend and are sure we can pull the 2 seconds needed *but* not sure if we can find the right settings in such a short amount of track time.

Could only get 3 sessions in before Sunday morning! Very frustrating.

Here's a pic from the race, leading Taylor Knapp on the last lap of superbike, whew! At least we're still running undefeated after just 4 weeks of bike ownership, hopefully we can get through next weekend undefeated as well, but it will be a huge challenge.



Knapp's been racing that bike all year, it was Mladin's last race bike and you can see how better the setup is in each corner, it just looks more composed and planted everywhere. No idea how we beat him.

[dagor6]

Here's a pic from practice, leading Frank Aragaki I think maybe? on another Lee's Cycle bike??

[Mr Sunshine]

How did you do? Were you able to run good laps in the cold??

I'm slllllooowwww....but I was 10 seconds faster than last year.  Bike setup last year was horrible!  This year its much better.  As to the cold its interesting because those temps are temps I'm used to running in but I'm sure you So Cal boys aren't.  

[mtrider16]

Very nice pics, good luck.

I work in a different industry, but our ECU are set to control emissions.  Any changes are compensated for to keep the emission levels correct.  Does it seem that the ECU is just trying to keep correct HP, or is there something else that the ECU maintaining?

   Interesting.  Of course, if you have enough power to win, focusing efforts on other problems may be more cost effective.

Anyway, you don't need to divulge any secrects, just enjoying the conversation here.

David

[miles]

It is really unclear what the ECU is doing.  Far more than any other in our tuning guy's experience- it has him baffled.  

[dagor6]

Very nice pics, good luck.

I work in a different industry, but our ECU are set to control emissions.  Any changes are compensated for to keep the emission levels correct.  Does it seem that the ECU is just trying to keep correct HP, or is there something else that the ECU maintaining?

   Interesting.  Of course, if you have enough power to win, focusing efforts on other problems may be more cost effective.

Anyway, you don't need to divulge any secrects, just enjoying the conversation here.

David

Well we can connect it to a Power Commander and we'll get control over the fuel curve, we've done that and it looks great.

The open issue is the ignition curve and the injector curve (when the injector fires). Additionally the bike can screw you by closing the throttle bodies partially and remapping ignition on the fly.

We can't fix the ignition curve, nor the injector curve and likely a lot of power is locked up there, if I had to guess I'd say around another 10 hp at this point is stuck behind the ignition curve. At some point we'll need to build a new engine, one with a lot more power and if we can't fix the ignition curve it simply won't run. So, I guess it's a problem to figure out.

For me, a goal that makes sense would be 220-235 rwhp with a ton more mid-range, I'm pretty sure it can be done, but can it be done on a stock ECU?? That's the million dollar question.

I get the question about what's the point of more power, essentially we're easily winning every race we enter, but I'd like to go superbike racing and we're not going to win those races. So it matters. Next weekend is WSBK and we're basically consigned to the support races since the project is around 5 weeks old. Right now we're 2 seconds off the WSBK pace, it's important to us to drop those 2 seconds and run 50.0 or hopefully 49's so that we can say "yes, we can run on top-ten WSBK pace".

It's going to take some work, but I'd give it a 50/50 chance we can get there with the 6 or less total track sessions we're going to get. I'd be positive we could get there if we had the data acquisition working at this point and could use that precious track time to send the suspension in the right direction.

But right now we're up against a linkage issue (bike squats in the middle for no reason) a swing arm pivot issue (more of the same) a horrible chatter problem (some sort of fork problem) and a complete inability to get the bike into a low speed turn without going full-lock, sliding the rear out like an idiot and pushing the front half way through the turn until we're 5 feet off apex, that just sucks.

Stay tuned, next week should be exciting.

[Mr Sunshine]

But right now we're up against a linkage issue (bike squats in the middle for no reason) a swing arm pivot issue (more of the same) a horrible chatter problem (some sort of fork problem) and a complete inability to get the bike into a low speed turn without going full-lock, sliding the rear out like an idiot and pushing the front half way through the turn until we're 5 feet off apex, that just sucks.

Stay tuned, next week should be exciting.

Do you have someone making you links to try out, like Attack?

[Tyrroneous]

Man, this is just cool stuff all the way around.  I love reading this kind of thread.  So please keep us updated and good luck!!

[dagor6]

Do you have someone making you links to try out, like Attack?

Actually one of the guys on the team, Jason Turner, just graduated from San Diego State (as top of his class in engineering no less) with a mechanical engineering degree and is beginning a PhD program in it. So he's been able to manufacture all the linkages for us!

[R Doug]

 

[Mookie]

But right now we're up against a linkage issue (bike squats in the middle for no reason) a swing arm pivot issue (more of the same) a horrible chatter problem (some sort of fork problem) and a complete inability to get the bike into a low speed turn without going full-lock, sliding the rear out like an idiot and pushing the front half way through the turn until we're 5 feet off apex, that just sucks is just badass.

Sounds like some some stiff challenges ahead - good luck getting it all together!  

[Mr Sunshine]

Actually one of the guys on the team, Jason Turner, just graduated from San Diego State (as top of his class in engineering no less) with a mechanical engineering degree and is beginning a PhD program in it. So he's been able to manufacture all the linkages for us!

That's cool.  I'm willing to bet you guys are going to try one that makes the shock ratio to be completely linear first.  This is what is on the Yoshi GSX-R's from my understanding.

[dagor6]

You definitely want one that's completely linear as a starting point, so that essentially the shock is linear. Once you rate your springs and get a liner rate and get the shock set to run in the middle, linkage is all that's left. Although the Ohlins BM888 for the BMW is a piece of crap and seems to overheat no matter what you do. At least at fast pace.

I don't know how Jason spec's the length frankly, he built 4-5 before we went to miller and then made another 2 mid week that we're taking up there for next weekend. He's a stud for sure.

[DogBoy]

Here's a static pit wall view of Toye speed on the front straight at Miller. (Found on BARF. Thanks to Rick Williams.)

Toye-Wiwi on Miller front straight from Rick Williams on Vimeo.