Track racing - set up and riding style

Hey David, bushing shape has a profound effect on response as does compound. With Krank, you can keep it you can keep it loose in the center, dive in hard and still be supported. Cones up front as @Irdesigns suggested or a Cone / Barrel may work very well using KranK in the same durometer as your barrels. You may need to compensate in the rear with a Barrel / FatCone combination in 87a also. I would start with just picking up a pair of KranK 87a Cones, Introduce one into the mix up front to see if you are headed the right direction. Tight track racings requires a nimble setup so also try replacing the rear roadside Barrel with one of the 87a Cones also. Remember the starting point for KranK is just snug enough to take out all the slop in the stack

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I can’t figure out the sense of the shape:thinking:

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Get double kingpin trucks. You’ll be able to make sharp turns that were previously impossible with regular trucks. Even sharp 90 degree turns are easy

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Wouldn’t a really low rebound pu bushing decrease the likelyhood of wobbles as it would dampen the oscillations?

Thanks Brad. Will try that. Thought I had some cones from the Evolve days, but they were shortstreetcones. Let the tuning begin… So many opportunities and I am haunted by the “this other set up might be better” feeling. :slight_smile:

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SZ’s can be difficult to tune but you should be able to get there. There is a mod you can do to the the hangers that will improve them but you will need a mill to do it.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=202776646521468&set=t.100003674023708&type=3&theater

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Have had them. They are not exactly what I am looking for.

this in order to be able to fit other bushings?

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When I flip the board around and just wiggle the truck by hand I get the feeling that it is the board side bushing that needs to be different. Its there the restriction seems to be. So either softer euro or con other shape. Lets start with shape.

Yes and it defines the seat better than stock which has more radius than it needs plus it completely ditches the venturi shape seat and allows you to use larger bushings both boardside and roadside

For todays session I made one change. Changed the rear truck angle from 25 to 35. That made a huge difference. Turning radius got a lot smaller and it took me a huge step in the direction I wanted. It felt like I could take the sharp corners with higher speed. I could could better “rescue” and imperfect line. It also made the board more twitchy which is ok and I could handle it - just a thing to consider.

I still need a little more turning from the front truck. When hitting the tight corners with high speed or having imperfect foot positioning I really need more turning from the front. So the 87a krank cone bushings will be next weeks tweak. I did have them with me, but did not put them on today. Don’t feel I need more turning from the back.

It is pretty hard this track racing. I think I have 5 and max 10 really fast laps in me in an hour like this.

Also I have not found how much I can push my tires before they slip. I push them pretty hard and they have not slipped yet. But I really fear it. As I have no change correcting it if it happens. Going 22 mph in a soft curve that makes the wheels whine loud is scary :slight_smile:

I cut time with 4/10 of a second - 38.93 to 38.53.

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This is possibly one of the best threads. The process of measuring speed and improvement on a closed course and being able to document and share results is invaluable. Keep digging.

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The plan for this weeks session on the track was to put in some cone bushings in the front. I installed them yesterday, but it just did not feel right when I was just standing wiggling the board. So I decided to put back in the barrel / barrel combination and play with wedging the front truck instead. I used a 5 degree wedge to increase the angle from 50 to 55.

I realized that this also affected the ride height significantly and in a different way than when dewedging the rear. Making it higher. I thought it was irritating when I saw this, but it might have ended up positively as it gave more leverage over the bushings in a good way. I did not compensate with a riser in the back so this have also effected the rear truck angle.

Unfortunately I spend a significantly amount of the track time trying to fix a scary noise from the wheels/trucks/board - heck I don’t know where from - when turning with speed. I went through everything and could not find the source. But it was one of those noises that did not feel right, and I was scary to just let it be. But all of a sudden it disappeared and I had good 20 min. left.

The extra 5 degrees in the front took me almost to where I want to be. Turning radius decreased and it helped especially in the backside turning where I am not grabbing.

It’s now easier now to compensate from an imperfect line and I don’t need to move my front foot around anymore (ahhh yes - very little). I feel I am very close to where I want to be with the set up for now.

I might want slightly more turning from the front, and might throw in one or 2 extra degrees, or put in a little extra height to get more leverage over the bushings. Or I will just let it be for now, and take up the tuning when I get some new stuff to try out I have ordered

As I started to get the feel of this weeks setup I fund my self wanting a wider stance. Luckily I have I longer deck in the pipeline to try. When I have fund if a longer deck is the way to go, and gathered more track experience we will make the perfect track racing deck @treenutter

One thing that still holds me back are not knowing when the wheels slip. I am too chicken to just let go. But today I learnt that I might have had to little air in my wheels. I upped the pressure a little, and that felt better. I gain a little extra trust in the wheels each time and I think that this will be a path to cut more time.

I did cut time again going from 38,53 last week to 37,67 today.

Next weeks tweak will be @MoeStooge racing wheels. Dont hope I have to start all over again with tweaking.

Todays tweak.

IMG_8398

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Need adjustable baseplates to save yourself some headaches. @Kug3lis is working on it still i believe.

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That would be awesome. Surf rodz dont seem to deliver anymore. So if others are working on this it would be just the thing :slight_smile:

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Yes . Let’s do it!

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@Kug3lis is a machineee!! He is always working on smthng. I bet he had like a blackboard with a list of all the Esk8 very urgent to do items. Works non stop on custom solutions all the time.

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This week I got new wheels to try out. Stooge race wheels - 120mm x 63mm 50a/45a. Supposedly made specific for racing, and I bought them specifically for my track racing. They were an easy mount and ready to race without any struggle.

They were quite a different experience than the six-shooters and it took me a good 45 minuts to be comfortable enough to start give full effort.

Coasting: This was perhaps the biggest difference. They coast more than the shooters and that makes approaching corners different. With the shooters I didn’t need the brakes at all. I could time letting go of the throttle with the corners, and I didn’t need to let go of the throttle early. With the race wheels letting go off the throttle and use coasting as brakes had to be done long before the corner. It didn’t really make sense to coast that long.

Grib: Grib was one of the things I had high expectations about. When mounting the wheels they attracted a lot of dust and stuff and they felt sticky to the touch. When I rolled the first meters the first thing I noticed was the sound they made. It sounded sort of slimy and sticky to the ground - a good sound.

They felt very secure and for the first time I had a couple of corners where I threw everything in to the corner with out worrying that the wheels would slip. This is great and I can’t wait to work more with that. Now my backside cornering are just as I like it to be. The front side (where I grab) changed a little with these wheels, and I need to get comfortable throwing everything in to that corner side again.

Gearing: It was geared 16/60. I need to change to 42 in the wheel. With 60 I reached top speed on the straight stretch and I felt I could handle significantly more speed there. So I need higher top speed. Will see if I can get it by changing wheel gear.

Sensitivity: One of the things that I love the most about pneumatics are the way the suck up all unevenness. The race wheel are more sensitive, and even though this is a pretty smooth race track there are some unevenness where the asphalt are connected.

Especially there are one tight corner where there are a small bump. This corner require a full lean forcing a very tight turn. Two times the bump started a slight slip which was not a good feeling hanging there. I need to find out what to do in that particular corner because after the slip I did not give everything in that corner.

Peeling: When looking at the wheels of the gokarts I see that the rubber is peeling off the tire, and there are small rubber peels everywhere. These race wheels also peels. Take a look at the picture to see how the wheel looked after the session. Cant figure out how much is the wheels own peel, and how much these sticky wheels have sucked up peel and shit from the track. It will be interesting to see how long they will last.

Overall these wheels definitely are race wheels and they thrive on the track. Can’t wait to get more time on the track with these. I did cut time again. From 37,67 last week to 37,49 this week. This lap was my last lap of the day, with a drained battery and a “slow” gearing. The race wheels gave me better cornering and I look forward to see what I can get with the 42 gearing and higher top speed on the straight stretch.

To be continued….

Bump in the track: IMG_8421

Peel on wheel IMG_8425

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Great write up David!! Wait til you try those with 42t gearing!!!

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What you see is dead rubber picked up from the track. When you start out on a cold tire make sure not to hard charge the first two turns. It allows time for the dead rubber to clear off and the grip to maximize as heat is built. I’m still on my origional set.

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