Track racing - set up and riding style

Love this insight, here take my vote. Petrolhead under the electric skin, can’t deny it

I’m getting all itchy from these race threads, time to go train these legs!

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Tak Anders.

Oh yes… to the point that it almost looks flat. Love it that way.

Think you are right. I can feel the uncertainty in not knowing exactly how much I can push it in corners without slipping. Feel that I need to work on knowing exactly how much.

Come join us next time :slight_smile:

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There is an interesting revolution where people converts race cars and bikes to compete against ice engines and is really competitive even with diy builds. Interesting times indeed :smiley:

I have my trampa torn apart for winter upgrades. I will join once all my parts show up. Lets hope enertion can deliver that unity on time? We run very different setups. So it will be fun to compare how they perform on a track. For the same reason bindings gives more confidence running offroad. I think it could be an improvement on the track as well.

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I think your right, bindings would give back leverage to a short wheelbase board under hard accel/decel and turn. Short WB reacts quicker to Input and could be the hot ticket when used with bindings for ST racing. I gotta try this.

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I think you hypothesis that bindings will make shorter boards more comfortable to ride is correct. Shorter boards turns better. The question is what is the sweet spot for indoor gocart tracks?

What about the truck width? I recently swapped to the wide trucks on my trampa because they feel more predicable running offroad. But I think it also applies to track racing since you want to be right at the grip limit.

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I want to play with that. One day (soon) I will rearrange my spacers and put the wheel closer, and see what happens. Can only do in the front though.

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Actually you can. Just needs a little bit of work.

https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/the-psycho-beast-landyachtz-evo-dual-6355-focboxes-12s5p-psychotiller-sixshooters-surfrodz/70803

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The speed on the short course, kart track is not that fast, typically. So, TKP’s can get you around the corners a little quicker than RKP’s on the same set-up, I’ve experienced. I do run the TKP’s with the pneumatics. I also find that the TKP’s work better for off-road riding, also. When we get to race off-road I feel this same set-up will work well.

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No way back. I need those TKPs

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Well, You know where to get them! :laughing:

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All opinions (which are valid) put aside, for me the thing is very clear; there is only one question to ask: who is right now at the leading edge in the newly born esk8 track racing scene? the answer, with no introduction… @MoeStooge !

He is at the tip of the spear. Some ask, pneumies or urethane? …well, the answer to that is also very clear: none. Because the correct answer is the third option: rubber!

Then there are a few other things to consider…

@MoeStooge

Deck: 33" wheelbase. For me a longer wheelbase makes a wider stance possible. It increases stance stability and allows leg leverage to be gained quicker over accel and decel saving transition time. Inherently a longer wb will increase stability.

Short Track racing with my height 5’5" i have found I like no less than 40" wb on an open wheel deck with a low gravity center with 30+" of foot spread. @treenutter makes a 44"x11" deck that I think hits these points nicely.

For Short Track Racing, in the finals of World Cup, no one fast was grabbing a rail or moving their front foot. 16 turns in 32 seconds there is just no time for it.

Board setup is crutial. Finding the softest duro bushings you can manage on the front and 10 duro heavier on the rear is a good place to start. You should be able to easily leverage your turn without touching your board or shifting your feet.

I like rear stear taken out if the rear 50/40. It helps the rear wheels track inside the front and feels more stable when powering out of turns on soft duro bushings.

For the 52 riders at world cup not one set of urethane wheels made it through the semifinals. Every Short track race I have attended Urethane has been at a disadvantage to pnumatic rubber in the corner grip department.

esk8%20race%20low

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You do know that pneumatic tires are rubber? Right? :laughing: I have raced on 6 shooters and on @MoeStooge race wheels. The grip is very similar on them. Although, the race race wheels do get you a slightly lower center of gravity.

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Yeap, thats his answer. Not mine. Indeed, he was reffering specifically to pneumatic rubber better than urethane wheels. Not mentioning in his comment that rubber wheels (alone) are better that rubberized pneumies and uros, thou. :sunglasses:

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Spent another hour on the track today. Messing with some of the things mentioned here.

  1. Looser front truck. Did loosen it to the max. It did ok. but I think I have something to gain by trying out other bushing types and durometers. To be continued.

  2. Narrower fronttruck. I narrowed it by 2cm altogether. Didn’t get enough time on it to really know if it made a difference. First I didn’t like it. Didn’t feel I got much narrower turning out of it. But after 10 min. it felt better and I did get my fastes lap with that set up.

  3. Grabbing. There is no doubt. I go way faster when grabbing. Can really lean in to the corners and have throttle way longer and more than with not grabbing. Acceleration starts way before going out of the corner. There is no contest. To the point that I don’t think that will change with another setup. But will be interesting to see when I try other setups. Maybe it makes sense not grabbing when in a race situation with others on the track and you have to maneuver around others. But only me on the track finding the perfect line. No contest!

Still had to move the front foot around a little, but less.

Slowly cutting time. Did my fastest lap today 40.50 sec. One sec. better than last week.

IMG_8273

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I had a front drive and rear drive raceboard at the world cup. Both boards broke the track record at different times and made the final 6. Front drive set fast time for the event weekend with @evoheyax on it. The WR board is front drive and went 63mph (101kph) with Max Capps. The front drive does break traction under hard accel. Being you have track access it might be fun to set-up your board for FD.

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Will try that one day. Should be doable with not so much work.

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Had the weekly hour on the track today. Didn’t get to work on the setup today because what I wanted to try didn’t work out. Wanted to remove my wedges from the rear but the king is too long. This kingpin came with the 50 degree baseplate and I have changed that to a 35 degree. I have to either cut the kingpin or get another. But I can’t see that they have different kingpins for different baseplates.

So it became a session where I focused on riding style. I played with this:

  • Trying to not let go of the throttle completely at any time. Meaning that I constantly had a little throttle all the time. This made a smoother ride. The acceleration and de-acceleration got less abruptly which I felt made me more in control. This opens up for me to play with the line. Would it be better to take bigger turns in order to have more throttle all the time. I think so, but I need to test it more.
  • I fund that I have a tendency to stand straight with my rear leg. I fund that if I bend that and came lower it gave me the feeling that I could go faster with more control and bigger lean. in soft corners. This hamonize good with my experience that then I go really low and grab in the tight corners I go faster.

I still have to move the front foot around and I would like to see if I could find a setup where that wouldn’t be necessary. So I think I need at setup that turns better with less rebound.

Right now I have rkp surf rodz 50 degrees front and 25 rear. I want to change the 25 to 35 as described above. Bushings: I run krank 87a barrel/barrel (no washers) front and krank 90a flat washer/Fatcone/barrel. I was thinking that I will try to change to WFB compound both board and road side. Going for 88a barrel/barrel front and 88a fatcone/barrel back and then play with different washers. @Alphamail do you have any input? Sound like a way to go or do you have any other suggestions? Lower duro? I weigh 165 lbs.

IMG_8318 IMG_8319

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wasn’t there a two cone event done with a set distance between cones? What’s the fastest on that?

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With the setup as it is, what are the main issues you want to fix?