Empulse R track day?

[7racer]

Just wonder if any of you take your bike on the track?
I am thinking about taking the Empulse to gain riding experience.  I track my cars but never a bike.

Besides all the safety stuff any other recommendations?

How does the Empulse do on a track day with charging etc?

[00049 (AKA SopFu)]

I have thought about bringing it a running it for a session or two, but mainly riding my other bike. I figure one 15 minute session would leave you with 40% SOC. Usually they run each group once an hour, usually 6 or 7 per day, so you might be able to run every other session if you bring a level II charger with you. The manual says power cut back can start at high current draw beginning at 30% SOC, so I would be focusing on keeping it over that level while hot lapping.

It would be a lot of fun for a session or two, though...

One other thing, some tracks or organizations require all coolant to be non-Ethylene glycol, so you should check with the track organizer. They may be more strict for motorcycle track days for coolant compared to your car club due to the inherent issues with slipping with two wheels after trying to clean up anti-freeze.

[protomech]

Brammo uses offboard chargers for both the Empulse TTX and RR.



Most racetracks don't offer high-power feeds to the paddock area; race teams have to bring their own generators. Or they can pull a Lightning and bring a big solar battery station : P

I wouldn't be surprised if the Empulse R has a way to hook up an offboard charger to charge more quickly.. hidden : )

[Gavin]

I wouldn't be surprised if the Empulse R has a way to hook up an offboard charger to charge more quickly.. hidden : )

Tell me what you know or I will shoot this puppy.

I would love some off board charging...I did 151 miles in a day a couple of weeks ago, and 140 miles yesterday (time for my 3000 mile oil change) and I would have loved to add another 50 miles to that total.

Gavin

[protomech]

I don't have any secret information.. just speculating that Brammo has thought ahead and provided some type of connector for an external charger on the standard Empulse bikes as well as the TTX.

[Jeff]

Just wonder if any of you take your bike on the track?
I am thinking about taking the Empulse to gain riding experience.  I track my cars but never a bike.

Besides all the safety stuff any other recommendations?

How does the Empulse do on a track day with charging etc?

I have!  The Refuel event was so much fun I decided I wanted to do it again.  Week before last I took the Empulse and a Daytona 675 to Thunderhill for an open trackday. 

  (Thanks to Mr. Hollywood for the picture!)

I managed to get 5 (I think) sessions in with the Empulse, and 5 or 6 with the Daytona.  The Brammo team was there testing and generously let me use a level 2 Clipper Creek EVSE for charging.  Thunderhill has a lot of 240 RV outlets to be had, so charging availability was not a problem.  Heat WAS an issue -- usually after about 5-6 laps I'd get a notice thrown up on the screen about battery temperature and it would turn regen off.  Haha I always considered it a measure of success that I was flogging the bike hard enough to trigger the warning.  Also charging is slower when the batteries are too hot, as they throttle back the amount of juice going in.  The Brammo dudes have a couple of large umbrellas that they propped over the TTX while it was charging if it got too hot.

For tires I used the Pilot Road 3s and they did very well.  I don't think I am nearly fast enough a rider to really challenge the limits of their traction.  The edges did get pretty toasted, but I'd usually come in after 6-8 laps so I never really felt them get squirrelly or anything.

The bike felt great -- the lack of rearsets was a bit of a problem though; I definitely started scraping pegs around corners (especially once Shelina started giving me pointers about lines to take).  Dave Moss was there tuning suspensions, and helped tweak the settings for me.  I ended up really appreciating the brakes and suspension, compared to the Daytona.  Also the seat!  The Empulse seat felt awesome compared to the Triumph stock seat.  Really nice to move around on once I got comfortable enough to hang a cheek off.

Also it was kind of eerie to get on the Empulse after riding the Daytona.  The amount of feeling you have going around a corner without all those explosions going on underneath you is really spectacular.  The 675 was obviously much faster on the straights (got it up to 140 or so, vs the Empulse's ~105), but the Empulse was FUN.  I'll throw up some video later!

[7racer]

AWWW man Jeff!  That looks awesome!  Please post vids!

[Jeff]

AWWW man Jeff!  That looks awesome!  Please post vids!

It was basically spectacular.  Had to break it up into chunks for Youtube, but here is my last Empulse session at the end of the day.  The TTX was busy charging and the Brammo crew were finished up with most of their stuff, so here the camera is mounted on the Daytona, piloted by Shelina, and is most of the time chasing me. 

Occasionally she goes ahead to demonstrate lines / form / what I should be doing, etc.  For most of it she was following though (haha usually while haranguing me to GET YOUR BUTT OFF THE SEAT, etc), and by the end you can definitely see a difference.  I was a lot more comfortable going around corners and with the bike in general.  She was a totally brilliant (and super patient) coach. 

Also it is really interesting to watch video of my own form and whatnot.  For those who don't know me, I've only been riding motorcycles period for about a year and a half now.  So this is something I'd basically never done before, and I feel a huge amount more secure in operation of the bike now.  Heh aaaand I definitely did get a little overconfident partway through -- you can see about 13 minutes in I had a slight sphincter-tightening moment.  But as I started to relax and loosen up, not only was I more comfortable on the bike, I actually started going faster.  Of course this is a hilarious no-brainer for anyone who's tracked a bike before, but it was like a bizarroland mindbending epiphany for me in the moment.  Haha now I want to go back and do better! 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

[7racer]

Jeff,

thank you SOOO much for the awesome videos!!!  And to get to ride with Shelina is pretty damn cool!  Totally jealous.

With it being your first track day.  What did you do about leathers, gloves and boots?

[Jeff]

Jeff,

thank you SOOO much for the awesome videos!!!  And to get to ride with Shelina is pretty damn cool!  Totally jealous.

With it being your first track day.  What did you do about leathers, gloves and boots?

Yep it was amazing on all counts.  I'm pretty sure Brammo should host a formal Empulse owner trackday or something!

In terms of gear:

Boots and gloves I just used what I ride in every day. 

For boots I have Dainese TRQ Race Outs.  Absolutely highly recommended; they were what I bought as my first round of gear when I finished the MSF.  My requirements were: a.) have an internal armor structure, b.) be comfortable enough to walk a few blocks, and c.) not look like an anime nightmare.  These pass all three with flying colors.

Gloves are Helimot B-11s.  If you haven't heard of Helimot, suffice it to say he makes the best, most impossibly high-quality gear, all made in-house, by hand, out of the thickest, most awesome leather.  The dude is the absolute real deal.  The type of old-school that can take a look at your hands, turn them over a couple times while going "hrmmmm," and then provide you with a completely perfect fit.  I used a buddy's spare pair of Alpinestars for about a year until I was sure I liked this whole motorcycling thing, then dropped the cash to get a real pair of gloves.

On a related note, for a suit, well, prior to the Refuel event I was pretty sure I could not partake because Refuel required leathers for bikes.  My buddy, however, said 'Hey, why don't you go ask Helmut if he has any used or otherwise discarded leathers at his shop?'  Apparently sometimes people order suits and don't pick them up or whatever.  Anyway, turns out that $600 later, I ended up the proud owner of the fantastically heinous-colored used (very crashed) leathers you see in the picture.  They fit perfectly.  Repaired and with a couple alterations (some material to delete the previous owner's name from the back and a sweet-ass Brammo logo!) later, I got to participate in Refuel!  And now luckily I get to use them for other idiotic pursuits, like Thunderhill.

[7racer]

Jeff,

thanks for those links!  Man, you got a great deal and nice stuff!  I'm debating wether to go and get some track gear or not.

My gear is typically a retro cafe racer is stuff.  So more old school leather boots (gasolina and lewis leathers) and vanson vented jacket and a roland sands leather jack (all armored).

So while the race stuff would be great, I would probably only wear it on the track so it wouldn't get used as much....

[Shinysideup]

Jeff - do you know if those venues allow two-piece leathers, if there's a 360 degree zipper to fasten the jacket to the pants?

[Jeff]

Jeff - do you know if those venues allow two-piece leathers, if there's a 360 degree zipper to fasten the jacket to the pants?

Every place I've seen (keep in mind, a whopping sample size of three, here) has allowed two-piece with full zips.

Here's Zoom-Zoom's policy on it, which seems to be pretty standard -- in fact they're pretty lenient, because they allow textile suits in the novice group; most places don't seem to.

[Jeff]

Jeff,

thanks for those links!  Man, you got a great deal and nice stuff!  I'm debating wether to go and get some track gear or not.

My gear is typically a retro cafe racer is stuff.  So more old school leather boots (gasolina and lewis leathers) and vanson vented jacket and a roland sands leather jack (all armored).

So while the race stuff would be great, I would probably only wear it on the track so it wouldn't get used as much....

It's funny how being in a ridiculous leather suit makes you more able to move around on the bike.  I didn't really grasp it until I put the thing on for the first time and took the Empulse around the block.  I'm so used to the (lovable) bulkiness that is the Aerostich, that the first time I leaned into a corner I was like OOOH.  So liberating!

In any case, yeah you'll definitely only use the suit for trackdays or a dedicated short-distance backroads ride with friends.  Mine sits in the closet lurking and sparkling away at the back the vast majority of the time.  But I think if you're interested at all in trackday stuff it's worth it.  My advice is to keep an eye on local shops or the internet for stuff on closeout or whatever.  Local shops have the advantage in that you can try stuff on there and make sure it fits . . . but if you go with a quality site like Revzilla or somebody, the size exchanges should be easy if necessary.

You can probably use your existing boots & gloves, as long as your gloves have a gauntlet-type cuff that extends over the arm of your jacket.  If not, you should pick up a pair.  I highly recommend Helimot, but haha I'm biased now.  See here for the BARF glove question thread that inevitably crops up every few months: http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=426219

The Alpinestars I used were some old SP1s that were fine, but you can tell they are made in China and were starting to come apart at a couple of the seams after my buddy crashed in them.

[7racer]

Jeff,

thanks for the great input.  I find myself looking more and more at what other people wear while riding and pictures of people on the track.

I am probably going to pull the trigger but keep shopping around for deals.

Bob