ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Energica => Topic started by: Specter on December 07, 2024, 09:18:32 AM
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Well Ive had the bike, coming on a year and about 1200 ish miles on it now and am loving the hell out of it.
I've played with many liter bikes and given them a good run for their money against the Electric and have made plenty of heads turn and respect the elect. My skill level is lacking, ive only been at it a year .vs. some that been doing this for decades so they get me in the corners of course but coming out and on straight aways, yah it's a run and ill pull ahead, look over nod, smile, though they can't see thru the helmet then let off the throttle a bit and let them pass. It's a track day, NOT a race day and I know I slow them down a bit in the corners, but why make someone impatient trying to get past me, and they eventually may try something that was not a good move? Just let them to have their fun so I can have mine is the way I see it. Once in a while though Ive showed my ass when the kids say something smart but generally I don't want to go tumbling. Ive got tons of photo's and video of wrecks, I don't want to be one of them. A little courtesy can go a long way towards avoiding that helo flight.
The bike is heavy, however once you are going, you really don't feel it much, just learn to handle it. I can't move as well as I really need to, so that leaves me with more arm / leg control .vs. leaning my ass way off the thing to get into the turns. This gives me the issue of dragging my foot sometimes on a really tight / hard run (if I was off the seat it'd been my knee / arm) Yes I know it's not optimum but it's what I have to work with.
The electric is very quiet, you can HEAR your tires and HEAR your grip !! Pay attention to that, LEARN the sounds, they'll let you know how you are doing, if you are at your limit, you WILL hear sliding and feel it skittering before it lets out. Have good tires on the bike. I am running Continentals, and love them. Currently since it's cooler out im running the Attack 2's. That way if their temps are not optimum because it's 28 degrees out and my dumb ass is on a bike, they still can perform somewhat, and still much better than slicks when they get cold !! I also run the front a little higher too, when you are braking hard, that battery is a TON of weight being slammed forward, a psi or so helps the tire handle it better.
The regen, this is a totally new world. Learn to use it!! I think this is an untapped resource that I need to learn / build the skills to fully exploit. That will show you down to the point you are almost tapping your ABS. Coming in hot on a turn and letting regen pull you in, pull you to where you need to be pointing, with the minor artisan hand control on the throttle to fine tune it, the bike is loaded up, the tires are loaded, you are not just free wheeling or doing a maint throttle, in fact if you do it right, you can already be working on bring the throttle up so when you DO get to about where you need to be pointing, you can hammer it.
The throttle..... it's powerful. Be very careful, yes even at over 100 mph you can still pull a wheelie on that thing, wanted or NOT ;D But with anything racing, you go smooth, glide in, glide out, but still ...under that full acceleration you are hanging on, literally hanging on to the bike as it is screaming towards the next turn. Try to keep down, because the front end will get light on you and if it's a shitty track, with seams or lumps, your front end can start dancing around a bit, and at a lean, this is NOT optimum.
The brakes.... are stupidly, insanely, obsurdly powerful !!! It took me a little bit to learn to go GENTLE on them, because they have a very positive, very solid engage and grip and it holds, there is no fade at all. They'll grumble if you are slowing hard but that's a floating rotor thing anyways. Between the regen and brakes you can make this bike do anything you need it to do, and more.
Tires get expensive and you can eat a set pretty quickly when you start having fun. later in the day after lunch, the track is warm, you are warm, the bragging is in 6th gear, yah lets go rumble and tear up the track !!! You get back in and tire boogers are all over in the belly pan of the bike but man did you have fun !!
The battery. Ive noticed that I can not get it to 100 percent anymore, it'll charge and just 'hang' at 98 ish percent, and can be balancing for hours on end. Ive learned not to worry about that, because I usually keep them at 94 when I hit the track anyways, I never full charge because I need the headroom to PUT the regen. After a few weeks of racing the battery would start drifting where it'd want to balance at. I had it to where it wanted to go into balance mode in the mid to upper 80 percent range. That's because the hard on / hard charge / hard on, rinse wash and repeat without a good overnight soak will throw them off after a while. Each cycle will push it a little more out of whack. Im torn on this one. One part says at the end of the day, give them a good slow overnight balance charge, yet reading some articles, i then see, that's not the best thing for them, they like being a bit lower off the top for storage, so do I really WANT to top them off, and then set for a week?
one other oddity. At the beginning of the day, the charging is goofy, it'll go into balance mode and the amps will just swing wildly all over the place from like 1 amp to 30 amps and just bounce around, no rhyme or reason AND it will do this both on fast charge or AC charge. (well AC it's only 15 amps but still same behavior) Once I've taken it out on the track and burned a few percent off, the next cycle, she charges right up and behaves as it needs to be.
Charging, that cord is HEAVY. be MINDFUL of it. you can hear the metal going clickety click as you force the thing in to charge it. The DC is very tempermental, it has to be seated PERFECTLY flat on face to face and hit the switches or it won't charge, and it won't really give you a reason why either, it'll just fail to initialize. Then the bike can get goofy and not want to reset out of it and you basically have to remove the cable so it sees it gone, then turn the bike off and on again to fully reset everything. It seems like a hard fault locks stuff out and it don't want to let you restart without a reset and intervention. This is not really a fault or failing, this is being safe. With the newer CCS protocols being able to go up to 1000 volts, you really do NOT want any seepage areas for that to creep anywhere. Trust me, you flash a kilovolt and that will btfu more shit in that few milliseconds than you ever could have imagined!!
Back to the cord, it's heavy and if it's cold out, it's STIFF. It don't want to plug in right and wants to hang off the bike, that pulling on the plug, puts strain on it where it clasps in, that's not good, plus it's often enough to un make that one switch that says im flush and plugged in and the seals are made. I find that looping it around the seat a bit ... or if you got a way, get a hangar and hang it over a canopy..... whatever you can come up with to keep it so that entire weight is NOT trying to hold on by just the plug. I just see this becoming an issue in the future and am trying to avoid that day as long as possible. Cold cords do NOT want to play right. Maybe like a fold down bar or something with a piece of small chain, you open seat up, flip lock the bar up like a mini cherry picker, loop the cord thru it just to take all the weight / tension off the actual face of the plug... I dunno... ill come up with something eventually.
speaking of faults, it'd be nice if it told me why, NOT just initialization failure....ok WHY? what did not pass muster???
Sprockets and chain - the chain looks ok, they put a 520 on the bike .vs. a 525 which is probably what it really needs because of the raw HP you are pushing into it. the 20 is lighter. ok, im not running supermoto GP here so, is it THAT important for me? The chain stretched a bit over the 1000 miles obviously and im seeing signs the rear sprocket is chewed up a bit on the teeth tips though, not so much the front bearing face. For those out there who do track days, is 1000 miles about average to show obvious wear on the sprocket?
the shocks need service more often Id say because of the extreme beating you put on a race bike. The oil in mine was awful looking after 1000 miles, and I went ahead and changed out the brake fluids too and put the high performance 600 degree or whatever the stuff is. I had one emergency extremely hard stop where it actually blued the rotor a bit, so anything to help dissipate the heat you can make going from fast to not so fast, as quickly and as often over and over again as we do, is a benefit.
Tank grips, I would HIGHLY recommend them for ANY Ego / Ribelle rider period !! The bike is big and well, it's slippery !! A lot of smooth plastic on there and it's really hard to get your legs wrapped around and a good controlling grip on it. Putting tank grips so you got something to squeeze your thighs into makes a TON of difference in your level of control on the bile. Enough that I have to say yes even a casual rider on the road, you will probably like it much better in turns when you got a little more leg lingo helping you as well. If you are someone who is working your bike, ie a track rider / street racer / racer, then absolutely not using your arms so much you will welcome after a few laps!
I didn't think of it but am now, I really wish I had heated hand grips on this thing. Just one less little distraction when you are racing / running in the colder weather.... besides, it's bragging rights, I mean the bike is already cool as shit so why not have something else to show off 8)
Another thing Id like would be a center stand. the kickstand is wierd and it's like the bike is leaned so way over you are fighting just to get it upright when you get on it! (then again I got the 3s thing going on too but).... Short Shit Syndrome. It's like, here, someone hold my bike up for me so I can just hop on and hop off it !! :-*
The lap timer on it, I really wish it was more intuitive / easier to use
The regen, I wish it had more settings, I want it to be able to basically lock the rear brake if I wish to. Not that I want to but why not have it at the same power as standing on the rear brake? I find that being able to use the throttle to manip the rear brake gives a lot more feedback and precision in trail braking than your foot does. I just like it. others don't. I think a lot of that is the learned muscle memory, they learned how to ride a bike the 'normal ice' way. I basically learned how to ride, with the hard regen the Energica line has the ability to give, so basically learned the trailbraking as a method instead of learning it later on as an add on. As one racer I let run the bike said, holy shit dude, that regen puts id say about 50 to 60 percent of your body weight pushing forward. My reply was, don't let off the gas so much, learn how to regulate it, just like you regulate brakes thru a turn, it's the same thing really. It just needs a little time to learn and I think is another really powerful tool in the hands of one who knows how to use it. Not trying to sound like a smug asshole but it IS a different bike, and some things are a bit different on it and you need to learn them a bit differently is all. Driving a stick shift or an auto. some things are just... different tween the two..
The rear brake, speed sensor/ all that back there.... the wire on the switch can be re routed better, and the fluid hose, a 90 angle point in would be a lot better to keep things out of the way. Sometimes things can touch in very close quarters.. or if you run off the track (it happens) don't make it so easy for grass /twigs-sticks or whatever to find something to grab onto and mess up.
and finally... and this is a pipe dream. a heated seat. how awesome would THAT be!!
In closing, now that Ive had time to run it around a bit and ride her hard and put her away wet once or twice, I am in love with this bike. So many have said, why don't you just get a little ninja 400 and ride that on the track, it can do everything your bike can do..... yah, except go 185 mph or do a 0 to 100 in less than a handfull of seconds. and a few other critical things ;D
Man, could you imagine the Experia's balance with the EGO's power, a bit lower COG what that thing could possibly do? Maybe in a few years after they get thru this rough patch and back in the game of making awesome electric bikes, something can come of that. I'll gladly volunteer to be one of the test riders !!
Maybe Damon should take their cash and buy Energica, at least they'd have a real product that is actually on the roads!!
Aaron
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Nice writeup!
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Arron, I think I know how to fix your charging AMP fluctuations. When balancing your battery to 100% and the charging stops bellow try unplugging and plugging in again (until timeout) letting it slowly creep up to 100%. For some reason these bikes tend to time out early before reaching 100% but by re-plugging it again and again (as long as it takes) you can reach 100% SOC. That is when you know that you have every cell balanced to the max voltage and that should also fix those fluctuations at lower SOC levels or when the battery is cold and you're attempting to recharge.
It worked for me since I didn't charge to 100% for a long time until I started having similar issues. Also that's what Stefano and Chris Paz recommended, so you know that I'm not pulling this info out of nowhere
Good luck
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Post some video from the track! No video, did not happen. :)
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I wish this worked for me. Mine would charge to 100% whenever I set it to before I got the .43 FW. Ive had the new FW for 8200 miles and have spent weekends for hours/days unplugging and plugging it in. Ill just try doing the balancing monthly now but after 8000miles and probably 100 attempts to get it to 100% it will always and only stop at 91%. Ive mostly given up. I do get 180 miles at 50miles an hour out of the "92%" charge so im not complaining about my range but I dont think Im capable of doing a balanced charge myself.
Joe
Arron, I think I know how to fix your charging AMP fluctuations. When balancing your battery to 100% and the charging stops bellow try unplugging and plugging in again (until timeout) letting it slowly creep up to 100%. For some reason these bikes tend to time out early before reaching 100% but by re-plugging it again and again (as long as it takes) you can reach 100% SOC. That is when you know that you have every cell balanced to the max voltage and that should also fix those fluctuations at lower SOC levels or when the battery is cold and you're attempting to recharge.
It worked for me since I didn't charge to 100% for a long time until I started having similar issues. Also that's what Stefano and Chris Paz recommended, so you know that I'm not pulling this info out of nowhere
Good luck
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Worth noting that when I was discussing the temperature issues I had with charging EEMC asked me several times if the rate fluctuated or decreased steadily. I suspect fluctuations might be a known issue.
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Joe, I think Energica minds who have designed this system should be able to fix the charging issues with another software update. But that will take some time because of the current situation and if they are willing to address the issue. Mine also does not go to 100%, maybe 98% if left alone and I have the last firmware 43. It's close enough but for your situation 91% is pretty low. I've got a little over 13k miles so far on mine and try to charge to full (or as far as it will go) once a month since I hate unplugging and plugging like an idiot all day to charge to full. My Tesla is five years old and doesn't need to do that haha
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Joe, I think Energica minds who have designed this system should be able to fix the charging issues with another software update. But that will take some time because of the current situation and if they are willing to address the issue. Mine also does not go to 100%, maybe 98% if left alone and I have the last firmware 43. It's close enough but for your situation 91% is pretty low. I've got a little over 13k miles so far on mine and try to charge to full (or as far as it will go) once a month since I hate unplugging and plugging like an idiot all day to charge to full. My Tesla is five years old and doesn't need to do that haha
Never had an issue with my Experia going to 100% each time I A/C charge...Although the Experia has a different setup than the others I believe. I have just shy of 30k km on my Experia and it still gets the same range as it did when new. If there is any degredation, it must be miniscule as I can't detect any.
Smithy.
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Pard, one of my presents to myself is going to be a 360 cameraand mounting it on the bike. Ill have to figure out where. I might just put it on my helmet, I honestly don't know where to put it.
I brought my bike into my guy to work on it hopefully to get it back th is weekend to run. I got some issues with the front suspension been playing withfor a while and it's just time to get the fluid changed out and the annual on everything so why not. Besides I already needed tires, so might as well get it all done at once. The metal shavings / grit I been seeing, turns out is my rear sprocket, I tore the shit out of that, so ill probably be getting a new sprocket put on as well. The old one being aluminum, and that kind of HP im not surprised now that im much more confident on it and really romping down on it.
Ill have him check the chain real good too while were at it, running a 520 im sure it's taking a beating too .vs. te 525 which is probably what I should be running, but well,the 20 is lighter by a few pounds to go with the forged rims and all the rest of the racing goodies.
The track will probably be shutting down here soon for the christmas holiday so it'll give me a few weeks to figure out where to put the camera at. Any ideas? im thinking helmet mount but then am thinking that might get aggrivating for the viewer because of my having my head on a pivot when running, you gotta so the angle is going to keep changing. Ill think on it.
Aaron
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What about mounting the camera between the fork tubes above the fender?
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/LEAGUE-Indicator-Holder-Mounting-Softail/dp/B01MRM5DQT/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_1/261-3110093-6186017?pd_rd_w=BHG7H&content-id=amzn1.sym.716712ef-df33-47df-ae89-8f57d61f71e1&pf_rd_p=716712ef-df33-47df-ae89-8f57d61f71e1&pf_rd_r=QBN4W7BTC8EK12ACTXN5&pd_rd_wg=LKrzH&pd_rd_r=415816af-7c23-40af-b4fa-e202802eac26&pd_rd_i=B01MRM5DQT&psc=1
There are these indicator holders for tubes on the market. I am sure it would not be a big problem to fix a camera holder to them. By mounting the cam between the tubes it's not sticking out and somewhat protected even is case of a 'mishap'.
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Pard, one of my presents to myself is going to be a 360 cameraand mounting it on the bike. Ill have to figure out where. I might just put it on my helmet, I honestly don't know where to put it.
I brought my bike into my guy to work on it hopefully to get it back th is weekend to run. I got some issues with the front suspension been playing withfor a while and it's just time to get the fluid changed out and the annual on everything so why not. Besides I already needed tires, so might as well get it all done at once. The metal shavings / grit I been seeing, turns out is my rear sprocket, I tore the shit out of that, so ill probably be getting a new sprocket put on as well. The old one being aluminum, and that kind of HP im not surprised now that im much more confident on it and really romping down on it.
Ill have him check the chain real good too while were at it, running a 520 im sure it's taking a beating too .vs. te 525 which is probably what I should be running, but well,the 20 is lighter by a few pounds to go with the forged rims and all the rest of the racing goodies.
The track will probably be shutting down here soon for the christmas holiday so it'll give me a few weeks to figure out where to put the camera at. Any ideas? im thinking helmet mount but then am thinking that might get aggrivating for the viewer because of my having my head on a pivot when running, you gotta so the angle is going to keep changing. Ill think on it.
Aaron
Good for you!
Lots of options for mounting, but helemt is not a good place, IMHO due to saftey concerns. No need to have a camera torque your noggin if you have an off...
I recommend behind the windscreen on a triple tree mount. Captures the dash readings and is protected from oncoming air.
So many options! Lots of youtube material to go through to get some ideas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkoIRbljee0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvu3d2f8pdE
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For your road riding, a clamp on the bars is the best solution. You can also use a clamp on the clip on bars for the track.
Footage from a ride this past Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL66BIflDps
This setup allows me to capture all the 360 degree action, with the view behind unobstructed. Looks clumsy, but works very well. Ram ball threaded into the mirror mount. The options are endless. I power the camera from the bike USB so I don't need to worry about the battery in the camera.
I also always run a radr detector, because I like to avoid conversations with Police. This video is an example of the radar detector reminding me to stay safe. My poor buddy ahead of me got nabbed. This video has some rear view obstruction because it was shot with the camera mounted on the bars without a second extension to provide better clearance for my body blocking the rear view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYMiBY5eVp4
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Pard, what is that lever used for on the left side where the clutch is mounted on a regular ICE bike?
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Pard, what is that lever used for on the left side where the clutch is mounted on a regular ICE bike?
That would be a "second" rear brake...linked to the normal foot brake.
Smithy.
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Pard, what is that lever used for on the left side where the clutch is mounted on a regular ICE bike?
Yep, Left hand rear brake control.
https://qnium.eu/collections/rear-master
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That's one thing I wanted to do with my bike is a hand operated rear brake but to be honest, I almost NEVER use the rear brake, I use the heavy regen instead. Only a few times I used it and they were oh shit moments. To be honest in those moments you grab a lot of front brake as well, and on the race bike that'll push you into the windshield and you are not really ON the rear brake or have to re position your foot... to be honest, by the time you think about hitting it, you are already pretty much stopped, and when you do hit it, it's not doing a hell of a lot more because your regen is handling probably 80 percent of that rear stopping anyways, unless you are already picking your spot to be the next lawn ornament, in which case you really don't want to stomp the brakes.
One thing I have found out, if you Do run off track, slow down, YES, absolutely !! nobody wants to be doing 100 mph in the grass, but doing 30 or 40 is NOT a bad idea sometimes !! Slow down but it does not have to be an emergency slow, (if you are heading for trees, well you are pretty much fkd anyways) emergency slows turn into spills. but you still want speed to keep the bike stable. 5 to 10 mph you feel / hit and bounce off every bump and it upsets the bike. 30 plus mph you hit those same bumps but go right over them, (hopefully you have picked yourself off the seat and are using your knees as secondary shock absorbers to help with control and stability by now) and it's a relatively smooth ride with few control issues.
When on the road, I almost never use rear brakes, and to be honest, brakes at all until the very ass end of the stop, the last 5 mph or so to get the bike stopped and not slow rolling into the bumper in front of you :D The regen I use to control my speed down until I stop. I prefer a longer but slower braking .vs. a shorter harder NEED the brakes if I can manage it. Saves wear on the brakes and puts some jooce back into the battery at same time. Still though, once a week or every few days, Ill do a stop with just the back brakes just to keep them 'fresh' don't want brakes sitting unused for weeks. stuff surface rusts, can corrode bla bla, want to get some use in them to keep them limber...
Aaron
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Rear brake is a nice tool once you get used to it. Much easier to modulate with hand compared to foot for me.
https://www.facebook.com/MotoGP/videos/858159577881151/
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Maybe it's because I ride mostly in hilly areas I use the rear brake at lot.
Downhill in steep curves you don't close the throttle but reduce speed with the foot brake, work against the motor power and release the break after the apex. By that way you avoid the load change while leaning the bike over.
I would really like to operate the rear brake by hand lever, but such a refurbishment is not allowed here. You need to be a certfied disabled person to get a waiver for this.
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Maybe it's because I ride mostly in hilly areas I use the rear brake at lot.
Downhill in steep curves you don't close the throttle but reduce speed with the foot brake, work against the motor power and release the break after the apex. By that way you avoid the load change while leaning the bike over.
I would really like to operate the rear brake by hand lever, but such a refurbishment is not allowed here. You need to be a certfied disabled person to get a waiver for this.
Great point!
Never use the front brake against throttle, but you can apply rear brake.
In the above video, notice how much rear brake a pro moto gp rider uses midcorner at maitenance throttle and with WOT coming out of a corner.
Use rear brake to help set and maintain the line coming out of corners.
Some expert riders never use it.
Just another tool in the toolbox. Rear brake is more about steering, than stopping the bike.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3tw7xa
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Regen is basically the equivalent of rear brake. Unless you are using it with throttle, of course,(rear brake that is, you can't regen and throttle at same time) I use it constantly. ESPECIALLY IN TURNS, it helps you get pointed where you need to while keeping the wheels loaded up. Coming to regular stops regular riding, it's regen / rear brake all the way down. No you do NOT want to hit the front brakes much at all coming into a turn, if you hit them while leaned over, hit them hard enough and it'll stand your ass right back up... that transition can be a very fine line..good luck on that turn! Any hard / front braking really needs to be done BEFORE you start any kind of turning or leaning, but any additional braking, to help the turn, it's rear all the way for me.
The funny thing is, I have heard several harley riders tell me, oh you NEVER use the front brake EVER!! It'll cause a wreck every time!!
I would come into a turn fairly hot, let off the throttle and basically regen hard into it, let the regen pull me down into the direction I need, basically decreasing my turn radius until I am getting about where I want to go, then ill start bringing the throttle back up to push me out to the outside wall / line to get me lined up for the duck into 2 apex and hammer it all the way down to 3 at Jennings. I got to a point where the only way I was going to shave time is to come in longer until I start braking on 1.. which means your regen no longer is enough to slow you in time to make the turn, so come in hot use brakes to get slowed down so you CAN make the turn, let off front brake let regen finish helping you turn as you feather and then finally open up the throttle again as you exit the turn and hold it all the way until you need to slow for 3-6.
It's a tool you can decide to use or not use. Different riders do different things, and just like Trout fishing, there is no ONE correct way. So much is situational, and also, how you learned to do it. Some swear by it, others swear at it, who's right? Well, they BOTH won many races, so maybe both of them are right. Whatever fits your style best.
That's absolutely ridiculous not letting you have a lever operated rear brake unless you are crippled, I mean why not? NO logical reason to do that, if it's giving the rider an extra, oft time better tool with which to ride with. Sometimes your body positioning or leaning makes it difficult to get to the rear brake lever, or you have to actually think and make an effort to do that, feel around for the brake lever, and that takes brain power away from what's in front of you, to fiddle with what's under you. Handlebars are there all the time, the brake can be pretty much muscle memory at that point and unless you are about to fly over the handlebars, easier to engage too. Besides your fingertips give you awesome feedback how much pressure you are putting on the brakes, vs a foot in a solid boot stomping on a pedal where it's hard to judge the actual point of engagement. I think now of my foot that I broke earlier in the year and it being mostly paralyzed now, and having to feel on that? Yah that's a game changer there if it was my brake foot. It IS my shifting foot, and that is already a problem on an ice bike, no more quick pow pow pow on the shift lever when your nerves don't fire that fast anymore and it feels more like a piece of 2 x 4 than a foot.
Finally if you get into an emergency situation, ie some fucknut pulls in front of you and STOPS and you are about to T bone them at 60 MPH, you are going to be standing, pulling, praying for any method of stopping you can think of. You are so tensed up that modulating the rear brake, you may not be able to if you start to slide, although ABS should help you a bit if you got it, having a brake lever might make it easier to control...just some idle thoughts on that, I hope I never find myself in a situation like that again!
My front brake is sensitive, you just give it a little fingerin and it's engaged solidly. If I want to come in for a slow roll down, it's easier to regen down or just rear brake all the way down, it's a less aggressive less sensitive way to brake.
Aaron
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I totally agree, that prohibiting changing the rear brake to left hand lever makes absolutely no sense. All race bicycles and mtb have that since decades ::)
Probably some leftover regulation from forty years go when everything on the bike was cable-operated. Regarding two-wheelers in general the German lawmakers are slow-assed. Took them nearly 8 years to allow LED-lighting on bicyles. And even the tree-huggers (Aaron has probably some other names for them 8)) have not yet taken any actions against noise from exhaust pipes, which is quite ridiculous. The current Panigale/Streetfighter V4 emits 106 dB!
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As a former, long-time roadracer and offroad competitor, using the rear brake is an essential skill. On the track, you can use it to settle the bike entering a curve under hard braking, even when most of the weight transfer is on the front wheel. In offroad, you use it to get the back of the bike to slide out a bit to make quicker direction changes.
The reason motorcycle laws may prohibit left hand brakes probably goes back to the international standardization of controls. How many of you remember having to reprogram your brains as to whether the bike shifted on the left or right, or had up-for-first or down-for-first? I had a hell of a time switching from race bikes on the same day that either had GP shifting (up for first, down for the rest) or street shifting.
MotoGP bikes use a thumb brake on the left as well as a clutch lever.
https://www.paddock-gp.com/en/motogp-technique-from-foot-to-thumb-evolution-of-braking-style-2-2/ (https://www.paddock-gp.com/en/motogp-technique-from-foot-to-thumb-evolution-of-braking-style-2-2/)
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https://racetorx.co.uk/product-category/thumb-brakes/
Nice thumbrake hardware here.
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There's a lady on the track that is crippled. she has no legs and they lift her on and off her bike to go racing / riding. All of her controls are on the handlebars, brakes, shifting, clutch, everything.
I dare ANY of you to make any comments about her abilities on the track. She'll wipe the walls with you and leave you wondering what the hell just happened !!
next time she is in town, I absolutely am going to be looking at her setup because I am seriously looking for alternatives for me when it comes to shifting when on ICE and well, the braking too. I like hand controls and obviously her's are set up right.
Aaron
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https://racetorx.co.uk/product-category/thumb-brakes/
Nice thumbrake hardware here.
RaceTorx actually makes a conversion kit for the Brembo (RTX450) rear master cylinder used on Energica motos. This will allow an additional input source to be used for the rear brake caliper.
https://racetorx.co.uk/product/jv/
The MotoE riders could opt for a left hand rear brake, Energica used Brembo RCS14 clutch MC's.
During my time in the MotoAmerica pits I was lucky enough to absorb knowledge about getting the maximum pace out of a bike, both from pro level riders and their crew chiefs. My take away was there is never a "right way" to ride, it's a balance between the rider adapting their style to compliment the bike and the crew chief tuning the bike to best suit the rider. Some bikes are more flexible in how they can be set up and some riders are better at adapting on the fly. All riders used the rear brake to stop, steer and stabilize the bike. They use it on corner entry, at the apex, during exit and on the straightaway. The amount they use it depended on what electronic rider aids are available for a specific classes rules.
Dragging the rear brake on corner entry allows you to rotate the rear of the bike towards the outside, this points the front wheel towards the apex. Getting to the apex faster minimizes the time before you can reapply the throttle, with big HP bikes maximizing time at WOT is how you go fast.
Using the rear brake at the apex allows them to control how fast the rear shock rebounds through it's stroke. This lets them play with the front / rear balance of the bike. It also let's them adjust how much the rear tire slips, race slicks provide max lateral grip when they rotating some % faster or slower than ground speed.
Applying the rear brake during corner exit helps keep the weight balance towards the rear and allows the rider to modulate the rear shock travel. Ideally maximizing contact between the rear tire and the ground. Also helps to prevent the front end from coming up on bikes without wheele control.
Being able to accurately modulate the rear brake when you need it is key, too much force and you loose the rear end. From the telemetry data I have seen .05-1.5 BAR of force is all riders apply to the rear brake. For reference riders can apply ~14 BAR to the front brake.
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^^^ Great post!