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Posted by Kenn Stamp
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Monday, 10 September 2007 |
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Page 3 of 4
Day 2
 Up and at 'em nice and early (stupid body clock set to EST) and back on the bus to Laguna Seca. Breakfast at the track with the obligatory track meeting while we ate. We are reminded yet again that Buell only has a finite supply of the 1125Rs at the moment. They have told us this like 3 times now and they always leave the rest of the thought unspoken, which makes the consequences of wadding-up one of their bikes both more oblique and more ominous at the same time.
So I'm sitting there eating and I notice that there is a piece of paper filled out with 3 groups and the names of the journalists assigned to each group. Let's see...... I'm in group B ( A, B, C, were how the groups were labeled) ....cool..... I'll go out with the second group on the track.....nice. As I'm pondering this another piece of paper gets laid out on top of that one. Let's see what this one says (I'm getting good at reading upside down).....this paper has a bunch of small writing on it but before I can get to that part I notice the handwriting at the top of the page......."fastest group will go out second".....fastest group will go......I'M IN THE SECOND GROUP! Now I didn't know whether to be flattered that they thought I'd be one of the fastest people out there or scared to death of looking like an idiot when I get lapped by some REALLY fast guy. Well I needn't have worried as they decided to run the group rotation as C, A, B, which meant that A was the fastest group. Phew! Thank God! I mean, I might actually have had to ride my best the entire time. No one needs that kind of pressure.
For the first 15 minute session I basically followed Paul James (part time racer, full time Buell honcho) around the track to learn where the correct lines were. After our 15 minutes on the track, we were back in the pits and another group was heading out to ride. What did I learn about the bike on that first session? Not much except 1) the exhaust note is pretty flat and 2) I have never ridden a bike that the difference in acceleration between 3/4 throttle and full throttle was so pronounced. I mean with most bikes you get a little more thrust, but the Buell just takes off like you hit a shot of nitrous. Very cool. Oh and the intakes (right under your chin) at full throttle sound like they are trying to suck you and any unsuspecting birds into the motor. It is an intoxicating sound to say the least.
Laguna Seca overall is great fun with only a few odd-ball corners thrown in to keep you on your toes. Turns 2 and 9 were the worst. The corkscrew is just plain fun (albeit a scary kind of fun) and even the tight turn 11 wasn't so bad.
 Back out for group B's second session and now it's time to play. By the second lap the knee is down around turns 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 and even 11 (sometimes). Bike's feeling good, very stable, rides good over the bumps with just a little wiggle coming out of the corners hard on the gas. Any bike that will let a non-racer go out and start sliding a knee around after just a few sighting laps on a new track, is put together well and will make you look like a hero on the occasional track day. About halfway through session number 2, I decide (in my infinite stupidity) that I am no longer going to back off the throttle before turn one, no sir, I'm going to accelerate over and through turn one like the racers do. Now understand that turn one is the blind ,over a hill, left turn at the end of the short front straight. I was crossing under the sign there at about 100 - 110mph-ish while rolling off the throttle after accelerating off of turn 11. This time I was taking no prisoners! Warp Speed Scotty!
I learned a very important lesson at that point. Things (like braking markers for example) come at you more quickly at 130mph-ish than they do at 100mph-ish. Much more quickly. This is where I found out just how well the ZTL2 brakes and the pneumatic slipper clutch really work. I'll spare you the gory details (no I didn't crash) of my completely ham-fisted down-shifting technique while braking for all I was worth, and just tell you that the bike performed like a champ. It was willing and I was able to settle it in to turn 2 (which is when I dragged my left toe) without any shenanigans or drama. Definitely an eye opening experience and one that I decided not to repeat the rest of the day.
We were basically hot-lapping the bikes for the entire time at Laguna Seca. As soon as one group came into the pits the next group was hopping on and heading back out again. All during this time I experienced not an ounce of brake fade. The brakes (front) felt firm and powerful for the entire day of track thrashing. The rear brakes felt like, well, the old 2 blocks of wood.
Some of the really fast guys out there (basically racers that happen to write for a magazine) were saying that the bike had some issues with feedback from the front end when really pushed hard. I had the bike pushing pretty hard and I felt none of that.
Also, Jeremy McWilliams was out there (he helped Buell with R&D and suspension set-up during the creation of the 1125R) and he did not seem to be having any problems at all with the front end feedback (yes he was riding a bone stock bike just like the rest of us - just much, MUCH faster). This tells me that
unless you competitively race you probably will have no issues with the
front end once you set it up to your liking.
A lack of a steering dampener had some of us thinking that there would be some issues with head shake. Erick Buell disagreed and said that the chassis would handle it. You know what? He was basically right. Basically right, because there were some spots in the track where the acceleration and the bumps in the track did cause the front end to dance slightly more than I felt comfortable with. The bike never did anything untoward and this might be something that had I been familiar with the bike and the track wouldn't have bothered me at all. I never had an issue with it the entire first day on the street, so again unless you race competitively you probably won't need to worry about a steering dampener.
Pirelli puts their new Corsa III's on the 1125R as the OEM tire and a better OEM tire would be hard to come by in my opinion. All during day one (the street portion) the tires handled the irregularities in the road surface with aplomb. Some of the roads on the route were semi loose gravel and the Pirellis never missed a step. On the track the tires temped up fast and provided laudable levels of stickiness. The tires were starting to get really shagged out by mid-day but that was after hours of non-stop flogging. Pirelli markets this tire as a street tire that you can do track days with and I would say that was an accurate description and not just marketing hype.
All good things must come to an end and my time in Monterey was no exception. The 1125R is not a hardcore track weapon but it was never meant to be. Buell's target audience with this bike is the street rider that does occasional track days. Buell has hit a home run for this target audience; a comfortable bike that won't embarrass you on Sunday mornings and will make you look like a hero at the track. What more could you want?
Thanks to Shift Racing for the jacket, leathers, gloves, and jeans, Arai for the Profile helmet, and Alpinestars for the boots (they'll match nicely once the red 2wf.com lettering gets put on the leathers and helmet).
Go to our Buell 1125R forum to discuss the bike and and article.
Go to Buell to check out the 1125R and the rest of the Buell line-up.
Go to the next page for some specs on the new Buell 1125R
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