R6 gearing / shift points / top speed

.. the big variable here is the banking. Not just out of the big high bank corners (nascar 2/4), but the tri oval. you are leaning the bike, and getting to a smaller part of the tire, gaining speed as you work that banking, AND leaning the bike over.
It's a tough balance of gearing for 5th coming down the banking with the bike leaned over (will be near rev limit) and not using 6th on the back stretch, and only using 6th on the front if you catch a draft... or being in 6th before you are heading down the banking, and using 6th over-rev if you get a draft and hope you don't hit the rev limiter at the tri oval. (in my experience ).

 

@Gino230 ya I got some Wi-Fi at this hotel and felt like checking the forums. Everyone is going to bed early and we r kinda in the middle of nowhere here, so not much to do. I won’t be at Atl. My MA season starts at Utah.

@MELK-MAN that sounds like a big variable for choosing gearing, but not when to shift. Does your lean angle on the banking change so fast that u could shift into 6th, then stand the bike up and lose a bunch of rpm? If so, that’d be a terrible time to shift. But it’d prob be easy to shift after that. I can’t think of any other scenario where it’d be better to over rev in 5th instead of shifting.

 

Have you seen jason farrell's vid on youtube? To your question...With some gearing choices... absolutely.

 

Well I'll be damned! Before this thread I always laughed at people who claimed their 600s can go anything over 170-175 mph. Jason Farrell has one of the best onboard videos at Daytona from a few years ago and if I recall he topped out at 170 mph on the GPS in someone else's draft. Alone, he was only getting around 165 at best. 180 would seem out of reach, but if Josh's data showed 188 on the GPS in the draft and mid-high 170s alone, then holy shit! Can't argue with that. Numbers don't lie, and I highly doubt Josh would. This goes to show that aerodynamics is everything at Daytona. Amazing what you can do with a 600!

Wins multiple AMA superbike championships, wins a crap load of races at national level....can't resize a picture to upload on a forum. This is why we all love Josh Hayes In a couple of years you should be able to get some help with that from your son I'm sure!

 

I used the googles...

This is the Yamaha Y-Trac

 

Xavier was on my R6 in that race. I'm almost positive GPS data had us at 176 or 177 for a top speed during that race. Fastest we ever saw at Daytona on that bike was 181 in a muti-bike draft and the wind was helping us on the big end. And that motor didn't make anywhere close to 140hp.

I remember seeing Mark Miller's SBK R6 absolutely walk bikes on the banking without any kind of draft on the high side. Those Livengood SBK motors were (I was told) 150hp and Mark was well into high 180 mph range.

Considering how good of a racer Josh is and the guys behind that build, big numbers like that aren't surprising, but they sure are impressive.

 

I think your trap speed was so high because you were WFO for an extra 2 seconds longer than anyone else (any normal human).