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Barber- Holy Sh#t!!!!!

Discussion in 'General' started by Jeffro510, Apr 7, 2003.

  1. Jeffro510

    Jeffro510 Hand bra for hire!!!!

    The Floribama Riders held a track day at the Barber track this past weekend. This place is everything that you've heard and more. The track is 45 foot wide all the way around it, and the surface is incredible. After five 15 minute sessions at speed the tires barely look scrubbed. Not even a single booger on them. Our first session was in the wet and the track had extremely good grip in the rain. There is what looks like patches and sealer on the track surface in a few places, but I tested them and they were just as grippy as the rest of the track. Not a hard track to leard to ride, but I think it will take time to learn to go fast at this track. Very challenging with blind entrances and just about every variety of turn that you could ask for. Once the rain stopped it took no time at all for the surface to dry out. There was only one spot that I remember that had water running across the track but you were already upright and on the power there and it never posed a problem for me. The average lap times for our group seemed to be around 1:50's.

    The only place that I am questioning on the track is pit in. The turn were pit in starts is a decreasing radius turn and a lot of folks were setting up for it wide, which was in the path of the entrance to pit lane. As you approach pit in you are looking directly at a protected guard rail. It is a fairly tight right hand turn followed shortly by a tight left hand turn to get onto pit lane. Normal situations I don't see it being a problem, but for endurance races and stop and go penalties where riders will be coming in there hot it might be tricky. I know that I wouldn't want to tackle it at speed. Pit out is awesome though and will allow riders to blend into traffic at speed fairly easy. I have ridden or been to a majority of the east coast tracks and a few of the west coast tracks and this is by far the nicest track that I have ever seen. Not a detail was missed when building this place. The race control tower itself is a work of art, and it's huge. The is an awesome observation deck that you can see probably 80% of the track from. This is a beautiful facililty that has to be seen to believe, and I feel extrememly lucky to have such a place only 30 miles from my house!!!! :p

    One of the highlights of the day was when Mr. Barber himself showed up to get feedback from us. In talking with him he is very approachable and wanted to hear what we had to say about the place. He asked us to report any thing that we felt was unsafe or that we didn't like about the place to him directly. The question was posed to him about pit in, and he had a reason for designing it the way it is, but I honestly did not hear his answer in full. It might not be a problem, it is just my observation. Pit lane is basically the length of the front straight which will be more than enough room for the endurance teams to set-up and have some room. There is going to be power all along the pit wall, and high speed internet connections too. There was cell service at least on Verizon network for anyone that cares, and with 3 paddock areas there will be more than enough room for everyone to set-up. I heard that there was not any hot water in the bathrooms for our event, but I'm sure that they will have that corrected in two weeks. This is a world class track built by a world class guy. Just wait until you all see this place. Simply amazing....

    Jeffro
     
  2. IYFphoto

    IYFphoto Ripper of fish lips

    WOW...

    I was also there for this trackday and was riding instead of taking pics (OK, I took pics for the first half of the day).

    To Jeffro's post...DITTO. The absolute most awesome experience on a motorcycle EVER. You'll definitely have to experience it for yourself. Tire wear? What Tire wear? I ha da set of pilots that had been pretty well used up on the left side from TGPR and they ended up looking better at the end of the day than they did when I started.

    I never ever lost traction with the front or rear. I never felt a bump (unless you count the time I ran over the the curbing coming on the front straight).

    I do have some onboard footage and will get a good lap posted on my website...I'll put up a seperate post soon to let you know.


    Did I say WOW! :clap:


    :D :D :D :D :D
     
  3. 50Joe

    50Joe Registered User

    Louis, I know on your e-mail to me you said you used TGPR gearing. That seems really low based on the schematic of the Barber track. I'm interested in what others found to be as good gearing as well. What other SE tracks would sort of match Barber for gearing?
     
  4. IYFphoto

    IYFphoto Ripper of fish lips

    Gearing...

    I'm not saying I used the Ed Bargy TGPR gearing. I just used what I run there. 2001 GSXR 600 one tooth down in the front and stock in the rear. That gives me 2,3,4th at TGPR and it gives me 2,3,4th at BMP as well. 2nd isn't used except in a few spots. Mostly 3rd accelerating out of a turn and then 4th on the straight...don't remember if I hit 5th...I might have on the front st...don't remember doing it though.
     
  5. Joe Morris

    Joe Morris Off The Reservation

    I set my SV650 (<70 rwhp) up with Road Atlanta/VIR gearing and was geared too tall. I'd guess something a little lower than stock.
     
  6. Ryan Nelson

    Ryan Nelson Well-Known Member

    The gearing is a lot lower than it looks from the track map. IMO it may be closer to TGPR gearing than you might think. The top speed of the track is not all that high.
     
  7. 50Joe

    50Joe Registered User

    So, would you say that it might be more like CMP gearing or TGPR gearing?
     
  8. roy826ex

    roy826ex Been around here a while

    Wow...TGPR gearing at Barber :confused: I was planning on running stock '01 GSXR600 gearing. I run 1 tooth down on the front for TGPR which is 3.00 final, works good there. I only use 3rd & 4th at TGPR. Can't see running that tight a gearing at Barber, maybe I'm missing something here--dunno. I'm going out with stock gearing 1st thing with the opton of dropping down 1 tooth on the front or just adding 1 tooth to the rear instead.

    The track looks like it flows nicely so maybe stock gearing won't be too tall. I'm guessing 2nd thru 4th gear will be used extensively.
     
  9. IYFphoto

    IYFphoto Ripper of fish lips

    Tailender

    Drop one tooth in the front and you'll be at a very good starting point. As I said in the earlier post...TGPR=2,3,4 and so does BMP with the same gearing on my 600.
     
  10. Joe Morris

    Joe Morris Off The Reservation

    I'll be starting with CMP gearing and going taller if I run out of gear.
     
  11. Chris Stevenson

    Chris Stevenson Hell I like you!

    Sounds cool. What's this I hear about people being charged money if they ran off into the grass and other areas like marking up the track. May just be a bunch of BS but I was posted on another BBS. For those of you who haven't reserved a room you might want to hurry. I was looking around today and had a tough time but did find a place at the comfort inn 7 miles away.
     
  12. Ryan Nelson

    Ryan Nelson Well-Known Member

    That's true, but they didnt charge our club (floribama riders) anything and we had a few get offs but no real damage to the track or the sod. But on the other hand they charged the historic cars some money the week before because there was considerable damage to the sod and some cars were bottoming out on the track leaving some scrapes to the surface. Barbers took some sort of circular grinding machine and took out the scrapes in the pavement that the cars left so that the surface would be totally smooth. Barbers intends to maintain the place in pristine condition. The curbing in the corners even have drains built into them to allow water to drain off the surface when it is wet. These people did not leave anything out. Since the sod around the track is relatively new, it will be very difficult to not dump a bike if you leave the track surface. There is guardrail everywhere but it is well off the track and behind lots of gravel traps. Very safe place, but I guess it would have to be pretty safe to get FIM's blessing. There are some tire walls that are built completely out of brand new identical Bridgestone light truck tires. One thing is for sure - they didnt skimp on anything moneywise to build the place and it will be run as a not-for-profit. Last published value to build the track and the museum was $55 million.
     
  13. Joe Morris

    Joe Morris Off The Reservation

    This may have all gotten started by the guys in my pits giving me crap about crashing in Turn 7/8 area and leaving some prominent scratches in the track. I was not given a bill nor was anyone else on our trackday. It was all just the typical flack I get from my so called friends. How this made it onto the internet is still a mystery to me.
     
  14. Ryan Nelson

    Ryan Nelson Well-Known Member

    No - its part of the 22 page contract we signed with Barbers that you must pay for any damage to the track, paddock, sod, landscaping, (and the list goes on). The place is amazing, but they also have a legal team and plan on keeping the place pristine. Your scratches down thru the corkscrew were luckily not enough for them to want to repair, but they did give me some nice reference points :)
     
  15. Jeffro510

    Jeffro510 Hand bra for hire!!!!

    As for gearing, I ran 15/ 45 on my R6 race bike, and my R6 street bike had 15/48 stock gearing and both were okay, but the 15/48 was better. I was going to play with gearing but ran out of time to do so. Definitely not Road A gearing though. I'll probably start with 15/48 again...


    Jeffro
     
  16. jck22903

    jck22903 zee 500, eez like, Faaack

    Bet the sod is easier to get off the bike than, say, the sand at Jennings.:D
     
  17. Did anyone run a late model GSXR 750 there? If so what gearing did you use? I think I will start with a 17/43 (17/42 being stock).
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2003
  18. WERA74

    WERA74 Poser and proud of it!

    I had stock gearing on my ZX6RR and it didn't seem too far off. Just the same, I don't think I ever got into 6th gear. If I had to venture a guess as to gearing, I would suggest running whatever works in N Florida.

    The track is awesome. I think you all would enjoy it.
     
  19. todzuki

    todzuki got OBS?

    I ran a 2000 GSXR 750

    I did but you'll think I'm crazy when I tell you my gearing. I'm running 1 down on the front and 5 up on the rear. It's what I ran at Roebling. It seemed too high until I tried it and damn! Great at Barber's. I never got into 5th a single time but was able to beat the club guys R1's and pretty much anything else out there on the straights. Didn't want to piss anyone off at their trackday by stuffing them or passing on the inside so it came in very handy. I think Louis is got a small sample that he's putting on his site soon. It's onboard with Louis and then me. Harass him until he does.
     
  20. ekraft84

    ekraft84 Registered User

    So what seems to be the popular gearing for an SV?

    I've got a 15-45 right now with some engine work done, so will I be too tall or too short?

    Any thoughts?

    Thanks,

    eddie
     

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