yep... my '01 is still carberated... no FI for me, and I think FI helps out a lot. If I could, I would upgrade to at least an '08 R1, but having 2 kids kinda changes the flow of money for a few years...LOL
Depends. I closed in on a 'famous' DSB class AMA rider once in the back at VIR in August '10 on my F3.
As someone who races a clapped-out '03 600RR, I am going to point to this every time someone with a newer bike beats me But I would strongly agree that some of it has to do with the mental aspect of things, as mentioned below:
About 3 seconds a lap, give or take, for a 2 or 3 generation upgrade. For the two guys riding the first gen R1's.... I'm sorry. I had one, raced it, went undefeated for a season and a half. Jumped on an R6 with stock suspension and went just as fast in my first session.....R1 was gone. Now the fact that tires have gotten better will contribute to this next statement. I set a lap record of 1:11.02 on the R1 in 2001. It held for 3 or 4 years. I started racing again in 2005 and now do 1:07's. 4 seconds with tire and bike upgrades. I figure it's split between the two at about two seconds each.
Seriously. I think I get it though. He loves that pic of my chick so in part I'm annoyed that I'm seeing it needlessly posted in every other thread but dually honored that she means that much to him.
Same thing with me. I started on a F2, the guys I raced with F3's. We all were pretty close. When the 98 GSXR600 came out, they jumped on em. I stayed on the F2 SB, which was build pretty well. I had a hard time keeping up. They got faster, I sunk more money into the F2. Big mistake.
04 750 1.33 vir 1.29 NJMP 09 600 1.32.8 1.28.8 same weekend going faster is in my head, not the bike. now if I was riding a zx-9r versus a zx-10. I would say yor gonna go alot faster.
I went from an 03 600rr to an 07 R6 and got slower, much slower. Of course its the bikes fault and not mine I did like the honda much better than the R6, mainly because I didnt feel comfortable hanging off the R6 like I could the honda. Also helped that when I crashed on the honda, it never broke, so I took more risks. I crashed twice on the R6 when I owned it, and both times it took a beating. I also "upgraded" because I was doing 16's at loudon and everyone said how much faster id be on the R6. I wish I had just kept the bike. This year im running a stock 07 600rr, because I dont think it makes much of a difference till your pushing lap records. For me, its about how comfortable you are on your bike. If someone has gone faster than you on the same bike, then you still have room for improvement.
I have a similar situation with my Lightweight bike. It's an '04 Ducati 1000 SS, I've been riding it forever so I can find the limit. All of the CCS FL guys are either running SV's, Bimotas, or Ducati Paul Smarts. All of those have a far superior chassis than my SS, which is one of the reasons I'm the last guy riding one. I always wanted to be the guy that won on the lesser machine so I took it as a challenge. After having ridden a few of the other ones though, I think it's not so much that you CAN'T go as fast on the SS, it's just that it's so much EASIER to go fast on one of the better bikes.