Yeah, 87 was my first two races but both were east coast. I could see pulling a red for that one since those pins were only held in by the r-clips. It does suck but don't stress over it too much, nothing anyone could do about it other than Kevin paying more attention and for a guy who could come in and tell me what every corner worker and official and other rider was doing every lap of a race he was damned good at ignoring officials and his team on the front straight. He also wasn't all that blind back then (did get worse as time and injuries went on). Still miss that goof.
Grab yourself a case of your favorite polish and a large pack of microfiber towels. Wipe the bike down top to bottom and tip to butt between every session. Great opportunity to continually inspect the bike. Some will say it’s overkill but it’s a good way to be attentive to even relatively minor issues like loose bodywork fasteners.
That's not a bad idea, thank you for the advice. It's funny, this thread has gotten me all worked up about making sure my brakes are in good condition. I had a bit of an incident at PittRace last month where the brakes worked too good as I was trying to avoid a rider that went down in the rain right in front of me. The bike did a nice 360° endo front flip, and one of the bits of damage was that the HEL master cylinder reservoir got ripped off. I got that replaced last week and brakes bled with RBF600. Brand new HEL reservoir, and I used their included black tubing from the reservoir to the master cylinder. Well, I went to look at it last night, and the whole line was wet. It's sweating brake fluid in a climate controlled room. So that's lovely--and ties in nicely to your suggestion of wiping things down often so it's easier to notice potential issues. So now I need to swap that tubing back to some Tygon clear hose I bought from Kurvey Girl since I don't trust that at all.
I was in that endurance race at Miller, standing beside Zoran as we watched the start together and he suddenly got a serious look on his face when he noticed the part falling off the R6 as the bikes launched. IIRC he ran up to an official and was yelling 'stop the race!' That was dang scary, glad it all got sorted before the first lap was even complete and all bikes were stopped at start/finish for a restart.
Now that I'm back in civilization with internet.. Suzuki too, maybe he just wasn't as competent at working on brakes as is needed in racing, assuming he was doing all his wrenching. It's my opinion that you should have a lot of contingencies/exit strategies in mind when you take to the track. Summit Point- What's you plan if you arrive in T1 with no brakes? Best course of action would be getting to the left side of the track without collecting anyone and taking the road to the skid pad, burning up the rear brakes while you're at. I've seen some very high speed entries into the gravel trap, some making it all the way to the back wall. Yet I think I've maybe seen a single rider pull off to the left in all my years. T5 gets really sketchy. I've seen many close calls with riders crossing back over the track at T8. Cornerworkers are just crossing their fingers and "F,f,f,f,f,f" in those moments. Then in other instances you can tell who are the skilled offroad riders. I once chose to runoff in T1 at Roebling to avoid potentially getting tangled up with some other riders. The grass and sand was wet, and rear braking was ineffective. The wall was approaching fast. I quickly locked the rear and pitched it on the the right side. The bar end and peg dug in and brought me to to a quick stop. Snapped off the brake lever but the bodywork was still perfectly fine.
I had an experience last race weekend at Tally. The calipers on my GSXR aren't consistent about how much lever throw I need before the brakes start engaging. (we're not even going to talk about the OEM master that went straight in the trash after my first weekend on the bike) Through the weekend, sometimes I'll start needing more travel at the lever to get to the brakes. The lever is rock solid once it gets there, but one of the pistons retracts too much. I've rebuilt the calipers a couple times with improvements lasting only a few TD sessions each time before they start to drift again. Obviously the solution is to install a remote adjuster, so I can make the adjustments as needed throughout the weekend without pitting each time. NBD. Until the Friday before the races at Tally, all seemed well. I go out for my first session and I make an adjustment on the front straight. I've gotta make another adjustment after turn 2. ANOTHER adjustment after turn 6 after I almost don't make the turn because the lever is starting to crush my remaining fingers on the bar. I'm spinning the adjuster just as far as I can get it on the stretch before T1. This goes on for another half a lap before the bike just so happened to drop a valve and leave me pushing it back down pit lane. Turns out, the remote adjuster had worked itself away from the brake lever adjuster screw and was no longer being held by the little spring detent. It was free to rotate and was adjusting itself looser constantly. I was just trying to keep up with it by turning it back during the straights. Safe to say the detent has been "adjusted" with a dremel and pliers such that it takes some actual effort to overcome, and a healthy dose of loc-tite has been applied to the m3 set screw responsible for letting things slide out of place. I think a new set of calipers are in order as soon as a replacement engine finds its way into my shop.
Earlier on in my track day career, I was swapping from rains back to dry. A friend, who is such a perfectionist that I would feel comfortable eating riding his bikes on or off track without a second glace helped me. I started on the front and he on the rear. He wasn't able to get the finicky rear on my old R1 on, so we swapped ends. I had not torqued the front caliper bolts, but I had them in place. The track day org did not require safety wire on the caliper bolts. He said he finished the front, and I finished the rear. Out I went. In Summit Main turn 9 about 5 laps in, I saw something drop off the bike and immediately put my hand up and stayed right to exit instead of rolling on the gas. Yep, front caliper bolt fell out. So glad I saw it. Used the rear brake to exit into pit lane. I found a coach and apologized for the late pit in signal, but with the explanation, they agreed I made the right call on that one. My next track day, the caliper bolts were wired and made a note that if anyone worked on my bike, no matter how small a thing and no matter how much I trusted them, I would double check the work. 100% my fault.
Brings up a great point about brake (and other) failures: Distraction. Out of all the years in this sport I have had *one* serious fuck up that I did. And yes, it was ultimately my fault, but there was also a cause behind it. Barber endurance in like 2019 I think. I was swapping brake pads and one of the guys came up to ask about tire compound choice or something. We chatted for a bit, I was in a rush to get the bike on track to ride. Did the practice session, come in, and the last time I applied the brakes as I was coasting to our pit on hot pit, the brakes felt weird. I forgot to tighten up the caliper pin (2009-12 ZX6 thread in caliper pins) and it had worked its way out and was hanging on by a thread. The inner pad was held in by sheer luck. I had hand started the thread on the pin but never tightened it. Realizing the gravity of the situation, I had never let out such a sigh of relief before. Just one more lap and who knows which turn I would have ran off track. I now don't converse with anyone when I'm working on my bike track side. I'm not talking about fueling or cleaning it, but I mean real serious work - brakes, clip on adjustment/fixes, etc. I am confident I would have never missed that if I wasn't distracted. It's also quite commonplace and welcome for me and friends to double check stuff if we've worked on our stuff...walk over to their bike when they're done doing whatever and be like "calipers tight? pinch bolts tight?" While giving the bike a visual look over. I don't know anyone that would be offended by having a friend do this. I welcome it when it is done to me, and allows me to also re-think and be like "Yup, tight. That's tight, that's tight. We're good."
Great ideas to prevent off track excursions or crashes. Coming from the airline world, it gets pretty crazy when it comes to the "confirmation check or cc" blocks on the work cards. You have to have another AMT inspect your work and point out any discrepancy. (Wheel Bearing mentions this process) Some of the manuals require safety wire to be twisted with a count or certain number twists between 2 points or bolts. Too tight or loose and it may cause issues in operation.
A good way to self check is paint pens. Get two different colors and if you move something or change a wheel just change the pen color and mark it in the same spot each time. Then you can look at it and see before you go out. Works well for clip ons etc
A few more reasons for "brake failure" I've seen at the racetrack. Endurance bike comes in for a pit stop, gets new wheels, rider goes out and comes right back in yelling "no brakes!" Rotor(s) on the spare wheel got bent at the tire truck or while going to/from, pushed the pads back. Always check your brake rotors for damage before you put the wheel on the bike. Aftermarket throttle housing is not pinned to the handlebar like stock, throttle housing rotates on handlebar, interferes with brake lever travel. Always make sure the throttle housing is positively secured! Also, I like to make sure the lever can have full travel, in case of brakes going soft or pads being pushed back, make sure the rider can squeeze the lever all the way to the grip if necessary. So orient the throttle housing to allow as much lever travel as possible, and recheck it after a crash or if you adjust the position of the lever. Rider gets passed real close, passing rider's tail section hits brake lever, pushing it forward, breaking the clip that keeps the lever attached to the plunger and keeping it from flopping forward. Rider arrives at the next corner, goes for the lever and misses it, resulting in a huge crash and multiple serious injuries. Back in the pits the lever is still attached and functions normally when squeezed. This was before brake lever guards were readily available. Always use a brake lever guard!
