roadracing a 450 supermoto

BS! It's like being US President, you're still "Mr. President" after your term is up.

 

You need to make the #1 more obvious!!! On my phone I missed it. Only because of your comment did I go back and look. Congrats!!!

Maybe a yellow background would help me see it? Or maybe this old f..ker just needs better glasses and a larger Iphone.

 

I sell them for him, he is one of my best friends.

 

here you go lol

 

I've made a bunch of parts for him. Can't recall the last batch, but it was definitely a front brake mount. Stan's a good guy.

 

Anyone happen to have a tire pressure chart for the OEM Bridgestones on the SMR?

 

Talk to Stickboy from Bridgestone is is my guy on tires and set up. Im laid up in the hospital so I cannot check my notes at home. He is here on this forum

 

Heal up! Hope all is okay.

 

I'd be interested in a chart also, if one exists. G2G pointed me towards Stickboy also and he's been great. He has recommended 36/24 for Laguna and 36/26 for Barber.

@G2G, hope you heal up quick and back on track before you know it.

 

As weird as this is to say, I hope you are laid up from a racing mishap, that isn’t career ending, versus some other major health issue!!

 

I believe the manual says 30/30psi hot. I’m not the quickest but I’ve had good luck with 30f and 28r off the warmers. Front just adjust to feel. That B-stone front is pretty much glued down. My rear had great grip at lower psi but it ate its self alive. I chose less grip and tire life at 28psi.

 

Thought I'd chime in after a full season of road racing my 2022 KTM 450 SMR. Won the CRA expert UL(400) championship.

Strengths:
- Acceleration and holeshots. Nothing in class comes close in this regard. Simple power to weight.
- Braking. Again, low Weight and phenomenal stock brakes make for a great combination. You should easily be the last on the brakes. I found "lighter, longer" works best.
- Handling/turning. Even with my front end trailed/choppered out it turns phenomenally while remaining stable. Lends itself very well to an earlier corner entry that tightens just before apex.

Weaknesses:
- Top speed. Ugh. Having raced at Blackhawk, Autobahn, and Brainerd this year the highest recorded speed I managed on my AIM Solo2 was 111mph. That was coming into T3 at BIR while running 15-38 gearing and U4.4. probably also had a bit of a tailwind. Typical trap speed is around 108 but at least I gets there quick. A built motor with the six-speed conversion could possibly get to 120. Having the drag coefficient of a brick wall hurts. Comparing with other riders in the class this top speed is pretty equivalent to most of the SS R3's running MR12. Ninja 400s will fly right by.

- Corner speed. The long suspension travel compared with the very flexy steel frame makes for a less than ideal combo when pushed hard on long corners. The bike feels like it is starting to fold in half. This isn't so much of an issue on smaller radius corners like those found at Blackhawk and Autobahn. The big ones at brainerd are a different story. I think this is where the ChroMoly frame of the KTM is a bit of hindrance. The flex is great on dirt and true "Sumo" but lead to chassis confidence issues when leaned over for extended periods of time. An aluminum framed 450 would probably fare better here.

 

I had a 2018 FS450 and I've heard that the chassis was stiffer and I never had the issue of feeling like the bike was flexing too much

 

I didn't think it was an issue until I really started pushing corner entry speed to try and make up time on the N400s.

 

If you want to focus the bike on road racing, I've got a shortened FS450 swingarm, would lower the bike a touch without taking away swingarm angle, pair that with shortening the forks to match, would tighten the package up a bit?

 

Appreciate the offer but I'm running an RC390 this next year and moving my Supermoto over to full time sumo

 

Good news... the shortened swingarm is intended for full sumo...

 

Hahaha. Well I'm riding the KTM contingency train hard right now so I'm probably going to sell my 22 and buy a 25 next winter

 

What swingarm is it?

 

Get that swingarm and come race at RA with us! I have a Suter swingarm on Hanks Kawi. It's badass.