2019 - 2026 Wednesday Night Drags Sonoma

[HadesOmega]

So here's how it went for me.

1st pass I ran a 19.2 like I mentioned up above

2nd pass I ran my fastest everytime with the Light Bee 18.89

3rd pass there was a slight headwind but half way down the strip my bike cuts out, so I turn the bike off and on and try to finish but it dies again so I turn it off then on again and make it to the end 24.708

1st Round Elimination
I raced Tyler with the stretched Ninja. He won last WND also. So I don't know what to dial because the there's a headwind and the first 2 runs were tailwind and I messed up my headwind run So i dial in 20.5, well they mess my number up and give me a 20.05 dial. I dialed 20 last week also. So I said whatever... turns out it helped me out a I ran a 19.641! The bike completed the pass this time without cutting out. Got my best RT of the night also .190s. So I hella broke out by like almost half a second. Turns out that bigger sprocket is better through the wind MOTORQUE BABY! Tyler runs a 9.979 against his 10.07 dial. He broke out by less than hundredth of a second! So he should win right? Wrong he got DQ'd because he ran two 9 second passes that night and he didn't have a racing license. So I won on a technicality...

2nd Round Elimination I race against a HD Bagger. So I have a better idea what to what to dial now. I dial in 19.50 since I ran a 19.6 last time. Didn't wanna break out this time. I ran a 19.715 bike ran great. 2 tenths off! The HD dialed a 13.9 and ran a 14.748. I don't think he was very dialed in so I got lucky.

3rd Round Elimination woohoo made it to the semi final! I race against Craig in the Speed Twin again. So this time I'm gonna try to get dialed in closer I think I'll run a 19.7 or higher because the winds pickin up so I dial in 19.6. I ran a 22.740 Hella slow the bike cutout on me again Time is hella off. When I talked to Craig he thought he had given the race to me because he wheelied at the line and you can tell because he dialed in a 11.98 and ran a 12.430, he was about 0.43s off. Soooo it leads me to believe had the bike ran normally I woulda gone to the finals So we both messed up but I messed up more Oh well that's racing!

Least the dude I lost to won the final! I was soooo frustrated the bike was running so well and now it decided to throw a tantrum, had the bike ran fine I woulda won that one. That's what happens when you push the limits I guess. But i had a good night, i got to do 6 runs. I ran my fastest time ever and made it to the semi final on my tiny little bike. Weather was great also, it was hot for maybe and hour or two but the rest of the time it was perfect.

My 18sec pass, sounds like a long time but that's down from last year's 28sec.
[YOUTUBE]z_Eaa2vX2oA[/YOUTUBE]


Final Race (whoops fixed link)
[YOUTUBE]QdZtpbNaUAs[/YOUTUBE]

 

[396]

Thanks for the pics and great write up as usual.

 

[gixxerjeff]

Thanks for the pics and great write up as usual.

^^
This

 

[HadesOmega]

Whoops I fixed the link for the final race

 

[HadesOmega]

Well that was an interesting night. I escaped the South Bay where the smoke was everywhere

SF was lookin clear

When I got there it was pretty hot, like 90s but it was really windy and that is the theme for the night it was WINDY and a headwind it was! There were these guys driving on the track so we had to wait for them to clear out so we started kinda late.

Later they moved us into the shade for tech

Looks like a bomb went off back there

So I've pretty much changed everything on this bike every week I've been out here and this week is no exception. I traded my BAC2000 controller for a BAC4000 controller. It litterally can deliver double the current of the BAC2000 controller. That being said remember I complained that the bike was so slow off the line? That is definitely not the case this time. This controller pulls so hard right off the line the front comes up and will keep on pulling till about 60mph. I had only 1 ride on this new controller before I came out here so I pretty much had to learn a whole new bike. It turns out the regen launch that I have been doing won't work anymore. It just too violent the bike just wheelies right away. So after a few runs I switched to just twisting the throttle like normal and IT WORKED! It tamed the front a bit and my reaction times became better. I was hitting around 0.1s RTs!

That night we got the most practice runs I've ever run. Even though we started much later than last week there was literally less than half of last weeks attendance. So that's great for me I get a chance to learn how to ride this new setup!

All my runs were in the 18s that night despite the strong headwind. That extra torque just punches through the wind! The bike for whatever reason won't go past 60mph also but it pulls STRONG till it get's to 60mph. The new controller rocks! But it does make it harder to launch.

Sorry not that many pix this night. Here's what happened. I got a total of 9 passes that night! Crazy right!? 6 practice and 3 races. I would have had 10 passes but I changed some setting that made the bike die at the line so I missed on pass, so embarrassing Anyway after I figured out how to launch the bike as I mentioned above I was running consistent 18.1s. My reaction times were around 0.1s also, sometimes less. So I was pretty dialed in. The wind didn't really let up all night also good for me

So I race Eric in the SV650 for the first round. We had about the same amount of bikes as last week just there were helluva less cars out. I dialed an 18.0, I wasn't too confident of the dial just get I had 2 18.1 passes. So I ran 18.115 with an RT of .093! Pretty damn good so 18.1 is my dial afterall! Eric breaks out with dial of 12.40 he ran a 12.344 with a RT of .118. That was actually a pretty close race. If he didn't breakout it would have been really close. So I won.

2nd round I go up against Tom with the FZR. So I'm confident with my dial now so I go 18.1 and I run a 18.164 with a RT of .145. Not bad hundredths of a second from my dial. Tom brokeout also dialed 13.45s and ran a 13.332s with RT of .186. Actually very similar to the last race cept I did better this time.

3rd round SEMI FINALs! I race Doug with the Bonneville. He hella good. Also there were 3 of us. So we gave Tyler with the stretched Ninja the bye run. He said he didn't want to race me unless he had to haha. He didn't want to wait the 8 seconds. But if I got the bye run I would have taken the 2nd place trophy =P So here we go I race Doug. I've raced him a bunch of time and lost a buncha times. I dial in 18.1 again and run a 18.362 with a RT of .087! ACK what happened! For whatever reason I thought the bike got to 60mph unusually quick so I think I backed off just a tiny bit. Either that or the wind blew harder, or my battery was getting weak. As the races kept going I didn't have time to charge. I did a little wheelie also. Anyway coulda been anything but I ran almost .2s from my dial in least I didn't break out. Doug dials a 13.2 and runs a 13.315 with a RT of 0.065s! Crikeys! So he's about one tenth from his dial in and has a slightly better RT. DEFEATED! After all the math Doug beat me by .1698. It was a pretty good race, I'm pretty happy with the results I guess especially against Dough. Shame the bike ran a little slower.

Final round is Doug vs Tyler. If you thought my race was close dude these guys. Doug dials in 13.24 and runs a 13.219 with a RT of .021. He breaks out by .021s! Tyler dials 9.98s and runs 9.972 with a RT of 0.091s! He broke out by 0.008s! So Doug broke out more. Super close race double breakout.

So that's it Tyler takes 1st, Doug takes 2nd, and I took 3rd. They gave me a little trophy with a car on it. Was a great night glad I came out despite the heat we got so many runs. I was really only hot for about an hour or two after that is was great and windy. Pretty much the same as last week but a little warmer.

 

[HadesOmega]

[YOUTUBE]xF1DVu4rvdQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[396]

Thanks again for another great recap of Wednesday night drags and helping keep my thread alive. I sat this one out due to heat and smoke. They had the Youtube live feed finally working so I watched the Elimination rounds. Can't wait for you to make some runs with no headwind to see what it can do, now with the new updates. Hope to be out there next time and congrats on some great runs. Your getting it dialed in now.

 

[396]

Last week we had 20 bikes show up to race. That's a huge number for bikes. Doug Love riding his Triumph got back into the winners circle with a victory over Tyler on his zx10. I faced Doug two rounds earlier and lost. I dialed a 9.32 and ran a 9.322 but my reaction time was off and Doug got the win on a better light. We made 4 practice runs before going into eliminations. Weather was great and no signs of any smoke! Hope to see you guys out there on some Wednesdays.

 

[396]

Wednesday 9-2-20 is race day at Sonoma. Get there early.

 

[HadesOmega]

Well that was an interesting night. Will type up the report later, I go to sleep now...
[YOUTUBE]84seJaFcQ80[/YOUTUBE]

 

[396]

Thanks for posting up the video last night. Things could have been a lot worse. Fortunately he was able to walk away and the bike did not appear to be to bad. He will live to ride another day!

 

[HadesOmega]

Yeah it's a good thing he didn't tumble into the wall.

 

[396]

Yeah it's a good thing he didn't tumble into the wall.

I hope he realizes how lucky he was.

 

[x42bnx]

Why didn't you stop for him? Just curious.

 

[HadesOmega]

I thought about it but I've learned from racing if someone goes down don't stop for them it's a race you need to keep racing. Granted that the race ended right after he went down.

Also it would be dangerous to stop and get out on the track. That's what they tell you during a track day get to safety, you need to put your life before someone elses. A car or motorcycle could have came and ran me over who knows what they saw from the other side of the track.

You could see I pulled way over also I was afraid he might drift into my lane and I was just like I couldn't believe this is happening right in front of me. After watching the video it seemed like it was happening much slower irl.

That's the first time I see someone go down at that speed O_O. When I first started riding and on the freeway I would always imagine what it would be like to go down at that speed. Now I don't think about it, it'll just make me unnecrssarily stressed. But this video is a good example promoting ATGATT.

 

[396]

Good thing Merlin didn't stop. The next motorcycle lined up to go did not realize what was going on and took off when the Christmas tree flashed the double red lights to signal a problem. The rider went all they way down the track not realizing there was a rider down in the other lane.

 

[edzx6]

Has anyone spoke to the rider that went down? Is he OK? Also, why did he crash, did he hit front brakes to try not to break out of his bracket?

Hope you and the bike are OK rider.

 

[396]

Has anyone spoke to the rider that went down? Is he OK? Also, why did he crash, did he hit front brakes to try not to break out of his bracket?

Hope you and the bike are OK rider.

He's fine. Just has a sore leg. The bike is not too bad either. Yes, he grabbed the front brake and it washed out from underneath him. Yes, he was trying not to break out. He did when the race!

 

[HadesOmega]

Here's my report. It was a very interesting night indeed. There was a pretty good turnout about 15 bikes I think. I brought the Light Bee again. Pretty much every week I have changed something on it to hopefully make it better. The last couple times it has not been so reliable and this time it almost didn't run good as well. Last week I had issues with the bike freaking out over too much power and I thought updating the firmware would fix it. Well it did but it introduced another problem, the motor current setting was set too high. It was set to 479amps and it was just so much power the bike would freak out because the controller is only rated for 430amps.

I download the bike and try a practice launch in the parking lot and the bike cuts out again. I've been riding the bike all week and it wants to act up now!? It's always when I'm at the drag strip it wants to act up haha. So I'm fiddling around with the tuning computer and find out if I mess with the motor current it slows the bike down and that's exactly what I needed. So I go and make my first pass after fiddling around with it and I complete it! I was riding with a supercharged harley that did 11s. But I made it here's what I ran:
RT = .112
ET = 18.901
MPH = 61.03

So no super fast but it's in the 18s. Whatever I did definitely made the bike slower but it completed the 1/4mile without a problem. Reaction time as ok too. The new full electronic throttle I installed on the bike it really fast, it helps with the reaction times!

Ok so 2nd practice run. I try another practice launch in the parking lot and it doing it AGAIN! Cutting out no throttle no regen, dead bike. The only thing I can do is shut the bike off and turn it back on and I don't want to do that on the strip. So I do the same thing again try to adjust the motor current but the computer is buggy and doesn't do it properly. I manage to get it to launch with full power 16kw and 40% field weakening. So looks like the bike is good. 2nd pass I run:
RT = .078s
ET = 18.277
MPH = 63.63

Wow much better! Probably best reaction time of the night! Also want to mention we had a headwind all afternoon and night. It didn't let up at all so that we ain't going fast tonight. I'm hoping to get the bike into the 17's it's so close. I just need nature to cooperate with me =P

3rd practice run I think I got it running good. So I turn the bike on and try another practice launch and GAH! It's doing it again!? Luckily I have been able to complete each pass so far. So I figure it has to be something with the motor current and I can't adjust it using the computer. There is an app on my phone I can use to connect to the controller through bluetooth. I hate using it because it's no user friendly but I go to the motor settings and I'm looking for something that says 479A on it and I find it motor current. I type in 430A which is what the controller is rated for. Take it for a launch and BOOM it's not cutting out and still has decent power! So I found the bug in the program and found out what I needed to change! I make my 3rd pass no problem with:
RT = .149
ET = 18.478
MPH = 62.21

Not too bad, I think the wind was blowing pretty hard. But I'm kind of all over the place now the bike is running good. 18.9 , 18.2 and 18.4. So I figure safest bet is to pick the lowest number. So if we do elimination races next round I'm going with 18.2 to hopefully not break out.

So it turns out next run is eliminations, so I don't have much data to go off of after making adjustments soooo we go with 18.2. I raced Joe last week and he got me I didn't want to race Joe again unless it was in the finals haha. So I pull a little switcharoo and Eric the dude in the SV650 doesn't wanna race Joe either haha. I think he really wanted to race me also so he plays all these game with me flip the lighter game. If I won the toss I race him. I'm like do I really want to do that? So I won and I guess I'm going to race Eric. I'm like ah no big deal I've raced Eric buncha times before. I'm gonna take him out haha. So I tell him hey since I won the toss I want the left side, because I like the left side. Then he remember the last time I beat him he was on the right side so he says we'll flip for it again. I'm like but I won last time I should get to pick the side. So now I'm just getting pissed off with Eric's little games and I lost the toss this time so I get the right side.

So here we go we're racing Eric in the SV650 again. I wanted to beat him so bad because of his little games. I'm like fine I'm gonna beat him to shut him up haha. He's ready to go, Eric get's so animated when he's ready to race especially against me and my little bike. So we line up. I'm on the right and I'm worried because the sun is coming down. At a certain time if you are on the right side the sun is behind the tree and it's hard to see the lights. But luckily it was fine! I dial in 18.20 thinking yeah I probably won't break out. Boom light goes down and I'm off. Bike take off fine fast but not fast enough to loft the front wheel and I'm on the pegs right away and riding the Light Bee down the strip. I see we're hiting about 55mph half way down the strip, it seems like we're going FAST! Hopefully not too fast. Then I'm nearing the finish and expecting to see Eric blast by in the SV and he does! We cross pretty close to each other and then suddenly BOOM I see Eric and the bike go sideways Eric tumbling and sliding on the ground and the SV in front sliding making sparks fly. I COULDN"T BELIEVE what I'm watching in front of me. I pull over a bit and slow down since we crossed the finish and be careful just in case something comes into my lane. I see the SV hit the wall and stop and I look back and Eric is up on his feet already he looks fine. I wanted to stop and see if he was ok but was like nah get off the track it's not safe I don't want two riders to have an incident so I exit and head to the booth. I pick up the time slip and I LOST! I'm like NO WAY Eric went down and he still won! Can't believe that. Then I see the ambulance take off to get Eric. I asked if anyone saw what happened and was surprised some people didn't know he went down.

[youtube]84seJaFcQ80[/youtube]

Anyway here's the race results. Merlin lost in the first round
Eric----------------Merlin
Dial 12.40-------------18.20
RT .119--------------.192
ET 12.431------------18.243
MPH 97.15--------------62.13
MOV .0855

So Eric was off his dial by .031s and I was off by .043! HELLA close! BUT Eric's reaction was slightly better than mine at .119 and mine .192. So after all the math Eric is .15 off and I am .235. Gah so frustrating he beat me by .0855s! I have to say that was a great race. He even went down.

So what happens? I lost and get eliminated and Eric won but he can't race no more. So it's like we both got taken out. What a night!

So I'm out they let me do 1 time only run. It's pretty much a practice run after all the races. I'm like might as well get my money's worth and do another pass if they let us. So I go up against the supercharged Harley again.

RT = .112
ET = 18.325
mph = 62.66

So I've pretty much run every number in the 18s almost haha! 18.9, 18.4, 18.2, 18.2, and 18.3. I has to be the wind haha I'm blaming the elements! The wind was pretty unpredicatable that night. It would be strong then calm down but it was a head wind most of the time. Sometimes it would be a crosswind. Yeah not great conditions for racing.

So that's it next race I think is CJ vs Bill and Doug vs Joe. Bill takes CJ out and Doug takes Joe out. Then it's Doug vs Bill. I so wanted Bill to win because I remember him talking about last week he has a lot of 2nd place trophies but doesn't have a 1st place. I don't remember the numbers but from what I remember Bill had a great run he was very close to his dial but his reaction time wasn't so good. Doug was off his dial by a bit but his reaction time was better. In the end it came down to reaction time and Doug takes home the 1st place trophy. Hopefully Bill takes the 1st place trophy in the future not tonight unfortunately.

If you are wondering what happened to Eric he was up and about looked fine His leg was bruised pretty bad so he was limping. The bike lost the footpeg, shifter, and some of the barend and clutch lever. Bill took him, his daughter, and his cat home that night. He lost some stuff that flew out of his boot at the end of the drag strip so I let him ride the Light Bee down to the other end. I told him to take it easy on the bike and then i see him zooming down the strip after all the racing ended. Hey my bike looks pretty fast! He was able to recover his stuff and he commented how fast and sketchy my bike is haha.

Battle scars!

Supercharged HD powah! This bike is FAST, saw it leave me in the dust twice! 11s!

Quarter mile warriors

Semi finals my bike is just there not racing

Finals Doug vs Bill

 

[396]

Another great write up Merlin. I was cracking up reading it. Eric is such a pain...... All in all it was a good night on what could have been a disaster. Eric will play this up for the rest of the season and then some...

 

[396]

Race day coming up. Weather looks to be good. Come out and play. 9-9-20.

 

[HadesOmega]

#ilivemylifeaquartermileatatime

 

[396]

#ilivemylifeaquartermileatatime

 

[396]

NEWS: Due to heavy smoke and ash, Wednesday Night Drags have been cancelled tonight. 9-9-2020

 

[HadesOmega]

Oh man wasn't feeling too well today but loaded up and got to palo alto and wasn't feeling any better the smog/smoke was so bad. I check my facebook and saw they cancelled WND ans promptly turned around next exit. Was hoping it would clear up but it looks like the apocalypse right now. I guess i'll stop by Ikea on the way back.