Crash tested some gear.

[sys49152]

It held up well at a recent track day.  Wet track, cold/old tires that should have been replaced, and a bit of a mishap on my first warm up lap..

My suit  took most of it on the left shoulder and elbow.  I rolled onto my back during the fall, so it also got a bit scratched up.

Dainese Jack-F 1 piece suit :







I had to buy it because it fit perfect, and because it had my birth year embroidered on the shoulder 



Daytona Sport Evo Boots.  Man, these are awesome.. not quite as good (or expensive) as the Security Evo's, but damn good none-the-less..



got to buy another toe slider..




My Shoei RF-1000 is toast, and so are my Teknic gloves, but I walked away unscratched and without a single bruise.  My biggest regret was missing the remaining three hours, and the final two track days of the season.. bike repairs :







Time to buy a dedicated track bike I can beat the snot out of and not worry about keeping pretty 

[thatguy1025]

Well glad to see you made it out ok.

[Turd Ferguson]

Looks like the bike made it out pretty well too.  Its hard to tell damage from pictures, but it looks like a new left fairing, new nose fairing, new left side engine cover and banging a few bent things straight is all it will take, right?  How did the tail plastic come out?

Glad you're alright.  Bounce back and get ready for the next track day!

-Turd.

[sys49152]

Well glad to see you made it out ok.

Thanks!  Me too. 

...but it looks like a new left fairing, new nose fairing, new left side engine cover and banging a few bent things straight is all it will take, right?

  Pretty much spot on.  A couple of broken left side turn signals and unfortunately the toe shift portion of the left gear shift rearset (1.5 inches of metal covered with a bit of rubber).  It snapped off at some point.  I'm probably going to try to file what's left down a bit, drill a hole and put another bolt there.  Just the little gear shift lever (not the entire left side shifter) costs around $50 USD (Ron Ayers).  Ouch!

The plastic held up alright for the most part, but did shatter and rip away at a few places.  I've already ordered another used left fairing from ebay but the upper fairing is extremely expensive and difficult to successfully bid on.  I would have had it fixed by one of the local body shop guys but I'm missing a bunch of mounting tabs and I haven't tried any type of plastic welding/molding myself.  I might work on it as a side project and as a backup upper fairing. 

[Jake D]

At my local mechanic's shop, there is a MotoGP Kangaroo 1 piece on display that a local racer crashed tested. . . 8 times.

After crashing 8 times, his Kangaroo suit held up better than your cow leather.

Check into Kangaroo if you can. That stuff seems pretty durable.

Glad you're alright.

[Alphamazing]

Do you have pictures of your gloves? How toast is toast?

[sys49152]

Check into Kangaroo if you can. That stuff seems pretty durable.
Glad you're alright.

Thanks Jake.  Yeah, I was a bit disappointed at how the suit blew open at the elbow seam.  Actually, I just don't get why they'd put a seam there.. running down the outer arm right across the elbow.  I really didn't know what to look for in a suit, but I think I've got a better idea now.  I'd like to see the seam on the inside or a reinforced leather patch over the elbow.  Even areas that probably got a light rub on the track show some ripping/tearing.  But I guess it did the job so I really shouldn't complain.  I just don't know how well it would have held together if it wasn't a warm up lap and the pace was much faster.

Yeah, Kangaroo is great - much lighter, thinner and stronger.  It is tough however to find a local dealer that carries one, and I'd really like to try it out before buying it.

Do you have pictures of your gloves? How toast is toast?

My mistake, they're not toast.  Only the helmet is toast.  In fact, they look great, just a few scuff marks, but I don't think I'll use them on the track again.  They've got way too much stretch kevlar and I think I'm going to go with a full leather glove next time.  I'll take pictures of them so you can sort of see what I mean.  The palm and finger tips are Kangaroo and only looked scuffed a bit, and fortunately these were the only bits that touched the ground.  The gloves are extremely comfortable but there were very few track riders that had gloves made with anything other than full leather.

I was using the Teknic SpeedStar gloves (newenough buy), not the Violater and Violater Pros which I believe are the full leather racing gloves.

[Alphamazing]

Did yours look like these:

[sys49152]

Yes, same colour too.

[Jake D]

If the elbow is the only place your suit is ripped, I'd take to to an apoholstry shop and have them fix that seem and sew a leather patch over each elbow. 

Screw it man.  Use it up. 

Dianese is supposed to be the cream of the crop, too.

[Alphamazing]

Yes, same colour too.

So those aren't all leather gloves?? I was under the impression that they were. Can you detail where they aren't leather? In the picture it lookslike it's made entirely of leather. How do you like the perforations? Did they vent well? How much adjustment room is in the wrist strap? Do you think it would be very useful for a person with skinny wrists (6.5" around)?

[scratch]

You don't need a new toe slider. 

Glad you're allright.

Take the leather to a knowlegable leather-worker and stitcher.  The stitching is the most important.  You want somebody whose going to use that Aramid, or whatever the latest, greatest, strongest, thread there is.

[sys49152]

So those aren't all leather gloves?? I was under the impression that they were. Can you detail where they aren't leather? In the picture it lookslike it's made entirely of leather. How do you like the perforations? Did they vent well? How much adjustment room is in the wrist strap? Do you think it would be very useful for a person with skinny wrists (6.5" around)?

No, they're not all leather.  I'll try to take a few detailed pictures tonight and post them in the thread.  They vent really well and the adjustment strap is excellent --  I've also got skinny wrists and the strap tightens up nicely.

You don't need a new toe slider. 

Glad you're allright.

Take the leather to a knowlegable leather-worker and stitcher.  The stitching is the most important.  You want somebody whose going to use that Aramid, or whatever the latest, greatest, strongest, thread there is.

Thanks!  There's still a lot of life left in the upper part of the slider, but I'm a bit worried that the screw will wear down and snap off the next time I'm at the track.  I'm looking into getting the suit fixed by a local stitcher with an excellent reputation for motorcycle gear work.  As Jake suggested above, I'll probably get reinforced leather patches put on the elbows and hip/thigh area.  I didn't think about getting the stitching reinforced, but that's an excellent idea.  Getting Aramid stitching might be difficult, but I'm sure they could do stretch kelvar or something.

[pantablo]

buy yourself a spare mint replacement bodypanels-whatever you need to replace, then buy rashed spares of everythign else and voila', you have track plastics! thats what I did...

glad you werent hurt.

[sys49152]

As promised, here are the pictures of the Teknic gloves.  I drew a few red lines and dots on all of the non-leather (kevlar) material.  I circled the only real damage on the first picture.







Here's a shot of the wrist strap.  Note however that these are SMALL gloves.  I'm sure the strap is nearly the same on the larger size gloves, and should tighten up enough even with the bigger default wrist size.

[sys49152]

buy yourself a spare mint replacement bodypanels-whatever you need to replace, then buy rashed spares of everythign else and voila', you have track plastics! thats what I did...

glad you werent hurt.

Pablo, thanks.  I thought about doing just that.  However, my bike really does double duty.  I put nearly 2,000 kms/month commuting to work and back.  The F4i is an awesome street bike and I can't imagine riding anything else on the street.  Given that I do use it as my daily commuter, I really don't want to risk dumping it and having stuff (rearsets/muffler/etc) get damaged during a track day.  I decided it makes more sense for me just to have a dedicated track bike -- not anything terribly expensive, but simply prepped for the track -- body work, a suspension I can rebuild in time, tires that I'll only use on the track, no head lights or turn lights, you know the drill.  It just makes sense, and given I don't need to insure it, it isn't nearly as expensive as owning two bikes.

Anyhow, while I put my bike together I get to ride my buddy's CB1 CB400.  He has it parked in my garage and doesn't really get a chance to ride it often.  He suggested I ride it whenever I can 



A space in front of my office.  There are usually at least half a dozen bikes parked out there.

[blue05twin]

Late but glad you made it out unhurt, or not hurt badly.  Nice write up on the gloves and gear also 

[Alphamazing]

Thank you for the info on the gloves! I was considering buying them, but now that I see they aren't leather I am not even going to bother. I've had bad experience with non-leather gloves and refuse to get near them.