At the opening round of the Mopar Canadian Superbike series at Shannonville earlier this month, Jodi Christie finished second in the Superbike race - just half a second behind multi-time champion Jordan Szoke.
Christie is two-time and defending national Sport Bike champion and raced a handful of Superbike events last year, but this year the big-bike effort is more serious with factory Honda Canada backing and a pair of CBR1000RRs. The bikes are prepared by John Sharrard and Accelerated Technologies, and through that connection I have been helping the team.
Long ago, Sharrard and I raced each other on 250s in the Canadian national series and at AMA races in the United States. I could fill a year's worth of blogs with those adventures, but the Grand Prix classes had a tight-knit group of people at the time and we have stayed in touch since. When John contacted me in the spring about data acquisition options for the CBR1000RR, I offered my assistance for the year.
Over the past couple of years I've been working with Javelin Broderick in the United States, using data acquisition to coach him on his riding and bike setup as he competed in the AMA Supersport series. I've also been using data as part of Sport Rider's comparison tests for several years now.
Much of what I've learned comes from Kaz Yoshima, a former employee of Honda in Japan that still has ties to HRC and does a lot of data acquisition work; together, Kaz and I have built a website for motorcycle data acquisition: http://www.datamc.org" target="_blank">www.datamc.org. Even with all that experience, I think this year will definitely be a challenge for my skills at interpreting data - the stakes are higher and the improvements we are looking for are smaller than I have encountered so far.
With the help of http://www.aimsports.com/" target="_blank">AiM Sports, we are outfitting one of Jodi's superbikes with a full EVO4 data logger. The EVO4 is a professional system with GPS capabilities and multiple inputs, which will allow us to monitor practically any aspect of the motorcycle - throttle position, rpm, suspension travel, wheel speeds and more - as well as all the information that can be derived from the GPS data, such as lateral and longitudinal acceleration, lean angle, the actual riding line on the track, and so on. Hopefully, I can use all that data and information to help both John and Jodi get the best results possible.
Aside from the data acquisition aspect, I have other experience with the CBR platform in particular through various project bikes with Sport Rider. And, while it too was many years ago, I raced a CBR900RR myself for a year in CSBK.
At the first Canadian Superbike round, Jodi's Bazzaz traction control system used a map I developed using the techniques discussed http://www.insidemotorcycles.com/component/k2/item/1208-trevitts-blog-optimizing-traction-control.html">in my last blog. I've also been helping with chassis setup, and at the next round at Autodrome St- Eustache John has some parts to try that I will talk about in a later blog (if they work…).
I will post throughout the year as to the team's progress and my small contribution. It will be an interesting experience for me and I hope to learn a lot from it.
{fcomment}