Former Race Buells hiding under tarps?

[Kurlon]

Hah, fresh Dunlop slicks are going on at the track, though, at my slow test pace those Shinkos felt ok on the track… :P Just haven’t had an opportunity to swap tires, and keeping the DOTs allowed for legal(ish) road tests while setting things up.

[Kurlon]

374941343_782177227250578_4964713044387807574_n.jpg

I made it to Austin, load in at COTA is on Thursday.

[Cooter]

Congrats! Wow, thats a deep field, I can feel Turn 1 adrenaline from waaaay over here

Fingers crossed you have nothing but fun the whole weekend

[Kurlon]

The Ulysses has passed tech, there is a Buell fan in the Dunlop tire crew and a couple in MA's tech team. This friggen heat though, how TF do people function in it?!

[Cooter]

Our Dunlop guy is a Buell fan too! haha, whats up with that?

Last race round was 108*. Tech 10 airbag sure doesn't help either Immediately get to an A/C vent and a water bottle.

[34nineteen]

I can only imagine how much hotter Maine is than Phoenix.


Don’t mind the snarky comment. I still dig you.

[Kurlon]

I overheated, the bike is running fine. Didn't qualify for the A mains, will be in the B main on Sunday. Having a ball, just wish I had more seat time beforehand as I don't trust the bike yet, not sure how much I can get away with trail braking, how hard can I pitch it, does the slipper actually work as well as I hope, etc. It doesn't feel as down on power as I feared, though it's topping out at 126mph, 6k RPM in 5th and it will go no faster. I'm seeing hints that it's roll speed capability is better than many machines out there too...

Having a ball out here, random Buell fans popping up all over the place, other than the damn heat this is a good time and I think the Ulysses is going to stay in race trim after this.

[Kurlon]

5th in the B Main, I think 4th in American Aircooled Twins. Got it to 131mph.

[Cooter]

Thats awesome! Are you recovered yet? Haha.

[Kurlon]

"Recovered" is not how I'd describe myself right now. After a ****ty night at a Days Inn in Nashville, I decided I was done with hotels and wanted to be home RIGHT MEOW so I did an 8AM to 5AM marathon 1200mi drive to finish the trip. I've now had about 2 hours sleep since, my shoulder is pissed, my hips and right leg are pissed, and I'm stupid tired. But, I used my own shower, have my own bed... and mostly have work calmed down again. (Of COURSE I'd have an issue crop up right before I went out for Practice Sunday morning, ignored it till after the race, then spent 2hrs in my trailer which was 108F inside doing remote network diag and rebuild over a cellphone/vid conference... THEN celebrated and enjoyed the rest of the event.)

Literally damn near bone stock XB12XT (still on original suspension fluid and seals, eeek!) and she did well. If anything I think it was slightly oversprung for the track, but never felt sketchy out there. I never felt the Dunlops talking to me, tires say I was getting good lean angle out of them, rear shows I was starting to trust edge grip under throttle in the race, but I never pushed enough to make them move. Pirellis would have been egging me on with some comfort noise in the bars and pegs, the 'lops just stuck so I was constantly trying to push more and more waiting for something to happen. My top speed of 131mph pales in comparison to the 158 Jeremy buzzed out on the FTR but was in the hunt compared to the other air cooled machines. Primary limiting factor on the bike was the nut behind the bars.