Road Trip

March 11, 2022 by Adam Miller

“No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch.” - Susie Miller

This quote resonates profoundly with me as I think about what’s been going on since the last update. Physical training of the body is good. Training of the mind is good. In the world of racing, however, no matter how many muscles you tone, or how hungry you are to compete, there is no replacement for going to a track and throwing a leg over a bike. With this in the back of my mind, I sat down and did some detailed planning for the season with this general rule: don’t let more than 2 weeks go by without getting on a track.

MRA 2022 Season Gantt

I’m sure that looks like chicken scratch to most, but Gantt charts are like decoder rings to engineers. I now know exactly what I’m doing to keep myself sharp, prepare for each round of the MRA, maximize tire life, and never have to race on shag tires, which will be a first for me.

Professionally, I have the good fortune of being a remote work employee. Although I live in Colorado, my company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA, which is one of the best motorcycle racing hubs in the country. Those living in Atlanta have a choice between Road Atlanta, Jennings, Talladega GP, and Barber, all within half a day’s drive. Just as I was going nuts waiting for a break in the weather, my work started hailing me to return to Atlanta to help with project support. The timing was serendipitous, because a full track weekend at Talladega GP coincided with my work trip. After making travel arrangements, I started planning. My trailer needed upgrades to be suitable for driving across the country, the bike needed some maintenance, I needed a way to camp at the track, and most importantly, I needed a way to analyze my riding so that I can start making quantifiable improvements.

Step 1 was the travel equipment, which was not suited for anything longer than the 1-2 hour trips to nearby tracks outside the Denver area. I had my truck serviced and inspected for tow worthiness by the local Chevy dealer, got a new spare for the trailer, installed a wheel chock for the bike to ease strain on my fork seals, and installed D-rings for improved ratchet strap anchor points. If you’ve ever driven down I-70 through Kansas, you’ll understand the need for strong tie down locations and a way to keep a bike constrained that doesn’t load up the fork seals.

Trailer Improvements, Miller Garage 2022

With my travel trailer sorted for a cross country trip, I needed to make sure I had somewhere to sleep at the track. The only thing that made sense within my budget was a tent and some general camping equipment. My son Emerson helped make sure I had the right one.

The Tent, Miller House 2022

I also purchased a bunch of consumables and performed some standard service on the bike to make sure it was running tip top. With these parts, a big thanks to one of my supporters, Sportbike Track Gear, for helping ease the strain on my wallet a bit. The most valuable purchase, however, was an AiM Solo2 DL DAQ. These are getting very difficult to find right now, as AiM has around a 2-3 month lead time due to the current state of the world. However, after searching around, I was lucky enough to snag the last one off of Graves’ Motorsports shelf.

Digital Rider Coach, Miller House 2022

More to come on this gem a little later.

As the departure date for my trip neared, work really started ramping up. In the days leading up to my drop dead departure time, I felt like I was working 3 full time jobs. I was doing my absolute best to fulfill parental and spousal responsibilities, keep moving my work project forward, and get everything ready to go in time for the track weekend. Inevitably, however, I fell short in this regard. About 4-5 hours after I was supposed to leave to make it to Tally on time, the bike, the trailer, the garage, and my travel supplies were looking out of place.

Behind Schedule, Miller Garage 2022

However, I persisted. Eventually, I ended up leaving about 8 hours behind schedule and driving all night and into the wee hours of the morning to make it to the halfway point with enough time to nap in a hotel for 4 hours. Another 12 hour stint of driving later, and I made it to Tally in time to sleep in the truck outside the gate for another 4-5 hours. I woke to the sound of cars pulling into the paddock and made my way to an empty spot. This is either dedication or insanity. Probably both.

At any rate, I got the bike teched and made the rider’s meeting both in time to ride for the day. I didn’t even try to make the first session and, instead, ate breakfast, drank coffee, and carefully looked the bike over while heating up the tires for session 2. The goal for the entire first day was to re-familiarize myself with the track and feel out Duc Prime at a proper pace on a full-sized AMA track for the first time. Long story short, the day was filled with wheelspin and rear tire in the air moments as I overshot braking markers and tried to find a good way around the track.

I was lucky enough to end the day with a nice battle with a WERA white plate racer. To the uninitiated, these guys are fast as hell. For some reason, there’s a switch that gets flicked on when someone gets around me, the wolf comes out, and the hunt begins. I’m sure fellow racers know exactly what I’m talking about. I rode hard until I caught back up and stayed glued to his rear wheel. I could see very clearly that we were both riding on cooked rear tires as our bikes bucked and spun at every corner exit. On fresh tires, I’m sure he’d have cleared off but, having run nothing but shag tires for many years, used tires are kind of a specialty of mine. We were both pushing hard to be the guy in front; just my kind of rider. Eventually I chose a spot where I knew I was strong on corner entry and made my move. Once around him, I was merciless in my pace to stay there while thinking back to Jorge Lorenzo hammering opponents from the lead. After a few laps of this and the opening of a sizeable gap, I figured that was a wrap for day 1. I waited for my fellow rider in hot pit and gave him a fist bump. Win or lose, I love to battle.

In late afternoon, I was joined by a good friend from Atlanta, Deshawn, his wife, and a few of their friends, who were camping a few spaces over in a bitchin’ RV, who would all be riding with me the following day. It was so good to meet up with my old friend and finally get on the track together, which we’d been trying to do for years.

After chatting with Deshawn for a bit to catch up, I was completely exhausted. The lead up to travel, the travel itself, and the rigor of a trackday had my fumes running on fumes. I swapped on a new Michelin rear slick to be ready for day 2, grabbed (and ate) two entire pizzas to replenish burnt calories, took a nice hot shower, set up my tent, and passed the hell out well before my normal bed time.

Michelin Power Slick EVO, Tally GP March 2022

I woke the morning of day 2 to the sound of bikes revving in the paddock and tools clattering as people completed wheel swaps and setup changes. There is no better way in the world to wake up than in the paddock of a racetrack. Breakfast, sprocket change, AiM DAQ ready, rider’s meeting, and a few clear goals for the day rather than just getting familiar with the track; I was fresh and ready. My main goal was to beat my fastest race lap time set back in 2019 on the Honda.

I took data for every session that day and rode hard in pursuit of my goal. My fastest lap time occurred during my second session, which got me within 0.4s of the fastest lap I’ve ever turned at Tally. I got fired up after lunch and went at it again, but the rear tire had dropped off enough to limit what I could do. Maintaining mid 1:04 lap times became quite easy, but pushing hard just resulted in wheelspin and, ultimately, I wasn’t able to achieve my goal. However, new bike, track I haven’t been to in about 3 years, non race conditions (I ALWAYS go faster during races)… I’m not so disappointed. I achieved 99.4% of my previous speed without ever really feeling like I was having to push extremely hard.

The great great value of the weekend was the data. The AiM Solo 2 DL is basically an objective, emotionless, no BS rider coach. He doesn’t tell you what he thinks is happening, he shows you exactly what DID happen.

Best Lap, Best Turn, STT Trackday, Tally GP, March 6, 2022

My new rider coach showed me that I have very very good corner execution… sometimes. The plot above tells a story of smooth brake input, heavy braking, and pretty darn good trail braking as I transition to a surprisingly high corner speed and drive hard and early out of the turn onto the next straight. It also plots my race line on the actual track and shows me which lines are faster and which are slower. The good data is fun, but the bad is more interesting and valuable. In most large, sweeping turns, I brake too early, to the tune of several hundred feet. Braking several hundred feet before you should in 3 major turns on a track leaves ENORMOUS amounts of time on the table and remains the mental block I need to overcome. Looking at the data makes it obvious that I don’t really need to alter my technique much. I’m objectively good at trail braking per the data. I just need to brake later. That’s it.

A few other fun stats: when you’re feeling brave, Duc Prime can brake at 1.6G and, in the right circumstances, corner at near 1.5G. A “relaxed” pace typically has braking at around 1.1G and cornering at around 1.2G, numbers that really ought to be reversed. Those are impressive values that help explain why I was so sore after 2 days of riding with nothing but arms, legs, and my ass, to keep me from flying off the bike.

Another fun piece of info to reap from all the data is that, even if I changed nothing and were simply able to string my best sectors from different laps together, I should have been running very low 1:03’s. This implies that consistency from sector to sector, lap to lap, might also be improved upon to drop overall race times, not just lap times.

The final great piece of photographic data from the weekend comes in comparing the Ducati with the old Honda.

Ducati vs. Honda, Tally GP Turn 3, Honda 2019, Ducati 2022, Tally GP 2022

What you might never guess to look at it is that, in spite of the seriously different riding styles per bike, very similar lap times were achieved. Part of this is just that the Honda is a physically smaller bike and it was too cramped for me to Marquez it around turns. However, the Ducati is better at stopping and is much faster on corner exits and straights, which means that the Honda had to be picking up time in the turns in spite of looking like I was out for a cruise. Some combo of weight, CG, wheelbase, and grip have to be at play here, giving the Honda a very different response to body position and lean angle.

Anyway, this is pretty clear evidence that the Ducati requires a completely different riding style AND that I’m adapting to what’s required. I have a feeling my step to the next level on Duc Prime required to fight for race wins and a championship is just around the corner. Stay tuned.

If you’re enjoying the updates, please consider supporting my program and helping me achieve a dream of mine. Whether it’s a $20 donation through my Give Now page, or sending me spare parts, everything helps and everything is appreciated.

Cheers,

Adam Miller