Jerez Testing

I recently visited the iconic race track of Jerez with Redline track days, it did not disappoint.

Arriving in unusually extreme hot weather for the this time of the year, 40+ degrees with track temperatures even hotter it's was definitely going to be a fun setting up the bike with all the recent upgrades to it.

One of my main issues to overcome since suffering seperate elbow and shoulder injuries during the 2021 season is that of being comfortable in my riding position. The biggest issue arising from the loss of range in the left elbow which effects my position into left hander corners. For Jerez I had new offset handlebars which also feature adjustable inclination and new rearsets with more adjustability than my previous items to test in the hope of finding the illusive perfect position. It took many adjustments however by the end of the 3 days the mission was accomplished.

A change of seat to a Raceseat custom utilising their high grip option aided this change. It allowed the removal of the previously used foam bump stop that was required in order to stop the sliding the standard (slippy) seat prodced. The extra room this afforded allowed me to alter my position fore and aft as the track required which only further increased the benefits of the new clip on and rearsets.

I also wanted to try out different tyre manufacturers. I have been running Pirelli's on the R1 but as we look at plans for the '24 race season, tyre choices might be a bit more open. I did the first day at Jerez on the Pirelli's so that I had a good comparitive for that track, day two and three I swapped over to Bridgestones which made quite a dramatic change to the overall feel of the bike, with each brand in my opinion having different strengths/weaknesses in comparison to each other. More time was spent adjusting the bike setup to allow for change in circumference and stiffer construction and despite initially lapping slower with the Bridgestones by the end of the test I had managed to improve my best Pirelli times. However this I feel was a combined improvement in track knowledge, chassis set up and adjusting to the feel of the Bridgestone. It was a very hard test for tyres with the extreme track temperature and therefore all brands were working above their optimum temperature range window, however overall I was very impressed with the Bridgestone and look forward to using them again.

With a change to DDS K-Tech suspension along with fork extenders and a reworked rear shock courtesy of FTR Suspension, the bike was  set different for each and every session.  This was not only beneficial in trying to find an ‘ideal’ setup but also to further improve my understanding of what each type of adjustment such a fork height, spring weights, fork air gap, rear ride height, preload, compression, rebound, wheelbase etc makes in real terms, something I found particularly enjoyable at this stage.

All these changes all while learning the track! Jerez is great, it has it all, fast in, slow out/ fast out slow in corners, undulations, blind entries... fast straights, hard braking, no braking, long sweeping corners and even corners where you have to patiently wait for what feels like forever to accelerate so as to not lose significant time for the remainder of the lap. I definitely felt that  by the end of the three days the majority of the “2023 inactivity cobwebs” had been blown off.

With special thanks to my sponsors:

Sycamore Yamaha

HelmetCity

FTR Suspension

EBC Brakes

HEL Perfomance