anyone been to Barber before?

[Hope2Ride]

I'm going to Barber next weekend for my first full track days. Has anyone been to that track before? Any tips/advice from you racers that would be good for a newbie to know? Any info would be greatly appreciated! I am going with a small group of other riders so I won't be alone and that will help a lot.

[zaskar]

I haven't been there but that track is sweet.  A friend of mine raced AMA there back in 2004 and he loved the track.  It's a very technical track so take your time learning the track, lines, and reference points.  Ref points will be huge at a track like this with some blind crest corners and other elevation changes.

Basically just don't be in a hurry to go fast,  with good technique...speed will come!

Hope you have a blast and I expect a report and some pics when you return!!

[Hope2Ride]

Zaskar it was an AMAZING time down there! I loved the track, doesn't even come close to the ones here! A lot of great corners and elevation changes throughout made it really fun to ride! And there were no deer to run out in front of me! The track itself is in great shape, unlike BIR when I saw it this summer.

I did take it slow for a few reasons and I learned more than I thought I could in 2 days about my bike and cornering. In one aspect it got boring going around the same corners over and over again but on the other side of the coin it was nice knowing what was coming up ahead and trying to ride it better each time.

Overall it was a great first time track experience. I will get some pics up soon and try to get a video as well if I can figure out how to shorten the ones I have.

[supraman]

Video? 

My POV (I group) with GPS data overlay, last session of the weekend:

http://youtu.be/olMurdibQuc?hd=1

My POV (I group) with GPS data overlay, 2nd to last session of the weekend:

http://youtu.be/3wGtR1wrI0U?hd=1&t=2m10s

Dan following me out in I group:

http://youtu.be/V8Np61u7Ito?hd=1

[Jared]

That's pretty freakin cool.  What kind of set up do you have to get the GPS and lap time info to overlay on the video?  Did you have to sync them or is it automatic?

[supraman]

Thanks! 

Used the Trackmaster Android app on my phone, paired with a 10hz bluetooth GPS puck (QStarz 818xt) to capture the data. Then used Dashware software to combine and synchronize the video and overlay. The process is manual, but it's pretty easy. In the software you can set the sync point where you think it's close (I set the stop/start line on the actual stop/start line which made a great point of reference) then hit play and watch the location marker travel around the track in very high res which makes it easy to check your sync point. Both video's took me about 30s to sync. The phone app worked so well I'm considering holding off on getting an expensive dedicated GPS lap timer next season

[carlson_mn]

Awesome guys.  Ben is your GP set at 127 or 170 degree field of view for those vids?  They look great. 

[supraman]

While all the videos I shot this summer/fall on forum rides were 960p/180 FOV, I switched to 1080p/127 FOV recently and shot the above track videos in it. Besides the higher res which makes it look sharper, with the narrower field of view it is possible for something to look "close" in the shot without actually rubbing tires.

[carlson_mn]

I think I like the 127 better if the field of view needed allows for it. 

Oh and I'm pretty jealous over this trip down to Barber too! 

[burn-z]

Nice videos Ben. I still haven't been able to edit any of mine but somebody posted up some from Int group for both days. He just happened to be two bikes behind when I was hit by the 1198 from behind in T2. Looking at my footage we were going between 60-65 mph when we collided. He is behind me and the 1198 and we turn into T1 at about 13:04 and it happens right at 13:10. The other bike is behind me for the rest of the session. I'm not sure where the Duc went.

NESBA_Barber11-12-11_6th_Igroup.MP4

[supraman]

Damn, I heard about the collision but just assumed it was a love tap in a braking zone, didn't realize it was mid-corner. Glad both of you kept it upright. Kind of looks like he was taking a wider line then you and when you came around him and cut back towards the inside you clipped him, in any case glad the only damage was a scuffed exhaust canister! 

He got some nice footage of you for the rest of the session too, nice riding. 

[tk]

Thanks for posting the vids people. It appears that the sight lines thru some of those corners are very limited. Good that nobody appeared to go down in that  T2 incident in the last vid.

[burn-z]

Damn, I heard about the collision but just assumed it was a love tap in a braking zone, didn't realize it was mid-corner. Glad both of you kept it upright. Kind of looks like he was taking a wider line then you and when you came around him and cut back towards the inside you clipped him, in any case glad the only damage was a scuffed exhaust canister! 

He got some nice footage of you for the rest of the session too, nice riding. 

Although not clear in the video from this angle, I was past him before we tipped in. I rode the same line I always took through there. I think he didn't like getting passed, stayed on the gas late and went wide before he hit me. My rear was definately clear of his front before I turned in. In my video it's clear I passed before the corner entrance as you can see him on the side as I went past. It wasn't like I pulled a Simoncelli on him... when Marco clipped Pedrosa's front wheel going around the outside and they both went down. lol

[cbreater]

I think most organizations would agree that it is the responsability of the passing rider to make a clean and safe pass (both of which look questionable to me given the outcome).  Some of what took place in the video no doubt had to do with the passer's choice of overtaking place and line choice as well as the passie.  You may well have been in front of him technically but if he's looking through a right hand corner when you do he may not have seen you until it was too late.  Had you held your line on the outside and made a clean sweeping pass he would have been allowed to finish his line.

Since it's an intermediate session at a track day and far from a race I probably would have been a little upset with the choice to pass in that manner and blatant line choice had I been the Duc rider. 
Of course I wasn't there and it's only my opinion, which doesn't matter at home either so...Alas, no harm no foul. 

[burn-z]

Here is the video from my GoPro. I passed the 1198 at 2:06 on the straight before T2. You can see him on the extreme right as I went past at a decent pace. Both of us and the bike in front were still vertical and you can see we are well before the turn from the edge of the track. I tipped in and contact was made at 2:10. You can see me look over my shoulder in the reflection in my dash. Things happen very quickly but from the time I went past to the time my tire was hit was over 3 seconds. At 60+ mph that is a lot of distance. I can't say I'm 100% not at fault but I don't take unnecessary risks passing on the track. I'd rather just let someone go by than push it. There was plenty of sketchy passing going on all weekend though. NESBA allows passing on the inside or outside of any straight as long as bikes are still "vertical." However the "vertical" portion of this rule is pushed quite a bit. Other than that, Int group can pass on the outside of any corner. The whole bump didn't bother me too much and I just continued to ride out the session with no worries. The pace of the NESBA Int group is pretty quick and much faster than a ZARS Int group.

NESBA Barber T2 incident with 1198