VIR North and Barber Motorsports Park

[ridgerunner]

Red bike is a 2004 Aprilia Tuono RSV1000. Black bike is a 2004 Honda CBR600RR. Both excellent track weapons with two totally different ways of delivering power around a racetrack.

Barber:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/600RidgeRunner/VIR001.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/600RidgeRunner/_JON4041.jpg

VIR South Course exiting the oak tree:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/600RidgeRunner/VIR002-1.jpg

VIR North:
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/600RidgeRunner/2004%20Aprilia%20Tuono/VIR%20North%20June%2025%202007/Tuonokneedown.jpg

http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g186/600RidgeRunner/2004%20Aprilia%20Tuono/VIR%20North%20June%2025%202007/Tuonoprofile.jpg

[Skeen]

Cool. Looks like you lay the CBR down more than the Aprilia. Is that the case in general, or just where the pictures happened to be taken?

[ridgerunner]

Hehe, its actually a little of both. Barber is such a highly cambered track that all the pics look like they are leaned over farther. I wore through two sets of knee pucks in one weekend there. The CBR by its design is a lower profile bike than the Tuono. The Tuono is set up with the handlebars vs. clip-ons so that sets the rider up higher in the seat as well.

The Aprilia has mucho more ground clearance, and my toes are thankful. I regularly scraped my toe sliders on the CBR even when fitted with aftermarket rearsets to move them higher. I never scrape them on the Aprilia though... yet. :rockon:

[jstecher]

Being familar with the CBR but not the Aprilla I would expect the 1000cc girl to have a little more lower end than the CBR and it would change the riding style significantly. Does having more power make it easier or harder to drive. Was reading cycle world and they were talking about the new GSX-R 1000 being a lot easier to drive with the new power control settings they have. I think they found most people were faster with limiting the bikes power.

Pics are sweet man! :D

[ridgerunner]

The Aprilia has more low end grunt than you could imagine. The CBR's are inline four engines with a redline of 15,000 rpms, and she wasn't really making power until about 8-9K where the secondary injectors would engage, and the ram air was effective. For any given time on the track, the CBR was an excercise in patience,a nd endurance. I had to really ride that bike, and stay in the throttle to keep the revs and power up. Peak output horsepower for the 600 was 109bhp @ the rear wheel and 38 lb/ft of torque. She weighed 427# wet.

Comparing the strictly numbers, the Aprilia doesn't seem too much different. The Tuono has a peak power of 113 @ the rear wheel w/ 60 lb/ft of torque. All this at a respectable 450# wet. The big factor between these two is engine configuration and power delivery. The Aprilia is a 60 degree V-Twin. Totally different characteristic with regards to how the power is used on a track. With the Aprilia, I feel much more laid back, I don't have to be on the edge of reason and sanity for the whole session. The twin pulls like a locomotive with any input from the throttle hand, and the power comes on almost instantly. Granted, she redlines at 10,500 but I am making much more power at 10.5K than at the same rpms on the little Honda.

Hope that makes sense. :stupid:

I've heard many mixed reviews on the new GSXR-1000 and its switch selectable maps. Most riders opt for a Power Commander that plugs into their ECU. This is then ultimately programmable from any laptop with the software and a USB cable. Specs such as air/fuel mixture, rev limiter, custom maps, and more are available with the latest version. I have not installed one yet, as the price-to-gain ratio isn't there for me yet. I can get more performance from a great set of track tires, and more track time than the latest greatest techno goodies.