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Ya gotta work with what you have.  I do NOT plan on dying healthy, nor do I intend on dying, laying in a bed whimpering and withering away.  I want to have as much fan as possible, even if it's painful the next day.      The only thing that will stop me is if for some reason I become dangerous to those around me.  If I end up killing myself, oh well but if I get so decrepit that am starting to be a major danger to other around me, then it's over.  Otherwise,  game on !!

When Im in my 80s and still racing, Ill see if I can get Geritol and Depends to sponsor me!  Maybe they'll have a league and we can race our rasquals around the lunch room

Aaron

I race mine, while I am nowhere near what would be considered an expert, I still pound the shit out of it, battery wise.
I'll slam the throttle trying to go as fast as I can go, for the 20 seconds or so I have to do so in the space that i am doing 140 MPH in, then hump the brakes and especially regen.  I use FULL regen and use it constantly to help me in turns, stopping, etc,  it's constantly being moved around.
Now whether that is helping or hurting my overall progress, remains to be seen but for the sake of this convo, im constantly moving current, often times LARGE amounts of it, in and out of the battery.

When I get into the paddock, Ill throw it on the fast charger to bring it up to 94 percent.  ( I don't do 100 percent, because as I said, I use regen and there needs to be a place to put it to use it ! )  Once it's charged, I'll get it and get me ready for my next 20 minute session of hammering the bike on the track.

Normal sessions, 20 minutes on,  40 off.

Better sessions, 30 minutes on,  30 off.  (low turnout days, they'll combine expert / Intermediate into one,  novice in other)

Premium sessions, open track, you do whatever you want  (this generally is when I am invited to a private group to race / play)  or if there is a rainout and most the people say, im takling my toys and I'm going home, but a few hard core dummies, such as me go, screw it, I paid for this, im racing in the rain!   

anyways, the bike is getting a fair amount of power transfer.
Now, my bike is pitch ass BLACK,  BLACK bike,   sitting in the hot ass Florida sun, charging, discharging....  Trust me, that black bike can get hot as shit under the sun, and the battery is right under those fairings, in that hot box.

Only once have I pushed it hard enough to run it into the Yellow, and THAT was when I let a professional racer use the bike who is capable of hitting 150 MPH or more on the back stretches, and much faster speeds overall than I currently am.

I hate standing blistering in the sun, especially wearing 25 pounds of Leather / Armor / Helmet/ ... you get the idea, so I set up a tarp / canopy.
Under the canopy the bike so far has never hit yellow let alone hard yellow.

Bike 2:

I ride my Ribelle on the highway,  I like to ride spirited.  Im not one of those assholes who wants to weave and zip in and out back and forth thru traffic, if there's traffic Ill stay my lane... that other shit is just too dangerous and sooner or later those clowns get pulled in front of and end up as road pizza.  NOW..... If I get an open spot, or bit of pavement that has no obstructions, I have been accused of opening the throttle up a bit.  Sunday mornings, fairly early,  for some reason, my throttle likes to get stuck when I open it, and sometimes it takes me several miles to figure out how to get it back down again... I need to work on that....

Fairly hard but consistent riding for MILES ..... charge.... go to next destination.
WHen it's July / August in Florida and blistering Fkn hot, mid 90s out.  Ive turned it yellow fairly often after say 20 minutes of harder running.
To date I really can not say where I have seen it curtail my fun power level.    Once or twice I have seen it back off my fast charge to say 40 amps or so,  if it's real bad, like I just did a WOT for 12 miles straight on a hot ass day, ive seen it limit me to 25 amps.. but I really need to be abusive to get it to do that,

Unless you are riding your bike hot and hard, I honestly do not  thing a normal user is going to have any issues with the battery charging and stuff like that.

If you live in North Florida or nearby, I'll take you for a track day and we can show you first hand if you want.

Aaron

Nice, those look pretty decent.  My last bustoff the handle got smashed into the sand as the bike went over and it landed on it.  Being able to fold back is a really good feature but what about being smashed axially?  Might not do so well there.  Still though that'd be good when maneuvering in tight places, like the garage, lining bikes up and getting a wee bit close to a wall or another bike etc.

Thank you for that post.
Aaron

@Stonewolf,  or just idling,  maintenance throttle or gliding down it's making noise, yah it's time to tighten.
BUT on the other hand, if you are at idle and you are walking the bike or going real slow and can feel the bump bump of the motor poles, then it's too tight, you over tightened it,  back it off a flat or 2.

Aaron

Fortunately I have not seen any of these sort of issues, in fact they look forward to me showing up.  They get a real blast out of seeing the bike fly up behind someone on the track and hear it whizzing by like a space ship I've been called before.

Just for peace of mind, this is something I might want to self invest in, at least the blanket, and tell them if I ever wreck this thing really bad, just throw it out in the middle of the field, throw this blanket over it and I'll arrange to get it picked up.

I bring my own fast charger to the track, but have it toned WAYYYY down to only do 50 amps out of the Nema 14=50 that is available there.  The wiring there is outside and old as shit, not in the best shape.  I wonder if they'd let me set up a station to fast charge and hard wire it etc.  Supposedly this summer they are getting some of their power redone, maybe I can work with someone at the same time to get me a 100 amp station set up

Aaron

So for today, we are running in the rain.
I decided to run the track in the rain, because. well, wtf not?  I paid for the day, why piss away 180 bucks?
Actually, it's good to KNOW how to do something, the more you know, the more you are able to perform when it is demanded from you, rather than you volunteering to do it.

id rather learn how to run in the rain, on my own, by MY choice, and know how to work the bike, and stay safe, so that if I find myself getting CAUGHT in the rain unwanted (cough cough, I live in florida, what do you think THOSE odds are? ) I can continue to run safe.

It wasn't that bad really, seriously.  For those who are skittish, give it a shot, it's really NOT that bad.
Do I need to do 128 mph on the back side, umm no, probably 105 is plenty, back your pace down, go easier into the turns, but otherwise, run your race the way you normally do, you'll know if you are getting close to edges of boundries.

The bike weighs 600 Lbs, it's going to get decent traction, I am sure the weight helps there a bit.
Is it going to slide and fling and hydroplane all over the place,. well.   not unless you are running slicks.
Who's going to run slicks in the rain?  NOBODY is that much of an idiot... I hope.

Just regular DOT tires,  the Continental Attack 2's I want to say ///they are front and back, did the trick nicely.  I hit some corners under speed, YES you CAN hear the tires gripping in the rain!!  you can hear the water, .. for lack of a better word,  tearing when you are running a wet track and tire shear is going on.

The take away here is, the bike performed superbly in the rain, in fact, I was slammin it!!!  The adrenaline rush was on, and I was hammering it and the bike was my faithful partner.....

then the lightning started hitting everywhere and they called the rest of the day off.   $#^%&^%^%

Ok, back to the point, if you have decent tires on your bike and it's raining out, don't be afraid,  the Energica's are designed to perform extremely well in adverse conditions.  If you are on a street bike, you have Traction Control which will be working overtime to save your ass.  My race bike does not have TC so that's on ME, and even though I was hitting it a bit hot every now and then, it's not like the bike just jumped and went crazily out of control, it was VERY well mannered in less than nice road conditions.

There were some standing puddles.  One of the instructors made a comment, don't worry about puddles, I hit them all the time, it's no big deal.

Now I don't swerve out of the way of puddles, doing that on a track is a HUGE no no !!! but I generally do alter my track line slightly to avoid them, I mean, why purposely go thru  an area you know is less than ideal?  SAFETY!!  However after hearing the instructor say no big deal, Ok, I want to try it now,  ramp it up, see how much of a 'no big deal' it really is.

If the puddle is 3 inches deep, NO you probably do NOT want to go thru that, especially at 80 MPH, that's an accident waiting to happen, especially if there is any lean in there.  But if it's just a bit of standing water,  guess what... it's no big deal... your 600 LB bike will slug right thru that like it was nothing.  I hit the patch of standing water several times at increasing aggressiveness to see what my limits were on water sports 

The bike really didn't seem to notice much.  This is a well designed bike, and if your tires are not bald, it'll bring you thru nice and safe.

Don't be afraid of rain, it's amazing how many people ARE afraid of it !!!  We DO have an advantage though, our regen is stupid good awesome, engine braking, it'll stop you very nicely in rain / on wet roads.  you got the EB  use it, it will make life a LOT easier for you.  You will be amazed how quick a high setting EB can stop you on wet pavement along with a gentle braking and do so safely and sanely.

in a way it's kind of sad, how badly, Regen is Under - Understood on Electric bikes on how valuable a tool it really is and can be.  Everyone focus' on the power saving aspect of it, which in reality is kind of bullshit, and totally ignores the  handling capabilities it now gives you.  I wonder why the manu's don't go down this route as a selling item?



Well, tomorrow will be the last day for a while at Jennings, so ill be working on the trailer, getting it all spiffied up, and the possibly hitting other tracks and continuing to report how the bike is running.  Let's hope it don't rain too much, however. I almost wish I had a set of rain tires, Id be really interested to see how well the bike performs on those .vs. just the regular dot's.  I don't think there will be a lot of diff for most people unless you are just really in a swamp.

Aaron

Curt that is the big thing is cracking down on where they can bring their stuff.
In florida they make it very difficult to recycle restricted materials.
on one hand it makes it a major pain in the ass for legit recyclers such as myself, especially when the piggy poo detective who gets assigned to follow that, wants to be a gaping asshole, just because he can.  But on the other hand, it makes the thieves work a lot harder for their money.  They can just take their stuff up the road to georgia who doesn't give a rats ass BUT they do watch the road and god help you get caught going across state lines with stolen goods, especially with the intent of selling them.

ENFORCING the law will stop most the theft.  Ca is an area typically where theft is ignored, hence the out of control problems.
Get caught in Florida sawing on someone's car and you'll be shot on sight.   Just saying.
Aaron

I hit the track again today,  been fairly often here and doing a 3 day'er since this will be the last for the season here at Jennings, they close until about september for the heat. 

Today was a private day, the guy rents out the track and lets 15 of us in on it, it's an open track, we come and go as we please.
Basic rules are
1. BE CIVIL to each other, it's a track day not thunderdome
2. Have a goal, work on something, you want to work on better times on turn 1 work it, etc  even if your goal is just to have fun, have fun.
3. MIND your track time, don't overdo it, don't get hazy brain and end up in the grass because you ran for 40 minutes straight.

So I put the EGO to max power level to play.  Yah, I need to be careful.  Im working on my suspension, getting everything tweaked in and running the bike since I am getting quite a bit better with it,with all the riding Ive been doing.  My lap times are occasionally in the 1.30's now and my speeds are up in the 130's too occasionally on the back end.

Well, it turns out that most the people there, are no strangers to a track, and pretty much every one of them have not seen an electric bike before, so unknown to me, until about lunch, I had quite an audience and a 'following'.  Pretty much everyone there had something to say about how the bike performed, and given I am nowhere near being able to really put on a show with my limited experience.. that's majorly impressive for the bike!

About 120 ish MPH the front end was getting jittery, it was bouncing around a bit and I didn't like that so I talked to him, saying, what could this be,rebound or what?  Well immediately the guy who was following me (that I didn't know was following) says, there's nothing wrong with your suspension, it's the stupid torque that thing puts out.  I was trying to pass you, you held your own pretty good into the corners, so I said, ok Ill catch him on the straight away and pass him,  YOU started putting the throttle to the thing about halfway thru the turn and by the time you were straight you stomped on it,  I was full throttle, I could not keep up, the torque on that thing is just crazy, I seen your front end, you are starting to lift it when you romp the throttle, it's not the shocks bouncing, it's the front end getting light and coming up.

I did not believe it at first, I was like, dude, I was doing 116, I don't think that was a wheelie, and he said,yah and your bike wanted to go from 116 to 166 in a few seconds! you left me behind like I was on a mini bike, you are lifting your front end, I seen it Im telling you.

So now I get to work on throttle control, or more specifically, my riding position,  I need to try to keep hunched forward more and not sit up as much to try to keep the weight forward to keep the front end down if I want to hammer the throttle in straight aways.  It is fun though, I mean, it's pretty much twist and hold on, literally, hold on, the bike IS taking off!

Laying down on the bike, and sitting up, your perspective on the track changes SIGNIFICANTLY !!  You don't see nearly as much stuff laying down as sitting up,  you BETTER know that track if you are going to assume race position or you may find yourself running off real fast when a corner comes up that you misjudged because you were on an even plane of eyesight with it and misjudged how close it was.  I find that more and more I am running on muscle memory, and oddly, when I am pre occupied and running muscle mem thru the areas I am familiar with, I tend to do better laps when I am not actively focusing on them.  Cursing at the latest bug to explode on my visor is a good example of being pre occupied.  I swear these miserable huge locusts have a radar on them,  my nickname should be the Bug Magnet.

Another thing I find is that wow, it's a long reach from the seat to the handlebars of the EGO.  Then again it IS pretty much purely a racing bike, the goal it to get streamlined, not necessarily comfy.

I also finally put tank grips on the bike and wow what a world of difference they made, holy cow.  The head is big and slippery on that bike, I was finding myself sliding around a bit, and the legs were not really holding to steer as they should so I was using more arm / handlebar to do the job, and that was wearing me out, and of course putting input into the handlebars,  not always a good thing.  The bike steers much better now that I took  a few sessions to basically re learn how to DO it properly, and take the weight off my arms and more into the legs to maneuver.   With this I am finding the bike is VERY V E R Y, receptive to the slightest leg inputs to lean into a turn and really hold a line.  For the most part, I really don't need to swing my ass off the seat hugely and can just kind of lean or slip a butt cheek off and wham, im over and deep into the turn.  For as much as the bike weighs, it's pretty amazing on how little input you really need to get her to swing right over and do what you need.  Still though, wrasslin a 600 pound bike will wear your ass OUT at the end of the day !!

Im also liking the 190 / 55 tires on it too, over the 200 / 65s that were originally on it.  Slicks, ok I can see the big fatties maybe but dot's the smaller ones give me a much better turn radius.  Plus I am getting several days out of the tires instead of just a few.  My last set lasted 4 days on the connie attack 2's before I burnt them up finally.

Well dammit, now that I am finally getting sort of good, and really learning how to make the bike perform the season will be over for some months.  Well, this will give me some time to get the trailer fully put together and decked out so I can then travel wherever I need to with the bike.  Taledega, Carolina Motorsports, etc,  Here I come !

Aaron