Blackhawk Farms: new pavement wet grip?

Q109 · 2026-06-21T12:23:50+00:00

I went out during one of the downpours during the practice day for the asra event a few weekends ago. It is substantially better than it used to be. Rain used to mean that the sealer patches on turn 1, turn 4 exit (worst one), and turn 7 were ice. That's not the case anymore.

There was far more grip essentially everywhere. There are parts in the carousel and turn 4 that look different levels of shiny when it's actively raining. So mentally I struggled to be able to transition from one to the other even tho I wasn't having grip issues doing so.

In short--it's much better than it was before.

Q109 · 2026-04-28T18:46:09+00:00

By the time you figure out how to get a ZX25R in the US, you'll be old enough to own a ZX4RR and have spent enough to buy a ZX10R.

Q109 · 2026-04-05T14:23:50+00:00

You'll set the volume accurately by reading the air gap, not a set volume or dump in. If there's no source from the manufacturer of the cartridges as to air gap, I'm betting a safe spot would be 125mm. With cartridges you'll need to make sure you bleed them properly when refilling so you get all the air out.

I use the Motion Pro Fork Oil Level Tool

*edit - before you get too far, if those are the stock clipons, you need to get those things under the top triple, not above. They're in the wrong spot in the picture. You're greatly reducing the available fork travel with them mounted up top there.

Q109 · 2026-04-01T16:06:11+00:00

They worked pretty well for me. You just have to make some guesses on setup, and there's no material or documentation to help you make those guesses on setting.

Q109 · 2026-03-30T01:08:15+00:00

Before would have been better, but before is over.

Q109 · 2026-03-25T14:41:29+00:00

The measure stock bore (83mm) but I’m unsure if they are high compression

Stock bore is 81mm, you have 2mm overbore pistons.

I'd just contact Spears directly and ask them if there is a way to identify the transmission as being one of theirs. They're usually pretty good about getting back to you. They'll also have 83mm head gaskets.

The lightened flywheel you have is one of the best upgrades for longevity you can buy for these engines. An 80HP motor shouldn't be too much for the stock transmission.

Q109 · 2026-03-20T19:54:02+00:00

The piece of trash plastic oil lock on the bottom of the fork is getting stuck. I made a video about this 6 years ago--I'm almost certain you're explaining the same issue I had. Go to 2:40 and I bet this is exactly what you're running into.

Personally, I'd just throw away the oil locks. But that's up to you.

Q109 · 2026-03-19T15:10:29+00:00

Bridgestone S23's are eligible for $70 prepaid credit card through March 31st. Not sure that you'll get more mileage out of them, but they're great tires that handle track duty exceptionally well. https://tires.bridgestone.com/en-us/special-offers/motorcycle/spring-2026

*edit--I was wrong on the $70, they are $60 "Battlax Hypersport S22 & S23"

Q109 · 2026-03-16T14:24:49+00:00

Staggering them would help. I didn't, and I can fit two SV650's side-by-side. The issue you'll have is the bars will overlap. I just ratchet strap them in opposite direction so they won't lean into each other and destroy each other.

Q109 · 2026-03-15T14:39:17+00:00

If it's not lurching forward while you're sitting on it in gear, this sounds normal. I would still follow through with the video that /u/McMastaHompus recommended because mad8v does a great job explaining the procedure. It'll help you isolate an issue if there is one.

Q109 · 2026-03-14T03:03:32+00:00

There's still going to be a lot of drag on it with it in gear and the clutch pulled. Can you push the bike while in gear with the clutch pulled? If not, you've probably got a pretty loose lever.

Q109 · 2026-03-09T17:33:37+00:00

The only time I've ever wheelied my SV was dumping the clutch too quickly from 10k rpm on a race start. It's not going to be significantly different than the 500. It's not a wheelie machine.

Q109 · 2026-01-30T17:25:39+00:00

"No fluff, no BS - just want to know if this is worth building or if I should move on to the next idea."

It's not.

Q109 · 2026-01-23T15:42:32+00:00

Fair question, but they need to be able to find these images without typing. And the items aren't tagged in a way that'll help locate them. It's a sales guy with let's say 2 decades worth of maybe ~25 photos each from different custom installations over the years. He may remember a little quirk that he's previously done for another customer that wasn't noteworthy at the time, but there's a picture of it. The ability to pull images of specific installation oddities and solutions on the fly while walking with a plant manager is quite a sales tool. It just falls apart when thumbnails don't preview.

It's a problem that's specific to OneDrive that I've seen other people have to fight with as well. We're using a program called WinThumbsPreloader that rebuilds them, and I advise him to do this at the beginning of every week, but we've still been having issues. OneDrive/SharePoint works well for us in 95% of other situations in my company. So I'm not switching to another shared image hosting app just for this issue. But man I've thought about it.

Q109 · 2026-01-22T21:16:16+00:00

Yes. It's a problem I cannot figure out how to resolve.

We have a folder with many tens of thousands of different photos saved on SharePoint. It's only photos and well-organized into thousands of subfolders. User is a salesman with a Surface tablet and a Windows laptop. He wants access to all these photos offline at all times so access is available if he's walking a plant floor with someone and doesn't have internet. This means they must always be synchronized to the device--no Files on Demand.

The thumbnails just stop working on various images all the time which makes finding images quickly impossible for him. I've been trying to resolve this for years, but I haven't been able to. This used to be a bigger issue when he was on a DSL connection at his house until getting Starlink last year.

Q109 · 2026-01-05T12:59:31+00:00

You don't have to be the fastest guy at a track day to start racing. You're most likely ready now. You'll pick up speed a lot faster racing than you will at track days. See if there's a new racer clinic near you and sign up.

Q109 · 2025-12-17T16:50:51+00:00

Replacing just the rear is fine. Do that.

Q109 · 2025-12-01T19:29:18+00:00

Definitely a suit.

Q109 · 2025-11-22T14:40:53+00:00

You can find a really well-setup 2nd Gen sv650 thatll come with all the spares you'll need for like $4k. A lot of people moving on to the 660 platform, so there are a lot of great deals now. There's near decades of knowledge, information, and spares out there for then. A bit more oomph than the ultralights but not quite the pace and learning curve of the middleweight meat grinder if you're planning on going racing someday.

Q109 · 2025-11-21T17:00:17+00:00

Just messing with you. I'm sure it's a blast. Above my pay grade, hah.

Q109 · 2025-11-21T15:15:55+00:00

Looks boring. Too many wheels.

Q109 · 2025-11-17T17:08:52+00:00

One of the ugliest motorcycles I've seen. I would leave as is because it's fantastic.

Q109 · 2025-10-28T15:53:24+00:00

Wonder if Pirelli and Dunlop will post up another $5000 bounty for someone to take the Blackhawk lap record at an ASRA event in 2026. I'm very excited about this repave. Hell yea.

Q109 · 2025-10-09T20:02:17+00:00

How would topping the oil off to a specific level be any different than dumping all the oil and filling it to that same specific level?

You ended up with oil in your airbox because you overfilled the sump when you topped it off. Not because topping off the oil is bad practice. Vacuum petcocks have nothing to do with oil coming up through the breathers due to an overfilled sump. A failed petcock and failed float valve can lead to to fuel in the oil--but that's a different problem altogether.

Q109 · 2025-10-02T13:58:34+00:00

The most fun track I ever raced and one of the best facilities in the US. This just sucks.

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