fattiremike

Glad to be of help. I will give you an example of an occassion where it really helped me out when I was a bit perplexed. At PR, I was stuck. I couldn't break 1.38's, but I had turned one lap that was in the 1.36's. Now, I couldn't figure out why that one lap was quicker, or what I had done to make it quicker. Upon downloading the data later on, I discovered that on that one lap for some reason I was WOT before the apex of T7, as in WOT a couple of bike lengths before the turn, reaching the apex while simultaneously hitting the powerband. The resulting corner exit speed threw me into T8 and T9 much, much faster. I did not know this when I was on the bike. It was only later on, placing laps on top of each other and using the TPS tool that I figured out what was going on. That subtle change was worth 2 seconds in such a short distance! I would have never believed it, but the GPX doesn't lie!

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ww73

Got an Android phone?

http://trackmaster.trackaroo.com/welcome

The developer lives in the Eastside, so you'll be supporting a local guy.

Pair it w/ a Qstarz GPS via bluetooth.

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Gnarly 928

I talked to some rider at ORP who had android based timing on their track outings. They love it. Many use a free one from Pirelli, I think, but I chose the Trackmaster after reading up on it and looking at millions of others...(well, a dozen anyhow) I have yet to use it but it gets rave reveiws. I have long used a Garmin GPS cyclecomputer for timing my bike racing and training...Very helpful and dead simple....You simply set a point at the start and the device times everything and gives other data.

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TJC

I recommend a GPS + smart-phone solution too.* You get a self-contained setup on your bike, no trackside IR transmitter. And they're pretty cheap (assuming you aleady own a smart phone).

But definitely get a good GPS unit. The GPS built into your phone doesn't have the refresh rate or the accuracy you'll want.

An IR beacon and timer is going to give you one piece of data per lap: your time. A decent GPS-based smartphone app will collect your speed, position, and orientation several times each second. For a lap of Pacific Raceways you could get 1000 data points. As others have pointed out, having that much precise data makes understanding your riding alot easier.





*disclaimer: I'm working on a similar app at the moment so I'm biased

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residentcourt1

I used the android based track data tool (Diablo Super Biker ) this year. I was pretty amazed by all the data, e.g., lean angle, speed, laps, etc.

Pro's : it's free. Con's : it shows me how slow I am

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soggydoo

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Gnarly 928

For general information: If you do use an infared beacon timer you need to place the beacon with the other ones on the track...usually at the start/finish line. I was testing at Thunderhill in Ca. and I'd just acquired a timing set up for my Porsche racer. I was pitted by turn 13 on the back straight and being lazy and rushed for time, as usual at most track outings, I set up my timing beam through the fence behind my pit....
A few sessions later, I got a visit from some irate 'pro-Driver's Ed' guys, who clued me in that my beacon was ruining their lap time recordings....Duh......

Then I went to an AMB transponder, which works with a wire imbeded into the tracks...The races are scored by computer using that finish line wire and your transponder's serial number. Most tracks provided a readout of lap times as a service, or you could buy an attachment and get the readouts on your own machine.

With a GPS based system...none of that is now needed, I guess. They probably still require an AMB transponder to race cars, though. Easy for the organizers.

"Simple" is the key for the track...One doesn't 'need' any more things to do when going round a track at speed...Focus on the important stuff like tire pressures, temps, braking points....etc etc. Wondering if you are 'getting' laptimes and all the 'splits' recorded, or getting your Go Pro pics?...I guess if you have any 'extra' attention, that is kinda fun, but I found, when racing at least, that every extra distraction I could eliminate helped me get more consistent results on the track...
Don Hanson

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TJC

The GPS lap timers aren't going to give the accuracy of an IR or AMB. So for professional races that only care about lap times I imagine they're not sufficient.

For a lot of track-day folks getting lap times within a few tenths of a second (which is doable with a smart phone system) is sufficient. And getting within a few hundredths (doable with smart phone paired with a good external GPS) is great. But if you need to get within a few a thousandths GPS isn't going to do it. The position error is too great and the update rate is too slow.

I agree you can get too much information. But you can also get too little. As a occasional track rider my laps aren't so consistent that a single data point every 2 minutes is enough. I like having a simple real-time indicator that compares the current lap to my previous lap or best lap. Something I can glance at occasionally and see my progress.

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