So there I was preparing for our first trackday of the year to Le Mans for two days in July, me on my Crossplane R1 and the missus on the GSXR and wondering the best way to see if there were any improvements between sessions, and of course from the first session to the last.
Also, having purchased a rare NSR250se with HRC card (it replaces the speedo with a temperature gauge) I wasn’t satisfied what the builder had done with the speedo – essentially a bicycle speedo with cable down the fork leg held in place by a cable tie, it looked really poor and I knew whatever laptimer I purchased would be ideal if it had a speedo function so I could tidy up the NSR.
So my search began for a product that fitted my criteria, namely.
- GPS laptimer
- No button pressing when riding bike, it needed to know the start/finish line
- Log data on Gforce
- Multiple modes, a minimum of circuit (for R1) and speedometer (to us on the NSR)
- Export data to use with video camera footage
- If possible give me some way to analyse split times, so I know which laps/sectors I am improving on and which I am not.
My search began and took me to the usual suspects, AIM, HM both were too much, I didn’t need to replace my clocks, just a laptimer, so next I looked at Starlane, very nice looking but still wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
By chance I stumbled across a Taiwanese company called Qstarz who specialise in GPS units and devices, and their LT=Q6000 caught my eye.
It not only met all of my requirements, but had some that I had never thought of, but now I have used it make them undeniably important, so I ordered a couple up to play with.
They arrived within 5 days and I excitedly went about opening the pack, wow some companies should take a leaf out of Qstarz book, the packaging is a simply stunning and only hyped up then excitement another notch !
I opened one of the boxes to see the main unit in the middle of some faux suede, this is how it would be packaged if it was made by Apple I thought to myself, as I took it out, and lifed the suede panel to review the motorcycle mount, charging cable, CD-Rom and the instruction manual, this was great !
I went about fitting one to the R1, the unit is about the same size as a pack of cigarettes, and comes with a motorcycle (or car suction cup) with 3M tape to stick it to the bike. There was no where I could fit it to the R1 in the cockpit area that didn’t obscure the bikes dash or affect the steering lock, so I stuck it to the airbox cover as that is out of the way but yet me be able to look at it without taking my eyes off the circuit, here it is fitted.
And off we went to Le Mans. More to follow soon.