When I first drove this steaming pile of slag, I noticed that I was on limiter for what feels like half the back straight. This seemed incorrect to me.
What I was told is that this is normal for lo206, that you want to gear for the corners since there is so little power. But then Tanguy rented Pignataro’s margay and here’s where he was hitting limiter:
The red line across track is where tanguys kart was hitting limiter, my current position in photo is where my noodle kart is hitting limiter. Massive difference.
This might have something to do with why the kart feels so light in the nose. I played a lot with gearing in KK and gearing the kart for corners does make it edgier and harder to drive smoothly. Yes it can be faster, but it is much fiddler and harder to get throttle to be smooth and well considered.
The fella who sold me the kart is a very good karter but he’s considerably smaller than me, physically. It could be that what is right for him is not right for me.
I asked one of the other employees for gearing but they don’t want to share with me.
I’m sort of stuck because I don’t want to offend the guy who is working there by saying your gearing seems off, but my other contact there is not helpful in this regard.
Any thoughts? Any of you have a starting point for me ovrp lo206 gearing. I can just order some sprockets and do it myself.
I doubt that it will feel very different in terms of handling. Gearing shouldn’t make much difference on ‘feel-able’ torque in the infield on something as low power as a 206, but maybe.
I would also imagine a lighter driver would be geared lower than you, so he would be on the limiter even more than you are.
Also, I know you’re sh*tting on the kart for comedic effect mostly, but careful of sinking into the mindset that it’s all the kart’s fault. It’s easy to mentally dig yourself into a hole, thinking the kart is just totally unsalvageable, when there could be other issues.
Hard to believe that nobody would share the gearing with you, at least within a tooth or two! I would say you need to drop about two teeth on the rear. I would buy 4-5 sprockets and play around with gearing. What works for someone else might not work for you. It’s all trial and error.
I am relatively new to this but this is the first kart that has made me feel bad. And, I have driven some pretty gnarly rentals that were more engaging.
Yes, it’s a different driving style and yes it’s 90% me, most likely. That being said, I was fine at ovrp, pace wise, in the rentals again at the enduro. I ran sub 52 laps which was within .5ish of the fastest of the day. That’s a big difference from 4 seconds off in the margay.
I’ve had to adapt to bent or broken karts and they felt better than this. It’s not to say it’s hopeless. I can learn, I guess. It just feels like I’m going to have to spend time adapting to something, driving around it.
I’ve never not wanted to go lap. This makes me feel like I don’t want to spend the time, money and brain cells on it. But I have no other options at this stage so I guess its just gonna have to be what it is and I am going to have to deal.
Where do you find yourself to be losing the most time? That could give you some idea of what hearing is quick.
In my recent video in wf you can see I’m on the rev limiter nearly a 1/3 of the track, and was still sorta quick, so bouncing off of it for a lot of the track isn’t necessarily bad. Maybe your transition from rentals back to 206 changed some of your driving habits?
I haven’t really gotten a gauge on times yet. It’s early days and I was not able to get lap times when I went for test day last week. Apparently you have to load the track into mychron memory because it was not discoverable.
In so far as driving rentals changing driving habits, maybe. I don’t really feel like that’s the case in that I hop around vehicles frequently and this is an other order magnitude different/weird.
That’s not to say I’m not driving incorrectly. I refuse to believe that there is a totally different technique but maybe that’s my problem. Maybe the Hoosiers and the skinny tubing makes everything totally different.
As compared to the massively thick and rigid tubes of a rental kart, I am sure the 28mm lo chassis is different in how it flexes/reacts.
I race a Margay Ignite. All karts feel a little different, but other than the shifter, they all have felt more the same than they felt different. I run not that far off the Ignite manual recommended settings. I tend to widen up a little in the front to plant the outside back wheel more. This weekend I am going to try moving weight forward. I run about midpack in a very competitive field in St. Louis. First race of the season my gearing had me at rev limiter about 700 feet into 900 foot straight. Usually I find myself suprised how long I can be on rev limiter and still have the acceleration be more important than the lost top end, but 1/2 straight seems awful long.
That’s helpful to know, thank you. It’s comforting to hear that it doesn’t feel off or alien to you as compared to other stuff you drove. Means it’s fixable (or me).
low number slow acceleration? Big number better acceleration? low number long speed? low number long straight?
trying to think of some rhyme for people to remember it…
