quite an arrogant response there!
Arrogant: Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own importance or abilities.
In this context, you must be referring to me having an exaggerated sense of the abilities of my simulation. I could go into detail about how my simulation works if you really want me to, then you might understand how I have a non-exaggerated amount of confidence in the ability of my simulation to properly determine that a 1st gear launch is the fastest way to accelerate on an FZ6R.
Also, comparing to global warming models is quite unfair. Weather and climate are very complex and not understood well enough to be able to accurately model. What I am modeling in my simulations is quite simple and well-understood, at least at the scale that matters: engine torque multiplied through gear ratios and tire size to determine force of rear wheel against the road, force due to drag, etc.
So, from your calculations, you know the EXACT time it takes for EVERYONE to shift up??? Dont be foolish!
(NOTE: Knowing "exactly" how fast a particular person can shift is irrelevant. See towards the end of this post where I determined that you'd have to shift extraordinarily slow for 2nd gear to be faster)
No, but I know that I shift in about 0.32 seconds thanks to my data logger (incorrectly said 1/4 second earlier), and I am not at expert racer/shifter. If you can get up to 60mph, or a 1/4 mile on and FZ6R faster by starting in 2nd gear to "save time" from shifting from 1st to 2nd, then you are shifting very slow and should work on your shifting technique so you stop shortening your clutch life by slipping it longer to launch in 2nd. If you already can shift quickly, then you are botching something else about your 1st gear launch if you can do it quicker in 2nd. If you've beat other people in races using a 2nd gear launch technique, it only means that you were faster than that other person on their bike. If you launched properly in 1st, you would have beaten them by a larger margin.
I know the data and calculations are not 100% perfect, and they simulate ideal conditions, make some assumptions, and only simulate the most significant forces involved, etc. But the point is not to 100% accurately calculate exactly what a person in the real world will accomplish. There's no need to simulate tire deformation, tire temperature, suspension reactions to power output slightly changing aerodynamics, etc., to determine whether 1st gear or 2nd gear launch is faster. They're just not significant for this purpose.
The point is to be able to compare relative results of differences (launching in 1st vs 2nd, different sprocket sizes, different weight, etc) without ANY other variables messing with the results (differences in riders, conditions, rider error, etc). For that purpose, the data and calculations are quite adequate that if they show that launching in 2nd gear is 0.5s slower than launching in 1st, I am 100% confident in saying that launching in 1st gear is definitely faster than launching in 2nd on the FZ6R (assuming that you launch well and shift reasonably quickly).
Is it possible that some person in some circumstances with certain riding style can be faster by launching in 2nd (faster than themselves launching in 1st)? Sure. But that means that that person is doing something quite wrong while attempting to launch in 1st, because the bike is clearly capable of accelerating faster from a 1st gear launch.
Some examples:
Stock FZ6R, perfect hard launch at 8000 rpms (at max torque, fastest you could possibly launch). For a 2nd gear launch to be faster 0-60mph than a 1st gear launch (assuming all else equal), your shift from 1st to 2nd would have to be slower than 1 second.
You're not a racer doing high RPM launches and just want to know how things work "in the real world" on the streets? Let's go with a more reasonable 3000 rpm launch (much easier to manage, and more like an average rider's "quick launch" from a traffic light). In this situation, your 1st to 2nd gear shift would have to take more than 1.7 seconds in order for a 2nd gear launch to be faster! The less perfect a rider you are, the MORE beneficial it is to launch in 1st gear than 2nd gear.
Now these numbers are not 100% exactly accurate of a perfect physics simulation of real world conditions of course, but the relative comparisons (and trends) between different simulated situations have such significantly different results that it's highly unlikely that small amounts of rounding error in calculations (because I have to simulate physics in very small slices of time increments, rather than how the real world works continuously), slightly imperfect torque data due to linear interpolation between 100 RPM data points, lack of perfect simulation of the entire universe down to the quantum level, etc., are causing me to wrongly claim that 1st gear launches are faster.
opcorn: bump for my entertainment.................................................................
