N2 split from WERA?

Gino230 said:
CCS was using the old Westhold transponders. You could use one per weekend or buy one for each bike. They SUCKED, and the system was messed up fairly regularly. You could have a brand new one and it would quit the next weekend. Then they upgraded to the G2 from Westhold, which was miles better, but then the NEW ASRA took over and started using mylaps.

The problem is the way they wrote their software, the transponder is linked to the bike, so if you want to race 2 bikes you need 2 transponders. Some people don't recognize this and switch transponders between bikes, messing up the qualifying times. So if you run a LW race and a MW race, the system takes your MW time and uses it for the LW grid.

I had at least 5 westhold transponders which are now worthless, and I paid over $100 for each of them. I have one Mylaps that I use for everything else, (including subscription).
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One of the most frustrating things for me as head tech and later race director was the unfair criticism of Westhold transponders, so much so I began tracking problems and documenting issues. 84% of transponder problems were user caused. Despite instructions for mounting them in the rulebook invariably someone would show up in tech with one mounted horizontally on the top triple tree with the antenna pointing to the left or right of the bike instead of at the loop. Some would show up without one mounted and when asked for it the response was usually "it's in the trailer charging". Dead batteries were good for another 13%. Only 3% of problems were hardware failures which amounted to an average of 2 per event.

The vast majority of riders didn't know the difference between activated and non-activated transponders, witnessed by them testing non-activated transponders at our tech mat.

The G3 was extremely reliable if it was charged, the hard wired transponders only had issues with improper installation. The activated transponders had a limited battery life, but I've seen some that lasted 3-4 years. We had a few issues with feedback on the R1 harness for wired transponders but they were easily resolved.
 
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I know they were a ton cheaper but one of the main reasons we went with and stayed with AMB is our failure rate for the hardware was/is maybe 10 total since 1998 and that was one of the more recent styles they had with a known hardware fault.
 
Wheel Bearing said:
Anyone that can try to defend the reasoning for 14 foot tall numbers and tech inspection that cared little about mechanical tech and everything about number/background size are just loyalists to the old crew of CCS, and must have loved to need someone to follow them with a cart to bring their leathers, gloves, and belly pan to tech.
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That's pure horseshit. As head tech for the East Coast regions safety was the primary concern in tech. If I had a dollar for every drain plug or oil filter that wasn't wired, every rear brake that didn't work, for every loose clip on found, well...

Kinda ironic that you bitch about bringing gear to tech for a safety check yet accuse CCS of not caring about safety.
 
DBConz said:
honestly, almost everyone i know that was racing CCS pretty much quit when the new owners took over.
they may have been issuing credits after that conversation was made, i havnt bothered to ask around.
just seemed like a poor rule to retain customers, along with that $150 post-reg fee (which i know has been modified)
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So your entire argument is based on a hypothetical. Got it.
 
Knarf Legna said:
That's pure horseshit. As head tech for the East Coast regions safety was the primary concern in tech. If I had a dollar for every drain plug or oil filter that wasn't wired, every rear brake that didn't work, for every loose clip on found, well...

Kinda ironic that you bitch about bringing gear to tech for a safety check yet accuse CCS of not caring about safety.
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Tech is largely useless anyways. The amount of racers I've seen on any given weekend changing their oil, wheels, and brakes kinda makes safety wiring a moot point. Of course every racer has a different routine, but I've always gone through WERA tech with my worn ass take offs since I'm just going to swap the wheels right after anyways, but never have time after sitting in the registration line...
 
DBConz said:
it was a hypothetical. i called before the season started as their changes stirred up a few questions i had as i was on the fence with them from appearing very disorganized. the refund thing was something Mark volunteered up, i didnt ask about it. they dropped one of my classes, so it was also a no brainer. it sucks for me because i live in the north east and i really like the tracks they go to. Road Atl for example, took me 30 hours to get there. NJMP is usually 8 hours, and summit is 9-10.
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So you’re bitching about something that didn’t really happen???? Ghey!!!
 
I’m too new to know and too fat to endurance race, but why hasn’t WERA been doing the endurance racing on their own? How did N2 get involved?
 
rpm894 said:
I’m too new to know and too fat to endurance race, but why hasn’t WERA been doing the endurance racing on their own? How did N2 get involved?
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WERA did Endurance racing for many years until competitors lost interest in it and stopped participating. N2 in partnership with WERA began slowly bringing it back a few years ago until it became a series again.
 
Knarf Legna said:
One of the most frustrating things for me as head tech and later race director was the unfair criticism of Westhold transponders, so much so I began tracking problems and documenting issues. 84% of transponder problems were user caused. Despite instructions for mounting them in the rulebook invariably someone would show up in tech with one mounted horizontally on the top triple tree with the antenna pointing to the left or right of the bike instead of at the loop. Some would show up without one mounted and when asked for it the response was usually "it's in the trailer charging". Dead batteries were good for another 13%. Only 3% of problems were hardware failures which amounted to an average of 2 per event.

The vast majority of riders didn't know the difference between activated and non-activated transponders, witnessed by them testing non-activated transponders at our tech mat.

The G3 was extremely reliable if it was charged, the hard wired transponders only had issues with improper installation. The activated transponders had a limited battery life, but I've seen some that lasted 3-4 years. We had a few issues with feedback on the R1 harness for wired transponders but they were easily resolved.
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Since I do race a lot, it's possible that all 16% of the hardware / battery issues you saw were from one of my 5 transponders. :Poke:

Usually it wasn't a hardware issue, you're correct about that. But when you have a sealed unit with an internal battery that isn't rechargeable, it's a recipe for disaster. And I used to send them back every winter for new batteries. The G3 was a different story, but I got one race out of that before CCS Dumped Westhold.

The MyLaps by contrast has never let me down in 7 or 8 years of racing.

If anyone needs a nice G3 with 1 weekend on it, PM me!
 
BC said:
I've trained so much competition over the year, from when I was in the trades to my current business. It truly sucks. I totally get why you're pissed.
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With the trades though, we kinda know it going in that we're training the next crop, no? It is after all how we were taught. Seems like this situation might have a slightly different flavor.
 
pickled egg said:
:Poke:
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It was just a fibula that time the ankle ball was shattered from the swing arm spool that broke off in my boot… bike was rideable and we made the restart minus the windscreen that we added at the first pit stop(no work on bikes under red)

You know it’s hard to tell that story without sounding conceited… I’m really not… and think I did ok racing sometimes… it’s not like I posted the stories written and printed about it… you guys are ruthless enough as it is :D

one of my favorites was our main competitors who wrote for RRW telling the story of them finding out the next day when I had a cast they ask “what happened?” I told them “I crashed in T1 at 150 and caused the red flag! You saw it!” They said “you rode two more stints and kicked our ass! With a broken leg?!?” To which I said “how’s that make you feel?”

about half of my funniest racing memories are from that one season that we did the endurance series from the Rez as I was there putting on the Cherokee Challenge(like a mini Xgames) great friends making memories… and winning a championship in our spare time ;)
 
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Gino230 said:
Since I do race a lot, it's possible that all 16% of the hardware / battery issues you saw were from one of my 5 transponders. :Poke:

Usually it wasn't a hardware issue, you're correct about that. But when you have a sealed unit with an internal battery that isn't rechargeable, it's a recipe for disaster. And I used to send them back every winter for new batteries. The G3 was a different story, but I got one race out of that before CCS Dumped Westhold.

The MyLaps by contrast has never let me down in 7 or 8 years of racing.

If anyone needs a nice G3 with 1 weekend on it, PM me!
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This guy buys them.

http://ectransponders.com/
 
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