Track Day Track day for my 40th

Track days are not like race days with requirements: you don't need tie-wire, water-only coolant, raceglass with catch-cans. General safety check, tape over lights/mirrors/Speedo, gear check, centre stand removed or wired up. Slicks are optional. Check out the website for the particular track day - Lakeside has strict noise limit

 

How is @kiffsta feeling today?

 

I've rebooked! Lakeside on Saturday October 23.

Don't crash, don't crash, don't crash...

I also booked a trials training course: make a weekend of it. I'm celebrating a bit hard; bought myself a few birthday presents, too.... Mostly bikes, but a house, too, so I better stop celebrating soon.

 

The trials day went well, once I finally got there, no thanks to Google maps and my phone! ("GPS signal lost" - that makes 2 of us...)
I assumed to get there support early in case I could join an earlier group or something, but I arrived at my time slot to find I was the group. So it was one-on-one! The bikes they have are brand new and super easy to balance and ride, the coach was great (a motorcycle suspension mechanic in his other business and quite a learned man).

A quick plug: Traction Trials, booked through Trials Experience.

Now to the track day. Most importantly: I didn't crash or blow up @James Mclaren 's bike. I got a little excited by the day and pushed a bit more than I should have for a borrowed bike, but fortunately it was more capable than the rider. Lakeside has a fair bit of undulation, a number of off-camber (and psuedo-off-camber) corners and a certain amount of roughness. It took a lot to get my head around the track, to the point I did, the left-handers are either fast or dangerous (Bus stop) and the right-handers are complex. I was in the learner group (along with 40 others), so they gave us a bit of coaching on looking at the track, moving our body position, lines and such. The rule was no undertaking (hmm, maybe underpassing is a better word), so you'd get caught behind a group in the corners who would open throttle on the straights and you'd catch again at the next corner. So I had to pick up my game. Get the gears right, drop into the fast right, hold behind them on the straight, wait for them to chicken at the link and back off enough to overtake, or brake hard into the Carousel and go around the outside. But it is a double-apex with off-camber outer, so you have to keep right and not get pushed off because you took on 3 guys at once. Good fun, would need to spend more time picking markers and lines to do it again, would need a few more track days before I could graduate to underpassing, though. Some didn't have a great day, the recovery vehicle and red flag marshals had a busy time, but I think everyone went home in their own vehicle, which is good. A couple of notables: another mc22

A FZR400

And a 14 year old on CBR 1000R going hard! Oh, and the 70year old who after a 5m fall on to concrete thought "if I might die from something stupid like a fall, I might as well die from something stupid and fun!" So he's gotten right into track days, after 40+ years off a road after being collected by a truck and hurt badly.

Thanks again to James and Chris; I owe James a service on the bike, and a carton of beer or such?

 

Did well. And I have some pictures for you, but they are to big for the forum attachments.