| Author | Message | ||
     Rocketsprink |
We'll, I finally got around to doing my first Track Day thru PTT. I've been riding/racing Motocross since I was 6 years old (which came in handy on my off road excursion on turn 7 at Black Hawk) and riding street bikes since age 15. Man if you haven't done one, YOU HAVE TO! What a way to test your and your bikes abilities. First 2 sessions were a big eye opener, and after talking with Jason (Ugriz) I finally got my knees down. It is TOTALLY amazing how much more speed I was able to carry thru the turns and how much more stabile the bike felt. Man I'm now totally hooked, and by next year am planning on being a licensed racer, which means I'll have to get a track bike. Oh darn! Pucks at the end of the day. The course is mostly right hand turns.  The new Pilot Powers are waiting to be installed, thank God!   Our Group of Bikes.  | ||
| Daves |
Good for you! It took me 4 track days before I got a knee down for the first time. You going again Sept 8th? I can sign you up! | ||
| Rocketsprink |
I have to ok it thru the Warden (Wife), but I plan on it. | ||
| Hattori_hanzo |
Aw...come on! We know you bought those pucks on e-bay already used!!  Congrats on tearing it up....literally! Looks like you put a hurting on those tires. | ||
| Benm2 |
Congratulations! Track days are great, and racing can only be better. Best of luck to you! Save your money, though. They add up quickly... | ||
| Lastcyclone |
Very nice shred! | ||
| Doitindark |
Congratulations, on joining the addiction. I totally gave up riding on the street, can't ride the same as on the track! | ||
| M2guy |
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| Uwgriz |
We had a blast on Saturday. There were a ton of people there so they actually split the intermediate riders into two groups and ran four groups total. The morning was a bit goofy as a wreck in turn 1 put a fair amount of oil on the track (out of the racing line) so cleanup took a while and then they sent the advanced group out again so by noon the novice group only had one complete session in but they got things moving in the afternoon. There was a fairly high number of wrecks including a guy next to us on an R1 who was okay, but his bike didn't fair too well at all. Nobody in our group went down, though, so that was good. I was watching Rocco during the second or third session in the afternoon when once he was clear of traffic in front of him, he was crankin through the corners (there were a lot of people out there in his group). I couldn't really tell, but I think he was having fun. My day went something like this: First session - a whole lotta bikes. I won't say too many, but definitely too many that weren't ready for the intermediate group (I think a lot of egos prevented some guys from running in the novice group). We'd be hauling down the straight only to come up on a ten-bike parking lot. Sometimes it came up extremely quickly and seemed like a mess waiting to happen. When in the clear, a guy on a 9R (race kit) and I were having a blast going back and forth (he came over later with a big grin on his face and we chatted for a whiile). He actually out pulled me on the straights which surprised me. Anyway, due to the large number of bikes, what seemed to me to be a wreck in waiting, and the emptiness of the advanced group (there couldn't have been much more than ten bikes), I bumped up. That turned out to be my best move of the day. While I'd miss playing with the 9R, I had a lot more room to run and it gave me the chance to tuck in behind some of the faster guys and improve my lines as well as give me a rabbit to chase. I definitely got faster running in that group. Fortunately I didn't have any real moments of pucker throughout the day, my only problem was I have a tendancy to get too close to the curbing on the inside of the corners so I tore a small hole in my leathers just below my knee puck. I don't remember who I was talking to, but they recommended a later turn in to help that. In any case, I'm calling later this afternoon to my leathers patched. Other than that, I'm just assessing damage to the bike (all the good kinds of damage). I had already ground down my footpegs, shift and brake levers from other track days (although I got them even moreso this time), but I noticed that I got the sidestand pretty good and I've now discovered that I got the exhaust as well. For some reason, every new part that I find that's made intimate contact with the pavement gives me just a little smile. Anyway, I had a blast and I think Rocco did too. Oh yeah, one more thing - Michelin Pilot Powers are awesome. On the recommendation of Rick Breuer (Learning Curves) I ran 30/26 psi (front/rear) and they stuck great. Not only that, but I've got two track days on this set and the look great (chewed, but still a bunch of tread left). (Message edited by uwgriz on July 05, 2005) | ||
| M2guy |
Ugriz, West Racine shoe repair does great work on leather repair. | ||
| Uwgriz |
Thanks Tom, I'll check them out. | ||
| Benm2 |
Griz, Barnacle Bill's (http://www.racingleather.com) custom leathers do repairs too, but you'll have to mail. They made my custom leathers (Awesome wife! Truly incredible christmas gift) and they are great! Its great you had fun! Congrats on the bump to the advanced group! Still trying to get there myself, having just got bumped to the intermediate... Still no knee down. Maybe next time...  | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Oh yeah Jason, I had so much fun, I've signed up for the Sept. 24th Learning Curves school at Black Hawk. Care to join me?  | ||
| Rocketsprink |
And you were crankin' along damn good yourself. | ||
| Blake |
Might want to try the racing springs for your rear shock and forks. Might keep you from dragging parts. Careful with that, it may seem inocuous, but it can put you down in a hurry if you aren't lucky. | ||
| Uwgriz |
Blake, I gotta do something, I'm hearing hard parts scraping in every corner. I'm looking into full rear sets and I'll probably pull the sidestand for the next track day. I know I need new fork springs (or to loss some weight), so maybe springs will come sooner than I had planned. Rocco, figure me for the 24th.  | ||
| Henrik |
Scraping hard parts may *sound* cool. But I can tell you from personal experience, that when the kickstand drags and levers the rear wheel off the ground in a long sweeping left-hander ... it'll seriously hurt the traction Major pucker factor ... and dumb luck was all that saved the day. Don't outride the hardware. Move hard parts and/or change riding style to match. Henrik | ||
| Djkaplan |
When I first got my M2, I thought it had unlimited cornering clearance. I rarely scraped the pegs and thought I'd never run out of lean. After really getting used to the bike and riding with really fast guys in the twisties, I realized just how limited the clearance really was. Now that I have the pegs relocated, I'm seeing evidence of the kickstand dragging. My very first thought when I noticed this was, "Whoa, cool!". | ||
| Daves |
Griz, Have you trimmed the rubber stopper for the kickstand? This will give you a little more clearance. | ||
| Uwgriz |
Not yet Dave. It wasn't an issue until Saturday. | ||
| M2guy |
Rocket, I don't think that'll be a probblem for them. They repaired my leaters, redid some seams, added additional material, overall touchups for $45. Ugriz, Remove the side stand, I still use mine ocasionally, but I never use the snapring anymore, the spring and pin hold everything inplace. Also what Henrick said, work on getting off the bike a little more which will help reduce the lean angles needed. Some lower bars might help you get into a more aggresive position. Lookin forward to seeing both of you at the track in Sept! You know, thats plenty of time to have the bikes race ready! Class on saturday, pass, get your license Sunday morn and register and race on Sunday! Now that sounds like a perfect weekend to me!! My family will be there the entire weekend. | ||
| Daves |
So who is coming on Sept 8th? It would be great to have as many Buells as possible. Let's start getting signed up! | ||
| Uwgriz |
It suddenly depends on my vacation schedule. I might be done with weekday track days this year. Leon just announced the 10th and 11th of September at Blackhawk so I might do one of those instead, although I'd really like to get to Autobahn... | ||
| Steve_mackay |
The wife and I are most likely doing the Sept 8th. Bilanski was talking about being there as well, again followin' us around  | ||
| Rocketsprink |
I'm absolutely in for the 24th. Tom, that's a GREAT idea. You in for a racing weekend Jason? | ||
| Rocketsprink |
Just emailed my info for the 24th for Learning Curves. Gives me some time to prep the bike! Or get a different one for the Track! |
