Track Time

[duckie]

I did my first track day yesterday in over 5 years. I rode Thunderhill Raceways 15 turn, 3 mile track. I was on my 04 R1 and for fun, I had slicks mounted on it…….slicks are the shits.

There were three groups…A,B,C….with each group getting 20 minute sessions. I rode in my usual  B group. 
 

First session…..I was petrified…..stiff as cardboard, could not relax, did not move my butt off, death grip on the bars…… list goes on.

Gave myself a good talking to before next session, made a change  in the gloves used and off I went for next session. 

My sound change, but the glove changed helped. The grips on the R1 are real spikey for grip and the gloves I was using let me feel the spikes and was annoying as hell. The gloves I ended up using was a old beat pair of gloves with thick leather in the palms.

In the second session, I started using the inside peg more to hold my body weight when leaned over, letting me get rid of the death drip on the bars. Funny how relaxing makes such a huge difference. R1 just seemed to start turning in all by itself.  The bike wants to lean was what I kept thinking….so let it and I did and it did. Second session went alot better.

Before I got the Tracer, liter bikes seem rather scarey to me just because well its a liter bike. After using riding the tracer I got used to that rush of power and torque and spinning the motor up, which was something I was not use to. The R1 was no longer scarey to me.

The third session was about spinning up that motor……being in the right gear at the right time. I had been watching racing on tv and noticed how they used gears and what gears and at what RPMs. I was quite surprised to see how far I could go without a gear change just by using the whole rpm range of the motor.

With improving my body movements and properly using the RPM range of the motor, the third session felt awesome. I actually felt like I knew what I was doing.

The fourth session…….was golden…it all starting to coming back. Things  just clicked. The feel of slicks is just mind boggling. Nothing like street tires. I went from thinking “damn Im going in to hot” in the first session to “ what the hell am I slowing down for” in the fourth session. The slicks just gripped.

The fifth and final session was the fastest. I was amazed how much speed I had picked my the end of the day. I was using everything in sync which makes for fast laps.

I still gots to lots to work on and good thing….in 2 weeks Ill be back there.

[knyte]

Sounds like a great day!!

[PhotoAl]

Wahoo lots of fun.  LOL my wife refuses to let me do a track day even though I've had some great sport bikes.  

I occasionally work as a corner worker at Barber when they are having trouble finding folks.  Motorcycle track days are fun as the session are not too long.  B group or intermediate is the scary one as they are faster than novices but sometimes don't know enough.  LOL one time I had fun watching some of the liter bike folks pull massive wheelies out of Charlotte's Web.  One fella was on a ZX10 and the fella at pit out was getting lots of prompts to show him where the setting was to turn the wheelie control on LOL.  We are not talking small [power wheelies but massive ones and the abrupt throttle changes that indicate the rider got in over their head.

I really enjoy watching everyone even the slow riders in novice as know they are out there having a blast.

[duckie]

Thank you for being a turn worker. Without yall, there would be no track days.

It is comfort knowing there are turn workers watching out for those on the track. Yall have the second best seat at the track. The first best seat is on the track.

In my fourth session, I was feeling kinda speedy and going into one turn, a fast rider came to pass me and I just twisted hard on the gas….

He, I assume cause there are some fast females, got a little in front of me when I noticed it was a two up ride, so a just backed off to follow..

I got a great view of him leaving a dark stripe on the pavement as he used the rear brake to square off the corner by sliding the rear out.

I stayed as close as possible and when we got on the front straight….up came the front wheel. This is at close to 100mph. And it is a long straight.

Turn comes up, down came  the front and off they went…..I just could not hang.

Thats skill……

[Craig in Alabama]

That sounds like big fun! A two up ride can really open your eyes as to what's possible.

Back in about '96 I was doing a Reg Pridmore CLASS riding school at Road Atlanta. They were offering rides behind Jason Pridmore and I signed up. At the time, the CLASS instructors were using '96 VFR750s ( I was on a '95) with the exact same tires I was using. We did two laps. The first lap, I was sure I was going to die. We were passing everybody, leaning way farther and taking the turns much faster than I did previously.

By the second lap, I didn't want to stop. It was great. And the fact that we were on the same bike / tire combination that I had gave me a huge dose of confidence in what my bike was capable of. My riding improved immediately in the remaining sessions. It was a great experience. I did the CLASS session again the following year, but Jason's leg had a metal cage around it from a racing incident, so no rides.

But overall, those two laps drastically improved my riding. Still slow, but improved!

Cheers!

Craig

[duckie]

One of the reasons I got a liter bike was to be able to catch up to those on smaller displacement blowing by me so I could follow them. Nothing like a 250 Ninja blowing by ya like you are standing still when you think you are on the fastest lap of your life.

Confidence…thats is one thing I really need to work on. Trust the tires…….Trust the suspension…

 

[duckie]

Just did my second track day and it went alot better than last time. Picked up more speed this time. 

I noticed this on my rear tire when prepping for the track. Its a 200/60 slick. It was from rubbing on the swingarm. I knew tires grew when really going fast, but I didnt know how much..,,,,seems a good bit at speed.

Put a 200/55 Dot track tire on and no rubbing. Btw…….I got a set of Dot track tires for the Tracer….aint gonna last long, but they are gonna be grippy.

Its hard to overcome street reading style to track riding style. Old habits are hard to break.  Like riding duck footed. Thats where you got the heel of your boot against the peg and your toe is pointed to the outside. I came out of a turn, leaned the bike over and dragged the bottom of my boot on the pavement. Surprised me a bit, but I got the hint…….make sure to have my inside toe on the peg.

I was in a small group going into a turn, went to downshift and hit a false neutral……made my ass puckered. First time I ever hit a false neutral downshifting on the track. That was a attention getter.

There are three ways to brake…..using the brakes, using engine braking or a combination of both.

To use engine breaking effectively requires being in the right gear. If you are in too high a gear….theres less engine braking so slowing down requires using the brakes mostly whereas being in a lower gear, just requires backing off the throttle and use engine braking and maybe use some brakes …..but not nearly as much as needed being in a higher gear.

Liter bikes are fun…..always enough power, low end grunt, and pulls hard forever.

 

 

[2and3cylinders]

Looks like fun and a big skills upgrader.

Been contemplating getting my lil RD400 back on the track.  I started racing 250 TDs in the early 70s, then life and kids stepped me down to endurance racing in the early thru mid 80s before track days were a thing.

So it's been 35+ years since since I've been on a track.  Kind of scary and RD parts are scarce and I certainly don't bounce let alone pop back up like I used to.

Though I do have a spare VTR1000F along with 2 more engines and lots of spare parts.

Hmmm

A buddy started racing when he retired at my age but now just does track days though is an instructor for Motovid at age 72!  But he's in super shape and 70 pounds lighter!  I've never been petite but 30+ pounds lighter before Covid and health issues have slowed me way down.  Will have to get in much better shape and have 3 more surgeries but I'm going to go for it.  Eventually. 

Keep up the good work and track reports! 

[duckie]

I do hope things work out in a manner that lets you get back on the track. You still ride street, so it aint gonna take ya long before you get that feeling it was just yesterday you were on the track.

Kinda like  running into a old friend you havent seen in years and starting up right where ya left off.

One thing I forget to mentioned that l learned. Ive been watching how quick some riders were turning in but my r1 just seemed sluggish. The Tracer turns in quicker.

So, Im loading up to leave and started looking at my steering dampener. Its a GPR with the round knob on top. Theres numbers round the knob. For whatever dumb reason when I put the dampener on a few years back,  I made the assumption 0 setting was at the bottom of dampener and made adustments starting from there.

I had it set at 5……..but it dawned on me……the 5 was upside down on the knob in that position causing ya to read whatever the setting was upside down.

Didnt make sense…..and I said to myself no freaking way…..I was using the knob setting 180 out.

Put the 0 setting at the top of the dampener and golly gee…..way easier to turn the bars than being 180 out on the knob.

Only if I noticed it sooner…..

 

 

 

 

[2and3cylinders]

I'm an avid racing fan but also quite fascinated by tech to the nth degree because (and I haven't mentioned for quite a while because I was chastised severely by at least 1 inmate a while back) that I was a an aerospace development engineer 3 careers and 40 years ago.

I raced in the caveman era when it was a true sport rather than a career.  We drank and/or smoked (a couple of materials among other things) and diet and training was for the weird Swedes, Dutch and Belgium weewees. Tracks were dangerous, often no ambulance, and speeds were (and still are) limited by tires and suspension even if the engines and pilots were willing.

I've read most of the technique books starting way back with Code's TOTW, And love reading and watching videos of aliens discussing races and how they think not so much describing what they do because for them it's ingrained and instinctive.

What I see that is relatively new over the last few years, led the way by MM but going back to Stoner, is how hard and fast they turn in, and especially how late and hard they brake, and that they drag toes, knees, elbows and now shoulders!

I was a classic style Racer, upright and smooth on and off the noise tube, and sweeping corner speed on 2 smokers Always covering the clutch, and square it off and point n shoot on popet valve poopers.

I just may not have what it takes anymore due to decades of pain and degeneration.  Also, 50 years of street riding, starting as a courier in San Francisco when BART construction had steel plates running from curb to curb for a block if the hills, trolleys street cars and taxis weren't horrifying enough.  Then 20 years of commuting and jobsite to jobsite runs on what they consider paving in Chicago.  I somehow survived by developing what only can be referred to as a 6th, 7th and sometimes 8th sense. Now I never ride in the City.

I've been an ATGATT advocate since before it was defined as such, and made paranoia into a what if game.

I just don't know if I can sublimate so many decades of hard-wired instinct and muscle memory enough to relax and concentrate on going fast on a track.  Consequences cannot be 

Plus I'm hung up enough about the ramifications of getting hurt given I already have a surgery schedule going forward two more years.

Maybe I'll see how my next winter recovery goes and see if I can develop a track bike over the interim.

 

[duckie]

Ive always enjoyed motorcycle racing over car racing.

I remember the days of racing the beast……500cc 2 strokes. 

Kenny Roberts coming from flat track to road racing overseas to become King Kenny. His secert…..he started hard racing at the drop of the flag just like in flat track. Others waited for things to warm up. 

Ducati was a dominant force with the likes of Foggy, Bayliss, Stoner until traction control came into play. Ducs were easy on tires and when traction control came into play, the other brands became easier on tires. 

Migel Duhammel, The Haydens, Bostroms, Edwards, Russell……

To me, motorcycle racing is one notch above car racing for the simple fact that a motorcycle racer plays a greater role in going fast.

You don strap on a motorcycle like ya strap on a car and sit surrounded by metal. If a motorcycle racer aint using his body right, he aint going fast.

Its a beautiful thing……