dubels
04-09-2007, 09:29 PM
Edit: Made it a little shorter.
I spent much of last year thinking about trackdays after a lady ran me off the road at an intersection and I went down. No one stopped to help me or give me information and off this lady went. Without a license plate or a willing witness I had no compensation just rashed plastics and a bruised ego.
I got my act together and instead of fixing my already rashed stock plastics I started preping my bike for trackdays. I lurked forums looking for leathers eventually picking up a set of two-piece leathers for $150 off of the WERA forums, $75 dollar f4i track plastics from SoCal forums, and landed killer deals on SMX-R boots $100 and a $385 Suomy Spec 1r Extreme.
Fast Forward to this year. Christmas money came in and I decided on my first trackday with ZoomZoom in the novice school at Sears on 3/12/07. Used birthday money to purchase a Dianese backprotector, and SS brakelines.
3/12 came and my dad offered to come with me on my first trackday, which helped a lot with calming me down. Hit my first session which was a follow lead session and wow was I lost. Sears Point requires a lot of rythm and flow. Through out the day I found myself in the wrong gear possibly because I am lazy on the street and try to shift the least amount of times possible since I am never just blasting it in the twisties or in town. Port4mance was running away from me in the follow lead session on a Husky :shhh.( I herd him backing it in on T11 a few times) Classrooms helped a lot but nothing could compare to the sessions with instructors towing me and showing me lines and working on my body positioning. Thanks to Oz, Dave, Ed and the other guys who helped me and told me not to worry about people behind me :applause. After lunch I was loving the track instead of fearing it and started going faster and faster. The fear came mostly from thinking that I was going into a turn too fast. I lacked rythm in most sections of the track it seemed like I was just pounding on the gas and then breaking as hard as I could. My suspension was not working with me and Aftershocks was not there so I started to slow my pace. I had a great time, met some great people. I ended the day almost where I had started scared of the track because I felt like I was getting pushed to go fast and I was holding up people.
Got my suspension worked on by Rob and a few other things fixed before heading back to SoCal.
I spent much of the end of March thinking about trackdays and Sears point. I would sit in class and think about the lines that OZ showed me and how to hit turn 9 faster. I was also itching to try out the suspension adjustments that Rob did. I finally had enough and went out to ACH to hit some twisties and in one day I saw three crashes. After that day I finally decided that maybe I would give trackdays another try. My bank account didn't like it but I ended up signing up for Ti2tt April 8th Willow Springs trackday.
Almost a month later I was on the track again. This time alone without knowing anyone or the track. Got into the C group riders meeting and watched Shawn at Ti2tt show lines on the chalk board and listened to the warnings about the track. The whole time I was trying to concentrate on what he was saying but I kept on hearing "Its a 150 mph turn if you want it to be", and "The runoff at Willow Springs is like much like boulders." I took my time the first session to learn the track. Session after session I was going faster and faster. The suspension adjustments that Rob did were great there was a lot of feedback from the tires and I gained much needed confidence in the tires with no more tearing. I was getting so close to dragging my knee. Only about a cm left of chicken strips :shhh. Working with the lines that Shawn give me I was actually passing people in the C group. I worked on lines, getting my body lower and markers most of the morning. I had problems with T8 because of the wind but it was not a problem I would end up catching up to the people who passed me on T8 by T2. I did have a "oh crap" moment in the morning when I was going about 85 in third going up the hill to t3, right before the turn I tried to pick a later marker to break and slamed down into second very late right as I turned in and I felt the front give a little then the rear got light and started to back in. I felt the rear get light and start to slide and my mind instantly told my wrist to not let off the throttle "Anything but chop...just stay on the throttle evenly and check your pants later." My confidence and pace went up without having to constantly fight what Kieth Code calls Survival Reactions like I did at Sears. Lunch time came and I was flying through the group and finding alternative lines to pass people on the outside finding my own flow and rythm to the track. I was so into my lines I ended up passing someone going up t3 and cutting across them in t4. Lucky it was the guy pitted next to me and I applogized :( . My fun ended when somehow I messed up my valve and my rear tire was leaking air. I didn't find out until two days after. But that combined with the wind caused my rear to be all over the place. I noticed the tearing that wasnt there before but didn't investigate. I almost ate it coming out of T8 some how a gust of wind blew the bike from under me casuing my legs to leave the pegs and my right foot to drag on the tarmac. I was just hanging on with my arms and chest on the tank. Holding a line on T8 was hard and I went from doing about a 100 on that turn to 60. By 3pm I called it a day and packed up and left because of the wind. I don't know if I like Willow Springs more than Sears it just seemed easier for me to ride Willow Springs.
After going through the day in my mind countless times today, which prompted this post. Just the rush of the track and the level of saftey that there is compared to the street makes it a much enjoyable experence. If you go down on the track someone is watching and coming to help unlike on the street. There a great group of guys and girls at the track that are very friendly and welcoming. Ti2tt threw a good day there was only one crash in the C group my whole time riding and my confidence in my tires and suspension greatly improved. I feel like I am now addicted to trackdays and am looking to sell my street bike and maybe get a track only bike. I know that this is going to another addiction that my wallet isn't going to like. When I first got my bike after graduating from high school I never imagined even placing my foot on a race track I thought it was just for the professionals and mad men. Now I feel that the riders that go fast on the streets are either very skilled or crazy maybe a little of both. My plans are to save up money and buy a trackday pass next year and possibly a gear indicator that I can use as I get use to the bike so I don't have anymore problems with being in the wrong gear.
Sorry for the long post as I know most of you who even click on this thread wont read it. I just needed to get this out of my system otherwise I would never be able to do any work this week. :applause for those who actually read through my ramblings.
I spent much of last year thinking about trackdays after a lady ran me off the road at an intersection and I went down. No one stopped to help me or give me information and off this lady went. Without a license plate or a willing witness I had no compensation just rashed plastics and a bruised ego.
I got my act together and instead of fixing my already rashed stock plastics I started preping my bike for trackdays. I lurked forums looking for leathers eventually picking up a set of two-piece leathers for $150 off of the WERA forums, $75 dollar f4i track plastics from SoCal forums, and landed killer deals on SMX-R boots $100 and a $385 Suomy Spec 1r Extreme.
Fast Forward to this year. Christmas money came in and I decided on my first trackday with ZoomZoom in the novice school at Sears on 3/12/07. Used birthday money to purchase a Dianese backprotector, and SS brakelines.
3/12 came and my dad offered to come with me on my first trackday, which helped a lot with calming me down. Hit my first session which was a follow lead session and wow was I lost. Sears Point requires a lot of rythm and flow. Through out the day I found myself in the wrong gear possibly because I am lazy on the street and try to shift the least amount of times possible since I am never just blasting it in the twisties or in town. Port4mance was running away from me in the follow lead session on a Husky :shhh.( I herd him backing it in on T11 a few times) Classrooms helped a lot but nothing could compare to the sessions with instructors towing me and showing me lines and working on my body positioning. Thanks to Oz, Dave, Ed and the other guys who helped me and told me not to worry about people behind me :applause. After lunch I was loving the track instead of fearing it and started going faster and faster. The fear came mostly from thinking that I was going into a turn too fast. I lacked rythm in most sections of the track it seemed like I was just pounding on the gas and then breaking as hard as I could. My suspension was not working with me and Aftershocks was not there so I started to slow my pace. I had a great time, met some great people. I ended the day almost where I had started scared of the track because I felt like I was getting pushed to go fast and I was holding up people.
Got my suspension worked on by Rob and a few other things fixed before heading back to SoCal.
I spent much of the end of March thinking about trackdays and Sears point. I would sit in class and think about the lines that OZ showed me and how to hit turn 9 faster. I was also itching to try out the suspension adjustments that Rob did. I finally had enough and went out to ACH to hit some twisties and in one day I saw three crashes. After that day I finally decided that maybe I would give trackdays another try. My bank account didn't like it but I ended up signing up for Ti2tt April 8th Willow Springs trackday.
Almost a month later I was on the track again. This time alone without knowing anyone or the track. Got into the C group riders meeting and watched Shawn at Ti2tt show lines on the chalk board and listened to the warnings about the track. The whole time I was trying to concentrate on what he was saying but I kept on hearing "Its a 150 mph turn if you want it to be", and "The runoff at Willow Springs is like much like boulders." I took my time the first session to learn the track. Session after session I was going faster and faster. The suspension adjustments that Rob did were great there was a lot of feedback from the tires and I gained much needed confidence in the tires with no more tearing. I was getting so close to dragging my knee. Only about a cm left of chicken strips :shhh. Working with the lines that Shawn give me I was actually passing people in the C group. I worked on lines, getting my body lower and markers most of the morning. I had problems with T8 because of the wind but it was not a problem I would end up catching up to the people who passed me on T8 by T2. I did have a "oh crap" moment in the morning when I was going about 85 in third going up the hill to t3, right before the turn I tried to pick a later marker to break and slamed down into second very late right as I turned in and I felt the front give a little then the rear got light and started to back in. I felt the rear get light and start to slide and my mind instantly told my wrist to not let off the throttle "Anything but chop...just stay on the throttle evenly and check your pants later." My confidence and pace went up without having to constantly fight what Kieth Code calls Survival Reactions like I did at Sears. Lunch time came and I was flying through the group and finding alternative lines to pass people on the outside finding my own flow and rythm to the track. I was so into my lines I ended up passing someone going up t3 and cutting across them in t4. Lucky it was the guy pitted next to me and I applogized :( . My fun ended when somehow I messed up my valve and my rear tire was leaking air. I didn't find out until two days after. But that combined with the wind caused my rear to be all over the place. I noticed the tearing that wasnt there before but didn't investigate. I almost ate it coming out of T8 some how a gust of wind blew the bike from under me casuing my legs to leave the pegs and my right foot to drag on the tarmac. I was just hanging on with my arms and chest on the tank. Holding a line on T8 was hard and I went from doing about a 100 on that turn to 60. By 3pm I called it a day and packed up and left because of the wind. I don't know if I like Willow Springs more than Sears it just seemed easier for me to ride Willow Springs.
After going through the day in my mind countless times today, which prompted this post. Just the rush of the track and the level of saftey that there is compared to the street makes it a much enjoyable experence. If you go down on the track someone is watching and coming to help unlike on the street. There a great group of guys and girls at the track that are very friendly and welcoming. Ti2tt threw a good day there was only one crash in the C group my whole time riding and my confidence in my tires and suspension greatly improved. I feel like I am now addicted to trackdays and am looking to sell my street bike and maybe get a track only bike. I know that this is going to another addiction that my wallet isn't going to like. When I first got my bike after graduating from high school I never imagined even placing my foot on a race track I thought it was just for the professionals and mad men. Now I feel that the riders that go fast on the streets are either very skilled or crazy maybe a little of both. My plans are to save up money and buy a trackday pass next year and possibly a gear indicator that I can use as I get use to the bike so I don't have anymore problems with being in the wrong gear.
Sorry for the long post as I know most of you who even click on this thread wont read it. I just needed to get this out of my system otherwise I would never be able to do any work this week. :applause for those who actually read through my ramblings.