My First Trackday, 9-15-2009

[paterick4o8]

I finally did what I've been wanting to do for a while in my 1.5 years of motorcycle riding.. go to the track!

Not only that, but I've been hit by others, saying that I should or need go. Well, fine, so I went.. now street riding won't be the same haha. It was a blast, and I want to go again.

Track was Thunderhill Raceway, up in Willows, CA and the event was hosted by Keigwins.



Weather was great, sunny and about 85 degrees or so. Keigwins was a great host, they were pretty organized and pretty lenient as well. They had 3 groups depending on speed and skill, B-, B+, and A.

Being my first track day, I was required to start in B-. We started at the top of each hour from 9am-5pm, with a 1 hour lunch starting @ 1pm.

The 9am session was a for sighting; for B- to get used to the track, so we went in groups around in a mellow paced manner lead by an instructor, 5 riders per group. I was pretty intimidated on some of the turns after going around 2x. Some guy decided to go and leave my group to go ahead and faster-- he ended up going off track and had to spend the first 2 sessions fixing his bike

haha but for the most part there was only 1 semi serious crash in B+ group on turn 5 on the downhill where the rider had to be put on stretcher. From what we heard he was ok.

One of the instructors talked to me before going back on the track right before my 4th session gave me tips on where to pass other riders since he saw me able to do so--he noted that since I don't have a lot of power, turns 2, 3, and the downhill of 5 were good ones to get on other riders and pass them on the outside while in the turn. Then he suggested I can bump up to B+ after lunch.. so I did

Going B+ was great because there was less traffic for me to have to deal with. Plus since the riders were more experienced, it was nice to have them to follow and motivate me to keep pushin along.

I was able to video record all but the first 2 sessions, as I used them to focus on practicing and getting to know the track. At the end of the day and after watching the videos, I'm eager to go back to the track. I would really like to work on turning later into the turn. My lines look like I go in to the the turn too early. I'll have an instructor follow me next time or vice versa. I also want to focus on being smoother and have less correction in my lines during a turn. Back to the basics.

The tires I ran were the BT003RS. All I can say is I am very impressed with how they ran. They were fairly solid even on a fast paced track like Thunderhill and didn't feel the need to change my PSI, 29 front and 29.5 rear. I guess where I can do more testing is when I start taking the turns faster next time to see how they respond. But overall, great tire!

Now as for the bike itself. It's lighter weight definitely was an advantage in the turns. I could keep up and even pass some of the bigger bikes in them when I was in the B+ group. However, one thing that bothered me was the amount of shifting I had to do; there were turns where I was right in the apex or while just exiting apex, and I was already redlining. And obviously it's not convenient to have to up shift while in a turn, no-sir-ree. I guess if I changed sprockets it'd help, but I wanted to get a chance to ride and report based on a stock set up perspective. Also, at tracks with longer straightaways like Thunderhill, things tend to feel slow when you're getting passed by everyone else in the straights. My thought is, this bike would be much faster on a more twisty and technical track.

But all-in-all, a fun time .

Now with no further delay, the goodies:

Pictures

Camp Set Up


Custom Ram Air

I have video footage from all but my first 2 sessions. I can post them up later either in here (since they're all track vids) or in the video section (since they're videos).
^What do you think, Alex?

HT4U7493.jpg HT4U7963.jpg HT4U8450.jpg HT4U8493.jpg HT4U9419.jpg

[Ken]

nice pics!

[Alex]

Sounds like you had a great time, Patrick! Post up the vids wherever you like, either here or in the vid section with a link from here. Works for me either way.

[kawigirl09]

Wow! Nice pictures... I would really like to go when I have more experience riding.. but for now I'll just keep riding and learning - thanks Patrick for sharing. Can't wait to watch your video...!

[komohana]

congrats for making it to the track!
nice shots...sounds like you're hooked!!

jealous we don't have one here...

[paterick4o8]

Videos posted here:

http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29465

[HKr1]

Sounds like ya had a real nice time, Looking good in the pictures! I guess changing gearing would help on the "not shifting" in a left hand corner, or best go with reverse shift.

You mentioned liking the bridgestones.. We went to the track this weekend also. Getting tires have become an issue for me, Michelin wise. So I stopped by stickyboy racing's trailer at the end of the day. Picked up a set of 003's(type3 rear & type4 front), looking forward to seeing how they work.

[green.saki]

pretty sweet patrick! awesome pics and videos! way to represent the 250s!