Well, another track day, and talk about BOOTYFUL weather.

530am :: wake up

600am :: starbucks which ended up being free since they did not have the cash register in.. awesome

630am :: run into Brian (BrianE30) on the toll RD... sweet

720am :: unpack and tech

820am :: riders meeting

940am :: first time out.. was getting used to riding a japo bike from a vtwin, had been a few months since I had rode the gixxer anywhere, the power difference between the 600 and the 1000 really shows, as well as the engine breaking not being anywhere on the 600. I took it slow getting readjusted to the bike, getting back to track form.

1040am :: second time out, feeling a lot more comfortable, carrying a lot more speed, knee is down almost at every corner, and hitting the entrance, apex and exit turns as I am wanting to. This may sound weird to a lot of people, but to me, literally talking to myself through out the track really helps, and I was able to talk myself through bad situations, and so forth. I felt like I had picked up a significant amount of speed, and was a lot more comfortable on the gixxer.

1140am :: BLAM, i am out there and bookin it, zooming through the turns, letting off the gas at the 4th brake marker, and getting on the brakes at the 2nd, really getting a feel for the brakes. and being able to trail brake into the turns. kind of scary at first when i realized what I was doing, cause i guess the thought of the front tucking bling blao, but I was able to maintain, and some shaky situations i pulled off. couple laps into it, one of the course riders, who is wicked fast, rolled up and put me behind him and i followed him around a few times, i was executing everything perfectly, and we were just ROLLING through the pact, really just grooving through the track, every lap we picked up the pace..... UNTIL the damn bus stop. I have an issue with that turn because last time I was here there was oil on the apex of the turn, and I almost high sided.. i flew off but held on and slammed back on the bike. anyhow - i felt I had carried too much speed, and if i were to get on the brakes anymore, the front would tuck. so i picked the bike up and proceeded to continue off track... BUT if any of you have been to jefferson, coming off track there leaves you with 10 yards of run off before the trees. so i rear brake it, rear brake locks i fall. no biggie.. i give the thumbs up to the corner worker, pick the bike up, and when he tells me i pull back on track and pit.

bike suffered a broken rear set, and some nice grass stains on the plastics. helmet is fine, suit, etc. etc. but i hit the same knee as last time, and it is pretty bruised again, making a doctors appointment today.

I went and talked with the course rider after the fall, and he was praising me, saying that my form was awesome, and when he was following me, he said my lines were great, and that i was consistant with them. he said he enjoyed the ride, and had a blast taking me around. i had a fsckin blast following him. he said my speed was up to par of the top of the Intermediate group, and to get the bike fixed and get back out there.

I found someone to lend me another rear set, but i could not put weight on the knee to move around on the seat.. sad so packed up and went home.

crash was kind of stupid, after the ride home and thinking about it, i could have taken the turn at the speed, but I just did not trust the bike. but you learn from that, I can not wait till september granted my knee is okay.

teaser pic:

 

yo Paulio. Glad to hear you progressing out there on the track. Hopefully I'll be out there next year. Let us know what's up with the knee and if can still ride the Ape around.

 

The Kool-Aid left a sour taste in my mouth yesterday..... that should sum up my trackday experience yesterday pretty well

 

Yeah, but that Roy Rogers milkshake washed it right out. Right?

 

That it did, it was much needed.

Bane of my existence:

 

Nice.

Some pictures from yesterday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/l...21525/

 

Awesome shots! That D50 and your ability have really impressed me. Any shots of the Aprilia dead in the water in the pits?

 

:flame:

 

Only one of the dead Ape. I figured it was a common enough sight that you could google it and find multiple cases.

 

Oh, AF1 has the part......... $35....... yay

 

I was wondering why there weren't any pics of Brian's bike.

 

Just a question for those that belong to NESBA. Yesterday there was a bike that was a good bit slower than the rest. Is it common for this to take place, or will they black flag them due to the slowness as the day goes on? I tried to look on their website for a minimum bike requirement, but did not see one. Any ideas?

 

That was rider error, that 250 would have been plenty quick with a competent rider . Would you want bikes on the straight closing in on you going 60+ mph faster? Yeah the onus is on them to pass you, but things happend very quickly and that speed discrepency doesn't help, especially with first time track riders not acclimated to 1000cc power.

 

And like a typical liter bike on track (only he was missing 750cc and 2 more strokes), he was slow in the turns but pinned it on the straights

 

But, even pinned on the straights he was only clearing 80ish or so, it appeared. I know it could have been ridden much faster, that is why I am interested in seeing what NESBA does when there is someone who is clearly slower than the rest and could cause a problem.

 

Doug said the guy would pin it and he couldn't run him down. Most 600's hit about 100 on JC too. Bigger bikes are good for another 10 or so

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ceas &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">But, even pinned on the straights he was only clearing 80ish or so, it appeared. I know it could have been ridden much faster, that is why I am interested in seeing what NESBA does when there is someone who is clearly slower than the rest and could cause a problem. </TD></TR></TABLE>

If it's brought to a CR's attention, most likely they would black flag them, pull them into the hot pit, try to figure out what is going on, offer suggestions, then head out for one on one instruction to get their speed up. In the mean time they would use hand signals to pull that rider off line and let bikes at a faster pace pass on the straights. It's pretty much covered in the riders meetings.

 

Check this link for a reference to minimum bike requirements. "Dutch" is the mid-atlantic director: http://www.nesba.com/TrackTalk....html

 

Cool, that settles it then!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Brian*E30 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Doug said the guy would pin it and he couldn't run him down. Most 600's hit about 100 on JC too. Bigger bikes are good for another 10 or so</TD></TR></TABLE>

I think he was talking about the Buell in that case..

 

He said the same about the RS later in the day when he finally was riding around him. Perhaps it was Paul that got stuck behind him. Regardless, I asked them both about it and whomever was behind him around lunch said the guy would just take off on the straights and putt around the turns. Mr. Buell was actually passing in the turns when he shouldn't have been

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Apocalypse &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">:flame:</TD></TR></TABLE>

well go for it

 

Sweet pic!

Don't let the get off scare you... Just think about what you did and avoid it in the future or make changes to the bike!

Glad to see more people on this site take it to the track for the real fun!


Eric

 

Most likely the sprag clutch is toast on the Ape, it's going to be down for a little while

 

Slow through the slow stuff!

Tipping over because of a bus stop is a shitty way to end the day.

I still need to do my star school write up but I'm being lazy