Well, I've been riding a year this weekend and I did my first bike track day on Saturday with Nesba at Road Atlanta and it was awesome! I had an absolute blast!

The day started off very cloudy with a 40% chance of rain forecast so I figured it would turn out to be a bum day but it only ever lightly sprinkled for maybe 5 mins and didn't keep the track wet.

They stated in the riders meeting that anyone who thinks they will be faster in the group should stage in left lane so I did that. The second session I started in the first group of 8 with the fast beginners but I couldn't quite keep up. I think by the end of the day out of 40 people or so in my group I was probably at number 15 or so. My bike is an '04 with a two-brothers slip on, speedohealer, and stainless steel front brake lines. I'm 6'2 215lbs and one thing that surprised me was how well the F4i can do on track. I'd always imagined the RR',s R6's, etc would hand me my *** but it wasn't so. I kept up with plenty of other 600's down the straights if not passing them. I realize rider has a LOT to do with this but that's what the track is about isn't it? I have done between 30-40 car events and driven RA before so that probably had something to do with it.

I prefer the bike turn 12 over the car. I wasn't imtidated flying over the hill on the left but when you have to make the crest to the right it's a bit more eerie. Even at the end of the day I wasn't taking the back straight at full throttle around the bend. I would let off once I hit 135ish just before it started bending and then half throttle it at say 115 the rest of the way.

I was running basically brand new Pilot Power 2CT's and I thought those tires were awesome. They gripped really well.

I think I almost crashed twice from what I can remember. Once was going into turn 1 and I completley let off throttle mid corner and it unsettled the bike bad. The second was going into a brake zone I grabbed too much brake and locked the front tire up briefly and it have a crazy headshake in the handlebars. Luckily I quickly let off the brakes and it straighted out and I just rode straight onto the rumble strips and came to a stop. The corner worked signaled me when I could go again. After that I slowed down my pace a little.

Otherwise, all and all it was an awesome experience and coming from the car world I can say it's MUCH more tiring! I was freakin exhausted at the end of the day and I need to get in better shape before I think about doing a 2-day event!

Well I'm done rambling! Here are some pictures!

http://redirectingat.com/?id=42X146&...M0000%26po%3D0

After reviewing them it confirmed a few things I was doing wrong. I was not getting off the bike enough and I had my feet too far forward on the pegs where I dragged my shoe a couple of times.

 

looks fun, cant wait till i have some cash to do some trackdays.

 

Yeah, trackdays are so fun!!!... Don't have to worry 'bout cars, pot holes, etc.

 

Looks like you could hang of the bike more. And if your getting headshake, don't slow down. Power out of it. Also, be on the ball of your foot on the inside leg when cornering.

I'd like to do a Road Atlanta event. F4i should be fun and I took my 919 once and it was a blast. I ended up getting an R6 for a race bike and it MUCH faster and carries corner speed MUCH better.

Once don't think you can carry more corner speed for your lean angle and the bike doesn't have enough power down the straight that's when you might want to check out a more sporty bike but until then just have fun with it.

 

Congrats on popping your (bike)trackday cherry!

The F4i is every bit as capable as an 03-06 600RR up to 9/10ths pace. After that, it's mostly rider-talent to extract that little bit more. Keep the F4i!!

Try dropping your inside shoulder a bit in turns.

 

Great to hear you had fun and made it through safely. Can't wait to get back to the track...

 

Welcome to your new drug!