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TWS Track Day Report 3/12/04

Joined
Jan 7, 2004
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Location
Cypress, Texas
Wow :dude: , what a day. It started nice with light traffic. One hour from my driveway to signing the waver at the gate. One of my buddies, Isle of Man Dan, was going to race for the Motorcycles Unlimited endurance team on Saturday, so we pitted with Patrick Hart of Motorcycles Unlimited at his trailer. Patrick is a good guy, who is always ready to offer advise and of course parts and service. Today he was giving away electricity for my tire warmers. A real tall guy named John pitted with us. It wasn't until later in the afternoon that I found out he was KawiJM.

The day was overcast, light breeze, and cool. The kind of weather that you can leave your leathers on all day and still be comfortable. The track conditons were good. It was a little dusty at the apex of turn 4 and turn 6. The guys at LSTD had decided to have a second ambulance so down time at the track would be minimal. Everyone was asked to pitch in and extra $10 to cover the second ambulance. As it turned out, no one took a trip to the hospital. That was a pleasant change. The ambulance did go out on the track a few times, but wasn't needed. :chug:

I was working on getting my but off the bike and rolling on the throttle thru the corner. It really felt good and I never scared myself. My rule for track days is to not go over 80%. I want to have fun and increase my skills, but not go down. Been there, done that, it's no fun.

I had changed my gearing to a 15 tooth front sprocket, and the extra drive out of the corners was very evident. I lost count of the Ducatis, CBR600RRs, RC51s, and other "fast" bikes I passed. :biggun: It's a great feeling to motor the old Superhawk past them. Did I mention that the front forks are Race Teched, Fox Twin Clicker shock, D & D slip ons, Dynojet jet kit, Sharkskin race body work, ss braided front brake lines, and a 929 master cylinder. Well they didn't know all the particulars. They just saw the red bike with the yellow "DDS"s for numbers. Uncle Sam pays his part of my motorcycle addiction.(I also give away free toothbrushes at the track)

Got to meet Chris(mrr1150gs) in the afternoon. Nice to see someone my age at a track day with all the young whippersnappers. That's when I found out that the John I was pitting with was KawiJM. Small world, but linked together by Two Wheeled Texans. Thanks Scott.

The day ran on schedule with very few delays. I put 120 track miles on the Superhawk. My buddy, Isle Of Man Dan, usually run in the A group and I run B. But on the last session he went out with me on the Motorcycles Unlimited SV 650 race bike to get some track time with it before Saturday. We waited until everyone else was gone before we went out. Dan and I have raced cars, karts, and shifter karts together at TWS since 1992. In fact he is the one that got me into racing. But I'm the one that got him into sportbikes. We help support each other's go fast addiction. We spent the session dicing back and forth while getting thru traffic. It was by far the most enjoyable session of the day, and brought back lots of racing memories.

The way home I set the cruise on 70(legal limit). Drifted back to the memories of the day. Euphoria set in once again and I was drawn back into the life of a TRACK DAY JUNKY. :lol:
 
:tab Picture me looking like the little kid outside the candy store pressing his face against the window... :tears:

:tab Glad you had a great time and no one took a ride to the hospital!

Adios,
 
Nice meeting you Docspeed & mrr1150gs. I pitted w/ Patrick, Dan & Michael. A great group of guys indeed. After Patrick's boot crisis it was funny to listen to him go on about his first time on the track :lol: It is just that everyone else had been on the track a couple of times, but Pat had to wait a while to get out there. We all were key'd up after our first sessions, but were cooled down a little when Pat had his first. His excitment was evident & understandable.

I think I had my best time ever (so far) on my bike. My technique is improving & in the 4th session I got all alone on the track. I looked 3-4 turns ahead & nothing :clap just open track. I had to pass maybe 3-4 riders the whole time. Just enough to make it interesting, but really enjoyed the solitude on the track. It is amazing how much fun it is out there. Especially enjoying it w/ a great group of guys! :party
 
Still can't get the grin off my face. :-D The day turned out great. No ambulance rides :mrgreen: Only my second track day so I worked on being smooth and throttle control most of the day. Amazing, the more relaxed I was on the bike, and smoother on the throttle the faster I went. Still not hunting down GXR's, but it is a goal... ;-) I pitted with Steve from Austin and Chris (mrr1150gs) from Houston. Great guys.

Thanks to Scott Friday for all the work you put into Two Wheeled Texans and bringing motorcyclist together.

--Will
 
Being my first day, I was slightly apprehensive. But not even close to nervous. Then the first session of the day was the Round Robin. The group I was in had about the greatest variety of skills I saw all day. One guy would enter the corners braking real hard, coasting through the corner only to power on to the straight like a rocket. Following him kind of freaked me out. Another thing slightly put me on edge, I was entering my first right hand corner, I realized my street riding form was not going to work here. I leaned the bike over and found the first thing to drag. The tip of my size 44 Daytona Dual sport boots. I bet it would have looked cool at night to see the sparks, but ut didn't help with the nerves at all. I was next to last to take my turn behind the instructor, and following him using his lines helped calm me down some.

The next session out on the track we were supposed to stay in one or two gears and off of the brakes. I found this pretty easy, the VFR has lots of engine braking. This time we were given instructions by our instructors. It is pretty amazing to feel like you are going just about as fast as a motorcycle will go through a corner, while following a guy who is riding one handed and looking backwards through the corner. Talk about humbling. And I was not even close to needing to be humbled.

Next session, we worked on moving your body off of the center of the seat and trying to relax. This was probably the best session all day for me. My instructor, Steve, kept flapping his arms like a Chicken. It would have been easy to think he was calling me a chicken, I sure felt like one, but he was trying to get me to relax my arms and upper body.
While giving me some great one on one instruction he waves me off and takes off like a Rocket. I motions for a rider to follow him. Then hauls *** through the last corners and motions he is exiting the track. I thought wow, is this place great or what. He can look around and see other riders doing thing and gives them personal instruction, even though they are not taking the class.

He catches up with me a little while later, leads for a turn, follows me for a turn, then blasts past me giving me the thumbs up. Later he told me I was getting my butt off to one side of the seat, but when I was all stiff, my upper body didn't move a millimeter. I could definitely tell how much easier everything worked when I would just relax.

Next session, we worked on braking. Up until now I still pretty much relied on engine braking for the most part. Steve passes me and starts to give me the signals for when to start applying the brakes, when to apply them firmer and when to start releasing them. This was a new concept. Releasing brakes slowly as opposed to just letting go of them. Makes sense if you have ever skiied. But I never really thought about it. Although he was riding behind one of the few guys slower than me on the track. I was having to use my brakes very much. We exit turn 15 and head up on to the high banked straight and he motions me to pass him. I am still behind the slightly slower guy as I enter turn one but I came into the turn wider than him. As we head for turn two I say what the heck and pass this guy on the outside of turn two. Then I jump on the gas so I can get in front of him to set up for turn three. This gave me a good opportunity to use the braking exercise. As I exit turn three there is a blur passing me on the right side and it was my instructor giving me another thumbs up.

The rest of the day just keep getting better. Right after lunch the sun tried to come out for a little while and heated up the track some. I know it was probably my imagination, but I felt like I had better traction.

I will not claimed to have gained any real speed through the day, but I did gain confidence. By the end of the day, Will was only passing me once during a session, instead of the multiple lappings he was giving me earlier in the day. I want to thank Will and his significant other for being there, saving us a spot, answering all our questions and just hanging out with us. It was also great to be able to put some other names with faces. Not that I won't ask each of you your names again next time we meet. Give me a few times I will get it down.

My friend from Austin had even more fun than I did I think. He couldn't get the sh*& eating grin off of his face the whole day. I expect next time he shows up at the track, he will have traded his Aprilia Futura for a Mille and his Aerostitch for a set of track leathers. He has caught the bug in the worst way...
 
I thought I knew how to ride.

This was my reply on our track day on the Aprilia Forum. A big thank you to Will and his wife for being so kind to Chris and myself.

Geeeez Chris......that's a bold prediction........how did you know? Twenty plus years of racing sailboats and riding motos together and I guess you goty my number. Hmmmmmmm...... a Mille R...thats the ticket.

:chug:



No really.......... I started out when I was I was 13.... I was tooling around on a Kawa 90 Bushmaster moved to on up to a Honda 305 Dream and a few others over the years. I took the typical "got to raise the kids break" but owned a 1982 Honda CB 900 with the High/Low transmisson in the middle of that stint. I got back into to motorcycles 4 years ago and have put 70,000 miles on three different BMW's. I am not bragging, just a point of reference. I have taken the MFS and ERC course and thought that I knew how to ride.
The truth is that I know how to get around on a bike, sometimes I can guestamate what other driver was going to do and avoid some bonehead moves, I generally feel competent. But when it came to riding the Texas Hill Country I never felt comfortable in the twisties, I would push myself and go thru as well as my buddies , but after always felt that I was fortunate to be alive.

So why am I writing this? Because I have had the oppurtunity to do a track day. I have learned more at the track day than I have learned in all my motorcycling years put together. Maybe I am just slower or thicker than the rest.

My buddie and I signed up a month ago at his urging and I thought "sure why not". We rode our bikes (he on a VFR) to Texas World Speedway yesterday at 5:45 am. We signed up for the class that was available, instructors were assigned for every three students. There were three groups A group= experts(racers tuning bikes for the weekend CMRA race) B group= experienced track day people, C group= rookies and students of the class.
First order of business was finding a pit space then registration and tech inspection. After all that the first class, then a spin around the 2.9 mile track at slow speed to get to know the track behind instructor. Then more class, every class was followed by a drill or exercise, with instuctors riding the track to observe your progress. The instructors would give hand signals to you from in front and if that didn't work they would tap the tail end of their bike and you would follow them to the hot pit ( I got the the tail tap once) where they would stop and talk you through drill again and then back out to the track you go. Second drill was to go around the track with out the use of brakes at all, this was to teach me to adjust entry speed and get me to accelerate throuh the turn.This turned out to be the most important lesson for me. I always have been coasting into and through the corner and accelerating on the exit.

The first few 20 minute sessions I was overloaded with information and was struggling around the track.... then something clicked in the body position drill and it all came together for me. Then the RST Futura and I did a Vulcan Mind Meld and we became as one. The rest of the sessions we were hustling around the track, every session I gianed more confidence and improved.

Now forgive me please as I am not trying to preach to the choir, I am just excited about learning to ride better.
 
Steve, I'm glad you posted.

You did the thing I've been contemplating, namely, riding my Futura to the track day, using it there, and riding it back (I'm trailer-deficient).

I was wondering what you did to pass tech inspection. The Futura's mirrors are a pain to remove, but did you do that or just tape 'em up? Did you pull the headlight/taillight fuse(s) or not?

I was wanting a 2nd bike for spare/trackday duty, but the CFO of my family ;-) is clamping down on any non-family-related expenses :-(. So, the only alternative is to press the RST into trackday service... ;-)

I'm really getting a jones to do some track days... Sounds like LSTD was really well-run...

thx...
 
Buck,
While I was getting tires to go to track day at AF1 racing I got to see and hear your bike as it was there for service. The H pipe and Staintunes sounded great.

Tech inspection....no problem...painters blue tape over all the lights and mirrors and pull the third fuse from the right to kill lights. Only problem with that was all instruments are out to, but no problem I also have Garmin Street pilot 3 mounted to take over the instruments, cool thing about that was that I could reset max speed every session.

Next session I can go to is May 10th, and I will try to sign up.

Chris and I were the only ones riding to track day.... I will do it again as I have a gene in my DNA which prevents me from putting my bike on a trailer. Should have seen the looks we got as we finished up the track day slapped on our bags and rode off, I think it was a "you guy's aren't from round here ....are you?" look......oh well, what are you gonna do.

It's doable, in the end I had 1 gal of gas left, the track has free water and gatorade and a good hamburger to buy. In betwen sessions if you have time you can have a guy at the track check out your suspension and make adjustments, mine was way off and I noticed the difference right away. Then you can tool around the pit area and check out all the hot bikes.

BTW my Futura is just fine, I do love her so....... but H pipes and some good cans would be nice.

You know the strangest thing about track day? I am busting my rear through the corner and my instructor is ahead of me going faster and has his bike leaned over hard......and you know what ....he is turned around backwards looking at me ( thru the corner) giving my the thumbs up.....How do he do that?
 
Thanks for the response, Steve. If that's all that's required for tech inspection (aside from good tires), I think I'll have to hit one or 10 this year. ;-)

BTW, what did the Garmin report as your max speed? :-)

I guess folks'll give me the same look, if/when I roll up with the topcase mounted...

Thanks again...
 
Well...

Well, then. I should get a few odd looks when I pull the windshiled off my valkyrie, but leave the hard saddlebags on. :shock:
Of course, 1000lbs bike and rider combos don't usually do a lot of track time. :-D
I CAN'T WAIT!!!! :chug:
 
Pretty cool video. I don't think I am ready for primetime. Maybe when I can keep up with Will I will consider it.

Anybody going to do another track day in the near future?
 
the funny thing is today I went out and knocked out about 250 miles. Enjoyed every minute. All alone, up the forest held it at 70 all the way up :twisted: . Just slight roll-on in the corners, but then back down. The engine just seemed to like it at that pace. The twin was really talking dirty to me today :bigokay: . No pushing, no working hard, just smooth, smooth, smooth. I can really feel my track time paying off & I don't worry about speed on the street. I'll leave that for the track :clap Out of Richards into Magnolia. Out 1488 to 2736 to Hempsted. 1488 back out to Magnolia. Nice big loop & only one cop :biggun:



BTW did I mention I was going to Kevin Schwantz @ Road Atlanta in May :scratch
 
Oh sure... rub that big chunky rock salt into the wound... ;-) Make it hurt real good! :-P
 
I am going to try to sign up for the one in May. Scott, bring your new GS out to the track. Show us how it's done!
 
Actually, I would prefer to bring Debbie's GS out to the track :-P It would be a hoot ripping around you guys in the tight stuff only to get smoked on the straights ;-)

Adios,
 
On the last trackday there was a guy on a Ninja 250 in "B" group :scratch Actually quite nice, at least there was one bike out there I could out motor down the straights. :nana He left early....I wouldn't know why :moon:
 
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