track day report.
Some good some quite bad, some a bit ugly.
day 1:
signed on got ready and did my due diligence of going steady for the first session, slowly building up the pace as my confidence in the bike built. Straight away I was struggling to get the weight off my hands. I knew immediately I had made a mistake with the height of the seat. it was pitching me way over the front of the bike, with not enough of the back of the tank on show to enable me to anchor myself properly. The extra weight on my hands was causing me problems with steering the bike. Nothing I could do at this point but just adapt and see what I could do with my riding style.
Second session I went out and started to increase the pace, all was going well - the power of the bike is actually more than I expected, up against my father in laws 2002 R1 I was losing about a bike length max on the straights, it is a very fast bike now. certainly quicker than a 600, and a crap ton of mid range torque which made getting out the corners very easy. no need for stratospheric rpm at all times. It can dig itself out of the hole and go. Disaster struck on lap 5 of the second session. I was upping the pace, and starting to chase a guy down in front of me, I tipped into coppice at about 95mph, shifted down to 4th flicked over the the right into charlies 2 and asked for a bit of gas. the back end broke away and came round on me without warning and nearly high sided me to the moon. by the time I managed to get it back under control I was heading off the track onto the grass at a reasonable speed. there was so much going on and it came as such a surprise that I was sure I was going to hit the the tyre wall so I jumped off. Now I have watched BSB and seen people jump off the bike when they cant avoid hitting something, and I always thought that must take some mega balls to do that voluntarily. Not so much when you think you are going to plough into a tyre wall it turns out
This was my first ever crash on a track. I guess I had to join the club at some point. The bike escaped with minimal damage (couple of fairing cracks and a bent rear brake lever) I got away have a mark on me, although my knee is sore now.
After recovery in the trailer of shame I sat thoroughly confused at what had just happened. I decided to contact the suspension specialists in the paddock and pay for a full setup. at least I can discount that.
So the guy had a good look over the bike, said the rear end was a bit stiff, and basically started from scratch and balanced the bike up. He then had a look at the tyres... So it turns out they are scrubs from 2014, they had 2015 off, then were on my dads aprilia in 2016, and the trx in 2017. He was fairly convinced that everything on the bike looked good and was behaving correctly, and that it was more than likely the age and amount of heat cycles the tyres have been through. gutted. Got all this way and a shit tyre bollocksed the job up. Although I heard what he was saying but I still had some doubts. Terrible timing for something like that to happen when I am breaking a new bike in.
got the bike track worthy again, suspension setup and a new set of supercorsas (wont buy scrubs ever again) missing a session, but got back out before lunch. It turns out the biggest damage that had been done was to my confidence. Where I once was cruising at the top of the inters group I was now getting hammered. brilliant.
The day ended with no further incident but I cant say it was the amazing experience I was hoping for.
Day 2
Woke up with some general ambivalence about heading out on track. I was desperate to lower the seat but I couldn't do anything about that. and I hadnt pushed anywhere near as hard through and out the corners to test the bikes mechanical grip.
First session was more of the same from yesterday, then second session something just clicked and my pace increased. I found a way to anchor myself on the bike to get my weight of the bars and it gave me some confidence to push on a bit. By the end of the session I was pushing way harder than I was when I came off and the bike was just gripping. Good news. I can almost box it off and say the tyre caused the off. I need to be able to do that as I cant accept 'I don't know what happened' as an answer.
The guy that set my suspension up had built and raced a few specials, so he was well placed to check the bike and offer advice. after I gave him some feedback mid morning that i was going faster but the bike was not holding a line very well he looked at the front tyre and suggested I drop the forks through the yoke 5mm. wow. I said are you sure? they are already way shorter than stock. he said what is stock - you have built a bike from scratch and from what I am looking at you need the forks through the yokes 5mm. I did the last session with 5mm through yokes and the bike was much more stable and quicker turn in. great stuff. This last session before lunch my pace was nearly back up to where I was last year. I was much happier. then it pissed it down so we packed up and went home.
No point tempting fate, and my knee was sore.
Some pics. all these were post crash.
There's some sort of poetry in this shot:
So in summary. it was not the launch I had hoped it to be, but there were some positives to take from it. The bike is fast, maybe a little too fast, its doesnt have any fundamental flaws, and it crashes well :lol:
I need to build my confidence back up somehow, I certainly am not a racer. I struggle to get over things like this. It astounds me how the likes of Cal and Marquez bin their bikes get the second bike out and go faster.
I have some video footage although the front camera was a casualty of the off so i only have rear footage of after the crash, but I will get it uploaded.
