It seems like at some point somone who doesn't ride is bound to ask someone who does, "how fast can that thing go?" Thankfully, I've managed to keep enough sanity between my ears to be able to honestly answer, "I really do know how fast it can go since I chicken out long before then."
Besides, its hard to explain to a non rider that the thrill of riding a bike doesn't really come from cranking a throttle wide open on a long straight stretch of asphalt and just letting it rip... ok, so may be there is some thrill there, but it doesn't come close to the thrill of railing through a tight turn with the bike leaning over, wondering how much traction you may have left. Here again, some measure of sanity is required to remind yourself that public roads really are not the places to find out how far the bike can lean.
Ok... lots of preaching to get to the point of this post. October 23, 2006, I finally got the chance to do something I've been wanting to do for ages. I took a bike out on a closed road race course and just let her rip. There are organizations out there that sponsor what are called track days. You sign up for an appropriate skill level group, pay your fee, show up, have your bike inspected and then ride with your group on the track.
I ended up doing an even sponsored by Ridesmart and headed out to Cresson, Texas to Motorsport Ranch
. My day started at about 5 am as I grabbed a quick shower and headed out, the bike already secure to the trailer and the van packed with tools and ready to go. I rolled into the pit area at 6:30 with not much of a hint that the sun was planning on making an appearance. I was lucky enough to stumble into John one of the riders from Texas Sport Riders that I knew would be there. I pulled in, unloaded the bike and before I knew it, had completed the paperwork, the tech inspection and was putting on my leathers and getting ready to go around the track.Looking back on the day now, it really seems like it went by so quickly.
Overall I'm really glad I went and would do it again in a heartbeat. That being said there were a couple of less than stellar parts of the day.
1. The night before was really cold and the day of it never got very warm so the track temps made it hard to build up much heat at all in the tires. I think it was the lack of good traction that led to #2.
2. There were three incidents that red flagged us off the track for extended periods. Ambulances took the riders away, but the buzz was that there was nothing major. I'm glad no one was seriously hurt, but it was a shame to lose that much time.
3. Seemed like more people, especially in level 1 where I rode, should have been more willing to let faster riders move past them. I hated being stuffed behind guys on liter bikes in the turns, beating them out of the exit only to have them wind it out on the straight aways and shoot past. Then jam me up in the next turn.
4. Perhaps a few more instructors on the track would have helped that as well as given more opportunities for riders to work with instructors.
Again, I would do it again in a heartbeat and have no problem suggesting that anyone considering this give it a try. We ran on the full 3.1 mile course and I took it easy during the morning trying to get familiar with the course. By the afternoon, I was feeling pretty good about a handful of the turns but felt like there was so much more that I didn't even know I didn't even begin to comprehend about the track.
As far as lessons learned. I realized how important it is to be patient. On one lap I was stuck behind a shiny new gsxr. He was slow and erratic in the turns so it was hard to get past him and I started to get a little frustrated. I finally got a good run on him coming out of fast sweeper and opened it up in the straightaway trying to put some distance on him. Being on a bigger bike he started coming on almost immediately. I held my ground going into the first of a series of three tight turns, but I was carrying more speed than I would have preferred. I ended up with a bad line through turn 1, a lousy line through turn 2, and a thank God I made it through that one line through turn 3.
Going to have to work on that one...
**Slideshow of other pics**
