Snetterton track day write up

[Gazdaman]

I spent all day sunday working on my XJ600 with my dad, which indeed failed to start, or even show any signs of starting. So I took the MZ.

https://www.gaz-racing.co.uk/bike/snetterton/DSCI0109%20(Small).JPG

Mad you say? Well yes, I didn't want to take it, I've hardly ridden it before, the tyres are pretty much square and are made by some obscure chinese make, and are crappy.

I set off from Chelmsford about 3pm on Sunday, got to Snett for just after 4. I was there alone. The car trackday from the day before was still going! I was so shockingly early. Anyway, I set up camp in the camping field, and assumed I'd see the BCF mobile turn up. It didn't, so I went to sleep.

Woke up for signing on, wandered down to the paddock, and found a LOAD of vans, who all turned up without me hearing them. So I wheeled the MZ into the garages that we nicked. Woke G up. Said hello to all people present, G, Bendy, Jon B, Sammy, Korn, Jay and Korn's non riding friend.

Off to signing on we went, had our little briefing, got our stickers on our lids.

Novice is out first, so I fire up the MZ with G pushing it down the pit lane, line up. Show them my wrist band. "You've got a puncture mate."

Bugger.

Flat rear tyre, I head back to the garage quite pissed off, we try pumping it up, but it's definately a bad puncture. Then G pipes up "have you ever ridden a bigger bike?" as he thrusts the key to the R6 into my hand...

https://www.gaz-racing.co.uk/bike/snetterton/DSCI0116%20(Small).JPG

So out I go, on the orange, race prepped R6, this is the stuff dreams are made of. I absolutely love the bike, it was amazing. I ride it for the next session aswell while the bloke's fixing my tyre.

Plenty of overtakes, plenty of long fast straights, no surprises, no wheels sliding, perfect, I loved it.

MZ gets fixed, so I take that out for a session, 250cc 2stroke remember, making about 12-15bhp. I'm throwing the thing into corners like there's no tomorrow, crappy chinese tyres letting go at every opportunity, although it was controllable.

https://www.gaz-racing.co.uk/bike/snetterton/DSCI0111%20(Small).JPG
Here she is in full race trim...

Knee was down on the MZ, which surprised a lot of people I think.

As the day went on, I did a few more sessions on the R6 as there were more punctures on the MZ. Did a few more sessions on the MZ, absolutely pissing over some of the bigger sports bikes in the corners. Just riding round the outside, WHAT A RUSH!

To only know what was going through their minds as the crap-mobile comes cruising past with my knee on the deck.

In the afternoon I did most sessions but came in early on most of them as I was having a few problems with the bike.

I had a bit of a fanclub at one point aswell, 4 people crowded round the bike, 2 of them R6 riders whom I'd overtaken the session before and made it stick. Just from simple corner speed.

Last session I very nearly highsided coming out of sears, and did a wee bit of grasstracking.

But all in all, it was a FANTASTIC day, I can't thank G enough for trusting me with the R6 (I bought him a jerry full of petrol to say thank you). Also thanks for taking pics G, and to Keith and Charlotte who seemed to appear at various points round the track!

Thanks to Bendy for being so friendly making me feel right at home, same to everyone else. (I also lapped Jon whilst on the R6 )

There were several K5 gixxers parked around the place, and on the track, and I'm sure the MZ got the most attention. It was talked about in our debriefs.

I loved the day, I loved the track, the weather was great, thanks to everyone. Can't wait for pictures.

I'm shattered.

Gaz

[G]

A little spoiler, for Gaz:

[Reevo8]

Today was awesome. Sunday after a 12 hour 06:30 to 18:30 shift, I went to the pub to play dars and just drank red bull, this in turn meant no sleep. Not even tne small 2 hour slot I had allowed myself! Feling it now, and even on the way home I blacked out a couple of times.

Was nice to meet Bendy, Gaz, and Jay. I had already met some of the select few, but these three and I met for the first time today.

BCF meetings rock, you can talk to anybody. And providing you know what bike they ride then you have a name and a face and the ice is broken.

I rated my off roading very highly, taking a straight exit offf of 3 seperate bends

On the last session I was only passed by 2 bikes, one at the beginning, and 1 at the end whilst I was cautiously ovrtaking.

As allways, novice group was hard to guess who would do what. One minut you are behing a knee downing MZ 251, the next behind an R1, whiich the which had more brakes than engine,
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05 ZX10R, (**05 WKR)

[Gazdaman]

On the last session the instructor wanted to watch my lines, so he waved me past down the start/finish straight. Not knowing I was already flat out...

Then Sammy comes flying down the middle at some 3 figure speed.
He also did a fair bit of grass tracking. I saved mine for the last session.

Gaz

[Bendy]

I won't bore y'all with the usual dissection of the day, will leave most of the enthusing to the trackday virgins who all seemed to have a great time.

I had loads of fun, reckon I was probably about mid-pack in Inters which I'm very pleased with, 'scraped my shit' a lot (to use a Shaun-ism) which I haven't managed since jacking the pegs up and generally had a good time on the CBR. I think the run to Scotland did her good as she seemed to have more 'go' on the straights than the last time. We weren't doing any proper timing, but Korn and G both got me at 1:34 in the morning - that's knocked a few seconds off my previous best, and I reckon I was going a bit quicker in the afternoon.

I'd persuaded G to bring the R6 along, cos I wanted a go on it (previous attempts have been thwarted by breakdowns!). This, of course, was a blessing for Gaz as you'll have read. Anyway, by the afternoon I decide to take 'Bitsy' out for a session.

The riding position, with high pegs, high seat and low bars, felt a bit weird, more perched on top of the bike than sitting 'in' it like you do on mine - pretty uncomfortable, but it works on track. It handles incredibly well, the sorted track suspension means you can put it exactly where you want it and there's virtually no dive at all under braking, which makes braking harder feel easier and more reassuring to do. I get her a bit annoyed when I bang down to 3rd with too many revs, and am rewarded with a big arse wobble. A few times I have trouble changing gear, I find out afterwards that the linkage needs regular greasing and we forgot to do that. So, I reckon I was lapping slower on the R6 than on the CBR due to unfamiliarity, but I could see it being great fun once used to it.

Mega thanks to G for driving us up there, for loan of tyre warmers and R6 and generally being my pit bitch for the day.

Ta also to Millsy for being my backup pit bitch and to Keith and Charlotte for being Keith and Charlotte.

Good to meet some new faces, all of whom I think we'll be seeing in the Trackday Clique again.

[numark1]

Looks like a good day out. How did the weather hold up?

Everytime i see a pic of bendy with her black leathers helmet bike etc it always reminds me of the thing out of sleepy hollow.

https://www.timburtoncollective.com/images/sleepy1.jpg

[Josh|RD125LC]

Weyhey sounded like a fun day out. Impressed with Gaz and his MZ. Can't under-estimate it now! I look forward to my first track day. Who knows when that'll be though.
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Honda MBX50 | Yamaha RD125LC | Suzuki RG125F Lucky Strike | Suzuki GSF600S
RD125LC Pictures

[Kickstart]

Hi

We went there from Woodbridge, staying in a local B&B. We arrived at the track at about 9:30, and were generally inefficient at getting out and taking pics.

G borrowed the 1200 Bandit as his pit bike to get around on while taking pics using Jays camera. Charlotte and I wandered round to various bits of the track and took loads of pics (will upload them soon).

Was taking pics of Jon when I heard the scrunch as his exhaust touched down. And this was at the end of the pit straight, hardly a corner where people lean over that far!

Gaz on the MZ was comical, but embarressed a few people.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[JonB]

Well, boring post from me ensures.

Got out of work late yest...STOP.

Right, Got to G's at about 3 I think, got lost on the way, so had to ask 3 old ladies where his house is. Then saw Laura flapping her arms at me, so I knew where to go...then stalled at traffic lights. Good impression.

We mused around a bit, mainly clearing out the van, or shall I say Bendy and G clearing out the van whilst I minced about saying nothing.

So we go to load my bike into the van, A Bandit is not the lightest of bikes as G soon found out, the Bandit was on the ramp (made of wood) and it slipped. Fortunately my frame did not snap in half.

So we trek too Snetterton, i'm gonna be honest I didn't have a clue where it was I even tried going on my WAP to see, to know avail, so I didn't even know if I was close to there and I don't like that feeling. It was 9PM and we all starving so we popped into a pub for some grub (yummmm steak) and then headed to the circuit.

Korn and his mate had already been there for 5 hours by this time.

So we got our stuff out and I tried putting up my tent and embarrasingly couldn't even manage that! So much laughing at me from the peeps in the garage.

I settle down to sleep on a concrete floor, I now need a hip replacement. Kidding. Get woken up to the tune of engines revving outside and so go to sign on.

The trackday itself was very good, I am still restricted to 33BHP and was in two minds of whether to derestrict or not, so I used the morning sessions to get a good idea, On the first lap I chnaged gear mid corner and the back slid out on me, but I kept it just about.

The next 2 sessions went by, I wasn't convinced I was enjoying the trackday as all the bikes were overtaking me and my cornering and gear changes were not brilliant.

Gaz suggested I try some knee sliders, this would have been easy if my leathers had velcro attachments for knee sliders but I made up a bodge job of Gaffa tape and sliders to my leathers, looked very good. So I was starting to hang off more and I touched my knee against the door to make a little mark on the sliders, I was well chuffed but nobody was impressed!

It was lunch so me and Sam went to get some petrol, blah blah.

After lunch I felt a lot more positive and decided against derestricting the bike, 4th lap into the session and "screeech" my kneee is on the tarmac at 60MPH and i'm leaning far baby

From that moment on my knee was touching down on that corner all the time, my right knee that is. Towards the end I could get my knee down at every corner.

The last session came and a lot of us were finding it difficult to find a place to do a left kneedown, there are only 2 left handers on the track, but I was determined so I leant off my huge bike as far as possible and there goes that slider as well.

I know this isn't that concise or long but meh i'm knackared, I sustained damage to the exhaust because I was leant over so far, but I will post pics tomorrow.



Thanks to everyone who attended you are all cool people.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[paulodd]

Your al lucky bast*rds. I was meant to come up with Gaz but i had to work

As soon as my backs better and i'm back on a bike, i think i may just have to loose my trackday & BCF 'racing crew' meeting virginity asap. Can't wait.

Glad you all had a great day, made me jealous. And Gaz i'm highly disappointed that after saying you would leave the topbox on, you took it off. How embarrassing would that be... being overtaken by a MZ with topbox with KD around a bend


Paul
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Paul
1999 Yamaha R6
www.coventrybikers.co.uk / www.norfolkriders.co.uk

[Korn]

It was a good day, nice to meet the newcomers especially Gaz on the MZ - respect!

Arrived too early but did get to see some nice cars, then a decent night's kip in the paddock. I had fun out on track, getting 'back into it' after crashing at Cadwell. Cheers to Jon for lending me his I/R laptimer, spent most of the day doing around 1:21 / 1:22 which started to feel quite relaxed towards the end. Finally found a line through the chicane that I feel comfortable with, straight into and over the first kerb, looks dodgy but it seemed to work well enough. Just wish I had more power for those damn straights, grrr!

A few pics: https://www.kornel.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=79
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[Gazdaman]

Loving the pic of Jon's exhaust down. Are there more pics on their way?

I'm extremely impressed with the quality of the photography.

Btw, this is where the photos from the official photographer will be. https://britishsportphotography.com/gallery/TrackDays (They're not up yet).

Gaz

[Bendy]

I would imagine Keith and G will both upload their snaps this evening.

[G]

[Kickstart]

[TOM M]

sounds like an amzing track-day, after reading this, i wanan take the zxr4 on a track as soon as ive passed
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Now owner of a 1200 Bandit

[Kickstart]

Hi

Pics are uploading as I type.

https://www.traxpics.co.uk/SHOW-20050801-Snetterton/

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[Reevo8]

[Bendy]

Weeeeeeeeeee

[Kickstart]