Silverstone Trackday Report

Silver · World Chat Champion Joined: 03 Oct 2004 Karma :

White Noise made it to mine last night (just in time to watch the Argies get spanked! Very Happy

), so that the trip to Silverstone this morning wouldn't be so arduous for him. Got up at 6am this morning (and discovered that WN had spent a proportion of the night ignoring the advances of our on-heat female Husky! Laughing

) and got ready for the short, 45 minute trip to Silverstone.

Mike had gone on ahead, since he didn't fancy waiting for my slow-arsed trailer towing car! We got about 10 miles from Silverstone when it started raining. Great. Luckily it only last five or ten minutes and then stopped. The damage, however, had been done; the ground was nicely wet Sad

We arrived at the circuit to find WN, Dracan, Wave2k, Davo and Yokogeri already camped in a garage. Yokogeri had been entrusted with G's R6, which I thought was incredibly trusting considering he only passed his test last week. When I saw G's R6, I realised there was actually very little additional damage he could do to it...! Laughing

I'm sure Wave2k will recount the many comments on the state of it...

Anyway, the first session was wet, the second damp and the other four were all dry! The sun poked through mid-morning, and although it was cold it had completely dried the track by lunch time. It didn't seem to be stopping people from binning their bikes though, and every other session seemed to consist of a red flag! Luckily though, none of the BCF lot joined in - the curse stayed at home!

Davo dropped down to Novice and I considered moving up to Inters (since I was on the stand-by list), but since it was wet I stayed where I was. The groups seemed a bit skewed anyway, since there were three or four very fast riders in Novice Confused

(and Korn, there were about six track bikes! Razz

).

All in all a good day. Well done to Scott for getting faster as the day went on and for not binning the R6. His massive grin and 'whooping' got louder every time he came in. I think he's a track-convert!

For me it was the first time on my track R6, and (I'm very please and relieved to say) it behaved awesomely, just what I was after; very planted and lots of grunt for a 600.

Jeanette got a few pictures, but on the National circuit there's not many good places to go (and she got booted out of a couple! Laughing

). Here's a few of the group below.

CoronaBoner · World Chat Champion Joined: 04 Jul 2005 Karma :

Wow very cool, im jealous Thumbs Up

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2004 RSV Factory

Cluck cluck chicken

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

my bit from R&TD section

now that i have had some food and got a beer in my hand i can now be arsed to write a bit of the day.
rode there from silvers where i stayed the night, ended up passing a bike on the A so and so! loook over, leathers this time in the morning got to be on there way to silverstone
i disappear off but other still in my mirrors until i spot a nice empty dual. take the slip road off to silverstone and as its quiet i wait for the bike behind. start talking at the junction and then pull over. happens to be none other than Dracan, small world!
continue on our way and about a mile outside silverstone its starts raining! turns out to be a small shower but leaves the tarmac wet till miday. turn up sign in and prep the bikes.
yoko is started to get aquaited with his steed for the day and to be fair he didn't look too happy! went for a small ride round the paddock and got a bit of a OMG type smile on his face!
i'm booked into inters and so is davo, until i get on my bike ready to leave the garage where i am informed davo had changed to novice! bugger so i'm the only one in inters! arse! you should have seem my face as all the bikes that turned up seemed to be track bikes!
get out on the first session and the track is wet and my concidence is shot after my off so i am tiptoeing round along with a few others. slowly over the next sessions and as the track drys out i get quicker but still not feeling 100%, my main problem being speed on straights, i seem not to want to get the power on and get to top speed asap as im not confident that i can stop the bike! the last session of the day and i go out only for someone to bin it at the pit exit! after the restart everything begins to come together and feel much happier but still have worries about getting the bike upto speed and stopping it. but as a general confidence boost today has been great especially as i didn't drop it! also come to the realisation that the main difference between a quick and a slow track rider is how aggressive they are with the throttle and braking. good day had by all but think that i will book in novice next time!
WN
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Riding Tip #86: See God, then back off a bit: Problem is i haven't seen god yet, just a close up of tarmac on revett straight

Dom · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Sep 2004 Karma :

Sounds like a fun day. I see Yokogeri managed to find some questionably fitting leathers in the end then. Laughing

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Photos and that

..... · Quote Me Happy Joined: 15 Jan 2005 Karma :

Scot, glad you got leathers sorted in the end Thumbs Up

Sorry for it being such a drama and not being able to get my jacket back. I thought a quick phone call to my bro, to get him to phone his mate, and the jacket would be back.

No such luck, my bro happened to be abroad with a new phone and without his mate's number. So I'm still jacketless. When I see my bro I'm gonna smack him in the face, and the same for his mate. I leant them to him for a day to do his CBT in them about a month ago.

I'm truly pissed off Evil or Very Mad

Anyway, sorry for letting you down and glad you hada good day Thumbs Up

BenBray · Spanner Monkey Joined: 05 Aug 2005 Karma :

Cool pics, sounds like everyone had a great time!

Get a post up yoko, how was your track/big bike cherry popping? Laughing

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SoulRider · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Nov 2005 Karma :

wow looks like was good day, loving the professional pic, looks awsome

Andy C · Tree Seeking Missile Joined: 26 Apr 2005 Karma :

lol yea who were they off? sound like a good day, was G not there (as his bike was)
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99 RS125 --> 02 SV650s --> 03 Speed Four --> 92 RXS100 --> 93 CB400sf --> 01 CB600f Hornet

Dracan · Trackday Trickster Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Karma :

Gazdaman · I did a trackday!!! Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Karma :

The R6, brings happiness to many a trackday virgin. I hope Yokogeri enjoyed it as much as I did!!

That paddock stand's got worse since I last saw it!

No-one crashed, I'm disappointed. (Even white noise!!)

Gaz

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

instigator · Super Spammer Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Karma :

WN - You've kept quiet on the 'Husky' front.

Wink

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

instigator · Super Spammer Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Karma :

Oh man...I bet silver is loving having the Husky now. Thumbs Up

Aaah, delightfully retracted from the threads theme, sorry gents, please carry on....

*sniggers*

Dracan · Trackday Trickster Joined: 15 Apr 2005 Karma :

My write-up of the day is now on my website ...

https://www.dracan.co.uk/silverstone_131105.php
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Honda CBR600RR - 2004

kath600 · Trackday Trickster Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Karma :

good pics glad the weather turned out ok for you.

MASSIVE well done to yoko for doing a track day after just passing your test and riding a bike you didn't know.

well done, told you that you'd be ok Thumbs Up

but please........... tell me those rst leathers are borrowed or you have lost a silly amount of weight Laughing

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Seven days without laughter......... makes one weak.

MarkyPancake · Crazy Courier Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Karma :

Sounded like a great day and that paddock stand is amazing! Laughing

I can't wait to do my first track day, but at the same time I'm apprehensive as I would hate to drop my bike or be collected.

kath600 · Trackday Trickster Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Karma :

JeffT · Crazy Courier Joined: 05 May 2004 Karma :

Well one of the red flags on Saturday was caused by my best mate!

He has only been riding a few months and it was his first track day.

So off he went with his R6 (along with a friend of his who has a track bike, R1 i think) and his new leathers n lid.

Sadly I couldn't go to watch as I was busy so this is his account of Saturday.

Had enjoyed his first few sessions, slowly getting faster and grin growing!

Then in one of the afternoon sessions he exited club and had straightened it up. Nailing it down the straight he then changed up a gear, and the next thing he knew he was airborne.

Apparently his bike took out the bike that was following him too and then smashed into a barrier.

When I spoke to him on the day he said he didnt hurt anywhere, although I expect he did yesterday!

Apparently his bike if proper fucked, front end basically missing, pissing oil etc everywhere, as is all his kit, although apparently it all did its job.

Once he was checked by the docs they reviewed the CCTV to deem the cause. They have recored it as mechanical failure (apparently the guy said it could well have been the gear box ceasing just as he changed gear).

So we have one guy who definatley has a bad memory of their first track day!
Sad thing is he now is minus 3.5K of R6 and all his kit and has said it will be a long while before he saves up enough to replace it!

On a side note apparently the other guy that was taken out by his bike wasn't pee'd off with him, which I was surprised at!

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

Sloces sorry to hear about your mate, hope that he isn't too banged up and hes not too gutted about the bike, at least he could get some money back by parting it out.

MarkyPancake · Crazy Courier Joined: 05 Jul 2005 Karma :

Shaun · Likes 'em bent Joined: 17 May 2003 Karma :

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

Shaun · Likes 'em bent Joined: 17 May 2003 Karma :

I still disagree.

I've had 2 years riding 'big' bikes and haven't had a single off but I'm a hell of a lot quicker and in general a better rider than I was back then. I didn't get to this point by constantly going past my limits and sliding down the track or road on my arse.

Yes I've been near to my limits and probably on them a lot but never just dived straight in trying to pull of stuff I've never done before, it isn't necessary to crash in the learning process.

As an example Korn went from novice to fast and only recently had his first track off.

White Noise · Mr Dudwee Joined: 17 Dec 2004 Karma :

so then are you saying that you have never done something wrong, i.e going too hot into a corner, faster that you would have like to have gone, then found that you have to lean the bike over more to get round the corner more and learned that you can do that on the bike, ie learning via a mistake?
in that case you are put in a situation that make you have to do it, and you learn that way