Silverstone trackday report - It's not easy being yellow...

[Bendy]

Decided to ride up to this one since Silverstone's only 70 odd miles away from my house. Spent the weekend painting my crappy fairings so they'd look half decent on the bike (tart) but due to time constraints and just being too tired on Sunday night, I didn't fit them. This will be significant later...

Crawled out of bed at half six and was on the road by about 7am. 'Made progress' up the road and rolled into the garage at about 7:45. Nice.

In the briefing, the 100% guy mentions that there was classic car racing on at the weekend and they're not the most oil tight things on the track. This will also be significant later...

First session's just sighting laps, go out and trawl around in the wet contemplating the lack of grip. Meh, not so bad, not so good.

Jay's out in inters this time and no sooner has he gone out than one of gsxrboy's mate comes over and tells us 'our mate on the Hornet's just gone down'. He's up on his feet so we just have to wait for the recovery van to bring him back.

It eventually arrives, Jay looking like he's seen a ghost and the Hornet full of gravel. But on closer inspection it's not that bad, significant damage confined to a broken brake lever... and I just happen to have a spare CBR6 one with me which'll fit just fine.

So I leave G and Korn putting Jay's bike back together and head off out for the first proper session. I'm second or third bike out and am intending to take it nice and easy following Jay's stack.

Out the pits, down the short straight, left hander, right hand... shit. One second I'm barely off the vertical taking it nice and easy at about 60 round the corner, next the bike just disappears sideways and I hit the deck. Slide for a bit, roll for a bit thinking 'please nobody hit me' and grind to a halt in the middle of the track. Up on my feet and I leg it over to the gravel where my bike's lying on it's side. Bugger shit fuck bollocks. Whack the kill switch although I think the engine's already stopped, and retire a few metres back into the gravel to await rescue, while the entire field filter past under yellows.

It takes maybe a couple of minutes for them to get everyone in, time I spend stamping around in the gravel swearing and slapping myself with gloves, sitting on the gravel having a bit of a shake, and contemplating that my first bike crash in 5 years on two wheels was actually not that big a deal.

The recovery guys turn up and tell me the medics are on the way cos apparently it looked like I hit the deck really hard . I insist I'm alright but just do what I'm told. He takes my wristband off and the medic guy arrives, checks my helmet to see if I hit my head at all and tells me to get I'm coming to the medical centre and to stop fussing about my bike and leave it to the recovery guys.

I get to ride in the big medical van with the flashing lights. Though they weren't flashing. Doctor dude has a poke at my arm which I've admitted hurts a bit and gets me to sign a form before giving me a lift back to the pit where the recovery van has just arrived with poor old Doris inside.

Surveying the damage... well the fairing's got a scuff and a new go-fasta venting hole, the can is now a custom tri-oval with increased ground clearance... and the footpeg hanger has snapped. After a wander along the pit looking for someone with a spare and a few calls to see if anyone was coming up to watch later and could pick up a new one, G and Korn set about making a spare R6 one fit, something cunningly achieved using a bit of heel plate to hold it in one of the holes. The back brake is cable tied up out of the way, never use it anyway. Good to go.

I'm not that keen on going out again cos it's only got wetter, but with a bit of persuasion I concur that it's the smart thing to do, and go reclaim my wristband. Out after lunch and everyone's riding like grannies - it's just fundamentally slippy out there. Trundle round keeping pace with the pack but generally not feeling too happy about how slippery it is.

Sit out the next session and G offers to let me use the R6 for the one after that, as he and Korn have been having a hoot on their wet tyres. I'm game... but the R6 isn't and it decides to throw it's front sprocket off at the beginning of G's session. Bah.

Time to throw in the towel and ride home. In the pissing rain. With one footpeg higher than the other.

So I guess the BCF curse finally got me (award please Korn) but I reckon me and Doris both got off pretty lightly. She'll get a new hanger in time for Snetterton on Saturday and I suspect I'm going to spend tomorrow doing some aching. But I had a good day and a big to everyone for rebuilding the CBR. Good to meet gsxrboy and his mates as well.

Will do photos in a bit, but here's one of The Bodge.

[NSR125-Kid-UK]

Poor bendmobile .
Still, could have been worse .
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[mr.z]

Bad luck bendy, but there are ALLOT worse places to have an off, at least on a track you dont have to factor in busses and lorrys comeing the other way at you!

Scarey stuff though, sprockets falling off

Out of interest, do any of you bother with track day insureance?
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>RidingSkills<->Tech Tips<->MyBikes<

[Kickstart]

Hi

Glad you still had a good day, and looks like both you and Doris got away lightly.

In a strange way a light crash like that makes you feel better. A few years back I was getting really paranoid about crashing. Dropping the Bimota was not a financially rewarding activity, but the lack of major damage or injury did kick that paranoia into touch.

What is it with yellow bikes. Guess what colour GSXR Nige dropped yesterday.

All the best

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

[Bendy]

[Silver]

Glad you're okay - put it down to experience and move on...

I'm happy I managed to do the (virtually) dry track last week now!

[Shaun]

[Bendy]

https://www.kornel.com/pics/Silverstone2/P1010021.JPG

Again, we love R&G crash bungs.

[gsxrboy]

[MarJay]

Hi Bendy and Jay

Stuck at work today I managed to read Swaffs brief post about the accident and I was worried. Bendy's first crash and Jay's first as far as I know.

Glad to hear you are all OK and nothing is broken except for bits of bike.

Relieved and mechanically sympathetic,

(and ache and pain sympathetic too!)

Mark.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[Korn]

Well, that was a remarkably enjoyable trackday - though not for everybody in our posse

Have to say a big thank you to Alex (gsxrboy) for putting us up for the night and plying us with beer & barbecue, top man!

Unlike Croft which started off wet and developed into brilliant sunshine Silverstone today started wet and got progressively wetter, with no sun or wind to dry the track and spates of rain throughout the whole day. Jay was the first BCF casualty, going down on the very fast Copse corner but luckily escaping with some minor damage, and a seriously sheet-white look of terror when the recovery wagon dropped him back to us. Bendy was the next to fall, a few minutes later as we were getting Jay's hornet fixed up with one of her spare levers. Once again R&G mushrooms saved a whole lot of damage, though she did reshape her end can in an interesting fashion.

Generally speaking people were dropping like flies, with most sessions being red flagged instead of reaching conclusion. I spent the morning really struggling to get my BT012's to stay stuck to the track but G saved the day at lunchtime by lending me his old set of wets - big thank you G meister!

I'd never used wets before so I didn't know what to expect, but I definitely hadn't expected the level of grip they give. Apart from spinning up the back every so often under power the bike stayed really planted with them on, even those few times when I forgot myself and did silly things like trailing the brakes into the corners. With the grip issue solved the biggest problem became trying to see where on earth I was going, as I'd only brought a dark visor and with all the spray & drizzle about had to resort to gaffa taping it slightly open to stop the inside fogging.

In the very last two sessions I got really confident and started going for it a bit, and with half the people in fast having gone home fed up with the weather and the other half riding fairly slow I got loads of clear track to myself. Ended the last lap of the day by going through Club corner at piss take speed with my knee firmly on the deck plowing straight through all the puddles, rock on.

Who said you can't have fun in the rain
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[cliff]

Bad luck Bendy! At least you know what it feels like now, so you can expect it in the future. Sounds like /most/ had a good day despite the abysmal weather.
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Sweet reggae music.

[Wave2k]

glad to hear everyone was ok from the falls
i wish i had R&G bungs
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