Cadwell Park 25th Trackday Report

[jay12329]

Day started with the boringly slow ride from home to Cadwell, had to fight my way through mist which filled me with loads of confidence after the wet weather forecasts. Got to the circuit running late as normal, just had time to sign on before the briefing. This was an odd one, we were told to report to the collecting area so the briefing was held out side! Was a pretty poor talk with very little information for the first timers in the group, at this point I think M started to feel the heat.
Novices out first for a slow sighting session. We proceeded to have 2 quite slow laps then the instructor dramatically increased our speed, it was much faster than I’m used to on sighting laps, we ended up catching the next group of riders and had to slow back to 30-50mph. It was a good re introduction to the circuit and the bike. Weather so far was bright and warm. After the session I got my tire pressures checked 40odd in the front and 50 in the rear! So they were lowered a bit ready for the next session.
Was well up for the next session so got going quite well, I still wasn’t to confident throwing the bike about as much as I used. Going over the mountain on the 3rd lap of this session the front got very light I thought nothing of it, next time round I got the front in the air, I must have had some pressure on the bars cus then ended up on full left lock wile the wheel was up. I kept on the power and the front came down gently straightening the wheel with a nice big tank slapper! Shaun was behind me at this point and said the rear gave me a bit of a wobble too! He went past me as I composed myself on the start finish straight. After this brown trouser moment I was much more cautious over the mountain!
As the day went on I was getting much happier, still not pushing me of the bike as much as I was last year but I’m sure that will come. I had a few close calls with a red Daytona trying to get in an every decreasing gap between me and the edge of the track, Stew said we were about this … far apart. (Sorry hand signals don’t work on here do they! )
In the end I was a few seconds off my times from last year, but I’m much happier with the bike and my abilities now I’ve done a nice warm dry track day this year.
Roll on the 12th of May, Cadwell Park, intermediate group and proper lap times!
J

[Stew]

Sunday night (M's birthday) and I couldn't wait until we got to Cadwell to do another trackday. My last one was back in October and was eager to get back on track for some fun. Keith and Shaun turned up at ours at about 8:30pm with a fantastic cake for M's birthday . As usual we decided that we should have a chinese (it's the only takeaway in the village) before retiring to bed to try and get some sleep before our early rise the next day.

6am and we are all wandering around the house in zombie like states, Shaun and myself are to ride to Cadwell whereas M has decided that she wants the VFR to go on Keiths trailer to Cadwell (at least that way it would get there without breaking down ). Shaun and myself take a nice casual ride taking it easy so not to have any pre track incidents and about 10 miles before Cadwell we hit mist and everything looks a bit bleak. Thankfully as we get to Cadwell the sun is starting to shine through the mist and we arrive with plenty of time to sign on. I have a quick chat with Copperslip Cowboy from the EXUP brotherhood forum who has recognised my bike and he tells me that I would be wise to remove the camera mount from the front of my tank, which I do.M and Keith turn up with the trailer and unload just before As Jay has mentioned the organisers decided that as it was a nice day and all groups were full (busy day) they would hold the briefing outside which was the same as every other briefing apart from having to stop every time there was a bit of noise.

Sighting session and we all head out, there seems to be loads of us in the novice group and it feels good to be out on the smooth track riding amongst all the bikes again. After 2 laps I thought I felt my rear seat unit was loose so I pulled off the track next time I went past the track exit. Checked the seat cover and it was fine, oh well at least it was only the sighting session and I wasn't missing too much. The rest came back and mentioned how fast the group had been considering it was first session of the morning.

First session came round and we were all ready to go, M was still feeling slightly nervous and we were all ready to get back out. This was cool and the bit of sun that we were getting just seemed to give me a little bit more confidence (strange how the sun does that isn't it?) and I got my knee down by the 3rd lap. My brakes were feeling firmer than they ever have done and I thought that my last attempt at bleeding them a couple of weeks ago must've worked pretty well.

After the 2nd session Jay, Shaun and myself decided that we had best go and get some fuel from the hillbilly petrol station. We rode down there with lights taped up and number plates removed/taped up but on the way I realised that my brakes were getting even firmer at the lever and about 2mm of movement was all that was needed to fully apply the brake. When we got back to Cadwell I tipped the bike up onto the sidestand and M span the wheel.....or tried to. The brake was binding quite badly. I had a look at the master cylinder and a small bit of rubber from the outer seal had managed to jam itself into the plunger of the m/c. Everytime I applied the brake the plunger must've moved in but the rubber prevented it from coming back out fully which meant the brake was on more and more each time . I removed this piece of perished rubber and now the lever could come back to the bar with enough pressure, which wasn't nice although they still had enough power to stop me.

After a quick ride around to test the now lacking front brake it was time to get out on track again and I joked how Shaun would easily be able outbrake me now. However I actually managed to brake quite well and managed to get an overtake in between Mansfield and the new chicane, a manoeuvre I had never tried before.
During the break Keith gave me a hand to see if we could sort my brakes out at all by giving them a quick bleed, it seemed to help a little bit but not a lot.

(okay getting bored of typing now)

The afternoon sessions were a bit quicker than the morning sessions and I decided to attach an onboard, which unfortunatley cut out after 15 minutes on each session (must've been the vibration or buttons getting pressed on the camcorder under the seat. Almost caught Jay's close incident with a Daytona as he moved across the track slightly and almost into the path of the 'tona. They got to within about a foot of each other before Jay slowed and veered back to the left and out of the way.

The afternoon reminded me just how much I love the hairpin and was able to get kneedown everytime I got there and once getting my peg down and making a little bit of noise. Nighteyes seemed to like the noise .

After the final session I had a slight moment of worry as everyone came back except M. We waited for a few moments and all started to have a quick look about when M started riding round the corner proclaiming " I was busting for a wee, so had to stop on the way past the toilets". At least that's all it was.

The end of another fantastic day at track and it was time to set off for the ride home which was completed without a hitch, amazingly both the VFR and the YZF managed to complete a full trackday without major hiccup, all I need now is to rebuild the master cylinder on the front brake and to weld the hole in my exhaust which is blowing. Even the VFR's typical electrical faults didn't rear their ugly heads which had plagued us for the last couple of weeks (thank god we kept the old reg/rec unit).

Bring on the pace day on the 31st May!!
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"Unlike public school you don't need to have your arse up and your head down to go a long way...."

[M]

As above.

It was a good day.

[Frost]

I woke up at 5am, saddled the bike and rode to helens. Part way there a lovely black mitsubishi Evo 8 pulled up behind me and sat on my ass. Worried it was a polcie car (couldnt see what it was when it was behind me) i stuck rigidly to the speed limit. Pretty soon he overtook me and flew off into the distance with me giving pursuit both going some HIGHLY illegal speeds (120 in a 30 ).
I arraived at helens only to find i had left my scot oiler set on prime and the entire contents of the reservoir had been splashed on my rear wheel and tire

We set off at about half 6 and of course stopped for a maccies. After a small detour ( ) me and helen managed to find the place.
Weather was perfect, and the track was pretty good too.
I was a bit gutted that helens didgital camea wasn't working but thankfully keith came up trumps asking
"does anybody want to borrow an old camera?"
And producing the best camera i've ever used

We watched in quite a few different places trying to get pictures and footage. Annoyingly we managed to miss 2 accidents that happend right in front of or faces, instead just getting pictures of the aftermath.

We got some lap times from the last session:

Random 636 in the fast group: 1:58
Shaun: 2:14
Jay: 2:29

Overall it was a fun day out and an excelent scouting trip ready for the next track day, most of which i'll definatly be watching from the mountain

Keith will have the pictures online in the next few days, can't wait to take a look.

[Kickstart]

Hi

Asked Shaun to get to our house 5~6, expecting him to be late like most of us. He wasn't. Finished loading the car up, sorting out a few tools to take and we set off for a slow journey up to Stew and Ms, towing the trailer. Arrived later and had Chinese for supper and then crashed out.

Got physically woken up at an ungodly hour and we took Shauns bike off the trailer and put Ms bike on the trailer. Bit of toast and we headed off to Cadwell. Load of people there but no sign of Jay. Everyone got called off for the briefing, leaving loads of generators running despite the calls to switch them off.

Spent most of the day taking pictures, 99% of which were for the novice group.

Martin and Helen arrived late, having "stopped for some food", and they used my old camera to take some pics that were too far from the pits to be reached by terminally lazy me.

Comments on the riding. Shaun looks very nervous on the mountain and the hairpin (loads of people were on the hairpin) but smooth elsewhere. M seemed happy (if not wheely happy) on the mountain and confident on the hairpin, but noticeably slowed down in the afternoon (think more caffiene is required at lunch next time). Stew still seemed to have been quicker on the NC30 last year but was pretty quick and smooth. Jay was smooth but still seems to be lacking some of his confidence from last year.

Ms parents arrived, and seemed remarkably unphased by me answering her mobile phone. Jay had managed to press gang his mother into bringing along a ZXR400 wheel for M1ke and collecting the Hornet solo seat converter, so for a while we had a fair size party.

All the best

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

[Shaun]

Arrived at Keiths on sunday on time, he should know that I'm not one for being late, only to get sent into a cramped space (the loft) to fetch an inflatable bed which wasn't needed. Headed to Stews, had food, had a fag, went to bed. I woke up at about half past 5 and decided I was going back to sleep, only to hear Stew and M's alarm go off in the other room! M had decided that she wanted the trailer to cadwell so me and Stew were forced to remove my bike and get M's on there, not impressed.

Did all that signing on and briefing bollocks then lined up for the first session, had 2 very slow laps then suddenly the instructor picked up the pace on start/finish straight and we were going unusually quick considering it was a warm up/sighting session, was quite happy about that though as it meant I got a quickish lap in before the second session. I decided that I wanted to work on my braking and overtaking in the morning whilst people were slow and overtaking was easier to do, got a lot more confident with overtaking and started passing people through the corners. I got a lot better on the brakes in the 3rd session but found myself concentrating on lines through corners too much and then getting half way down the straight and realising I'm sitting upright and not going for it at all, mostly happened on park straight, I managed to get out of that habit.

After dinner I was starting to put everything I'd worked on in the morning together and was starting to feel quicker but I never felt as fast as I was last time even though I only had one lap timed in the last session which was 3 seconds quicker than when I was last there. The best session of the day for me was the last session by far, mostly because Stew never managed to catch me and get past although he wasn't far behind at the end but everything just seemed to flow smoothly for me in the last session, apart from the hairpin which I still don't like, need to work on slow speed corners I think.

So in conclusion I thoroughly enjoyed the day, oh and I was quicker than Jay!

[Stew]

[tony532]

good read

[Frost]

I think Stew was about 4 seconds a lap quicker than Shaun. But with short sessions and lots in each group, unless you set off together its hard to make up the time lost during the opening laps.

Going to give it a bash in Inters any time Stew?

[Nighteyes]

[Shaun]

[Frost]

The going the wrong way on the right road cost us about 30-40 mins the rest of the time was lost in traffic around nottingham.

The journey can be done in about 2 hours if you can miss rush hour.

[Nighteyes]

[Nath]

Go there on your bikes then
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Hard livin', hard luck.

[M1ke]

[Shaun]

You know Helen won't ride her bike anywhere over 20 miles away!

Although in saying that wouldn't be much fun riding just over 100 miles on dual carriageways to cadwell, plus the detour they took!