Cadwell report

[Kickstart]

Hi

Well, getting up early Sunday morning the first job was to replace the slave cylinder on the o/s rear wheel of my sisters car. With that out of the way we could start getting a bit more organised for Cadwell, getting the tent out of the loft, etc.

Colin and Karen arrived and we then finished cramming everything into the car. It just about fitted although comfort was not that high on the list of priorities. Setting off at about 16:45 and got to Cadwell about 3 1/2 hours later. Korn had snaffled a space at the bottom, near the traffic lights they use to show who is due out. Much fiddling round and we had the tents up, car unloaded and were ready for food. Charlotte & Karen set off and brought back a bulk order from the Chinese takeaway, and by the time they got back it was getting cold. Food eaten we went to bed, to the noise of someone nearby snoring loudly and someone playing music until fairly late. Oh, and some alarm going off for ages.

Bright sunshine woke me up and I thought I was late. Found a mobile phone and checked the time. 4:45am. Kept trying to go to sleep and finally gave up and got up at about 6:45am. Stumbled around and went to the briefing which was not bad. Not condescending nor overly aggressive. Picked up my number for the day which turned out to the 46. Having Rossis number allocated to the novice group must be someone’s idea of a joke. Jay then turned up and had Colins spare ticket.

First session of the day was only 15 minutes long with a single yellow flag lap. Reasonable pace fairly quickly and a reasonable session. They then decided on the true groupings. Some of the fast group landed up punted down to novices. I landed up on B2 which was a bit of a surprise. Next session out was the first real session and started with a far slower lap under the yellow flags. Generally had a good time on these laps, but kept getting stuck behind people who could get past me easily coming out of Barn and on the main straight. I was making up a lot of time on the brakes (strange, as I really do not think the FZR brakes are that good, not bad but nothing special about them) and also round the Gooseneck and down to Mansfield, and again round Hall bends. Unfortunately I don't think it is really fair to try and stuff people up the inside on the brakes at 100mph in the novice group. Bendy said that most people can't brake for toffee and I think she is right.

Had one session of hard braking where I landed up with some serious judder from the front end. Not sure what was happening there but fortunately it did not repeat itself.

A bit of jiggling round with the groups later on saw me moved down to C2. Unfortunately this stuck me in the same group as a GSXR600 who got me on the main straight on the first real lap and then tended to hold me up for the rest of the session on the sections I was any good at. Had one session where I managed to get out of the pits ahead of him and stay there and landed up in a group lead by Bendy, with a woman on a track prepared steely CBR600 and a guy on a 1000 Fazer. That was a good session as over a lap we were about the same speed, with slightly different sections of the circuit that we were any good at. Probably the best session of the day.

Korn dropped the R6 early afternoon, fortunately not doing much damage it seems. Jay kept stopping for a snooze on the grass so left a bit early after scaring himself a touch by forgetting to brake. Sure both of these can give their own descriptions of events.

Last session of the day was fairly quiet as a fair few people had gone home.

I didn't think I ever got the front wheel up over the mountain. Think I need to use a lower gear and / or carry more corner speed on the right before the mountain. However, despite never doing a wheelie over the mountain Picman has a picture of we with the front slightly off the ground .

By the end of the day my front and rear were getting a bit chewed up, even without reaching the edges of them. Unfortunately the FZR suspension is fairly crude so nothing I could really do to give them an easier time (even if I had any real knowledge on how to set up suspension), except shut the throttle a bit which would have defeated the purpose of a track day. Also my steering head bearings have now developed a bit of play (they were new just before Cadwell), but did not really seem to cause any problems except the odd bit of nervousness when rapidly changing direction.

We finally managed to tidy up and set off for the long journey home. As some of the contents of the car on the way there had been for Bendy & Korn to take home we now had a bit more space.

Conclusions are that I like the BT010 tyres. Liked them on the road and like them even more now. Bike wise I should try some new brake pads. The current Nissin ones are OK, but nothing special so I will probably try some EBC HH ones (the Nissin ones were fitted in a hurry before Silverstone). However bit more power would be nice (when new the FZR was a realistic 75hp at the back wheel, so after 14 years and 40000 miles I suspect this one is probably less than that) so that I am not left behind on the straights (I know how much quicker I was on Gs R6 compared to my FZR at Silverstone last year), as would some decent suspension that can be adjusted. Given that sorting the FZRs suspension out properly would cost well over half the value of the bike I think I will probably be upgrading before the next track day. Corners I was worst at were generally those where I cannot see where they are going and how clear the track is (strangely not a problem on Hall bends just before the hairpin), but that is probably psychological having been riding on the road for years.

All the best

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

[Kickstart]

Hi

Times are now up.

https://www.europeansuperbikeschool.com/homepage.html

My best lap was 2:13:138.

All the best

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

[Bendy]

Twas a hot, hot day.

Usually on trackdays it's "awww there's the chequered flag" but this one was a bit "bloody hell, isn't the flag out yet!"

ESS had fiddled with the system again and this time we all got a 15 min 'qualifying' session at the beginning of the day to make sure people were in the right groups. The folk who got bumped from Advanced to Novice clearly weren't. I ended up on A2 of novice, not bad considering my complete inability to get going in a morning.

I had a mental list of things to work on so spent the morning probably thinking too much about what I was doing instead of just having fun, and sometimes getting it a bit wrong as a result. But no biggies and after lunch I turned my brain off and just went out to just play.

Had some good fun playing with a zx9, got annoyed at a guy on a blade who braked in weird places, improved my braking at the end of Park a whole lot and did most of my overtaking there. Hoiked a few proper wheelies over the mountain instead of my usual back end skippy thing, saw Jay run off at least 3 times and generally had a laugh and got very hot and sticky.

My best this time around was a 2:09 which is 4 seconds up on my last visit - pretty happy with that given the heat. What I'm happier about is actually that my times are a bit more consistant than last time - more consitantly around what was my fastest a month ago. Tis all good.

to Korn for the lift in the Big Yellow Lorry and to Charlotte for organisation of sustinance on Sunday night. My 010s are looking a little unwell around the edges but nothing a nice little 2000 mile trip around Scotland's not gonna sort.

[Josh|RD125LC]

Keith where are you I couldn't find you in the pics. I saw Bendy and Jay though.
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Honda MBX50 | Yamaha RD125LC | Suzuki RG125F Lucky Strike | Suzuki GSF600S
RD125LC Pictures

[Korn]

Err, oops!

I was trying out some hard compound Pirelli slicks which I’d hoped would give around the same grip as the usual Supercorsas, but being cheaper to buy and longer lasting would hopefully mean less money being spent on tyres. Scrubbed them in nicely in the first 'qualifying' session and started playing, found that they felt about as grippy as I thought they would but didn’t give much warning that they were about to slide, something I found the Supercorsas were very good at.

I started to get the hang of the tyres in the second proper session we had and felt like I 'got going' a bit, but then had a slide exiting Chris Curve in an unexpected place that sent me running off the track. I tried to slow down as much as possible on the grass but didn’t lose enough speed and ended up in the tyre wall. Luckily I caught the protective hay bales so it wasn't that bad, though I took a hit in the gut from something solid that didn’t feel so good for the rest of the day

https://www.kornel.com/gallery/albums/Cadwell4/normal_P1010095.jpg

Missed two sessions while sorting out the above mess and getting MSV to let me back on track then went out again. The bike felt mostly ok, only real problem seemed to be the steering head bearings had come loose but I was feeling quite sore by this point so gave up and sat out the final session.

All in all not a great day, woke up stiff & battered this morning but cheered up a bit looking at the track times as I'd gotten down to 1:47 before the off so making progress. My previous best time at Cadwell was 1:51 so can't complain at four seconds in two sessions, but would have liked to see how fast I could have gone. Will just have to try and keep it on the circuit next time!

Some pictures are here: https://www.kornel.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=77
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3516 Miles, 11 Countries

[Kickstart]

Hi

Tartiness prevailed and Charlotte paid for the pics for me. Probably they have not put them on their site when someone has already bought them.

All the best

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

[jay12329]

My day started at Glastonbury in Somerset, left there at 1:30am got home around 5:30am. Checked BCF and remembered there was a track day at Cadwell so I got my camera stuff together and left the house around 8. Rolled up around 9 greeted by some surprised BCF’ers who thought I should be 3000miles away in a muddy field. Colin came over and asked if I fancied taking his place, I’d been toying with the idea of doing a half day, and without a second thought I took said yes. I forgot at this point that I hadn’t slept in the past 24 hours and had traveled, heading on for, 300miles already that day.
I had my own personal briefing which consisted of ‘It’s a normal pace day, you know what your doing.” Went out for the first 15min session, went ok, got held up by a few people, but was reasonably pleased with my performance. When the grid positions were put up I was pleased to find I was second fastest in novice group.
My first session in this position came around quite quickly, I had a can of Red Bull to keep me going, I thought it was all good. Was starting to get into it and I caught up with a 1150 BMW, I eventually got past him braking into parks, I was in the middle of the track when I turned in, I was running wide due to my dodgy entry position so I bugged out and headed for the grass. Slowed up turned and got back on track to finish the lap in a stunning 2:35.
I had some more energy drink between sessions and thought no more of my grass tracking and headed out for the next go. I made sure I got to the front of my row so I didn’t get stuck behind BMW guy. I went out quite quickly but was a bit ragged, my times were slower than the first session! I had caught up with some back markers and going up the hill towards turn 2, he braked randomly so I avoided him, putting me off line for the corner, so again I headed for the green stuff.
Session 3 was going well until I cocked up my entry to the hairpin, again I was on the green stuff. Got going again to set my fastest lap of the day a 2:08, equal to last time when I had actually slept.
Lunch time arrived and I headed off for some food, I hadn’t eaten yet so was in need of some sustenance. The groups were re done again at this point and I’d moved back a bit on to the third row in novice. This gave me something to aim for cus BMW guy who I knew I was faster than was 2 rows in front still! I soon caught up with a group of 5 or 6 riders who I felt were holding me up quite a bit, after 3 laps I’d worked out I could get a few at the end of the start finish straight and the rest on the power/brakes on park. I was concentrating so much on getting past the first few bikes, I missed where I roll off the throttle to slow for the corner, I still had the throttle pinned just getting past the second bike when I realized I’d reached my turn in point still on full go! I slammed on the anchors to scrub off as much speed as I could and I released them as I approached the grass. I’d commented at the last track day if you go straight on here you find a rather large tree, luckily I’d turned a little while still on track so headed up to the highest point of the hill. I stopped, bike into neutral, engine off, visor open, and I sat there for a few second thinking about what I had just done. I look around and see a marshal gesticulating to me to see if I was ok, I gave him the thumbs up and he waved his arms telling me to carry on the way I was heading and go down the other side of the hill. I went down the old access road that leads to Mansfield that I found on an earlier track day when I took to the grass there. I toddled round to the pits where I collapsed into a chair. After a few mins the others came into the pits, and I told them what had happened, bendy then banned me from going back on track cus I’d not only used up my luck for the day but everyone else’s too. I noticed looking at my bike there was grass around the side stand mount, I’d managed to bottom out my bike when I hit the grass!
I hung around for a while, went home (thanks for following Adam.) and went to sleep.
A good day, fastest time was 2:08.
J

[Shaun]

In one word for the lazy people who don't want to read it all : Excellent

Got to Cadwell and realised I had forgotten my sleeping bag, no worries I'd got a double inflatable air bed so I rolled up in that, was surprisingly comfy and kept me warm. Woke up several times after the sun had come up, gave up and got up at about ten to seven.

Went into briefing and got told about the way it was all being done in the morning with a qualifying session as such, then came signing on. Now because I was planning on doing my car test I never bothered sending my test pass certificate off, so I showed them my license and pass certificate and one of the women shit her self because I have a restricted license. I got told to come back in ten minutes, which I did, they then called the course manager down to see if he would allow me on track, luckily he had no problem with it and looked a bit annoyed he'd had to walk down from where ever he was just to say yes and leave again.

So first session came and I decided not to push it too hard so I didn't end up with a load of faster people behind me when we got put onto the grid, last lap, coming round mansfield and I heard a familiar sound, left knee down!
https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/leftkd_190.jpg

After doing it in the first session I managed it all the time, infact I got it down on every left hander.

Had no major scary incidents all day really, got placed in the middle of inters in the morning and just stayed in inters on the back line in the afternoon. I like the VFR a lot, got my best lap time of 2:08 but I did find the VFR lacks a lot in the way of ground clearance, soon as knee goes down the toe and peg are far from behind which was a bit annoying. I'll just finish off with one more pic.
https://www.bikechatforums.com/files/rightkd.jpg

[mistergixer]

Cadwell was (IMO) the best bike track in Britain, until they buggered it up with that chicane just before the mountain.
Maybe Yuki(and others) nearly killed themselves there, but then no-one ever said bike racing was a safe sport.
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Space Monkey #7
Don Eladio is dead. His capos are dead. You have no one left to fight for. Fill your pockets and leave in peace. Or fight me and die!
Mistergixer's videos on YouTube

[Silver]

[mistergixer]

The lack of run off is one of things that made it so entertaining.
It's a very 'focussing' track, if you fuck it up the risk is far greater than at many other tracks.
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Space Monkey #7
Don Eladio is dead. His capos are dead. You have no one left to fight for. Fill your pockets and leave in peace. Or fight me and die!
Mistergixer's videos on YouTube

[jay12329]

Pictures can now be seen at https://www.jayspics.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=3
J

[Korn]