About time I did a trackday- 2 day trackdays?

[MaybeGuy]

Myself and a 2 friends are planning our first trackday. It will definately get very competitive between me and one of my friends, but not so much with the other guy, so something relatively twisty would be nice, but all suggestions are needed.

bikes in question are:

2008 ducati 848
2005 zx6r
2000 ktm 380 supermoto

The only problem is, which one?
are there any recommendations?

I would consider myself a fast road rider and confident in my abilities.

I plan on booking onto novice regardless and working upwards.

What are the best tracks available and why?

and could you post pictures of the layout of the tracks so we can look at them grantourismo style? as google maps doesnt really show much when you dont know the names of all the tracks.

distance isn't really an issue either.
cheers x

edit: are 2 day/weekend trackdays common practice? if so, where would i find them? cant seem to find any details other than an RAF run one happening in april but only for cars.
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[DynaMight]

Supermoto would be too slow for most tracks IMO. I personally think the 636 would be faster than the 848, not that it matters all that much a few tenths here and there.


Cadwell Park is the most smiles per pound imo. Lovely track for less than £100. Very narrow but thats half the fun. Just Youtube for videos.

Oulton is meant to be cracking too, but £170 is quite a lot. Same goes for Brands too (Well over £200 for the GP circuit!).

There's loads of other tracks, look at the BSB circuits plus other good tracks like Mallory, Anglesey, Pembrey, Rockingham.

But IMO, it doesn't matter which one you do first, as long as its a nice day and everyone has fun.
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My bikes are at https://www.bikepics.com/members/dynamight/

[G]

Quite a few trackdays with two in a row - Rockingham and Anglesey often have them, running different lay outs each day.

I'd take the ZX6. The supermoto will be a bit frustrating due to speed and the 848 sounds expensive if anything goes wrong (crash or engine etc). Ducatis seem to be fine on trackdays, but the sports ones I've seen club racing always seem to have problems.

Best advice for an 'enthusiastic' rider I'd say is to take it easy.
Seen a lot of people go pretty fast pretty quickly. And the vast majority of those have crashed in their first few trackdays.
Get the speed up a bit at a time and you get more of a feel of what happens as you get near the limits.

[MaybeGuy]

that's part of the reason I want a 2 day track day. 1st day to get used to track riding, and the 2nd day to place a few bets with ducati guy.

any links to some dates for these? I couldnt find much info on them.

basically i'm on the zx6r, competitive friend is on the 848 which we've discussed a bit, and figured they're pretty much an even match on track, so it'll be a display of ability.

the 380 is the 3rd friend, but he's a more sedate rider tbh.

cheers for the info so far though. I'll post again closer to the time to see if anyone else wants to come along to witness a zx6r taking out an 848 or vice versa
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[G]

Ah, obviously I thought it was your choice.
848 and 600 are probably reasonably matched.

Personally, I always say go for a simpler track for your first one. People always slag off Snetterton, but I think it (was, changed now) a really good starter track (as well as good for the more advanced) - because it didn't have a lot of linked corners, you could mess one up and still get the next correct, while somewhere like Cadwell you can mess up a whole sequence with one messed up entry.
There's plenty to think about and I like being offered the opportunity to really work on specific areas without being distracted by too much else.

Getting competitive with your mates if you're actually closely matched is probably a bad thing.
A few years ago I twice ran on (in the same place, though not sure if it was the same day ) chasing an R1 on an R6 at Silverstong. Also, same rider again on the R1 with me on the R6, got past them as they got stuck behind another rider under braking - the furiously waved chequered flag and lack of other riders suggested that actually the two riders I was chasing were slowing for the red flags for end of session - but my total focus was on going for the opportunity than absolutely focused on keeping the 600 ahead of the more powerful litre bikes.

[MaybeGuy]

both bikes have built in lap timers, but is there any way of hooking these up to sensors for accurate lap times?

this'd make it much easier to find out fastest overall lap time.

any links to these 2 day track days?
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[garth]

You're a bit of a plum if you're solely going to find out who's quicker.

It's a whole different ball game to road riding, and properly aggressive "competitive" riding is usually black flagged.
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You ain't a has been if you never was

[DynaMight]

Whatever you do, when you have your little ego race, please make sure you're in the fast group.


Ignore the builtin laptimers, they rely on you pressing a button which is completely inaccurate. If you want fairly cheap lap timing, get some old Nokia S60 phones and a BT GPS, with a free program called Racechrono......or Focused Events have 'Chrono' days where they time your laps, but not sure if you actually get the times afterwards, its meant to be for them to give you the correct group.


As for trackdays, search Focused Events, No Limits and Hottrax. They're the biggys. Focused Events for instance may have a two day event, or you may even find its Focused Events one day then Hottrax the next day.

Focused Events - Cadwell Park 8th and 9th of June for £95 each day sounds like a good bet.
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My bikes are at https://www.bikepics.com/members/dynamight/

[MaybeGuy]

[G]

Probably a faster group because you're less likely to be going past noobs with an inch to spare in an attempt to catch your mate - and hopefully they'll know better to avoid people riding like twats.

As for lap timing - it's illegal as that makes it a race. Racing is not covered by their insurance and if they let it happen, then there's a crash, there can be big issues.
Various places have run 'pace' days; where you are sent out in order of your lap times and you usually get a list of your lap times a few days later.

[MaybeGuy]

yeah. i've just been looking at 'chrono' days. seems the more sensible option tbh
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[DynaMight]

Even if you could plug in to the speedo laptimer, I don't think the laptiming beacons are switched on for trackdays. Laptiming is forbidden on trackdays, so you cant exactly setup your own timing beacon.


Because the fast group will be more used to close passing, if you're in some kind of race with someone, you're not exactly gonna be courteous overtaking slower riders and lets face it, unless you're both some kind of riding gods, I doubt you'll be the fastest guys there so probably wont hassle to many of the fast group.

Novice is always worth it for the first trackday though, even if you find it too slow after the first few sessions, you can practise good trackday etiquette (overtaking, out braking, setting up overtakes etc) which can help when trying to overtake someone who is a little slower but not by much.
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My bikes are at https://www.bikepics.com/members/dynamight/

[MarJay]

Please video this escapade so we can have some more crash footage.

Thanks.
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British beauty: Triumph Street Triple R; Loony stroker: KR1S; Track fun: GSXR750 L1; Commuter Missile: GSX-S1000F; Cheap project: CBR900RR FireBlade
Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[MaybeGuy]

oh marjay.
The track racing king
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[MarJay]

[h00dwink]

he's right though, try racing each other and you'll end up in a nice big crash. just go out and enjoy it without any weird pressure like that.
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www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[MaybeGuy]

oh marjay
track racing king
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Blue_SV650S wrote: it was a sh1te wheelie, but it proves that he can get it up in 3rd and can do angles. In summery, mattsprattuk is a gobby little sh1tebag, dopehead tw4t, but sadly for all of us, he probably isn't THAT full of sh1te!!
Kickstart wrote: Hi I tend to agree with Matt. All the best Keith

[bEN_]

I'd say Cadwell, been round there on 2 and 4 wheels and it's my faveouite of the ones i've been to so far.
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2010 Ducati 848 Dark

Lamp Post Enthusiast

[Blue_SV650S]

The tracks are here https://www.bmrc.co.uk/

Oulton Park will sort the men from the boys!!

https://www.bmrc.co.uk/index.php?page=venue_details.php&bmrc_id=99

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=CW6+9BW&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn
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The purpose of life is to fight maturity.

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

I saw this thread, and it immediately made me think of this thread

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=190557&start=0

Personally I'd say go to Brands Indy yes it's a bit pricey, but it's short and a fun track.
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[Blue_SV650S]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[G]

Brands is a bit 'clinical' (not too bad with a few 'technical' bits on the Indy at least - GP is worse I reckon) - but I'd say that also makes it good for a first trackday. Getting a feel for the power coming out of corners etc, without worrying about the next corner, etc.

[Blue_SV650S]

[G]

Mentally boring?

Since they've redone it, it's corner-straight-corner. All pretty simple corners bar a bit of camber. Also takes out some of the more 'technical' elements of the Indy circuit.

Gutted I never rode the original dingle dell when it was good .