Cadwell trackday report.

[Bendy]

aka. 'Doris Gets Her Own Back'

Yes, my ever-reliable Honda decided to throw a wobbler for this trackday, courtesy of a completely and utterly flat battery. We're talking so flat that nothing happens whatsoever, not even enough to keep the engine running with loadsa revs. Anyway, non-starting bike saw me missing the sighting session while arguing with it, and taking Luke's VFR400 out for the second session before help arrived in the form of Keith, who managed to fix my baby.

So, the day in bullet point form:

Booked in novice group cos I was feeling rusty.

No Limits trackdays gave a damn good briefing for a newbie - the guy giving the talk actually talked about lines, about not freaking if someone comes up your inside, about countersteering, about the fact that your bike will make corners you don't think it can... much better than the recent 'try our club, try our photographers, and oh yeah, track thing' briefings. So big for that - and it did seem to work, I don't think there were any bins in the novice group all day. I also liked the threat to those who book in noddy to be a 'big fish in a small pond'... dude said anyone found doing that would be stuck into fast for the rest of the day to see how they liked being passed on both sides with inches to spare.

Ta to the bloke with the R1 and his mate who helped me get my bike off the trailer, and to try and get it started.

The VFR. Nabbed Luke's bike when Doris was doing her dead duck impression. I've never really ridden a 400 (few laps of a roundabout once) so it felt quite ickle and I wasn't really revving it as I should. But what was interesting was the suspension - Luke's bike is an ex-race bike and is as stiff as something really really stiff. I found it really easy to put exactly where I wanted it to be, rather than my normal 'aim for the general area' kinda thing. So I need to look at the suspension on the CBR, always just been on standard squashy road settings.

Keith made my bike work. Keith rocks.

Morning was a bit all over the place, what with missing sessions, being on a weird bike, generally not focusing on what I was doing, I didn't really make any progress. Did pop a nice wheelie over the mountain though.

First session after lunch... mission time. We'd been sent out on 2 sighting laps in groups of 8, and I stuck to the back of my group picking off the stragglers. Headbutted the world's biggest insect. Got a box of neutrals at the end of the straight and stomped it down to get massive arse wobble. Was fun being quite close in with the group, no-one was significantly faster than anyone else so there was a lot of hanging on people's arses.

At some point when fecking with the bike, someone knocked the switches on my speedohealer (speedo recalibrator that makes the speed read right on my downgeared bike). This came to my attention as I was indicating 180 down the straight.

Second session after lunch, rain is threatening and it doesn't disappoint! About a lap in, the heavens open and at least 3/4 of the group run for the pits Fuck that, I'm staying out - speed greatly reduced but churning round a virtually empty track getting progressively wetter and colder. Cos Cadwell's hilly there were dryer bits at the tops and huge puddles in the dips. Have a bit of a slide round the hairpin but otherwise it's not bad. Hope that Luke or Keith have got the car heater on... come in at the end of the session frozen solid from the hail and sit in the car for about 15 mins waiting for it to stop. During which time the rest of the day is cancelled due to immense amounts of standing water on circuit.

So a bit bummed I didn't get to work on my stuff in the afternoon much, but the wet session did me good - been a bit iffy about the wet since my Silverstone crash. And writing this has reminded me to go hang my leathers up to dry.

Ta to Jay for putting us up at his Lincoln abode, Luke for stepping in at the last minute and for lending me his bike and Keith for sorting me wheels and taking pics.

Roll on the 31st.

[MarJay]

[swaffs]

Hmm seems we both need Suspension sessions.

Perhaps the race guys at Cadwell might be able to help.

nice report.

I would like to try a 400 especially after wave kept taking me on Druids and Paddock yesterday !!
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[Bendy]

I wasn't giving it enough revs in the corners certainly, too used to being lazy on the 600. But I was giving it all the berries on the straights and being decimated by the 6s and above... unless you could find some other 400s to play with (or some bigger bikes with a defective rider) you'd have to get used to losing the places you'd made up in the corners when you got to the straights. The brakes on that thing are pretty damn good too, obviously I wasn't on it long enough to get really comfortable but I reckon you could haul it up pretty damn fast... the fact that the front barely moves under braking made it feel all the more severe.

Need a go on G's R6 next... 600 power with proper suspension.

I'm gonna try the recommended track suspension settings on the CBR and see if that makes much difference. But I appreciate that with about 25,000 on the clock and my not inconsiderable weight, my standard shock's probably getting a bit tired by now and is probably going to need replacing/rebuilding in the nearish future... was something I'd planned to look at over the winter.

[Wave2k]

after seeing how many bikes i was taking in the corners on a 400, i would reccomend it, u need to make full use of its power aswell
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Set the alarm clock for 6am, but finally got out of bed at 7 and left at 7.45, which meant I caught the traffic.

Got to Cadwell at 10:45 and found Luke and Bendys bike, with Bendy and Lukes bike being out on the track. We had a play with Bendys bike, sticking a multimeter over the battery. After a while keeping the revs up the voltage managed to climb up a bit. It still seemed to behave a bit oddly, as it landed up at 14v but would drop a bit when you revved the engine . So didn't really do anything but the bike was now running.

Went out to take some pictures and Luke came past. Once. Eeeek. Went past the pits at the end of the session and mouthed "Luke" to Bendy who pointed at the petrol tank. Whew.

Got a few chances to take pictures as the day went on. One guy on an FZR600R went over the mountain and not that quickly or with the front wheel that high, but still landed with one hell of a wobble and had the bars shaking for quite a while.

Late session the novice group went out and it started to rain. In style. Most of the group went straight back in at the end of the first lap. Bendy stayed out and I took a few pics before heading back somewhere dry. Started the car and Luke and I sat in the warm until Bendy came back to warm up as well. We sat for a while as they called the intermediate group, to which nobody seemed to answer. Then they decided the track was too wet so cancelled the last sessions. We loaded up the bikes, just in time for the rain to stop, then headed home.

Luke

https://www.alfa-pages.co.uk/TempPicture/LukeCadwellSmall.jpg

Bendy

https://www.alfa-pages.co.uk/TempPicture/BendyCadwellSmall.jpg

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

Another picture.

Wonder what he does for a living .

https://www.alfa-pages.co.uk/TempPicture/PlodCadwellSmall.jpg

All the best

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

[Stew]

[Luke_Retrofly]

Hi
Well i finally did another trackday other than snett .

Was kind of thrown in the deep end as they only had intermediate spaces left.

Lets just say the 1st session was interesting, i had no idea where i was going and trying in vane to keep up with people, which is very bad if u dont know if the corner goes left or right .

I steadily progressed through the day and manged to overtake people who were much faster than me in the morning. Kept progressing getting faster and faster but i will still learing the lines and sorting my gears out on the last session, so i can deffo go much faster.

As for cadwell its self i love it, much better than snett, corners are alot of fun. I dont think some of my lines were quite right yet, and I was appaling at the 1st corner as i never went fast enough round it.

Wheelied the mountain a few times, and succomed to buying a photo of me doing it.

Thanks to bendy for the lift up and trailorage, and kieth for takeing piccies, moral support and helping us load the trailor, oh and Jay and his family for letting sleep in his house over-noght

Cant wait for the 31st im bouncing with excitement \o/.

Luke
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[Kickstart]

Hi

Currently uploading the pictures (just thumbnails). About 1200 of them so will take a while:-

https://www.traxpics.co.uk/SHOW-20050509-Cadwell/

All the best

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