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I had an absolute blast…the most fun I’ve had in months with my clothes on!

I have to admit that I put myself under a little pressure with the MUST of not crashing.  That and the fact that it had been since 2001 since I was on a track had me a little apprehensive in the beginning.  That said, I can think of worse ways to spend a Saturday!

My newly acquired track bike is a ‘99 SV650 that was already converted to the hard life of track beeotch.  There are three reasons I bought this bike: cheap, needs nothing, and excellent reputation for short courses.  All three proved true.

The day started with the opening session taking place around 8:30am for my group and it was still a little cold.  This actually helpedme keep my head on straight to not ride over my head with new tires and a cold surface.  I spent the first session getting a feel for the track layout and the bike I had never ridden before.  It was a strange situation to be in - new to a track and knowing nothing about the layout or the ‘good’ (lines).

As I got more sessions under my belt things strted to click.  The lap times came down little by little, but the consistency improved greatly as well as my comfort level.  By the fourth session or so, it was game on.  I couldn’t wait for my session to start because I thought I had the track figured out and was in a little groove.

We were in groupings strictly by motorcycle size.  With a 650 twin, I was in the ‘lightweight’ group along with two-strokes, ‘tards, and vintage.  While I respect the old timers on the vintage bikes, they only served as pilons to practice passing.  In the later sessions after lunch, the vintage guys were paired with the roadrace license newbs.  That was rather nice because it cut the quantity of riders in my group by one third.

The sixth session was my best with a couple of faster guys getting around me in an area to which I was struggling.  I was able to hang with them long enough to realize that a series of turns where I was braking twice, could be done with no braking at all.  I greatly appreciated the free lesson fellas!  Anyway, that made the whole section of the track flow much better and I went faster with less effort.

I made a couple of mistakes towards the end of the day as fatigue increased right along side of courage.  Both times were FUBAR’ing the braking at the end of the straightaway sending me off into the asphalt runout.  In fact, both times were due to a little experimentation with my legs.  I must learn to squeeze the tank with my legs when under heavy braking to relieve the pressure from my forearms and my forks.  I got it right once (only once) and found myself waiting for the turn.  That equated to going into the turn a little deeper before braking.  The other two times were not so good.  The first mistake was accidentally up-shifting as I squezed the tank, totally borking my necessary engine braking to make the turn.  The second time was similar, but no mis-shift.

Overall I had a lot of fun.  Admittedly more fun than I thought.  I was able to keep the red mist at bay for the most part and kept a cool head.  Its the first time I did nothing to the bike except put fuel in her (damn…another gender reference).  I ran Dunlop Qualifiers with street compound and have no complaints.  This bike was so easy to learn to ride that it’s definitely keeper.  I have identified some areas that I can improve and will work on those before I go down the bike mod path.

So there it is.  A track day adventure wrapping up about three months of anticipation, excitement, and a little drama. 

GB - I have to give you a golf-clap for bugging me enough to get me off the fence.  While I cannot give you credit for having the bug (I have been thinking about getting back on the track for about two years now), it’s a lot easier to jump in when you have a willing accomplice and partner in crime.