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If you do enough trackdays, you WILL eventually crash! Everyone I know who’s done at least 10 trackdays has crashed at least once. Whether it’s your fault (usually) or someone elses, matters not. It’s the law of averages when pushing yourself near the limit in an extreme environment. You may get away clean many times, but don’t count on your luck being eternal. You could easily crash the very first time. Be prepared for this eventuality. Have alternate transportation arranged for your bike and stuff. Make sure you have medical insurance before you even sign-up. And be mentally ready to total your bike (this is why lots of people have a separate trackbike).

It’s expensive! The entry fees are only the

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Relax and try to have fun, that the point, right? It’s not a race! You ain’t goin’ home with a trophy or prize money, so make getting you and your bike home in one piece a priority. There will always be faster and slower riders than yourself. Think of the consequences before you make an ill-conceived pass to show that “slowpoke” how good you are.

Try different lines. A trackday is a good chance to experiment with early and late apexing, different braking points, different countersteering techniques, using bodyweight to influence trajectory. Don’t just do the same thing over and over (no learning takes place).

Try to relax your arms as much as possible. When on the straights, consciously open

A trackday, especially if it your first one, can be quite intimidating. As long as you can remember you are there for fun and learning, it will help a lot.

Get the best night’s sleep you can the night before (it’ll be tough because you’ll be anxious/nervous) and for Pete’s sake don’t drink a bunch of alcohol the night before (save it for afterward, if at all).

The concentration required to ride on the “edge” for a couple hours can be exhausting. You’ll be amazed how “brain dead” you are by the end of it all. Keep this in mind on the drive home. You ain’t gonna be very sharp and if you have a long drive ahead of you (somewhat typical

If you have never done it before, trackdays are extremely taxing on your body. Don’t think you are going to ride every minute of every session. Once you get tired, you become dangerous. This usually starts happening in the second or third session after lunch. The adrenaline has worn off and you start feeling tired and sore. Time to reassess your fitness to continue riding. Most crashes occur in the first and last sessions of the day. At the beginning the culprit is adrenaline and at the end it’s because of fatigue. While it may seem that riding a motorcycle on the street isn’t very physically demanding, the track is a totally different story. You are doing all the same

Since a new friend of mine recently signed-up for her first ever trackday, I’ve found myself giving advice and re-living my many track experiences. Since I had to learn quite a few things the hard way, I figure this is my chance to pass along some valuable information.

Whether it’s your first time at a trackday or your 100th, here are a few things that I’ve learned about having a successful experience:

(Part 1 – Bike Preparation)

Buy a set of extra levers (clutch, front brake, rear brake and shifter). Any crash, even a mild low-side, or even dropping your bike while unloading it is likely to snap a lever. Without an extra, you’re done for the day. How would you like piss

The past few weeks have been very busy preparing for the 3rd round on the CCS/SW racing series. First off, I used some of the money I received from my 2007 Most Improved Amateur award, to attended the 2 Day Advanced Riding School at Arroyo Seco Raceway in Deming, MN. The school is taught by Arroyo Seco track owner Roger Heemsbergen, AMA racer Mike Shreve, and local ASMA racers Tiras Banks, Bob McFarland and Scott Bergen at Arroyo Seco Raceway in Deming, NM.

The school focuses heavily on bike setup, linking turns together, throttle control and riding position. Combine this with extensive personalized one on one instruction and the highly challenging Arroyo

The Beast Report

Team: 2up Racing By Myself. / Event: CCS/SW – January 12th and 13th, 2008 – Round #1

Sponsors: Kurveygirl.com / M4 Exhaust / Euro Motorsports of Scottsdale

Preferred Tire Vendor: / Jim Cox Racing (Dunlop Racing Tires)

Spring time temperatures fell upon the Phoenix Arizona area for the first round of the 2008 CCS/SW racing series. Many would find racing in January a bit strange, but for phoenix this is the norm not the exception. The weather was a near perfect with clear skys and

When you learn more in 2 days than the previous 10 years of riding, it’s significant. Such was my experience under the tutelage of Jimmy and Heather Lewis. Jimmy stresses proper body position, peg weighting, throttle/clutch control and picking an appropriate speed as the keys to success.

 I spent a recent weekend with about 30 like-minded nutcases in Primm, Nevada learning how little I really knew about riding off-road. I started riding in the dirt pretty late in life, about age 35. Fortunately, several experienced friends gave me plenty of practical suggestions to get me through my initial rides. And over subsequent years, I acquired additional ideas that helped me refine my craft.  But over the last few years I could smell

I had the pleasure of attending an open track day at Firebird East with AZ Track Time.  This was a unique situation because it was considered a ‘race practice day’.  That meant that only those with a CCS license could attend.  But, since our very own GothicbeaST is in that series, he made the call and got us in.  The cool thing is that there were a total of nineteen (!) people that were there for the day and we could enter and exit the track at our liesure.

A couple months ago I went to Firebird West which was a technical track at 1.1 miles with eleven turns.  The SV was rather well-suited for that situation.  Firebird East, even

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