the bb trackday thread.
Discussion
Jonjo91 said:
Is anyone from Hertfordshire or near by doing Mallory Park on the 11th and have van / trailer space for me and bike?
Don't really fancy 180 mile return bike ride plus the TD
Have next week off work and Mallory is the day I can make!
Thanks in advance!
Transport sorted. Don't really fancy 180 mile return bike ride plus the TD
Have next week off work and Mallory is the day I can make!
Thanks in advance!
As long as it's not pissing down will be at mallory next Friday if anyone else is?
Tim85 said:
I've got my first Euro day at Valencia in October. I have no idea how any of it works but I'm starting to get excited already as well.
For me it would be my first track day even in general... so I don't even know how what I need to take! 
One of my friends is going and said a local garage here takes bikes for £40 so if I can go I'll do that, as then I'll be 'in' with the garage guy in case I have any problems I guess. Alternatively I could fairly easily drive there, but I think afterwards I'd be too tired to drive back really.
I had a lovely day at Knockhill yesterday doing the Neil Mckeann Superbike School, 20 odd degrees and not a cloud in the sky.
I had previously attended the Niall Mckenzie superbike school and can safely say the mckeann superbike school is 10 times better.
I went out for my first proper time in the fast group at knockhill, I was interested to see what I would now run with race scrubs compared to previous times on road tyres. After a couple of sessions I was running consistent 1m’s so the exact same as before with a few laps dipping into the 59’s but still coming in utterly f
ked, the sweat dripping down my arse crap. Wow, hardly worth it. I wasn’t the slowest by a fair bit but I wasn't exactly fking quick, there was 5 or 6 slower, one so slow he caused a big accident, or so I heard, someone went into the back of him at the blind chicane, to be honest I saw it coming. There was a lot of Scottish clubman racers doing 53 second laps, I got stuck behind him for a few laps and I was doing 1m04 – 07 but it was more his lines, I passed them rolling on the ground in agony it looked a sore one. Anyway.
After lunch Mckeann showed up, unknown to me he went out and watched me at two corners for one session and pointed out that I was on the brakes, then straight onto the throttle then off then on whilst trying to turn it in. It would obviously depend how much I came off or on by the level of throttle I had applied. He came and told me this, to be honest, I didn’t noticed I was doing it anymore, I remember speaking to Mckenzie on the superbike school and he commented that this is the way to do it. Now, I took this for gospel and have been doing it ever since, that or I’ve totally miss understood what he was saying. That said I did ask mckenzie what pressures I should be running and Bikers Pal on here. BN said knock it down a few, niall said just run road pressures. I weighed it up in my head, BN or mckenzie, BN or mckenzie, fk Mckenzie. I came in saying I couldn’t ride it, BN measured my pressures 50 odd PSI in the rear, even Mckenzie went fking hell. Soooo, I listened to Mckeann and he was 100% correct, bd I have to tell him this now. I dare say someone like Mckenzie is actually riding like this as he's well good and I'm st, so guess what works for him doesn't for me. Or I've totally miss understood what he was on about.
I went out, done what he said, brake (I could now trail brake more) lean it in, fk it now turns why didn’t it do this before, then on the throttle. Not pushing, just trying to change my bad habit I came in fresh and feeling like I’d just done a Sunday ride with more lean and much less effort. Consistent 1 minutes with minimum effort. Wtf, hows that happened.
I went out the final session, pushed a bit more but after 100 laps in the sun I’m flagging, came in and I’m into the 58’s a few times. Not quite a full 2 seconds I may have rounded up to see the mckeann superbike school but what a difference, when you think I paid a few hundred for the Mackenzie superbike school and never got anything from, Mckeann got 2 seconds a lap off my best sat at the side of the track for a session. fk in F1 that would cost 10 million.
One thing coming from the blade to the 675 I noticed how flat as fk it is on standard gearing around knockhill, until a month ago the 675 was the fastest thing I’d ever owned but now it highlights it, again Mckeann was correct but don't tell him as his head will get more massive.
I’m not saying I’d go much quicker, but the difference is night and day, my braking points are much later, my corner speed feels quicker but less stressed, I’m getting into higher gears at certain bits, and more importantly I don’t come in dying feeling like I’m super unfit and that I must join a gym. I do now have to re learn the track almost as a lot has changed.
one hugely embarrassing thing happened, I dropped my bike putting it on the stand. The bit I was in had a slight fall, the rear went on no problem as I got the front up it started to fall, I flung my body inbetween my bike and the guys next to mines shouting "help" before it was quickly lifted I'm shouting, "i'll pay for any damage, i'll pay for any damage" luckily it never hit the other bike, it did destroy my arm right enough. That's not the first time this has almost happened with these st front oxford stands I nearly dropped the blade at the weekend, I need a headstock or a better one. I kept going any damage ill pay check and make sure, I was so embarrassed the guy never cared and luckily there was none.
I had previously attended the Niall Mckenzie superbike school and can safely say the mckeann superbike school is 10 times better.
I went out for my first proper time in the fast group at knockhill, I was interested to see what I would now run with race scrubs compared to previous times on road tyres. After a couple of sessions I was running consistent 1m’s so the exact same as before with a few laps dipping into the 59’s but still coming in utterly f
ked, the sweat dripping down my arse crap. Wow, hardly worth it. I wasn’t the slowest by a fair bit but I wasn't exactly fking quick, there was 5 or 6 slower, one so slow he caused a big accident, or so I heard, someone went into the back of him at the blind chicane, to be honest I saw it coming. There was a lot of Scottish clubman racers doing 53 second laps, I got stuck behind him for a few laps and I was doing 1m04 – 07 but it was more his lines, I passed them rolling on the ground in agony it looked a sore one. Anyway.After lunch Mckeann showed up, unknown to me he went out and watched me at two corners for one session and pointed out that I was on the brakes, then straight onto the throttle then off then on whilst trying to turn it in. It would obviously depend how much I came off or on by the level of throttle I had applied. He came and told me this, to be honest, I didn’t noticed I was doing it anymore, I remember speaking to Mckenzie on the superbike school and he commented that this is the way to do it. Now, I took this for gospel and have been doing it ever since, that or I’ve totally miss understood what he was saying. That said I did ask mckenzie what pressures I should be running and Bikers Pal on here. BN said knock it down a few, niall said just run road pressures. I weighed it up in my head, BN or mckenzie, BN or mckenzie, f
k Mckenzie. I came in saying I couldn’t ride it, BN measured my pressures 50 odd PSI in the rear, even Mckenzie went fking hell. Soooo, I listened to Mckeann and he was 100% correct, bd I have to tell him this now. I dare say someone like Mckenzie is actually riding like this as he's well good and I'm st, so guess what works for him doesn't for me. Or I've totally miss understood what he was on about.I went out, done what he said, brake (I could now trail brake more) lean it in, f
k it now turns why didn’t it do this before, then on the throttle. Not pushing, just trying to change my bad habit I came in fresh and feeling like I’d just done a Sunday ride with more lean and much less effort. Consistent 1 minutes with minimum effort. Wtf, hows that happened. I went out the final session, pushed a bit more but after 100 laps in the sun I’m flagging, came in and I’m into the 58’s a few times. Not quite a full 2 seconds I may have rounded up to see the mckeann superbike school but what a difference, when you think I paid a few hundred for the Mackenzie superbike school and never got anything from, Mckeann got 2 seconds a lap off my best sat at the side of the track for a session. f
k in F1 that would cost 10 million. One thing coming from the blade to the 675 I noticed how flat as f
k it is on standard gearing around knockhill, until a month ago the 675 was the fastest thing I’d ever owned but now it highlights it, again Mckeann was correct but don't tell him as his head will get more massive. I’m not saying I’d go much quicker, but the difference is night and day, my braking points are much later, my corner speed feels quicker but less stressed, I’m getting into higher gears at certain bits, and more importantly I don’t come in dying feeling like I’m super unfit and that I must join a gym. I do now have to re learn the track almost as a lot has changed.
one hugely embarrassing thing happened, I dropped my bike putting it on the stand. The bit I was in had a slight fall, the rear went on no problem as I got the front up it started to fall, I flung my body inbetween my bike and the guys next to mines shouting "help" before it was quickly lifted I'm shouting, "i'll pay for any damage, i'll pay for any damage" luckily it never hit the other bike, it did destroy my arm right enough. That's not the first time this has almost happened with these s
t front oxford stands I nearly dropped the blade at the weekend, I need a headstock or a better one. I kept going any damage ill pay check and make sure, I was so embarrassed the guy never cared and luckily there was none.
moanthebairns said:
After lunch Mckeann showed up, unknown to me he went out and watched me at two corners for one session and pointed out that I was on the brakes, then straight onto the throttle then off then on whilst trying to turn it in. It would obviously depend how much I came off or on by the level of throttle I had applied. He came and told me this, to be honest, I didn’t noticed I was doing it anymore, I remember speaking to Mckenzie on the superbike school and he commented that this is the way to do it.
There must be some misinterpretation in there somewhere, that sounds mental. Re tyre pressures, are you saying you were running 50psi in your rear?Reardy Mister said:
moanthebairns said:
After lunch Mckeann showed up, unknown to me he went out and watched me at two corners for one session and pointed out that I was on the brakes, then straight onto the throttle then off then on whilst trying to turn it in. It would obviously depend how much I came off or on by the level of throttle I had applied. He came and told me this, to be honest, I didn’t noticed I was doing it anymore, I remember speaking to Mckenzie on the superbike school and he commented that this is the way to do it.
There must be some misinterpretation in there somewhere, that sounds mental. Re tyre pressures, are you saying you were running 50psi in your rear?No Limits are doing a road bike only day at Donnington in October for £79 so we've booked ourselves on seeing its cheap. Has anyone done one of these road only days before? I'm hoping there wont be loads of muppets compared to a normal track day but for the price I'll be happy to get round Donnington as I've never done it on a bike.
FartKong said:
No Limits are doing a road bike only day at Donnington in October for £79 so we've booked ourselves on seeing its cheap. Has anyone done one of these road only days before? I'm hoping there wont be loads of muppets compared to a normal track day but for the price I'll be happy to get round Donnington as I've never done it on a bike.
What do you mean by "muppets"? Despite the road bike riders opinion those of us witj trackbikes don't ride round knocking everyone into the scenery. I did the recent road bike only day. Very definitely aimed at track virgins, less bikes than normal and the highest group is Inters. You'll enjoy it.
LoonR1 said:
What do you mean by "muppets"? Despite the road bike riders opinion those of us witj trackbikes don't ride round knocking everyone into the scenery.
I did the recent road bike only day. Very definitely aimed at track virgins, less bikes than normal and the highest group is Inters. You'll enjoy it.
I meant it the other way round - usually when you see people with road bikes on track days they are all over the place and take terrible lines making them dangerous. The standard of riding on proper track days is going to be higher because of this which is a good thing.I did the recent road bike only day. Very definitely aimed at track virgins, less bikes than normal and the highest group is Inters. You'll enjoy it.
I meant that I hope there wont be too many people who don't have a clue what they're doing so that I can just ride normally without worrying what the person is going to do.
moanthebairns said:
I showed up when I'd just started trackdays on my road bike. I went to Niall what pressure should I run, he said just run road pressures, ok no problem. I came in and hot they were 50 odd psi. It was like a bowling ball.
Was it the blipping the throttle on the downshifts giving you trouble?That's why you were on and off the throttle?
curlie467 said:
moanthebairns said:
I showed up when I'd just started trackdays on my road bike. I went to Niall what pressure should I run, he said just run road pressures, ok no problem. I came in and hot they were 50 odd psi. It was like a bowling ball.
Was it the blipping the throttle on the downshifts giving you trouble?That's why you were on and off the throttle?
k that, I have no mechanical sympathy on track and smash it down the box, I gave that up ages ago, I am not good enough to do 10 different things at once. FartKong said:
LoonR1 said:
What do you mean by "muppets"? Despite the road bike riders opinion those of us witj trackbikes don't ride round knocking everyone into the scenery.
I did the recent road bike only day. Very definitely aimed at track virgins, less bikes than normal and the highest group is Inters. You'll enjoy it.
I meant it the other way round - usually when you see people with road bikes on track days they are all over the place and take terrible lines making them dangerous. The standard of riding on proper track days is going to be higher because of this which is a good thing.I did the recent road bike only day. Very definitely aimed at track virgins, less bikes than normal and the highest group is Inters. You'll enjoy it.
I meant that I hope there wont be too many people who don't have a clue what they're doing so that I can just ride normally without worrying what the person is going to do.
I enjoyed the day to say the least
curlie467 said:
Was it the blipping the throttle on the downshifts giving you trouble?
That's why you were on and off the throttle?
No, it was later than that. Alex, Mackenzie definitely wasnt telling you to do what you were doing, you have misunderstood.That's why you were on and off the throttle?
From what i saw in that one session, at a couple of different places, he was braking, releasing the brake and turning in, and before he got to the apex, he would crack the throttle, then chop it, then crack it, then chop it.
obscene said:
It was fairly safe and at least in the novice/inters and inters group, all the passes done on me were VERY clean. Including the one random guy who was on a race bike in inters? Strange that but when you come past me with your elbow down and it's a super clean overtake, crack on son!
I enjoyed the day to say the least
Yeah I'm usually at the fast end of the Inters group so anyone passing usually knows what they're doing and although sometimes a bit close I don't mind as long as it doesn't force me off line which rarely happens.I enjoyed the day to say the least
The problem is when you come up behind someone a lot slower mid corner who does something completely unexpected such as hitting the brakes or changing their line big time which then forces you to take avoiding action.
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