Silverstone 23/3
Discussion
What a fantastic day!
Met up with Ruttager early on (didn't see you Tramp sorry, although you probably overtook me - more on that in a minute) and my mate had decided to book it at the last minute.
My bride-to-be had paid for me to have an instructor for the day, this ended up being a nice chap called Lee, who followed me round for the first session, then pointed out what I was doing wrong with my body position, helping to try and correct this, he also said I did very well at picking up the lines on the circuit which I was pretty smug about.
Next session out I tried to put into practice what he'd said about body position, improving all the while and coming through Luffield I heard that awesome noise that every new biker wants to hear, the skrrr-skrrr as your knee touches down and a thin layer of plastic is removed from your virginal knee sliders. This was followed in the next session by the left knee touching down at the hairpin and I was chuffed to bits, the three sad little things that had been niggling away at me (my chicken strips and left/right knee sliders) had all been relegated to nothingness in the space of a morning.
The instructor may have been timing the sessions and informed me that my best lap in the first session was a 3:06, this dropped throughout the day, to the stage that I was getting a bit fast for the Novice group and made the move up to Inters for the final two sessions of the day, so I went from being daddy cool to the whipping boy, being passed by all and sundry, but as he correctly pointed out, I wasn't being held up by anyone and it was probably the smart thing to do, by the end of the day, my laptime was down to a 2:48 which I was pretty pleased with.
The circuit itself is great, so wide that you've got an almost limitless amount of space and the corner speeds you can carry are just silly, the new section they've put in has a great flow to it and some of the corners have a similar feel to Coppice at Cadwell where you find yourself braking less and less until you're barely rolling off the throttle and diving in.
A few famous faces around today, notably Bradley Smith on a standard CBR600 who passed my instructor in the fast session like he was standing still, elbow down through a corner. Keith Code was also there teaching a couple of the kids I recognised from the TOTW DVD, he came over whilst I was waiting in the queue and asked how I liked the bike, I told him I loved it and he said 'Yeah, I've got 30 of them!'.
Got home totally shattered, but buzzing from the improvements I've made today, I now feel I can forget about the silly little things and just focus on the task of getting quicker.
Some piccies:
Met up with Ruttager early on (didn't see you Tramp sorry, although you probably overtook me - more on that in a minute) and my mate had decided to book it at the last minute.
My bride-to-be had paid for me to have an instructor for the day, this ended up being a nice chap called Lee, who followed me round for the first session, then pointed out what I was doing wrong with my body position, helping to try and correct this, he also said I did very well at picking up the lines on the circuit which I was pretty smug about.
Next session out I tried to put into practice what he'd said about body position, improving all the while and coming through Luffield I heard that awesome noise that every new biker wants to hear, the skrrr-skrrr as your knee touches down and a thin layer of plastic is removed from your virginal knee sliders. This was followed in the next session by the left knee touching down at the hairpin and I was chuffed to bits, the three sad little things that had been niggling away at me (my chicken strips and left/right knee sliders) had all been relegated to nothingness in the space of a morning.
The instructor may have been timing the sessions and informed me that my best lap in the first session was a 3:06, this dropped throughout the day, to the stage that I was getting a bit fast for the Novice group and made the move up to Inters for the final two sessions of the day, so I went from being daddy cool to the whipping boy, being passed by all and sundry, but as he correctly pointed out, I wasn't being held up by anyone and it was probably the smart thing to do, by the end of the day, my laptime was down to a 2:48 which I was pretty pleased with.
The circuit itself is great, so wide that you've got an almost limitless amount of space and the corner speeds you can carry are just silly, the new section they've put in has a great flow to it and some of the corners have a similar feel to Coppice at Cadwell where you find yourself braking less and less until you're barely rolling off the throttle and diving in.
A few famous faces around today, notably Bradley Smith on a standard CBR600 who passed my instructor in the fast session like he was standing still, elbow down through a corner. Keith Code was also there teaching a couple of the kids I recognised from the TOTW DVD, he came over whilst I was waiting in the queue and asked how I liked the bike, I told him I loved it and he said 'Yeah, I've got 30 of them!'.
Got home totally shattered, but buzzing from the improvements I've made today, I now feel I can forget about the silly little things and just focus on the task of getting quicker.
Some piccies:
Biker's Nemesis said:
Mint pictures Steve.
Do you think this could become an addiction?
Could well do, I'd find myself worrying about crashing the bike before every session, but was fine as soon as I was out there, so at some point in the future I think I need a track bike I won't be so anxious about damaging.Do you think this could become an addiction?
The Tramp said:
Evening Steve, Sorry I missed you. I did take a walk up and down the pitlane mid morning but couldn't spot you.... I was in garage 4a.
Weather was spot on wasn't it!, sounds like you achieved all you goals for the day. Well done fella...
We were next door in 5c! Weather couldn't have been better, sounds like you had a bit of a nightmare morning though.Weather was spot on wasn't it!, sounds like you achieved all you goals for the day. Well done fella...
J B L said:
Excellent!
So would you recommend 1 to 1 instruction then... or were you just born awesome?
jealousy? nah... I like my sliders nice and shiny me
Yeah the instruction was great, he'd blast past and show me a different line through a corner and was invaluable in improving my body position, as you think you've got it right, but need someone following you to tell you what you're doing wrong.So would you recommend 1 to 1 instruction then... or were you just born awesome?
jealousy? nah... I like my sliders nice and shiny me
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