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:
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...
My day was a bit manic in the morning with a few issue that needed sorting, mainly a weaping crank case gasket leaving a nice sheen of oil over my right boot... Didn't fill me with the highest confidence.
Whilst setting up my rearsets, I didn't fully tweak up my gear toe peg.... And lost it on the 3 laps into the next session, so I swapped over the one from the rear brake, then managed to lose that one just before lunch!... Cock!
So after making a new peg out of a bolt, dowl and a couple of nuts, all was working well...
I could then set about adjusting the suspension settings in the afternoon which was the whole plan for the day!, was suffering from the front running wide at donnington last time out, so a couple of clicks on the front forks gradually improved this throughout the afternoon.
So all in all a productive day and learned I must remember to use thread lock!..... and i managed to get sun burn at lunch!, winner!
Weather was spot on wasn't it!, sounds like you achieved all you goals for the day. Well done fella...
My day was a bit manic in the morning with a few issue that needed sorting, mainly a weaping crank case gasket leaving a nice sheen of oil over my right boot... Didn't fill me with the highest confidence.
Whilst setting up my rearsets, I didn't fully tweak up my gear toe peg.... And lost it on the 3 laps into the next session, so I swapped over the one from the rear brake, then managed to lose that one just before lunch!... Cock!
So after making a new peg out of a bolt, dowl and a couple of nuts, all was working well...
I could then set about adjusting the suspension settings in the afternoon which was the whole plan for the day!, was suffering from the front running wide at donnington last time out, so a couple of clicks on the front forks gradually improved this throughout the afternoon.
So all in all a productive day and learned I must remember to use thread lock!..... and i managed to get sun burn at lunch!, winner!
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?
Steve Evil said:
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...
Bloody typical!....
I knew you would get rid of your chicken strips!...
I've got a good base setting for the bike now, which what I wanted from the day...
There seemed to be alot of debris on track in the morning..... Even before i started adding to it
I was running out of legs at the end of hanger straight and close to hitting the limiter in 6th.... Me thinks I need another rear sprocket when I do silverstone again.
I knew you would get rid of your chicken strips!...
I've got a good base setting for the bike now, which what I wanted from the day...
There seemed to be alot of debris on track in the morning..... Even before i started adding to it
I was running out of legs at the end of hanger straight and close to hitting the limiter in 6th.... Me thinks I need another rear sprocket when I do silverstone again.
Edited by The Tramp on Wednesday 23 March 22:53
Steve Evil said:
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.
Exactly what I did, keep the BMw for road fo now. Plus you'll be too much of a target on the BMW on track.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
Hey steve. Was good to meet up with you yesterday and what a cracking day. Some of the best fun I've had on a bike. I managed to push the little NC30 harder than ever and even had a tiny scuff of slider to tarmac myself (Not enough to full claim knee down though as it was the lightest of touches).
Hands up who was the prat that ran out of fuel on the 3rd session... Yup it was me.
I managed to coast into the pitlane entrance then had to do the walk of shame up to the garage (felt like miles). On the final session something went bang and my bike lost power and wouldn't rev above 9K. I believe its probably just going to be the rubber grommit things on the carb as they were looking a little aged. I'll look into that as soon as I can.
The bike itself did suprisingly well on the day in terms of pace. I was by no means the slowest person out there. Steves mate was riding a Bandit and both of us were suffering from straight line heros. We'd get behind someone on an 600 sports bike and they would blast it down the straights only to roll of the throttle at the corner (scared to use the brakes?) then slowly navigate the corner. We'd catch up, overtake on the corner then they would fly past on the straights... It was annoying as I was trying to get good lines through the corners. Come the end of the day we'd become quite good at going around the outside of people on my 400 through the corners.
As Steves instructor would come back to the garage for a chat after each session and I was able to listen to some of the advice. (cheers mate!) In particular body position which helped me a great deal. Really hanging off the bike with my outside leg and arm tight on the tank, chest down on the tank (or as close as gut will allow) and knee out elbow down on the inside. It feels a bit odd at first but it started coming naturaly after a few laps. The NC30 just seems to lean forever!
As for the track. Its brilliant. Its wide, smooth and has a good mix of fast and slow (left and right) corners. I thought my bike would struggle but it was fine and it might stay in my garage for anther trackday yet (considering upgrading to a 600)
Roll on CSS next month and fingers crossed we get similar weather.
Hands up who was the prat that ran out of fuel on the 3rd session... Yup it was me.
I managed to coast into the pitlane entrance then had to do the walk of shame up to the garage (felt like miles). On the final session something went bang and my bike lost power and wouldn't rev above 9K. I believe its probably just going to be the rubber grommit things on the carb as they were looking a little aged. I'll look into that as soon as I can. The bike itself did suprisingly well on the day in terms of pace. I was by no means the slowest person out there. Steves mate was riding a Bandit and both of us were suffering from straight line heros. We'd get behind someone on an 600 sports bike and they would blast it down the straights only to roll of the throttle at the corner (scared to use the brakes?) then slowly navigate the corner. We'd catch up, overtake on the corner then they would fly past on the straights... It was annoying as I was trying to get good lines through the corners. Come the end of the day we'd become quite good at going around the outside of people on my 400 through the corners.
As Steves instructor would come back to the garage for a chat after each session and I was able to listen to some of the advice. (cheers mate!) In particular body position which helped me a great deal. Really hanging off the bike with my outside leg and arm tight on the tank, chest down on the tank (or as close as gut will allow) and knee out elbow down on the inside. It feels a bit odd at first but it started coming naturaly after a few laps. The NC30 just seems to lean forever!
As for the track. Its brilliant. Its wide, smooth and has a good mix of fast and slow (left and right) corners. I thought my bike would struggle but it was fine and it might stay in my garage for anther trackday yet (considering upgrading to a 600)
Roll on CSS next month and fingers crossed we get similar weather.
Gassing Station | Biker Banter | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff