the bb trackday thread.

[graeme4130]

Their Uk days are nearly always full, so I suspect that post about tough times was more a marketing ploy to defend a variety of posts I’ve seen on Facebook groups recently moaning about costs of TD’s going up
Although the customer demographic is changing, I’d suggest the Uk trackday business is in a good state right now, and NL will certainly be the largest benefactor of FE doing very few (if any) Uk days this year

[moto_traxport]

CQ8 said:

I don't know about the UK days as I do not do them anymore. But I'm surprised about the Euro days. Looking at the No Limits emails a lot of the events in the first half of the year are sold out. So they must be taking three trucks to those?

I think one truck takes about 44 bikes from memory so is broadly one group allowing for the instructors also taking their bikes, so a 3 group trackday was generally 3 trucks.

In typical shrinkflation stylee I’ve noticed a lot of foreign events going to 4 groups and No Limits seem to risk sharing with D G Sports (BikersDays) on lots of the events. Depending on how fast the BikersDays ‘foreign’ element sells out presumably dictates how many trucks NL take. On some events (the Valencia event in Oct maybe?) it might only be one truckload of Brits.

The amount of people dedicated enough to take 5 days, 3 consecutive weekends and £1.5k+ out of their lives for a Euro event is quite small and most of them must be 45+ and already done most of the foreign circuits by now as mentioned by DC above. Might be getting to peak Meh!

[mckeann]

The speed at which the euro events sell out, i’d say it’s far from peak meh.

[moto_traxport]

mckeann said:

The speed at which the euro events sell out, i’d say it’s far from peak meh.

It might be me getting to peak meh!

Seriously though, lots of the booking is the same core of 4 or 500 or so. Case in point will be the ‘normal’ Jerez November date that they’ve put a note out on FB about - hold your horses etc. It will book out within weeks when released. If they put an addintional one on a few weeks later / earlier as they have done in the past its tumbleweed time and it takes ages to sell so the first released date takes up all the regulars, satisfies demand and NL sweat it out on the 2nd released date.

Also the point of NL used to be selling 120 places and now frequently they’re selling 80 places and Bikerdays doing 40 or some combination of the two.

Anyhoo, in other news I’ve just booked SlovakiaRing in July - Yay! You booked anything yet??

[mckeann]

My mates are all on Slovakiaring. I’ve not booked anything. In a bit of a lull at the moment and cant be arsed

[graeme4130]

I'm going to book the NL Jerez trip when they open it as absolutely loved the track last year, and itching to go back and ride it in the dry this time

On a side note, supposed to be dropping bikes off for Cartagena today, and it's been canned until the snow goes, so hopefully it'll all be gone by Monday as lorries leave Tuesday

[Biker's Nemesis]

mckeann said:

My mates are all on Slovakiaring. I’ve not booked anything. In a bit of a lull at the moment and cant be arsed

Isn't it time you should be arsed?

Motorbiking is like snakes and ladders, its fukin great while youre on top of the world and everything is going to plan but we always eventually get that kick in the balls that sends you to the bottom.

Turn that frown upside down ya sweaty sock.

[Birky_41]

2 days solid converting it... But finally just about done. Quick release fuel cap needed because of that fuel cover catching the original

RCS19 direct to calipers and bypassing the abs feels soooooo much better

Next to choose the base colour and vinyl. Think I'll stick with my moto gp design but I've seen a few others I like

[patchb]

My bike is pretty much finished now, had a long list of upgrades over the winter. Gone full power ranger and matched it to my leathers as well!

[graeme4130]

Love a bit of colour co-ordination too, looks good

[Mr OCD]

Birky_41 said:

2 days solid converting it... But finally just about done. Quick release fuel cap needed because of that fuel cover catching the original

RCS19 direct to calipers and bypassing the abs feels soooooo much better

Next to choose the base colour and vinyl. Think I'll stick with my moto gp design but I've seen a few others I like

Awesome

Are you having it flashed / mapped?

[graeme4130]

Mr OCD said:

Awesome

Are you having it flashed / mapped?

And when’s the first outing Birky ?

[George29]

Few pics from Almeria. Event was run really well by focused but dealing with the office was an absolute shambles as usual.

PR Racing were there and are a great set of lads. Joe Francis let me follow him round one session which was great. Got down to a 1:43.2 following him, wanted to get into the 42s but the weather was a bit st so only really got one good day. Was either too cold, raining or really windy.

Definitely recommend the focused exclusives days though. Got loads of clear track time.

[Birky_41]

Mr OCD said:

Awesome

Are you having it flashed / mapped?

I will but not until I've done a couple track days on it to get the feel right and used to the bike. I'll put those lextek headers on and get it flashed. It'll be about £400 so I'll hold back until April time

[Birky_41]

graeme4130 said:

And when’s the first outing Birky ?

Just this sec booked Snett 23rd Feb £69 NL

Quick Release fuel caps just arrived so will get fairings off to be painted thursday next week, fit fuel cap, collect fairings friday when done then hopefully get it stickered up in 1 week before I go on track

[graeme4130]

I'll get some videos and more pics up in a few days, but in the meantime, here's a couple of pics from trying out new R1 this week in Cartagena

[George29]

Bike looks good. How was it compared to the ZX10? I took my mates R1M out in Almeria for a few laps and was impressed with how smooth the power delivery was.

[Biker's Nemesis]

George29 said:

Bike looks good. How was it compared to the ZX10? I took my mates R1M out in Almeria for a few laps and was impressed with how smooth the power delivery was.

I was going to ask a similar question.

[graeme4130]

Biker's Nemesis said:

George29 said:

Bike looks good. How was it compared to the ZX10? I took my mates R1M out in Almeria for a few laps and was impressed with how smooth the power delivery was.

I was going to ask a similar question.

It's very different, and I had to rethink my riding style quite a bit. On my ZX10R, you can carry a load of speed through a corner and carry a load of brakes in before setting the throttle and powering out, but you have to be in the sweet spot on the revs to really get the drive out on the kawasaki. Whereas on the R1, you almost have to get your braking done before you're turning too hard, and just let off and throw it in and use the engine braking/rear brake to get the bike stopped, and then stand it up and drive it out.
I enjoyed it though, and although I went about the same lap times as I did back in December, the conditions were way better then as it was quite cold, windy and the track was a bit sandy this week, so I'll take the same lap times as a positive.
I played quite a lot with the front and tried a couple of different spring weights and how far through the yokes the forks are, and although I got the bike to change direction well and got the initial turn in how I'd like it, it's not as easy to be as accurate as my ZX10R is and I frequently missed apexes - not exactly my strong point anyway
I tried 10 and 10.25 front springs, and I think I still need to go up again to a 10.5, but the rear felt really well planted, and the drive out the corners is way better than my ZX10R
I'm certainly happy with it though, so if anyone wants to buy a really high spec 2016 ZX10R, I just happen to have one for sale soon

[graeme4130]

Here's a few more pics and a couple of laps
https://youtu.be/BFkq2AOR1J4