PowellB
Junior Member
Today marks the special occasion of being my very first track day. This has been a long time coming, but I'm glad the FZ6 made it into my stable just in time to tackle the big track at Willow Springs.
There was a group of seven of us, two of which I ride with regularly. I was a bit nervous since this track is fast, my buddies are really fast, I only had 2 weeks with the new bike, and it was the one year anniversary of me ending a ride with the same guys with a helicopter ride and a broken collarbone. So, yeah... wasn't sure how the day was going to go.
Wow! What a freakin' blast! The FZ6 was great, I was feeling great despite my lack of sleep and excess of worrying. The weather could not have been more perfect. By the end of the first session, I was pretty comfortable -and it only got better.
Said hello to forum member marke14, who was gracious enough to let me sit on his bike to see how the set-back plates for the pegs and the suburban machinery bars felt. Pretty dramatic difference if you ask me. I bet I would have been way less paranoid of dragging pegs if I had those brackets!
Worked on my lines throughout the day and was moving fairly well through the pack. I was a bit intimidated passing in most corners since I was still learning what I could get away with compromising my lines. Exiting turn 2 was challenging, since I always carried a lot of speed, but felt like I was running out of track. I think it's partly because of me rarely getting a good apex on the eternally-long right hander, but also the terrain played some weird optical tricks with me. The elevation change and its effect on camber was challenging, but rewarding once I got confident and relaxed into a nice pace.
There were two times I remember where I panicked since my speed carried me too close to the dusty/pebble ridden side of the track while coming around the outside of people exiting turn 2.
While on the topic of dicey moments around the track, every time around turn 9 it was a game of chicken. How late can you wait to turn in? how early can you get on the gas? how wide are you going to drift on the straight? do you even have a chance in hell of passing that dude on a literbike in front of you down the straight? Fun times :rockon:
Blasting down the straights was awesome!! When I had a good run through turn 6 into the back straight I would hit 130+ and often used that part of the track to get around people before turn 8. Turn 9 is a tricky decreasing radius turn leading into the front straight. A lot of times I didn't carry enough momentum and then ended up watching the people I was trying to reel in walk away for me... forcing me to be patient and/or pass on the outside of turn 2. When I got the corner right (-er, right enough ), I could keep the bigger bikes within reach and would try to out-brake them on the outside before turn one. That was so fun!! Braking from ~140mph to 90 into turn 1 was crazy... I can't imagine how much harder real racers slow down though. Those GP guys must be nuts!
Overall, I thought it was a great introduction to the awesomeness that is a track day. Glad I had the FZ, as my old ninja 500 would've been a rolling speedbump in many parts of this track. It was an eye-opening experience to see how poorly the blind-corner ridden canyons have trained me to look far enough through the turns.
I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna eat some pizza and crash now... -but not before posting a few pics :thumbup:
There was a group of seven of us, two of which I ride with regularly. I was a bit nervous since this track is fast, my buddies are really fast, I only had 2 weeks with the new bike, and it was the one year anniversary of me ending a ride with the same guys with a helicopter ride and a broken collarbone. So, yeah... wasn't sure how the day was going to go.
Wow! What a freakin' blast! The FZ6 was great, I was feeling great despite my lack of sleep and excess of worrying. The weather could not have been more perfect. By the end of the first session, I was pretty comfortable -and it only got better.
Said hello to forum member marke14, who was gracious enough to let me sit on his bike to see how the set-back plates for the pegs and the suburban machinery bars felt. Pretty dramatic difference if you ask me. I bet I would have been way less paranoid of dragging pegs if I had those brackets!
Worked on my lines throughout the day and was moving fairly well through the pack. I was a bit intimidated passing in most corners since I was still learning what I could get away with compromising my lines. Exiting turn 2 was challenging, since I always carried a lot of speed, but felt like I was running out of track. I think it's partly because of me rarely getting a good apex on the eternally-long right hander, but also the terrain played some weird optical tricks with me. The elevation change and its effect on camber was challenging, but rewarding once I got confident and relaxed into a nice pace.
There were two times I remember where I panicked since my speed carried me too close to the dusty/pebble ridden side of the track while coming around the outside of people exiting turn 2.
While on the topic of dicey moments around the track, every time around turn 9 it was a game of chicken. How late can you wait to turn in? how early can you get on the gas? how wide are you going to drift on the straight? do you even have a chance in hell of passing that dude on a literbike in front of you down the straight? Fun times :rockon:
Blasting down the straights was awesome!! When I had a good run through turn 6 into the back straight I would hit 130+ and often used that part of the track to get around people before turn 8. Turn 9 is a tricky decreasing radius turn leading into the front straight. A lot of times I didn't carry enough momentum and then ended up watching the people I was trying to reel in walk away for me... forcing me to be patient and/or pass on the outside of turn 2. When I got the corner right (-er, right enough
), I could keep the bigger bikes within reach and would try to out-brake them on the outside before turn one. That was so fun!! Braking from ~140mph to 90 into turn 1 was crazy... I can't imagine how much harder real racers slow down though. Those GP guys must be nuts!Overall, I thought it was a great introduction to the awesomeness that is a track day. Glad I had the FZ, as my old ninja 500 would've been a rolling speedbump in many parts of this track. It was an eye-opening experience to see how poorly the blind-corner ridden canyons have trained me to look far enough through the turns.
I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna eat some pizza and crash now... -but not before posting a few pics :thumbup:
