Have you been on a track ?

Well a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to ride on a track here in the UK, Castle Combe.

I was taking part in a Classic Parade which takes place during the lunch interval of a full days racing.

I was riding a racing spec Douglas Plus 80, 350 cc horizontally opposed flat twin built in 1951. This is the second time that I've riden this bike on the race track and was less apprehensive and managed to ride it a lot smoother. :thumbup:

Who's been on a track and what have you been riding . . . . ?

Sweeet bike!!! Sounds like a lot of fun

I've been on the track on a Buell XB12S and a Suzuki GSXR600 (not at the same time ).

No but i really wanto

oh hell yes I have been on track it's be most fun you can have on two wheels. Most of the time I ride my Ducati monster, But I have riden a lot of other bikes on track as well. My track riding is limited to two track that are local to me one is Pacific Raceways - Where The Excitement Is Accelerating.....For The Entire Family! and the other is oregonraceway.com

There are several local track day companies here in Texas that allow "parade laps' which are described as "spirited" laps behind a control rider during the lunch break.

So far I have partaken of these are both Texas World Speedway and Motor Sport Ranch Houston. It certainly was fun.

Does m/c insurance covers the damage to m/c caused on track?

Wow can you please tel us more about the bike? It's your right? Beautiful looking machine :thumbup:

Riding on the track is the business. Great way to hone your skills & give your bike a good flogging without having to worry about ending up in jail.

I used to do a heap of track days & gave it a rest for a while but im now getting back into it & loving it :thumbup:

Ive ridden Eastern Creek, Oran Park, Wakefield Park & Marulan. (Phillip Island is on the list!!!!!!!!)

Bikes ive ridden on the track-
RGV250
ZX7R
VFR400
GSXR750
3 different models of GSXR600. 99, 05 & my current track bike is an 01.

All have been dedicated track bikes aside from the ZX7R. Did one day at the track on that & hated it. Loved the bike but had a few close calls & couldn't afford to trash my road bike. Took all the fun out of it

rdrManny said:

Does m/c insurance covers the damage to m/c caused on track?

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Usually NO. But give your insurance company a call & ask em just to clarify that. If your going to ride your road bike on the track be sure to remove license plate or at least cover it with tape so it can't be seen or photographed.

I have heard of people who crash their bike on a local road the weekend after a track day if you catch my drift

Yea Ive been on with a cbr 900rr and the fizzer

Willow Springs Raceway (Big Track) on the FZ6!

cant wait to do it again...

Shortly after I bought my FZ6, with 500 miles on it, I did a TEST THE TRACK class at our local track, and it was a BLAST!!! I was slow as snot, but just wanted to learn my bike better, and I did. The class consisted of a morning and afternoon run, about 15-20 minutes each.
Here I am in the morning class:
View attachment 31456

It was a great confidence booster.
Here I am in the afternoon class:
View attachment 31457



:BLAA:

Only track i've gotten to go to so far is Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Raceway Park. Both were in a company car. Here is IMS

Wavex said:

Sweeet bike!!! Sounds like a lot of fun

I've been on the track on a Buell XB12S and a Suzuki GSXR600 (not at the same time ).

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It was great fun until the left piston pinched and locked up the rear tyre throwing the back end around at 70 mph !!!

texcollect said:

There are several local track day companies here in Texas that allow "parade laps' which are described as "spirited" laps behind a control rider during the lunch break.

So far I have partaken of these are both Texas World Speedway and Motor Sport Ranch Houston. It certainly was fun.

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In the UK there are 2 classes for Parades governed by the ACU: PR5 which is speed limited and PR6 where there is no speed limit which is what I was taking part in, and yup it was "spirited". I had to really have my wits about me as I was on the oldest and one of the slowest bikes and was being overtaken by lots, so I had to make sure that I didn't get in the way and get taken off

Dunno said:

Wow can you please tel us more about the bike? It's your right? Beautiful looking machine :thumbup:

Riding on the track is the business. Great way to hone your skills & give your bike a good flogging without having to worry about ending up in jail.

I used to do a heap of track days & gave it a rest for a while but im now getting back into it & loving it

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Well I wish the bike was mine !! It's my father-in-laws. He's had this particular motorcycle for about 8 years but was racing them back in the 50's, work out his age . . . . . 78 and he's still riding, but is deemed too old to ride on a track . .

This bike is a Douglas Plus 80 and is only 1 of 279 built, but he also has a Douglas Plus 90 (1 of 220) and here's the good part, he has enough spare parts for both the 80 and 90 just "hanging around" to build a Plus "Special" for me . . . It's going to take a while to get it completed (he's got too many other bike builds on the go), but well worth the wait.

Scroll down in this link to Plus Models for more detailed information

As for me doing more track time, I'd wouldn't do it on the FZ6, but would maybe look to get a cheap naked 500 that wouldn't matter when I drop it

i've never been on a track, mainly because we do not have one in malta we have to go to sicily by ferry to have track time and secondly i dont think im able to ride on a track, i crashed my bike twice on normal road trips, so currently im classifiying myself as incapble of decently riding a motorcycle.

Nope.
But me and the pals are planning to have a few track-days next season. We have perfect tracks in northern (Brno) and eastern (Slovakiaring, Pannonia Ring Hungary) direction and a few nice tracks in Austria. :thumbup: