First Trackday - Cadwell Park - 10th March

[Bracechenko]

Yep, all booked and ready to go. Sourced myself some leathers, got new brake pads on the front and gave the FZ1 a service.

I'm excited but nervous too!! Excited at the fact that it's a track day (obvious) but nervous about binning my bike!  :'(

I'm in the intermediate group as I consider myself to be a quick rider and I think the novice would be a bit too slow once i'm all warmed up etc. With trying to calm myself down about binning my bike, I keep telling myself that I haven't binned it yet and that's with lampposts, traffic, pedestrians, other traffic, crappy roads, diesel etc etc

So Foccers - please calm my nerves and tell me everything will be fine and my bike will be coming home in one piece  :\

[spoonlamp]

Lucky bugger! I are envious! Be another year I think before I get myself a track day, just busy  :\

[Bracechenko]

Might not be so lucky if it's sub zero temp or peeing it down  :rolleyes

Praying for a good weekend, fresh and sunny!

[ghostbiker]

Love track days, wish I could do more. Tip for first day is build up slowly and dont push to fast to soon. its easy to start keeping up with some one that's pushing harder than your ready for. Or worse you watch him go in a gravel trap and follow him in LOL
Just enjoy the experience.
Most bin it on first session or last session of the day. So take it steady.
Great fun though.

[Chillum]

What ghostbiker said. I've actually binned a bike on a track-day, albeit a rental.

Warm your brakes and tyres up, don't treat it like a race (this is all too easy to do) and use the whole thing as a 'getting to know my bike and limits' session in a safer environment than the road.

Watch out for pillocks.

I took my Fazer 600 round Snetterton and although I ended up not getting my knee down (posture I think) I did get the side of my boot and the exhaust down, the bike has so much more than I could use at the time and it saved my bacon on the roads when it came to trusting what she could do.

Above all, enjoy lucky bugger

[Bracechenko]

Thanks both, good advice that i will listen to :thumbup

[Bracechenko]

Hmmm....one thing that might cause a problem is that my rear has already lived through a 2000 mile trip through Europe and that was last June so has probably covered another 1 - 2k since then.

To be fair, it's stood up quite well as by 3.5k they're usually ready for changing but the Euro trip was more about cruising/touring that 1 day blasts everywhere.

Tyre is more than legal, has tread left but I think the centre will be squared by the end of the day (or halfway through!). May have to be extra gentle on opening her up out of the corners (boo  ) or I wonder if there will be a tyre centre open on a Sunday nearby?

[sadlonelygit]

firstly............you're gonna die
secondly, you are going to put your bike under extreme duress for the time it's on track, so make sure you have plenty of brake pad meat left, fresh-ish tyres, properly adjusted and loobed chain. gaffer tape, zip ties, fuel/jerry can, suspension service?
think about dropping rear tyre psi to @30, run with a gallon in the tank. there will be no let up for 15 mins so hydrate before going out, in between pee breaks.
warm your tyres up (2 laps) and nail it in 2nd over the mountain, it will NOT flip.
try and get into the novice group, then you'll look like a god and you can always go up a group if you ARE that fast
have fun and get someone to take piccies