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Well, the promised track day arrived,, and I (with 23 others) got to benefit from free access to some really helpful and skillful SBR guys to help me find my way around the track in one piece.

If it's one thing I learned, I need a LOT more time on the track, gently feeling my way. So much for me to learn here. The principle's there, but the reality is still a loooong way off!

I'm certainly up for some more of this. Strangely, it feels great to be at the bottom of the learning curve. Hey, from here there's no way to go but up, right?

Here's a little personal feedback on how I felt the track tuition day went for me.

Graeme split the students into three groups, approximately sorted according to experience and ability. Needless to say (having never been on a track before) I was in the most junior group, which Joe took care of himself. Joe rode in front, we all followed in line astern, followed by Gareth acting as a spotter behind. Every lap the lead student would rotate to the back and all the others moved up one slot to give everyone a chance to ride directly behind Joe. No brakes, just aiming for a smooth line and good drive out. Joe and some other volunteers had set up the track before we got there, placing markers at the entry, apex and drive points of every corner. I found the mark-up really very helpful. Out of maybe 30 marks, I felt only a very few were significantly off smooth lines I could set up (given a little help and at very slow speeds), and following Joe himself, he didn't hit those either. Must be tough to get them just right. I guess if just one bike went out and you had maybe 3 volunteers to stand at the entry, apex and drive points of each corner in turn, ready to rush out and plaster a cross where Joe had driven over, then move on the the next corner for the following lap...

Anyway, I was delighted to find that the lines looked pretty natural to me, and I was comfortable to enter on no brake and feed the bike more-or-less smoothly into the turns, easing on light power in a high gear all the way through, increasing a little from about the half-way point through to the exit. I didn't get to use any significant amount of drive, but that's fine for starters. At least the throttle was cracked open and the engine pulling a little all the way through, which felt solid and the bike was very settled. I fell to the temptation of turning in early sometimes, but I could see where that led me. The bad news is, unsurprisingly, my chances of getting everything taken care of in good time without a leader to provide a visual on the line is pretty small, and anytime I begin to screw one thing up, my attention shifts to cure it and other things start to go awry until the next thing I know I've blown pretty much everything and have to chop the speed down, sort out my position and start again, a bit like re-booting a PC.

I also found, much to my surprise, that once the pace picked up a little bit, it felt natural to shift my backside out to the inside of the turn on the entry and drop down the side of the bike a bit in the turn. This never felt right to me on the road, I think because it's really over-the-top for the kind of speeds used on the road. At least I hope so.

I, for one, could have used a lot more pre-track briefing, but the time seemed to get eaten up and we didn't want to waste precious track-time the club had booked for exclusive use. I know, best laid plans and all that... I would be happy to have done a classroom prep in Singapore, maybe the evening before or something. Make it a pre-requisite for permission to get out on the track the next day. I would expect an hour or two, with breaks, necessary to cover all the aspects for safety and to really hammer home the discipline and guidelines you want to set up. There's so much a complete newbie like me knows nothing about. Signals, etiquette, pit rules, etc. It would also make me feel a lot more comfortable about how to handle much faster bikes who are understandably impatient to scream by me and continue enjoying their track day. I think we could all do with a good grounding in the principles of racing lines, bike dynamics, suspension, the ideas behind no-brake exercises, etc.

For the last 10-15 minutes Joe and Co. let us poor lambs out on the track for a free-format practice on our own, the idea being to continue to stay off the brakes and hit the marks. Fat chance. You'd have thought the instructions were to hit the brakes and stay off the marks. I was feeling pretty relaxed and comfortable, taking the corners at a reasonable pace (for me at least), but still I came up, bike shuddering under front braking, after screwing up one line and bailing out on the attempt at that corner.

The first thing to go was the braking veto. Brake lights everywhere. Entering turns, in turns, out of turns... I came round one corner to find a bike on the deck, rider fortunately up and being helped by a couple of mates, so I went on. Next corner, I see a guy and GSXR still sliding. I pulled over on the inside of the track beyond the apex and tried to help out. He'd already fallen earlier in the day, on the other leg. wearing climbing boots and borrowed leathers.

Sunday 24 Feb. 'open-day' for SBR

On the second day, the 'free-for-all' for SBR members, the disparity in speed for such a wide range of abilities caused me some concern. There is some seriously exotic equipment out there, and some fast riders. I was certainly unnerved by realising some fast ba**d was bearing down on me at a great rate of knots, probably cursing me for being in the middle of his line, spoiling his beautiful drive. Of course, the moment I pay any attention to the guy behind, my attention is no longer on the job, and oh my does my attention need to be on the job 100% if I'm to keep everything lined up and in good order. So the result is that I almost immediately mess up the line and start taking one that's seriously weird. Not because I wanted to, just lost it. This is almost certainly more disconcerting, not to say dangerous, to the fast rider behind than sticking to the obvious racing line. So the moral of this story is, take the mirrors off and keep your eye on the the line you want to follow in front of you!

Maybe in a perfect world, I'd be able to spend about 30% of the time following a good and patient rider who's using no brakes and just cruising smoothly round the track at 80-120 km/hr, 30% of the time being followed by same so he can see where I'm in need of help, and 30% by myself, trying and experimenting with the corners. Anyone know a good motorcycle-racing angel who's got time to burn helping a poor ignorant newbie and a friend with his/her personal track for exclusive use? Maybe I can sneak an hour or two early morning during the week when the track is quiet.

I was a little miffed at the track management when I picked up a dirty big hole in my rear tire on the second lap of the second day, but I guess you have to accept that track cleaning, controls and maintenance isn't what it might be elsewhere. Or maybe I was just unlucky. Fortunately I was just easing into a couple of sighting laps so wasn't pushing hard. The rear crabbed away in the 'S' and felt awful. I picked the bike up and slowed to try and work out what had happened, thinking it shouldn't have been a problem at that speed. I erred on the side of caution for the final right-hander before the straight and, sure enough, the rear immediately began to gyrate and fishtail. A serious lack of air pressure. I coaxed it into the pits, by which time it was flat as can be. A kind and helpful soul (Richard Hosier) lent me a patch kit. The plug worked, so I thought I'd best not push my luck by going back out on the track, opting for a leasurely cruise home. I got back in one piece and still with some air in the back tire.

What a lot of bikes...	Fast machines	Serious money	Chris Swannie
Bruised bikes_1	Bruised bikes_2	Chewing the fat	Bullshitting_1

Just a coupla' pics from June 2001, when I went up with Frank to watch some local bike races. Dig the umbrella girls...
	Little_Chinese_G...	Razzamataz.jpg