My Really Expensive Weekend (caution - pic heavy and long)

[PitterB4]

(this all took place the weekend before last - just getting enough time to post it now...)

As I think most know, I sold my B4   .  Although I'm already looking for another streetbike, the B4's spot in the garage is currently occupied by a 1998 Honda CBR F3 track bike.  The bike was ROUGH when I got it.  Only ~ 5k miles - almost all on the track.  The PO took very good mechanical care of the bike and put some cool perf stuff on it like a Penske shock, Race Tech fork internals...  but didn't care at all for the appearance.  The V&H full system is rashed and super rusty.  The bodywork was a poor blue and silver rattle can job.  It was rusty and corroded in places.  The seat was torn in many places.  It had slid upside down across some gravel at some point and the gas cap, the controls and upper triple are a mess.  I got it about 9 days before my first track day with it so I cleaned it up as best I could, put a cool ZG DB windscreen on it, recovered the seat, and painted the awful blue flat black (plus some decals).  Here's how it looked before loading it up to hit the track:



I got it loaded up on Friday and went to pick up my friend for the 5 hr trip to the track in Pittsburgh.  A mile from his house, where the dinky little highway comes into town (and goes from 55 to 35 in a blink), I got nabbed for speeding!  F-ers!  It is such a speed trap/moneymaker!  Cha-ching = $162.

We had a nice trip across the state.  Stopped at my parents' house to spend the night.  Got to the track (www.beaverun.com) bright and early.  Holy crap - this bike ROCKS!  The carbs are a little off - cold blooded and need synched but you don't notice that stuff on the track.  The thing has so much more power than my little 400.  Honestly, once I got used to it, not even the liter bikes could out-pull me on the straights.  The brakes are unbelievable, too.  It did take a while to get used to - new bike on a track I've never ridden.  It is a really, really fun track.  The weather was perfect - overcast and mid 80s with a nice breeze.  I guess we ran 5 of our 20-minute sessions (skipped the last two to save our legs for Sunday).  Each session was a little quicker.  I got some good feedback from one of the coaches that helped a lot (turn in/apex later, dummy!!!).  

Our pit:



That night, we drove into the city for dinner.  Great night.  Came back and set-up camp.  I like to call it Camp Caprice (the track does a lot of police training and so forth):



Sunday was HOT!!!!!!!  Mid 90s, sunny and humid.  By 10am my leathers were soaked through.  It's amazing how much of a difference it makes riding back-to-back days.  Most of the guys and girls in the group were there both days and the whole group was perceptably faster on Sunday.  I was really comfortable with the bike and started shaving seconds off my lap times.  I was dicing it up with my bud on the RC51 and some of the other, faster guys in the group and was making my way through traffic pretty easily.  

With exhaustion setting in and a long drive ahead of us, we packed up after doing one session in the afternoon.  We were on the road by 3:30.  We got back to Chris' house by a little after 9.  We unloaded his stuff and the bikes.  Switched trailers on the back of my Jeep from his (handles 2 bikes) to mine.  By now, it's about 10:30.  We're totally running on fumes.  With the last bit of energy I had, I rolled my bike up on to my trailer and into the chock.  I held it there while Chris strapped it down.  He had it secure and I didn't like the way it was leaning just a bit so I asked him to restrap everything.  He got done strapping the front, I jumped off to go strap the back.  Well.... one of the hooks wasn't secure and SNAP!!!!!!  We couldn't do anything but watch in disbelief as it rolled off.  Since it was in the chock, the left rotor acted as a lever, flipping it up making sure it just didn't land on it's side but upsidedown in the driveway.  Dammit!!!!!!!!!  Rotor bent, my week-old windscreen in a 100 pieces, fairing stay bent, every piece of bodywork cracked rashed or broken, tank crushed.







So let's see...

$330 in track fees
$50 or so in tires used up in 2 days
$100 in gas - my share for the Jeep and what I used in the bike
$25 my share of the tolls
$162 speeding tix
$60 windscreen
$10 rotor (thanks Ebay!!!)
$40 tank (thanks WERA board!!)
$40 decals
$70 or so in paint and fiberglass repair

So.... not counting food and other incidentals that I would have incurred at home, I'm in for about $900 for the weekend!     Remind me not to add stuff like this up in front of my wife!!!!!!!

[tannerismyhero]

 i hate it when my bike flips  

[curiousmike]

Track days are incredibly fun... but if you only do one a year, they're expensive.

For me, it's usually something like this:
$200 for track day
$250 for new tires ( this is the killer - track day usually means new tires )
$10 shared rental of trailer
$25 shared gas to get to track
$30 to share motel room
$30 in water, fast food, food, whatever

If you do more than a few track days in succession, the tire price gets mitigated... maybe if you buy a trailer or own a truck etc...

[Swamp Rat]

I would love to do a track day but not on the bandit. I'm sure it would do just fine but I don't want to take the chance of trashing it. Maybe one day I'll get a used 600 or a 750 to abuse. Sure sounds like fun though.

[PitterB4]

Yeah - free lodging, having a dedicated track bike (thus dedicated track tires), and my own trailer helps in the per-trackday cost department.  

Most of the dumps on the track are low-side slides.  So, if you've got sliders and case covers, very few bikes get destroyed at a track day.  

IMHO, you have no real idea what your bike can really do until you get on the track.  Although I know guys that ride like that on the street, there's nothing like hitting the same clean turns dozens of times in a day with no minivans, no cross traffic....

[12sdrag]

Rob, That sucks! That is one nice looking bike. You are starting to tempt me to take mine to the track.

[Red01]

Sounds like some of my Jeepin' weekends... which is why I've left my trail rig parked for the last few years... came back from it's last trip with a broken front axle (a nearly new HD unit with less than 50 miles on it since the front axle only gets used in 4WD) and a slipping auto trans (that was rebuilt just a few thousand miles ago).

[PitterB4]

="Red01"Sounds like some of my Jeepin' weekends... which is why I've left my trail rig parked for the last few years... came back from it's last trip with a broken front axle (a nearly new HD unit with less than 50 miles on it since the front axle only gets used in 4WD) and a slipping auto trans (that was rebuilt just a few thousand miles ago).

Wow!  

Yeah, I guess I am better off than my friend who was pitted next to us, too.  In the 2nd or 3rd session of the first day, he broke the crank in his uber-expensive Mile racebike (all carbon fiber body/tank, magnesium wheels superbike forks, cryogenically treated valves and springs, custom TI and CF parts everywhere).  

[Russtang]

Racing's expensive?  

Dude, that sucks about the bike and all, but what if it had happened in your driveway on Friday?

Or worse...at the track Saturday while unloading it!  

That's me, Mr. Brightside.  

Russ

[interfuse]

Ouch. But at least it wasn't your bandit, that would have been really unfortunate.

[erik]

Sounds like apart from the accident at the end you had a really good weekend.
I can't wait till I'm out of uni and have enough cash to do trackdays more often.

[GaryB12VA]

Sorry to hear the bad news Rob. You had the F3 looking pretty good there.

[smooth operator]

Sounds like you had a great time! (with the exeption of the ticket and the bike falling off.) I'd love to do Beaver Run again,turns 2-4(its been awhile) start flowing together and you can keep some good speed. And could pick up on bikes in the carolsel too befor the front straight.
  I'd love to get a track bike,but I'll do a race school on the Bandit in the mean time. Can't wait for the Sept.18 date @ Nelson.
  Yes! and by all means,don't add up cost in front of the wife!   Dan

[gsxr400 racer]

(this all took place the weekend before last - just getting enough time to post it now...)

As I think most know, I sold my B4   .  Although I'm already looking for another streetbike, the B4's spot in the garage is currently occupied by a 1998 Honda CBR F3 track bike.  The bike was ROUGH when I got it.  Only ~ 5k miles - almost all on the track.  The PO took very good mechanical care of the bike and put some cool perf stuff on it like a Penske shock, Race Tech fork internals...  but didn't care at all for the appearance.  The V&H full system is rashed and super rusty.  The bodywork was a poor blue and silver rattle can job.  It was rusty and corroded in places.  The seat was torn in many places.  It had slid upside down across some gravel at some point and the gas cap, the controls and upper triple are a mess.  I got it about 9 days before my first track day with it so I cleaned it up as best I could, put a cool ZG DB windscreen on it, recovered the seat, and painted the awful blue flat black (plus some decals).  Here's how it looked before loading it up to hit the track:



I got it loaded up on Friday and went to pick up my friend for the 5 hr trip to the track in Pittsburgh.  A mile from his house, where the dinky little highway comes into town (and goes from 55 to 35 in a blink), I got nabbed for speeding!  F-ers!  It is such a speed trap/moneymaker!  Cha-ching = $162.

We had a nice trip across the state.  Stopped at my parents' house to spend the night.  Got to the track (www.beaverun.com) bright and early.  Holy crap - this bike ROCKS!  The carbs are a little off - cold blooded and need synched but you don't notice that stuff on the track.  The thing has so much more power than my little 400.  Honestly, once I got used to it, not even the liter bikes could out-pull me on the straights.  The brakes are unbelievable, too.  It did take a while to get used to - new bike on a track I've never ridden.  It is a really, really fun track.  The weather was perfect - overcast and mid 80s with a nice breeze.  I guess we ran 5 of our 20-minute sessions (skipped the last two to save our legs for Sunday).  Each session was a little quicker.  I got some good feedback from one of the coaches that helped a lot (turn in/apex later, dummy!!!).  

Our pit:



That night, we drove into the city for dinner.  Great night.  Came back and set-up camp.  I like to call it Camp Caprice (the track does a lot of police training and so forth):



Sunday was HOT!!!!!!!  Mid 90s, sunny and humid.  By 10am my leathers were soaked through.  It's amazing how much of a difference it makes riding back-to-back days.  Most of the guys and girls in the group were there both days and the whole group was perceptably faster on Sunday.  I was really comfortable with the bike and started shaving seconds off my lap times.  I was dicing it up with my bud on the RC51 and some of the other, faster guys in the group and was making my way through traffic pretty easily.  

With exhaustion setting in and a long drive ahead of us, we packed up after doing one session in the afternoon.  We were on the road by 3:30.  We got back to Chris' house by a little after 9.  We unloaded his stuff and the bikes.  Switched trailers on the back of my Jeep from his (handles 2 bikes) to mine.  By now, it's about 10:30.  We're totally running on fumes.  With the last bit of energy I had, I rolled my bike up on to my trailer and into the chock.  I held it there while Chris strapped it down.  He had it secure and I didn't like the way it was leaning just a bit so I asked him to restrap everything.  He got done strapping the front, I jumped off to go strap the back.  Well.... one of the hooks wasn't secure and SNAP!!!!!!  We couldn't do anything but watch in disbelief as it rolled off.  Since it was in the chock, the left rotor acted as a lever, flipping it up making sure it just didn't land on it's side but upsidedown in the driveway.  Dammit!!!!!!!!!  Rotor bent, my week-old windscreen in a 100 pieces, fairing stay bent, every piece of bodywork cracked rashed or broken, tank crushed.







So let's see...

$330 in track fees
$50 or so in tires used up in 2 days
$100 in gas - my share for the Jeep and what I used in the bike
$25 my share of the tolls
$162 speeding tix
$60 windscreen
$10 rotor (thanks Ebay!!!)
$40 tank (thanks WERA board!!)
$40 decals
$70 or so in paint and fiberglass repair

So.... not counting food and other incidentals that I would have incurred at home, I'm in for about $900 for the weekend!     Remind me not to add stuff like this up in front of my wife!!!!!!!

You forgot the fun of compition "PRICELESS"

Dan See ya at the ledges brother!
cheers
Jay

By the way it is cheaper to race than do a track day!