sorry been waiting for pics from trackday to pop up. My other half was too sick to lift a camera. Here's my report for the day sorry for the rambling-
The first trackday with the R6 went well. My first goal for the day was to keep it rubber side down, which I'm lucky to report I did manage and the bike looked the same coming home as it did leaving.
I was feeling rather under the weather starting on Wednesday and didn't feel any better when Friday trackday rolled around. Not only I but the whole household was sick. This wasn't enough to have us miss the last trackday of the year however.
My times didn't drop as low as I would have wanted, which bothered me a bit during the trackday as it just seemed I couldn't get the energy to press on anymore. In retrospect though I'm quite pleased with my first day on a bike of the R6 caliber which I've never ridden before in my life and the ability to at least keep it all together with the bit of energy that I did have.
First lap of the first session the rear tire broke loose just enough to say the tire was still cold and I was dealing with more than 50hp now. What a joy the R6 is to ride! Dragging knees feels almost effortless. While it doesn't have a slipper clutch the transmission is honestly the smoothest shifting bike I have ever ridden.
Halfway through the morning I had a 'incident' witnessed conveniently by the bikes former owner and another rider which happened to be right behind me. As I was accelerating through the last bit of the back straight I experienced a sudden and very violent tank slapper movement. It lifted me momentarily out of my seat and left me thinking there was something wrong with the bike. The guys behind me luckily had their heads up and I managed not to go flying off the bike at 180kmh. After this my 'crew chief' tightened my damper more. Not having been used to ridding with one I had only had it set loosely. Still the actual cause is unknown, nobody saw anything that should have caused it, possibly I had managed to hit something on the track while the front wheel was light from acceleration. I honestly don't know.
One of the session i cut short and lost a few laps because I felt too lightheaded to continue. All in all though I think this was the best trackday yet, with the least amount of accidents and the most amount of tracktime. Biggest incident of the day was our friend from trackschool Rick wrecking it big time in turn 7, poor guy's had two crashes this year. Time to get a racebike for him too I think. Or rather turn that nearly brand new 08 GSXR 750 in to one its totally wrecked anyway... I came around a turn to see him standing in a field of little plastic pieces.
Looking forward to some more riding once the bike is street legal.
yes thats our living room
