Bike Magazine road bike only trackday.

for those that haven't read bike mag recentrly. but they are organising a track day for road bikes only.
im thinking of attending cadwell. any one else going? particularly from north yorkshire way?
ive never gone before and thought maybe other people may be in the same situation and could join on the trip down or maybe anybody else that HAS done it before could lead the way as it were.

What date you going? My mates are off in July. Think its the 12th but i'd have to confirm it. They all live in the area. Stockton, Norton and Billingham. They usually go the night before. Let me know when your off and i'll have a word with them.

[flymo]

Originally Posted by malongworth

for those that haven't read bike mag recentrly. but they are organising a track day for road bikes only.

errr. Why? A bike is a bike at the end of the day.

Originally Posted by flymo

errr. Why? A bike is a bike at the end of the day.

It's an initiative done by Bike as they say something along the lines of 'everyone turns up to trackdays these days on fully prepped track / race bikes in vans with tyre warmers and pit girls, etc etc and it's intimidating for people who just want to go on their road bike and give it a go'.

They've booked several dates where the only people allowed on will be people on bikes that have number plates, lights, etc (full road spec).

So yes, a bike is a bike, but I think they're trying to encourage people who've not given it a go before, or people who feel silly taking their road bike along amongst all the track-ready prima donnas

Cheers,
Matt

[flymo]

I can see the point but to be honest it has nothing to do with the bike being race or road, its all to do with the rider and their budget.

In my experience its not the racers that you need to worry about as they will usually be more experienced at passing safely and give you loads of room but also they are likely to stick in the faster/advanced groups anyway so shouldnt be an issue.

Its the Rossi wanna'bes that are riding in the novice/inter groups that often cause you most grief. Cant see that riding a road based ZX10R is going to be any less intimidating than a 10 year old race prepped CBR6.

Go with a good track day organiser and stick in the appropriate group and you'll have a great day. Makes no difference if there are race bikes there.

btw.....brolly girls!!!??? I dont even get that on a real race day

I agree with everything you said mate, just wanted to tell you what the thing in Bike was all about

Originally Posted by flymo

btw.....brolly girls!!!??? I dont even get that on a real race day

The brolly girls bit was my own artistic licence, they didn't actually say that in Bike

[flymo]

Originally Posted by carty

I agree with everything you said mate, just wanted to tell you what the thing in Bike was all about

The brolly girls bit was my own artistic licence, they didn't actually say that in Bike

Wasn't arguing with you

Originally Posted by carty

It's an initiative done by Bike as they say something along the lines of 'everyone turns up to trackdays these days on fully prepped track / race bikes in vans with tyre warmers and pit girls, etc etc and it's intimidating for people who just want to go on their road bike and give it a go'.

How pathetic, that's why there's a novice group. If seeing trackbikes or racebikes in your group is intimidating, then you're in the wrong group to start with. I started out in novice group on road bikes then progressed into inters and bought a stripped down road bike specifically for trackdays - it was still road legal with a plate etc. When I moved up to fast group I decided to take the bike a step further and put race plastics on and fit race suspension components so I could improve my riding further. Why should anyone feel intimidated by this if they aren't on track at the same time as the fully prepped bikes?

I've also helped out at quite a few trackdays now, and it still amuses me when Mr Bigshot road rider with his race rep stickered up R1, A/Star or Dainese leathers (these are the first things that mark him down as a know-nothing ****) and super-sticky tyres books himself into his first trackday in inters or fast group... and then proceeds to get monstered by GPZ500s and NC30s. I've seen one bloke on a Ducati 996 come back in after the warm up lap in inters group and ask to be put down a group because it's way too fast for him and he's terrified of the overtakes. His words "I'm the quickest of all my mates, but these guys are f@@king mental" - I put him down to novice group and he was fine all day.

If you feel so strongly about it Lozzo, write to Bike magazine, you might get a set of tyres out of it.

I hardly think I'm likely to win a set of tyres for criticising them.