my first trackday - is this a good idea?

It is likely to predominately be 600s and thous (IL4s) – a TL thou will be a bit of a porker amongst that lot to be honest!! But yes, its got a lot of ability/punch and it is not like you are attempting this on a CG125

Although I think the idea of a novice day is great, in your position I think you should NOT do this day and choose another. Any NON-novice only trackday will do, as long as they have a novice, inters and fast you have options! http://www.hottrax-online.com/ and http://www.focusedevents.com/ are both great (well organised) TD co’s

Either way, I would still put yourself in novice to start with. Track riding is not the same as road riding … a bit like your MX and road riding, ok so a good road rider won’t struggle to get a MX bike about, but it is not like they will automatically become an expert

Anyhoo, sounds to me that you will do a session or two to get into the swing of things in novice and graduate to Inters, if it is a ‘slow’ day and you progress well, you might even see yourself in fast by the end of the day! … but inters is the happy medium, so if you are getting frustrated, I’d get moved to there ASAP, it will be safer for all that way!!

Although at normal trackdays now there are normally a fair few trackbikes in the novice group on sticky tyres etc, it seems as more people do trackdays that the spread of abilities in Novice and Inters is pretty wide. At the last TD I did there was a swift fire storm and TLS in the novice group, a couple of the quickest bikes in the group.

Track bikes bother me in the novices. I know they might be novice track riders on a bike made for the track, it's just I doubt it somehow. Tell you what REALLY bothers me though-people with wet tyres! Only because I haven't got any though.

You might want to fit sliders if you haven't got any on.

Oh yeah you might ache a little the day after! I could hardly walk after my last one but I think I was weighting the pegs far too much (More like squatting on them!).

I think you'll be ok on the novice day personally. They must have a group 1, 2 and 3 though with different speeds to suit. Otherwise they might have the 5 slowest in a group with the 5 fastest and that could be mayhem! I wouldn't worry about your lines too much neither, within reason. If there is someone behind trying to get past it's their job to do it safely. I do have a little look sometimes so I'm aware of what's near me.

Enjoy!

I can see why people have track bikes in the inters and fast groups as they are probably using a bike which doesnt cost the earth if they bin it, but in the novices surely that is for people who havent really done many track days and therefore why are they on track bikes?

Originally Posted by robchester

I can see why people have track bikes in the inters and fast groups as they are probably using a bike which doesnt cost the earth if they bin it, but in the novices surely that is for people who havent really done many track days and therefore why are they on track bikes?

there are always plenty of people in the novice group who should really move up to inter's & be mid-pack, but who prefer to be fast in the novice group

& then there is the 'all the gear but no idea' brigade

lots of reasons - few though related to common sense, sadly

I see no harm in having a track bike in novice ... you might just be starting out on this trackday stuff and have bought a track bike specifically for it ...

If money wasn't really a problem, surely every trackdayer would have a dedicated track bike regardless of skill/experience?

I do see harm in people that have blatantly out grown novice (be it on the first day or 20th day) still being in novice …

I also hate to see people that should be in novice (coz of speed/skill level, although not really novice experience wise) in inters …