Trackday - Snetterton - Sun 8th April

Originally Posted by DanF

..

Did you actually clip the curb on the apex at 'the bomb hole'?? ... its actually a better line if you go about 3 foot to the left as you as the suspension doesn't bottom through the hole!!

Oh and any bell end on a thou can get 160+ down that back straight ... at 30+mph more than you when you are already flat out, it'll seem like they are mega fast ... but that's just power, don't mistake big straight line speed for ability

Ah cool, yeah seemed to stay away from the inside on that corner.

Looking to upgrade a few parts on the bike now though

Originally Posted by DanF

Ah cool, yeah seemed to stay away from the inside on that corner.

Looking to upgrade a few parts on the bike now though

The best upgrade you can do is to get a dedicated trackbike ... an old Steelie CBR600 x-racebike will set you back less than properly 'sorting' the SV ... and be a better track bike than the SV anyway ... for a start you are 20-30hp better off ... and it doesn't matter as much if you end up throwing it down the track at some point as its a 2nd (or whatever) bike ...

If you want to stick to the SV (not the most logical choice, but they are 'fun' ), then the fork internals are your first port of call

Well straight line speed doesn't bother me much atm and I like the sound and feel of V-Twins. I was looking to do a bit of work on the SV for road use before taking her on track anyway, the std suspension isn't the best and the front brake is very spongy so braded lines are on their way. Not sure what to do with the bouncy stuff yet.

I'd love a track bike but with no car/van and no proper drive way and no garage it's pretty much impossible.

For now track days are more learning the bike and proper technique than racing anyone.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RSVR-MILLE-RAC...QQcmdZViewItem

hmm

Originally Posted by DanF

Well straight line speed doesn't bother me much atm and I like the sound and feel of V-Twins. I was looking to do a bit of work on the SV for road use before taking her on track anyway, the std suspension isn't the best and the front brake is very spongy so braded lines are on their way. Not sure what to do with the bouncy stuff yet.

I'd love a track bike but with no car/van and no proper drive way and no garage it's pretty much impossible.

For now track days are more learning the bike and proper technique than racing anyone.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RSVR-MILLE-RAC...QQcmdZViewItem

hmm

That 'prilia is well ... but as you have explained, not really an option in your circumstances

You can get proper cartridge internals for the pointy for about the same sort of price as the emulators and springs ... thats prolly the way to go on a pointy

And yeah some hoses and that should see-you-right for now

[northwind]

Originally Posted by DanF

A few of the bikes in the novice looked very fast, maybe proper racers getting warmed up for the afternoons race? they went past on the back straight like I was in treacle (think I was hitting 130)

There's always some goons in novice that should be in intermediate or even expert... But that's partly down to the organisers I think. I went to one at Knockhill and novice was full, so I stepped up into inters- I can carry it off but frankly I prefer not to, I'm at the slow end.

That's all fine, but there were fully prepped race bikes with experienced track riders in novice who were lapping the whole rest of the field, and big parts of it twice, in what I think were 15-lap or 20-lap sessions. There were also guys in intermediate who should have been in novice or expert too. Expert was fairly clean, just a couple of backmarkers, no incompetents

As far as I'm concerned when you've got that happening the organisers just aren't doing their job, they should've been out after each set of sessions moving the worst offenders. The last thing a rookie needs is some knobber on a supersport race bike blasting past them twice a session. And those guys tend to be impatient too... And all so they can massage their egos and convince themselves they're dead fast. Likewise, people who're out of their depth shouldn't be left to drown, they could take someone else with them.

Then again, officially Knockhill allows no race bikes, and all bikes must have a sidestand and rear light... I've never been to a trackday there that didn't completely ignore that. Not that I think it's neccesarily a good rule, but if you're going to have it you should enforce it, or why bother?

Can you tell it annoyed me? Not just because "my" space in novice was taken up by someone who shouldn't have been there, because frankly others needed it more But it just adds another load of ways to spoil your day.

Originally Posted by northwind

...

Agreed the organisers are at fault, but its also the riders responsibility to ask to be moved about and even to ask others to be moved about ... it not always easy to tell from one point on track who is and who isn't way faster/slower than the rest ...

Originally Posted by northwind

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Snetterton tends to exacerbate the problem - even if the rider ability was perfectly even, then the length of the straights is always going to cause the 600/1000's to go howling past the lower powered bikes. even more so when there is racing in the afternoon/next day & the fast group has filled up which tends to push inter-level people down into novice [1]

I do wish that hottrax would do what focussed do, & have first-timers - to trackdaying, or just to that track - wear orange bibs so that people know to give them extra room


[1] & yes, I am semi-guilty of this, but I do take extra care to give people lots of room

[northwind]

Originally Posted by Blue_SV650S

Agreed the organisers are at fault, but its also the riders responsibility to ask to be moved about and even to ask others to be moved about ... it not always easy to tell from one point on track who is and who isn't way faster/slower than the rest ...

I'm working on the assumption here that the rider's a knob, though I'm mainly thinking of the really obvious cases, like frinstance the guys I mentioned were lapping 5-10 seconds a lap faster than the best in the rest of the pack were taking the mick... Considering that Knockhill's a pretty short lap. I reckonmost of the times that it needs doing it'll be pretty blatant.

Yep deffo a few race preped bikes in the group but they wernt the worest offenders, they always went past at appropriate places.

The only problem I see with the Matris cartridges is it'd show up the rear std shock a lot, it's oversprung for my weight (74kg) and damping feels pretty harsh. So a 2nd hand ohlins would add to the price too.

Bloody chicken strips



Also after the 4th session the front brakes felt very rough but still full strength, almost like rough sandpaper feel. Is this normal when abusing them on track? You can see the slight bluish tint it's picked up on patches.