Whats needed for a track day?

[Fastfrog007]

Honestly, for you,, you need a big set of balls!

Thanks for insight john

 

[Tufbusa]

I highly recommend to every first time track day enthusiast to enroll in a track school. Working with a coach will settle most of the butterflies and you'll get started on the right foot. The benefit is you'll learn a great deal that you won't learn on your own. A track day is about learning the limits of you and your bike. In most cases the bike has much more ability that you have skill and that includes the brakes (Both front and rear). Listen to your instructor closely and follow his instructions. You'll have a great day, much less likely to crash and you will leave with your confidence level elevated to a new high!

I've been to a number of track & race schools and none of them have ever encouraged me to use the rear brake. There is one exception "Rich Oliver's Mystery School" which specializes in the rear brake. I sent my son through his school a few years ago and he fell down so many times he couldn't count them. He wasn't alone, everyone in the school crashed over and over. Three days of feeling like a crash dummy taught him a great deal about proper use of the rear brake. Now you can go to Rich Oliver's school and crash in the dirt on a 125cc bike with an instructor who has won every race during two separate seasons during his AMA career or you can get the same experience on your road bike at high speeds on asphalt via internet instruction from a total stranger. Either way you aren't going to master the rear brake without falling down. You make the choice.

If you have never had any training with the rear brake during high performance riding, you are far better off to listen to your track coach and leave the rear brake out of the equation.

 

[skydivr]

Answers
1. No it won't lock the rear wheel unless clutch is in and using front brake. It only has enough pressure to feel drag and settle suspension. Yes tons of feel and control.

2. The only way u know how hard u can throttle is to break the rear tire loose, when that happens you will either low side, high side, or pull some super drifting skills out of you a**. Using the thumb seemed to keep that tire from braking loose. I was once exiting the carousel turn and broke the rear wheel loose, before I knew it :-) butt was trying to out run my body, then suddenly SNAP! It caught grip and I was hanging off the seat by my boot and the bars. I managed to remount the bike and continue. I never wanted that to happen again.

3. Comparing laps times is hard through my 6 yrs racing my lap times continually got better untill I hit the 1min 12s on a 2 mile 13 turn track. Then I retired.

I like the "drifting skills" better than the other alternatives!

As I understand it, being in a low enough gear that you are in the top 25% of your RPMs will help keep you out of the torque curve, so if you do break the rear, it won't be as violent...but I could see how having just a fingerfull of rear brake might accomplish same - of course the newer TC options on some bikes do about the same...or, just plain old-fashioned operator-based throttle control - as in your right hand and brain

 

[mracer29]

Last time I relied on throttle control, I ended up with a son......... :-)

 

[black diamond busa]

Now that's funny