It's taken me this long to be able to use my body enough to write this... is that normal?!!! I hurt! lol! A great day yesterday, my first time ever at Silverstone to ride it and my third ever trackday on a bike. Started the night before 5 miles down the road for a 'couple' of pints at the hotel.. Then came the rain Basically, up at 6.20am and it didn't stop raining at all, got there soaking wet and looking suitably miserable Had the safety briefing and a chat with lots of like minded novice riders in the dedicated novice garages... Then went to watch the fast group first session... still raining... then the inters... stopped raining but stupidly wet.... and then it was our go. Looking very wet and nervous in the queue... First session was pretty wet but after the 3 sighting laps and towards the end of the first session it started to dry and i started to enjoy it... Session 2.... still a bit damp in places but the knee touches down through Village, Club and Luffield and i'm getting quite concerned just how quick this track is! The wind however had picked up and was like gale force which meant trying to tip into Copse was a pain all day... everytime you tried to tip right it tried to stand you back up again!!! Sessions 3 - 6... WOW... just WOW. Loved it. Very dry. Learnt early on by accident (missed my braking points) that Stowe, Abbey and Copse don't require anywhere near the braking that most were doing and are seriously quick corners!! Anyway, an excuse for a couple of pics Only trouble was that after all this i had to ride 125 miles back home which wasn't the most fun ever! Needless to say i'm desperate to get back out there now and you know what... for an older bike i had sooo many people saying to me how they couldn't believe how quick the bike was.. i've fallen in love with it all over again after yesterday I think, bar the instructors, only two people passed me all day so maybe inters next time. The etiquette was absolutely spot on too. Two final points: 1.) A HUGE thanks to MW Solicitors.. without their prize draw none of the above would've been possible. 2.) All the instructors were on BRAND NEW R1's and MY GOD THEY ARE QUICK!!! I'm unsure whether it was the rider or the electronics but full throttle at the apex of corners and leaving lovely black marks from the tyres all the way out... simply amazing!!!
Agreed ! the morning was way too wet for my and my dunlop gp's liking but the afternoon was great, i did find myself short shifting to drop the front wheel back on track because the wind taking me places i didn't want to go, but not too many red flags so got some good laps in.
Agreed! It was difficult aiming the bike with only one wheel on the ground in that wind! Which group were you in? On a blade?
Ah, i did see you, you were going very well!!!! Did you see the carbon blade with HRC sticker? Looked awesome! There were a fair few blades in Novice too which was nice to see
I got going in the afternoon but struggled in the morning, no i didn't see a carbon blade, there wasn't many blades in the inter's, there was a white one that came past me in the morning which i was looking for in the afternoon, unfortunately the next time i saw him it was smashed up in the grass ! the inters seemed to be filled with panigale's rsv4's and the bm's, it was more like a bike show than a trackday !
No kidding!!! I was kind of gutted i wasn't in that group for all the exotica! Just the new R1's in mine! I'm quite surprised the Panigale's with the Akra exhausts didn't trigger the noise limit as they sounded great. Mine sounded awfully standard with the bung in Had an RSV4 in my group, wasn't the quickest in the corners but had me on the straights and wouldn't give in. I finally passed him on the brakes and off i went. Still can't believe how quick the fast group were going on full wets in that rain!!!!!
Ha, he did last but one session the all red pani with the akro's was tested and told no more, the lad that came up with me was on one too with termi's, i tested it before we went up and it blew 111 with the killers in, he was just lucky but he's going to struggle with any static testing, its incredible how quick some are full stop, i hate the wet myself !!
