Post Putnam Park....

Okay man you guys are demanding.

First of all Kruz that left hand if you are talking about the long one I think turn 8, that is cool. You can just plant your knee just after entry and ride on it all the way through

Huge turn out, the I group was just packed to the gills, the even wound up dropping some people back to the B group and moved some people up to the A group just to try out get things spread out.

Most of the day it was like a traing going around so the control rider I was following would hold us up on the first part of the straigh to give some space then accelerate to hit turn 1 at speed.

Great classroom instruction and huge amounts of feedback, and even drills then deffinitely made an obvious difference in my riding. Felt much more relaxed and comfortable riding on my knee through turns then I ever did before without even touching them down. The pegs on the katana tend to drag a little too much but I hang off pretty far and they don't seem to unsettle the bike so I'm not too worried about it, besides I have plenty of learning to do in other areas still like shifiting choosing brake markers, reference points, a million more things to learn but this was definitely the biggest step in the right direction.

The track well the track simply ROCKS!! Makes you realize exactly how crappy BHF really is. A lot faster, although we never got to run a full lap at speed due to getting caught in the Rush hour traffic out there. Easily 100 people betwen the three groups.

Other than that what can I say? Well besides THE VIDEO WILL BE UP SOON! Since pictures didn't capture the knee dragging I'll have to show the video so everyone can believe it can be done on a Katana. :laughing

Oh and Ernie Karen was only doing video since we don't have a camera good enough to take High Speed pictures she doesn't bother. Those were from two photographers that were there. There is one more but she doesn't have her pictures posted yet. I'm hoping when she does there is a good one in there of me kneedragging, if not then I'll just have to make sure my next track day is one when JACK THE MAN is going to be there. Looking at these pictures which were cheaper but show the huge difference his experience makes, he KNOWS where to be and how to get the pictures you want, these people just kind of point and shoot and you get OK pictures.

[ok end of shameless plug for Jack and Sliderphoto which can be found at www.sliderphoto.com] Oops the previous was a paid advertisement of: :laughing

That's about it, that I can think of. Still pumped up over the day, it was fantastic.

Yeh there is a definite trade-off with beginner to intermediate. I received a ton more attention in the beginner (probably because I was so slow ).

But I got better each successive track day and jumped into intermediate where I found little instruction or help. To tell you the truth I miss the beginner class a little because of this. I hate the wasted classroom time though.

Lately though in the intermediate, Matt Drucker and Wyatt have been helping me a long alot. I definitley like being passed and stuffed every once in a while in the intermediates. It keeps you on your toes and gets you more prepared for racing.

Can't wait until Grattan...

Mark and Steve...
I don't think we've been on the same track since last year at Putnam. I've gotten a little better. :rolleyes

No more multiple lapping....I'll be looking for that little Hawk.

ugh

excellent pics dave. i'm waiting for karoline and the other photographer to get their websites updated. it'll be my only memory of the R6 in one piece....sob. it was a very anti-climactic ending to a relatively fun day.

i don't want to bore everyone with the details, but let's just say i had a little "mishap" during my school-group session. good thing is all my gear worked and i'm in one piece.

well some of you may remember from my previous roadamerica post where i learned what happens when you roll off the gas while leaned over (front end push, run wide). hmmm, at putnam i learned the exact opposite (in a very spectacular fashion i hear, from the riders behind me). rolling on too much gas while leaned over causes oversteer. excessive oversteer causes the rear end to swing wide. excessive oversteer is bad, very bad.

lessons learned: (not in any particular order)
*stock 2yr old d207's bad for hard track use
*bike will not accept more throttle at max lean (should have stood it up and stopped roll-on)
*i'm not valentino rossi, so i can't save a slide and hold the bike up with my knee (although i tried)
*rumble strips hurt when you slide over them (and they punt you into the air a good distance...along with the bike)
*ducman(mike) was right - the r6 does not "crash well" (although i don't think any bike can withstand 10ft high barrel rolls and landing on the tank)
*my goal of increased corner speeds was exceeded at the expense of myself.

i'm sure i can come up with more, but i'm pretty sore right now. unfortunately i will not be adding another track day installment anytime soon. this was poor judgement on my part, too aggressive for the experience level and equipment i had to work with.

as monte would say "i ended the suspense"

if any of you are interested in R6 parts, i may have some spares leftover. mind you, i'm not giving them away - i have to make up for some of the loss i just created. ugh.

notes to self:
-ride relatively fresh race specific rubber if you're going to be aggressive (or like me - attempt to try to be aggressive)
-remind yourself what the opposite of a "good" crash (i.e. lowside) results in. there's more than just broken clip-ons and pegs to deal with
-stay humble

You keep enticing me with Grattan and I would love to go the weekday thing doesn't work well for me, besides I'm going to try and plan my next trackday for a weekend I have my son. He has been asking when we are going back and as long as he is interested I want to continue keeping him involved. Besides just because I got a knee down doesn't mean I'm ready to keep up with all you REALLY FAST GUYS!!! I still have TONS of learning to do in the right environment to get a solid base of each thing before working on the next area of improvement.

Rich, well all I can say man is it definitely sucks! HOWEVER you have the right attitude, and you learned from it. It was unfortunately an expensive lesson and I can see how the will impact your financial ability to make it back to the track soon, but DON'T GIVE up. I was behind you and you were riding great, I know at the track you said you were riding above your skills. I don't beleive that is true. I think you made one mistake which had a really bad outcome but that doesn't mean everything else you learned is gone.

I mean look at it this way, if the bike wouldn't have been in that bad of shape and you weren't hung up on the damages to it, would you really be this hard on yourself? Just food for thought because I see how you ride, and I think personally you have a good head on the track made one bad judgement but we all do that, just some of us are luckier than others as to what that mistake costs us. Besides if your tires hadn't have caught that rumble strip the bike wouldn't be in that bad of shape. Hang in there take the time needed to get yourself back in a financial position, see what your options are for that bike, clear your head, review your mistakes, then GET BACK OUT THERE and continue your learning path at a pace that you are comfortable with ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. INCLUDING THE IMPACT OF A CRASH!

Hang in there man and as I told you at the track, if you decide to do something with the bike and need some help putting some things together let me know. Now that I have a garage and all my tools I'll be glad to help with whatever I can.