Mike Robins
New member
Oh dear, what a day. Knockhill beckoned again at the Niall Mackenzie Supertrack Scotland all day track event. What could be better than 6 hours of open track time with expert tution on hand? Even the weather was good after threatening showers the day before.
As an enthuiastic novice, I've attended 5 track days this year at Knockhill and enjoyed everyone of them. Knee down heaven! Unfortunately today my (over) confidence overtook my ability, leading to a serious traction deficit.
After only an hour of the morning session, I approached Clark's with gusto and attempted to overtake a guy with late braking on his inside. He swept across me to the apex and to avoid hitting him, my reflex action (mid lean, mid corner) was to touch the front brake. Mistake. Instant low side, I never knew what hit me. Fortunately I didn't cause the otehr guy to crash and although I was standing bewildered in the middle of the track coming to my senses, no one else hit me or crashed. Well done lads.
The bike is a bit buggered. It slid on the right hand side across the track and into the gravel. The left side is as pristine as it was when I finished polishing it last night. The right hand side looks like a bomb has gone off nearby. Front fairing scraped, mirror gone, magnesium alloy light housing cracked, side carbon fairing scraped, handle bar scraped, front brake lever, rearset and rear brake lever missing, clutch cover scraped, rear seat bady work scraped. Luckily i'd fitted crash bungs last week on the front forks, so at least the ohlins are box fresh. The trip to the gravel did quite a lot of superficial scratch damage to all sorts of components, ouch. I await the assessment from DG as to whether there is any more serious or structural damage. Fingers crossed.
At least my leathers, gloves and boots have the "ooh, he's had a few crashes" look now. I even touched down my helmet for good measure. no doubt i'll be a bit achy tomorrow morning.
Anyone ever ridden to a track day, then crashed their bike so bad that they couldn't ride it home? No, me neither until today. How do you get back home without fessing up to the missus you've binned your pride and joy? First stop was the on site racing outfit to see if they could supply new levers and pegs, no luck. I called up DG, but their van was buggered so they wouldn't come. Come on Martin, fix the van, there will always be a good customer in need of a rescue. Especially when you'll get all the high margin repair work. Thank god Ducati owners are friends that you've not met yet. There was a guy on a 1098 Tricolore, Gary Moran, who'd hired a van to bring his bike up in and although we'd never met before, he took me home during the lunch break. What a top bloke.
What have I learned? First to agree with all the guys who said "if you do a ot of track days, then you are sure to crash". Second is that I will look at track days a bit differently from now on. If you want to do a few days and push yourself when you get there, then bring the bike up in a van or on a trailer, so you can always get home. Third, get some plastic fairings instead of carbon. In fact, i'll probably just make this a track bike from now on. Bring on the wets, slicks and sexy race bits.
good luck to those of you who are tracking in the near future. no doubt it'll take me a month or two to get my bike sorted. see you later in the summer.
mike
As an enthuiastic novice, I've attended 5 track days this year at Knockhill and enjoyed everyone of them. Knee down heaven! Unfortunately today my (over) confidence overtook my ability, leading to a serious traction deficit.
After only an hour of the morning session, I approached Clark's with gusto and attempted to overtake a guy with late braking on his inside. He swept across me to the apex and to avoid hitting him, my reflex action (mid lean, mid corner) was to touch the front brake. Mistake. Instant low side, I never knew what hit me. Fortunately I didn't cause the otehr guy to crash and although I was standing bewildered in the middle of the track coming to my senses, no one else hit me or crashed. Well done lads.
The bike is a bit buggered. It slid on the right hand side across the track and into the gravel. The left side is as pristine as it was when I finished polishing it last night. The right hand side looks like a bomb has gone off nearby. Front fairing scraped, mirror gone, magnesium alloy light housing cracked, side carbon fairing scraped, handle bar scraped, front brake lever, rearset and rear brake lever missing, clutch cover scraped, rear seat bady work scraped. Luckily i'd fitted crash bungs last week on the front forks, so at least the ohlins are box fresh. The trip to the gravel did quite a lot of superficial scratch damage to all sorts of components, ouch. I await the assessment from DG as to whether there is any more serious or structural damage. Fingers crossed.
At least my leathers, gloves and boots have the "ooh, he's had a few crashes" look now. I even touched down my helmet for good measure. no doubt i'll be a bit achy tomorrow morning.
Anyone ever ridden to a track day, then crashed their bike so bad that they couldn't ride it home? No, me neither until today. How do you get back home without fessing up to the missus you've binned your pride and joy? First stop was the on site racing outfit to see if they could supply new levers and pegs, no luck. I called up DG, but their van was buggered so they wouldn't come. Come on Martin, fix the van, there will always be a good customer in need of a rescue. Especially when you'll get all the high margin repair work. Thank god Ducati owners are friends that you've not met yet. There was a guy on a 1098 Tricolore, Gary Moran, who'd hired a van to bring his bike up in and although we'd never met before, he took me home during the lunch break. What a top bloke.
What have I learned? First to agree with all the guys who said "if you do a ot of track days, then you are sure to crash". Second is that I will look at track days a bit differently from now on. If you want to do a few days and push yourself when you get there, then bring the bike up in a van or on a trailer, so you can always get home. Third, get some plastic fairings instead of carbon. In fact, i'll probably just make this a track bike from now on. Bring on the wets, slicks and sexy race bits.
good luck to those of you who are tracking in the near future. no doubt it'll take me a month or two to get my bike sorted. see you later in the summer.
mike
