March 23rd 1998 - MCN Brands Hatch (Indy) Track day.
I went to this, my first, track day feeling like Billy No-Mates, but when I got talking to the guys (and girl) I found that a few others had come alone, so I didn't feel too bad.
My bog standard CBR6 shod with D207s went like a dream. This bike is excellent. It made me feel really great seeing off nearly all the others on their 'Blades, 916s GSXRs. OK, so they were saying they weren't pushing it too hard, but then so would I if I was on a 916SP and got blown away buy a standard CBR6!!.
There were 3 guys I couldn't stay with, an Aprilia RS250 (jesus they hold some corner speed!), what looked like an aging Yam TZ ex-racing bike and the instructor bloke, who just happend to be Ron Haslam!!
I noticed that my CBR had little power over 12K revs and so it was pointless reving past this so I just shifted up at 12K .
I've now fitted a K&N filter and a Dynojet kit. First experience is that it pulls hard right up to the red line!
I'm sure gonna have some fun with that on June 9th when I visit Brands again.
June 9th was wet, but I still had lots of fun. It wasn't wet all day, but we had about 2.5 sessions that had a decent dry line.
Motorcycle City put on a good event and everything went quite smoothly. They were even giving out free chocolate bars!
My CBR6 went very well. In the higher gears down the straight it was still having trouble climing to the red line, but the power felt a bit better. I really need a warm, dry day.. PLEASE GIVE ME A WARM DRY TRACK DAY!!!
There were the usual guys with their trick 'bikes boasting and then wobbling round. Even the 2 R1s in my group were not going anywhere.
I had some great fun with 2 guys on race prep'd CB500's and another on a Aprilia RS250 (which was totaly stripped, no fairing, no side panels, no tail unit..). One of the CB500 riders also had there a SuperMoto which went like stink! and wet grip that was amazing. Another bike had wet weather tyres and just pulled away during the wet sessions, which were plentyful.
There was, unfortunately, pretty bad crash, which turned out to be a hospital job. I heard someone mention concussion. The chap went down on braking into Paddock (fast right hander after the start straight) on his GSXR1100. In total about 6 bikes bit the dust, 3 of those in one of my sessions stopping the session twice, nuisance.
Cris Burns was there to give hints and advice. He's currently a SS600 National racer for Honda and M/C City and was uncatchable on a City Fireblade. I asked him about why my CR6 was a bit hard to haul around the tight Druids turn and he suggested I dropped the forks through the yokes about 5mm. I would have done this but the Honda tool kit, being made of chocolate, wasn't up to the job.
Anyway, I decided to concentrate on my riding and thought back to Keith Code's book - A Twist Of The Wrist - which I'd just finished. I found that I was holding on far too much to the bars. It took me some time to be able to hang on with my knee around the turns, but when I was doing it the bike was dropping in a treat. I was even getting my knee down round Graham Hill bend, which is my least favourite turn at Brands.