Toast
24th May 2007, 16:11
After the disaster of VMCC Round 1, I was left with a great hunger to get my monthly bike fix.
Luckily Kiwitrackdays had my back, with Pukekohe Park Raceway booked out for us to enjoy.
The forecast was for rain, and the race tyres on my bike weren't really ideal for that, but I thought 'fk it', I wanna ride, and I've always thought that riding in the rain was good practice.
Got out for the first two sessions on tyres which weren't really up to temp, and didn't even begin to push it. Even at nana speeds though, the bike was moving around over every little bump on the track (makes you realise just how many little bumps there are on the tarmac there). Full throttle down the front straight in 4th gear only led to masses of wheelspin, so I learned to back off a bit there.
By the 3rd or 4th session there was much less standing water, and I managed to get out with warm tyres. I've gotta say that I was absolutely loving the challenge of riding in the wet out there. Not only did it require a very smooth throttle hand, but the slower pace (more time to think, I guess) and lower grip made me focus on my body position a lot more, and I felt heaps more confident on the bike.
The wet fun was somewhat spoilt by some bloody classic bike dumping oil on the racing line around the entires track (for about 3 laps running until his engine seized).
After lunch the track had mostly dried, and good, fast fun was had on Puke. One dude on a Gixxer binned it, but other than that there were no tears shed.
Cheers to Steve and the KiwiTrackDays crew.
I normally pack a bit of a sad if it's not nice, dry weather for a track day...but really, wet riding is quite good for developing skills (I guess in the same way mx-ing is), and is a ball of fun in its own way. So next time it rains, there will be no frowning from my corner (unless some museum piece drops its guts all over the track again).
Luckily Kiwitrackdays had my back, with Pukekohe Park Raceway booked out for us to enjoy.
The forecast was for rain, and the race tyres on my bike weren't really ideal for that, but I thought 'fk it', I wanna ride, and I've always thought that riding in the rain was good practice.
Got out for the first two sessions on tyres which weren't really up to temp, and didn't even begin to push it. Even at nana speeds though, the bike was moving around over every little bump on the track (makes you realise just how many little bumps there are on the tarmac there). Full throttle down the front straight in 4th gear only led to masses of wheelspin, so I learned to back off a bit there.
By the 3rd or 4th session there was much less standing water, and I managed to get out with warm tyres. I've gotta say that I was absolutely loving the challenge of riding in the wet out there. Not only did it require a very smooth throttle hand, but the slower pace (more time to think, I guess) and lower grip made me focus on my body position a lot more, and I felt heaps more confident on the bike.
The wet fun was somewhat spoilt by some bloody classic bike dumping oil on the racing line around the entires track (for about 3 laps running until his engine seized).
After lunch the track had mostly dried, and good, fast fun was had on Puke. One dude on a Gixxer binned it, but other than that there were no tears shed.
Cheers to Steve and the KiwiTrackDays crew.
I normally pack a bit of a sad if it's not nice, dry weather for a track day...but really, wet riding is quite good for developing skills (I guess in the same way mx-ing is), and is a ball of fun in its own way. So next time it rains, there will be no frowning from my corner (unless some museum piece drops its guts all over the track again).