Track day mindset?

[Number One]

I've been thinking through my recent track day experience.

To be frank I was disapointed and didn't enjoy it much at all.

The 'weekend itself and the company' very much but the track day not as much as I would've hoped.

Vic Club ran a smashing day and weather aside perfectly well run. One of my heros was there allowing me to follow her about at snail pace showing me different lines and doing cool wheelies in front of me..so again not a bad day. But I didn't really enjoy it...

The problem was my mindset. I felt (and was) very slow and couldn't relax, just as we were called in each time I was just starting to feel more at ease. The result of the day was that I went considerably slower on my 650 round there than I EVER did on my wee 250 and in fact I would wager that my corner speed on the bucket is and would be much faster

So to improve I have been thinking about what was not working? The bike was the best set up it has ever been. The tyres (once we were on the slicks) were awesome. I had good comfy gears and nothing but the day to focus on. The only thing I come back to is my head space. I realise that I was in 'commuter' space. I had already decided that I didn't want to damage my bike so I had that strongly in mind. Also I hate pain so tend to not want to hurt or injure myself - I find that affects my level of competitiveness. Also ever since I have had this bike I have always ridden it carefully, conservatively and worked hard on being disciplined about speed and not letting my self ride outside my 'known to me' capabilities...I'm law abiding and I really don't want to give any of my money away. I spent the first 4-5 months with this bike riding around on shit brakes, stock suspension and horrible badly worn second hand tyres - so again have spent the majority of time riding this bike feeling awkward and through that doubting my own skills to chuck it around so by far the most riding I have been doing is (SADLY) commuting.

Even though we changed the bike considerably I found that I couldn't push myself. When it fined up, we chucked the slicks on the bike and I had a good long go in the ladies session. Started to feel in 'the groove' and experienced this queer feeling of being on my bucket in a race...next thing I found myself getting more on the charge....THEN I shifted gear the wrong way (as the bucket is reverse pattern) had a wee rear wheel lock up, poohed my pants a little and voila my brain went straight back into 'commuter' mode.

Photos show me checking out the infield as I tootled down the front and back strait I enjoyed the day and the chance to ride my bike but I not only felt awkward...I expected more from myself. I punt the bucket round ok...I should be able to transfer the same things to the 650 on a track...but my brain wouldn't let me go there...maybe next time I take the fiddy to the track

SO - how do you switch off your inner commuter and law abiding citizen in order to really give yourself a good testing out at track days?

[Quasievil]

Mate thats simply the way it is, for me sometimes Im dialled and sometimes im not, sometimes feel right about every thing and sometimes all is wrong, I have found tho that the more I do a trackday or a race the more chance I find myself dialled into it, particulary now that I dont ride on the road.

So dont worry just get into a few more days and get some more time on the track on your bike and you will get your head in the right place more often that not.

[R6_kid:Me]

Look through the corner and open the gas. Those two things alone make a marked difference on my lap times at the bucket track.

Once you've done 5 laps you should have the track layout memorised, after that you can pick up the pace, and work on getting one corner right - the one your on.

Just out of interest - Why slicks? And were you running tyre warmers with them?

[Pussy]

I think you are being a bit hard on yourself, Number One!
We all have good days, and off days... your day on the track was probably one of the latter. Nothing wrong with your self preservation mindset... we'd be reading about a lot less binned bikes if more riders had it.
What's the bet you'll have a ball at the next one you go to!

[ajturbo]

hey matey...
it really just takes time on the track.. the more time the better you will get,
also i found that a good old woops.. i crashed, really does help (me), you will find your limits, sure it may hurt the bike a bit....
i don't mean go silly speeds into a corner JUST to fall off. lol

just get out there and do it as often as you can....

[Rodney007]

yeah like gareth said take your time, these are big bikes not little buckets

dont think about falling off, worry about that when you do, you want a clear head!
insurance and crashing is the very last thing on my mind, (dont even have insurance)

also tape up your speedo, take off your side mirriors if you didnt already,

why you running slicks?, id move to slicks on a bike when i can push the best road tyres to there limits,
and you cant really setup your suspension unless you can feel your tyres limits, so you want a less agressive tyre to benchmark your suspension setup IMO.

[erik]

SO - how do you switch off your inner commuter and law abiding citizen in order to really give yourself a good testing out at track days?

If you're mostly just commuting, do some rides on the open road in your favourite twisties leading up to the track day. Obviously you can't ride on them like you do on the track, but I've found it helped in the past to get my mind used to riding at 100km/h through nice corners, if I'd mostly been commuting. Also try shifting your weight for fun, to see what works and get used to what the bike feels like when you're hanging off etc. to help you get comfortable with the bike.

I've had some issues with my SV, getting used to it. I don't feel as comfortable hanging off it as I do on the bandit. I was having problems with my foot slipping off the peg, so I removed the rubber from the pegs and sharpened them. Also I think the shape of the tank pushes my knee out on the outer side when I'm hanging off which is a bit awkward and contributes to my foot feeling like it's about to slide off the peg. Rear set/riser plates seemed to help a bit, and I've just put some shorter dog bones on to raise the rear and that seems to have made it feel more natural as well, although it might just be I'm having a 'good' day.
So it could be issues with the bike that only affect you when you're trying to ride faster?

But yeah, like Quasi said, we all have good days and bad days.
Don't push yourself to go faster, just ride at what speed you're comfortable with and focus on riding better.

[ajturbo]

If you're mostly just commuting, do some rides on the open road in your favourite twisties leading up to the track day. Obviously you can't ride on them like you do on the track, but I've found it helped in the past to get my mind used to riding at 100km/h through nice corners, if I'd mostly been commuting. Also try shifting your weight for fun, to see what works and get used to what the bike feels like when you're hanging off etc. to help you get comfortable with the bike.

I've had some issues with my SV, getting used to it. I don't feel as comfortable hanging off it as I do on the bandit. I was having problems with my foot slipping off the peg, so I removed the rubber from the pegs and sharpened them. Also I think the shape of the tank pushes my knee out on the outer side when I'm hanging off which is a bit awkward and contributes to my foot feeling like it's about to slide off the peg. Rear set/riser plates seemed to help a bit, and I've just put some shorter dog bones on to raise the rear and that seems to have made it feel more natural as well, although it might just be I'm having a 'good' day.
So it could be issues with the bike that only affect you when you're trying to ride faster?

But yeah, like Quasi said, we all have good days and bad days.
Don't push yourself to go faster, just ride at what speed you're comfortable with and focus on riding better.

breathing helps also......

[wbks]

I almost feel like I'm in a video game, it makes it easy to relax and have fun. Though, admitedly, I'm not riding a Desmosidici GP8 around Sachsenring.

Which track was the track day at? Maybe it's because most road tracks are big and wide, as oposed to a cart track like you race buckets on so that combined with the bigger bike made you feel like you were on the road?

[Goblin]

insurance and crashing is the very last thing on my mind, (dont even have insurance)

Not the sort of thing to go admitting to here. Agree with the whole post tho.

The more trackdays you do, the more you will enjoy and learn to relax. I was fair crapping myself at my first track day at Minefield. Now any track time is oooh sooo precious!! If it was your first time on your roadie then lighten up on yourself. Like Pussy said...nothing wrong with a healthy sense of self preservation.

Give youself time to adjust and soon enuf you'll be wondering what you were worried about.

[Number One]

Look through the corner and open the gas. Those two things alone make a marked difference on my lap times at the bucket track.

Times at the bucket track are not the issue. What I was disappointed in was that I wasn't comfy flicking the SV around at Manfield in the same way I can flick the bucket around on a cart track. Knee down on the bucket is pretty easy and I hang off rather natural like too...on the SV it just felt foreign to even try

Once you've done 5 laps you should have the track layout memorised, after that you can pick up the pace, and work on getting one corner right - the one your on.

Just out of interest - Why slicks? And were you running tyre warmers with them?

I know my way round Manfield pretty well - that wasn't the issue it was the entry speed I was confident carrying.

SLICKS? We were both riding the bike (Sully60 also) He made it look fast and I had brand new road rubber that I didn't want to root...also the rear road tyre just wasn't very good out there and yes we do have warmers. Sully used to race his SV.

yeah like gareth said take your time, these are big bikes not little buckets

dont think about falling off, worry about that when you do, you want a clear head!
insurance and crashing is the very last thing on my mind, (dont even have insurance)

also tape up your speedo, take off your side mirriors if you didnt already,

why you running slicks?, id move to slicks on a bike when i can push the best road tyres to there limits,
and you cant really setup your suspension unless you can feel your tyres limits, so you want a less agressive tyre to benchmark your suspension setup IMO.

I try not to think about falling off - I suspect it isn't as entertaining as when you come off on a bucket The issue wasn't that I was afraid of falling off it was that my brain was stuck in Commuter gear...and I just felt cack (sp) No speedo as the bike was in race trim so nothing distracting like mirrors or gauges to worry about.

The suspension is now beautiful and is set up very good. Watched Sully knee down everywhere on it so seems it was handling pretty darned good to me as I said the problem is NOT the bike...

If you're mostly just commuting, do some rides on the open road in your favourite twisties leading up to the track day. Obviously you can't ride on them like you do on the track, but I've found it helped in the past to get my mind used to riding at 100km/h through nice corners, if I'd mostly been commuting. Also try shifting your weight for fun, to see what works and get used to what the bike feels like when you're hanging off etc. to help you get comfortable with the bike.

'Yeah this I am sure would have helped - I just haven't had enough opp to get out on the bike for very long just keeps on feeling like I need more time on it.

Which track was the track day at? Maybe it's because most road tracks are big and wide, as oposed to a cart track like you race buckets on so that combined with the bigger bike made you feel like you were on the road?

You know I think that is pretty spot on actually I even found myself struggling to use the whole track subconsciously living on the left hand side of the track

[Trudes]

I was thinking about this after we were chatting about it, and we agreed on the "this is my road bike, I don't want to hurt it" thing, but maybe something to remember is that it was a track day, not a race day. I still reckon when it comes to the bike you need for commuting and joy riding on the road it's better to use a bit of restraint and self-preservation, leave the race mind-set for the bucket tracks or if you have a race-bike. You're being too hard on yourself, you were doing fine out there, (better than me, I was just pootling, as I always do as I use trackdays as fun time on my bike without traffic to try some different stuff that I might want to use on the road) and the main thing is you didn't crash and have to ride your bike back to the pits on a trailer!!! Cheer up emo kid

[Number One]

I was thinking about this after we were chatting about it, and we agreed on the "this is my road bike, I don't want to hurt it" thing, but maybe something to remember is that it was a track day, not a race day. I still reckon when it comes to the bike you need for commuting and joy riding on the road it's better to use a bit of restraint and self-preservation, leave the race mind-set for the bucket tracks or if you have a race-bike. You're being too hard on yourself, you were doing fine out there, (better than me, I was just pootling, as I always do as I use trackdays as fun time on my bike without traffic to try some different stuff that I might want to use on the road) and the main thing is you didn't crash and have to ride your bike back to the pits on a trailer!!! Cheer up emo kid

Emo kid

BTW peeps - I'm not beating myself up...more analysing it and trying to figure out what might help me next time. Yes there is a difference between a track day and a race day but I felt that I wasn't even riding as well out there as I do on the road. I think for instance of my recent tootle to Taupo. Went through much tighter corners and all the other palava that you get on the road and reckon I was maintaining a more comfy speed and was definitely riding smoother.

Anywho I am not down on myself about it....it's just that natural learning stage where you realise you still aren't as good at or confident with something as you'd like to be and it bums you out a bit.

[Trudes]

haha, I know the feeling hun, I'm sure I ride faster on the road than I do at the track, weird eh.
Oh well, just remember you're the reining Welly bucket queen.

[discotex]

also tape up your speedo

I'm going to give that a try next time. I found when I ignored the speedo I was much faster and smoother but my eye keeps checking it on autopilot.