Laid eyes properly on my new 2005 ZX-6rr at the track...had barely seen her last round before pandemonium broke out when Nicky had a nasty bump. Decided I'd go easy on her as I'd never ridden a modernish 600 before (bar 4 or 5 laps of a new road legal CBR at Taupo months ago). Borrowed a rear tyre warmer off Nicky/Frenchy. Didn't have a front one. Decide my own warmers are going on the 'cane as I'm going to be giving that bike a damn good thrashing. The tyres looked round, put the tyre pressure down to 28psi front/rear but I was just guessing. New rear GPR on the Honda CBR600 Hurricane and no scrubin...bollox.
Targets.
- Stay upright and bang in some points in Posties
- Beat Frenchy in posties.
- Finish an F2 race
F1 practice: ZX-6r Engine...woooooooooooooah. Brakes...oh dear gawd. The brakes are ....unbelievable. Gotta say they're miles better than the CBR600 I rode and even better than the 748r's. I can't get my head around the braking points. It's nothing like the CBR600 I had a shot of. I'm all over the shot. At least it has a road shift. I can't turn the thing. The lcd rev counter is useless.
Posties qualifying: Ah...familiar territory. Track is still a bit damp & new rear tyre. Cruise around and remember how to ride her. A low 1.23 puts me 7th on the grid. Frenchy is looking good...fark.
F2 Qualifying: Fuuuuuuuuuuck. It's straight after posties and I'm hot and sweaty. Arrive back and nobody is in the garage. The ZX-6 is stone cold. I panic. Frenchy/Nicky et all arrive and a flurry of activity ensues. The ZX-6 gets bump started. I get to the gate a lap late but the marshalls let me out. 2 laps warming up engine and tyres. This is beneficial as I'm not trying to follow anyone and work on turn in points. The gearbox is practically ignored, unfortunatly compared to the old 'cane the engine has NOTHING at the bottom end. Wonder if the organge shift light turns red at the limiter. I'm a bit concerned that it's shaking its head out of nearly ever corner. Even by the end of the back straight the bars are still flapping (I'm later told all ZX-6's do that and I should HTFU...Tony.OK stiffens up the damper thingie and I think him and Luke pretend to twiddle some dials at the bike's arse end). Qualify with a 1.19.9 a few milliseconds behind Clive.
Posties R1. 10 Lapper. I again wait on the green light instead of lights out. Dumbarse. Back to 17th into T1. Doh. Fight my way up. Eamon Timms passes me, I push harder, he responds. I pass George Gainsford in lap 4. The 'cane starts getting more 'hoary' and jumping out of more gears as the race goes on but I ensure I've got George gapped. 8th overall, 4th in class. 1.20.5
F2 Race 1 10 Lapper. Straight after the posties 10 lapper. Fortunatly (for me anyway) a couple of bikes have gone down so I get an extra 5 minute breather. Luke Mair has the bike at the dummy grid and Paul has the bottle of water for me. The transponder is switched and before I know it I'm back out. Right...."move when the lights go out you berk". As I'm slowing down to find my line (actually I found Clive's but he put me right) it dawns on me I should maybe have practised a few launches.
I bog it completely at the start. Somehow I'm still not last. As my brain still can't cope with how hard this bike brakes I completely bottle it into the first corner and by the exit I think I must be last. Well shove me up bum with a broomstick but there's a sexy pumpkin in front of me by the end of the first lap. Darrin Humphries is in the fray and a 3-way ensues. I settle in for the ride. The plan is to watch and learn for a couple of laps. I start figuring what gears to be using and also work out that the orange shift light does not turn red when it hits the limiter. The jury is still out on whether the bike has a slipper clutch though. They're getting much better drive out of the corners and turning faster. I find out in lap 3 that the throttle has another 20 degrees left to turn!!! After spinning up twice I decide to work on turning faster. Hanging off like a monkey is making things worse as it seems to buck and weave a little mid-corner. I try sitting forwards, I try sitting back, I try weighting the inside peg, I try pushing harder on the inside bar. I just can't get it turning further than it wants to go.
Anyhoo...this ZX-6 is p!shing all over them on the brakes so lap 4 and I go around the outside of the pair of them into T1. This spooks Darrin, he misses a gear and his bike drifts out right into my path. Brakes and evasion later and I'm back behind them. No problem, I'm reeling them in again and ...fark...Lap 6 and out of the left hand hairpin I can't upshift. I buzz around the rest of the track in 2nd gear. Bolt has came out the rearset...bugger...would have made my month to beat Clive on my first outing. 1.17 flat.
Posties R2. 6 lapper. Better start but it wheelies a bit too much. I'm up to 6th and take car of George after a few corners. Dice with AJ Chappel for a couple of laps but as we up the pace things start scraping. He'll win and previous experience confirms he's a nutter. I just let Eamon Timms go come lap 2, they can bang in 1.19's all day...I cant. Smashing dice with Darren Calder's big fizzy for the rest of the race. I avoid doing block passes though as don't want to slow each other down as we're in different classes. Consider going up his inside on the final fast corner of the last lap but figure out it's pointless and we'll both be p!ssed if it all goes Pete Tong. Very happy with my performance this race. 1.20.9
F2 Race 2. 8 lapper. Plan is NOT to follow Clive as we're both doing stupid 400 style lines...."square off, point and squirt"...READ MY LIPS. Right Clive...you're getting spanked. But he's not got his bike back out. Damn. Try Ozzie's advice to relax grip on bars once it's turning and just let the bike turn. Hey...it's worki.....fark...wot....nooooo. It keeps turning right off the tyre into T3 and I'm in the familiar position of tumblywumbling along the track. I've NO idea why I crashed....gentle turn and I wasn't braking. Made more embarrassing as I'm about the 4th bike on the track and it's the warmup lap.
Lots of helpful post crash advice about the big boys tyres being much more temperature sensitive. Wish I'd known pre crash lol. Next to naff all damage tho.
Ace weekend...even considering the crash. I need to get more tracktime on the ZX-6 to do it justice though. Would have came down for the practise day but I'd booked all my flights prior to my spur of the moment purchase. Did I mention the brakes? They're ferocious...I didn't get my head around them the whole meeting and there's lots more to come from them. The ZX6 into that final corner feels about 70kmph faster and guessing the braking points probably wasn't a good idea.
So that's 0 out of 5 F2 races finished (rider fell in front of me, ran out of fuel, red flagged, rearset came loose, fell off in warmup). 4th in the Postie Junior table but we've decided to abandon project hurricane and go back to project CBR400. The hang off for grim death and haul it round the corner style of muscling the 'cane is just too different to the sportsbikes. I hate to admit it but Paul and Drew were right when they said I wouldn't be able to cope.
My bike will be out in F1 and doing 1.14's next round.
Ta:
- Paul for trying to fit wider rim/shock etc to the 'cane and for bunging on the new Dunlop GPR rear
- Drew for picking me up at the airport, dropping me off (with 3 minutes to spare), putting me up at his palace and carting me about all weekend.
- Dee Wintle for getting my bikes to/from the track
- Nick for his support
- Martin Peck & Ozzie for offering to store the ZX6r at their respective places in Fielding...unfortunatly dipshit here dropped it so had to get it back to Drew's for repairs.
- Clive for taking my $hit home again
- Sam at Celtic Leathers for taking a lot of my $hit to the track
- Sloan 'the man' Frost for taking my new Genny back to Hamilton.
- Vic club...we sometimes are a set of moaning gits and forget all the volounteers and organisation that goes on....we do appreciate it.
Originally Posted by Kickha
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. LETS GET READDDDY TO TUMBLE! Another excellent write up man and I have discovered that my wife likes bourbon. I am having to share.
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