How an Old Guy Got Started Doing Motorcycle Trackdays

What's this about?...

If you're reading this page it's probably for one of the following reasons:

• You've watched those guys road racing, ripping down the straights and leaning the bikes over until they are practically laying on their sides and thought "That looks like a blast! I want to try it".
• You ride a bike and your buddies keep telling you that you need to try a trackday.
• You want to become a better rider and the next step is some time on the track.
• You're already a "Trackday Junkie" and you just want to see if my experience is anything like yours.

In any case, this page is about my experience (up to now) and it will hopefully come in handy for anyone thinking about going to a trackday for the first time.

Note -I'll be building this page over time so if you see parts that look unfinished it's probably because I just haven't gotten to it yet.

So who am I?

• An average 51 year old guy that likes to ride motorcycles.
• First trackday just before my 50th birthday in June 2010 and I've done something like a dozen trackdays as of September 2011.
• Bikes:
• 2005 Honda CBR 600RR
• 2008 Honda CBR 1000RR
• 2006 BMW R1200GS
• Riding experience:
• Rode dirtbikes a lot as a kid but my first 'real' motorcycle was a mid-70's Honda CB750 that rode for a summer when I was in college (had to sell the bike to pay for tuition).  Didn't ride at all until I got back into it at age 46 when I bought the GS.
• I ride about 10,000 miles/year with at least one long road trip tossed in each year.
• My street riding is very tame, no stunting or knee-dragging on the public roads and I only ride off-road once in a while.

Getting Ready for the First Trackday...

Psyching up

I've always wanted to try my hand at riding a sportbike on a closed circuit road track but seeing the wrecks those guys have on TV was enough to let me know that it's probably a lot harder than it looks and falling was going to hurt.  I read everything I could find online - blogs, forum posts, interviews, you name it. My goal was to figure out if it was even worth the trouble.  I'm the kind of person that can't do something just a little bit.  If I was going to ride the track it was going to be on a bike that was right and with the right group and the right track.  After probably a year and half of waffling I decided to take the plunge.

Choosing a bike

My ego told me that a 'real' rider would hop on a liter bike and go for it.  I shopped around and couldn't get comfortable with the bikes I found.  My wife eventually decided that I was never going to pull the trigger and she bought me a beautiful 2008 Honda CBR 1000RR because I had told her that would be my dream track bike.

The problem is that the bike is so awesome I couldn't bring myself to take it to the track!  The thought of dumping that thing just took the fun right out of the whole idea.  I was back to hunting.  More reading, more chats with other track riders and I started swaying to the 'get a 600 for the track' mindset.  The prices were better and everyone who would know better said it was easier to control and actually more fun to ride hard.  After a few months of trolling I found the 05 Honda CBR 600RR.

The bike had about 9k miles on it had been dropped a couple of times either standing still or going very slow (like under 5mph) and had a solid motor and new tires.  It was a very nice little bike that was all stock except for led flushmount lights and it had been lowered by the original owner. I went with the CBR for a couple of reasons. The most obvious is that I already had the 1000RR that was well know to handle very much like it's little bother.  Second is that Honda's have a reputation for being very neutral and responsive to rider inputs.  The common remark I kept hearing was "it just goes where I tell it". For a beginning track rider that sounded like a good thing because I didn't want to have a bike that required a specific riding technique to make it work.

Choosing a Trackday Organization

Around here there are only a couple of choices.  I emailed the organizations that seemed to be the most active and found that RideSmart Motorcycle School was better set up to handle new trackday riders since it is actually a riding school versus a simple trackday organizer.  Their website provided all of the details about what gear was required and what modifications needed to be made to the bike in order to be allowed on the track.

I'm going to jump ahead here and say that choosing RideSmart turned out to be one of the best decisions I made.  These guys know how to ride, how to teach and they take it very seriously. At the same time, the whole vibe is like a bunch of friends getting together and doing what they love.  Even if you're new they take you in like you've been riding with them for years and they will take as long as it takes to answer your questions and review your riding.

Prepping the bike for the track

I wasn't ready to make this a full blown track bike because I still didn't know if I would really like trackdays enough to justify having a dedicated bike. I opted to make a few changes that would make it more durable and reliable on the track but nothing that would keep it from being usable on the street.
Changes:

• All new fluids: Regular anti-freeze, Mobil 1 Racing 4T 10W-40 Fully Synthetic Oil, Repsol brake fluid
• Raised the bike to stock height
• This was a simple matter of removing the lowering link from the rear suspension and replacing it with a stock link a guy from the 600RR.net forum gave me for free and sliding the front forks back down - or is it up? - to their stock position.
• New Vesra RJL front brake pads
• I went with these because of good reviews for long lasting wear, resistance to brake fade and usability on the street.  I found that they need to warm up a bit before they provide maximum performance so street riding meant being really careful for the first mile or so.
• Spiegler stainless steel brake lines for the front
• I went for the front only because I didn't figure I would be using the rear enough to heat up the fluid to the point where it really mattered and if I found out otherwise I could do it later.
• Spliced quick disconnects into the lights on the tail
• This was so I could just unplug the wires and remove the entire license plate bracket when I got to the track instead of having to tape everything or do a lot of elaborate dismantling. This worked out well and I could remove and replace the whole thing in 30 seconds.

That was it for changes to the bike.  On trackday I would just remove the license plate bracket, remove the mirrors and tape up anything else that needed taping.

Note that this works for the local tracks and the organization that I ride with.  Some tracks and trackday organizations have more stringent rules and the only way to know what you have to do is by contacting the appropriate people.  It's very likely that the rules are posted online so take the time and find out. You don't want to get to the track and find out that morning they require safety wiring on the drain plug.

Riding Gear - Oh My, I don't have a Thing to Wear!...

Before getting on the track I needed to get the right riding gear.  If you've watched racing on TV you know that even a simple fall means sliding and rolling and generally taking a beating.  Good gear is a must at the track.  I did my usual overkill research then headed down to MotoLiberty and let them guide me through the search for a suit and back protector.

The gear (I already had the boots, gloves and helmet):

• Technic Chicane One-Piece Suit
• Not painfully expensive but has the basics for good protection.
• Daniese Wave Back Protector
• I want as much between my back and the pavement if possible if the worst happens.
• Sidi Vertigo Corsa Boots
• The gold standard in race boots. If you don't want to look like a Power Ranger then stay away from these.  If you want perfect fit and top of the line protections then pony up the cash and get a pair.
• Cortech Adrenaline Gloves
• Have to be the best bang for the buck in sport gloves.  Full gauntlet, kangaroo palm, armor and extra padding in all the right places.  Too bad they are discontinued because I really want to get another pair.
• Shoie RF1000 helmet 
• The de facto standard in sportbike helmets at the time.

The whole package in action:

My First Trackday...

When doing anything for the first time there is a certain amount of apprehension, yeah, let's call it that.  Trackdays are no different.  Even with a very detailed schedule and people to tell you what to do there is still an awful lot that you are just left to figure out on your own.

Getting there - I chose to ride my bike to and from the track.  This isn't the recommended approach because there is always the chance that you will crash and not be able to ride back because you, the bike, or both are too broken.  Track riding can be tiring and after a full day the ride home could be dangerous because you are simply too tired.  But I did it anyway.

Getting Settled - When I got to the track there was a guy at the gate with a sign-up sheet that had the ubiquitous "If you get hurt it's not our fault" disclaimer.  Once past the formalities it was a matter of finding a place to 'set up camp' for the day.  Even though I got there just a few minutes after opening the place was already pretty full of tents and trailers.  Apparently a lot more people camp out at the track than I thought and the rest are waiting at the gate when it opens.  I found an open 'spot' and parked the bike. My wife (Pam) was following in the car with my stuff and we got to work prepping the bike for the track by taping the lights, removing mirrors, etc.  Pam surveyed what the other people had as encampments and immediately determined that we needed some shade, some chairs and a few other niceties to survive the 100+ degree temps we have here in Texas. I'm lucky to have a partner that can see the big picture.

Things that you probably want to bring or have access to:

• A tent/shade for you and the bike
• A place to sit
• An ice chest with cool drinks and light snacks
• A gas can - I go through about 1.5 tanks on a track day
• Tools - You may need to make adjustments
• A tire gauge - tire pressures are critical so check them every session
• A way to add air to your tires if needed.
• Bike stands - if you need to adjust a chain (the most common tech inspection fail) you will need one.

Down to business - I'm here, the bike is ready, now what?

• At some point the organizers will open up Check-in and that's where you go tell them you are here and get whatever stickers or other things they use to prove you've paid and can ride.  More signing and initialing of waivers happens here.
• Next up is Tech Inspection.  This involves riding to the inspection station and having your bike, and your helmet, looked over to make sure it is track ready and safe. What they look for will vary from place to place but having gone through the checklist supplied by RideSmart I was ready and passed with no problems. 
• Before the track is opened you have to attend the Riders Meeting.  This is where the rules for the day are made clear.  Things like when and where you can pass, what the flags mean, where the tire and suspension guys are located and other general housekeeping items are covered.  You don't want to miss this meeting. While this was going on Pam headed out for more "stuff".

Track Sessions - RideSmart runs three levels; Level 1 for novices, Level 2 for Intermediate riders and Level 3 for experts and racers. Each level gets a 20 minute session with Level 3 going first, then Level 2 and finally Level 1.  This cycle repeats until the track closes and you get as many sessions as will fit into the day.  There is no set number of sessions because things like crashes, track clean-up or someone failing to pit when a session ends can delay the start of the next session.

Classroom Instruction - Since RideSmart is a school we have classes. Well Levels 1 and 2 have classes but Level 3 does not.  The track opens and Level 3 takes the track for their first session while the rest go to classrooms for the first class. In Level 1 (L1 for short) we cover the basics of track riding and talk about the first session which is called the Round Robin. The class is also divided with each student assigned to an Instructor.  The Instructor will work with his on the track during the day.

Session 1 - My first time on the track

• In Round Robin we follow an instructor in single-file and stay exactly on the lines he rides. This is "The Line" and it is "the safest and fastest way around the track". After each lap the person directly behind the leader drops back to the rear and everyone moves up a slot. If you are lucky you will get a turn directly behind the leader so you can clearly see his line.
• Since there are something like 30-40 people in L1 we are divided in to 4 lines with about 8-10 riders each.  Each line has it's own instructor and the Track Marshall sends each line out one at a time with some space between.
• This can be more nerve wracking than it seems.  Staying exactly on the line of the bike ahead is important because the rider behind you is following your line.  You also have to follow fairly close so the group doesn't get spread too wide and start running into other groups on the track.  These things are directly the opposite of what you should do on the street so it takes some getting used to.
• The good thing about this session is that it's fairly low speed. Riding a comfortable pace takes some of the edge off and it gives you a chance to get used to the feel of the bike.  The session is over before you know it.

The rest of the morning - The cycle of classroom time, track time, class, track repeats all day.  In each class we learn more details as the instructors talk about the various turns and how they should be ridden.  Techniques are covered during the discussion and for a newbie the brain will start to overflow. The Instructors hand out a pair of colored jerseys each session and the riders with the jerseys are given one-on-one instruction.  The Instructor will follow you for a while and probably pull around and lead you through some sections of the track where you're lines are not what they should be.  After the session the Instructor will talk with you about what he saw, what you did right and wrong and what things to work on.

Since I had no idea what to expect from the actual free riding sessions, other than going faster than normal, I just tried to blend in and do what everyone else was doing. Much of the first few sessions were spent following groups of riders who had caught up with a slower rider - no passing was allowed in L1 before lunch.  This was actually OK with me at the time because riding on the track teaches you one thing more than anything else, confidence.  Until you actually go 120 mph and then  slow down to 40 to make a hard left hand turn as quickly as possible you really have no idea what it takes.  Repeating this type of thing over and over while making plenty of little mistakes that scare the pants off of you teaches you where your boundaries are and how to realize when you're approaching your limits. Catching up with a slower rider provided some actual rest time and forced me to keep my pace within my limits.

No time to relax - The classroom sessions pretty much use up all of our off-track time so resting is done during class.  If you have to mess with your bike there is very little time to do it so be ready.  Somewhere during all of this Pam shows up with a tent, chairs, cooler of ice... We are set!

Lunch! - RideSmart provides lunch and there is a one hour break while everyone eats and rests.  The temps are over 100 by noon so I don't eat much but I'm downing water and Gatorade to stay hydrated. Rest was very much needed.

Reality can be such a downer - Once Pam got settled she brought out the camera to "capture the moment" so to speak.  I was pretty psyched because I wanted to see what I looked like.  I had seen pic's of other guys first trackdays online and wasn't that impressed.  But I was a pretty experienced rider and I know I have a good understanding of the concepts so I should at least look decent, right?  I saw the fist pictures on her camera and I blurted out the obvious - "Oh my god, I suck!"

I was totally deflated.  If you had asked me I would have sworn I was laying down on the tank and inches from dragging a knee around that corner. Armed with photographic evidence of my complete and utter lack of track skills I decided that I could at the very least improve, a lot.

As the day moved on I worked on my body position and listened to my Instructor so I did make marginal improvements.

OK, there was SOME improvement but I sure wasn't a threat to challenge for Rossi's seat anytime soon.

Calling it a day - The track closed at about 5:00 pm and the last few sessions were much more open since a lot of guys had simply worn out due to the heat.  We packed up the loot and got the bike back to street legal condition and I rode home.  I was indeed dead tired but I noticed that on the street everything seemed to be in slow motion.  After pushing it around the track at speeds over 120 mph and raging into corners the street seemed downright slow.  I also didn't feel like I wanted to go fast.  I mean what was the point.

So, how was it, really? -  It was more fun than I thought it would be. I had never really ridden near my limits because the street is just too unpredictable. On the track however you know what is around the corner, everyone else is being predictable (for the most part) and there are no cops around to give out awards for doing 51 in a 40 mph zone. Even though I was slow by expert standards and my form left a lot to be desired I had a blast by pushing myself to where I had never been.  There is something thrilling about coming into a corner and thinking, Oh crap I'm going way to fast and then 'just' making it without riding off the track to visit nature.  Even riding well within my limits I still scared the hell out of myself more than once.  I learned a lot about the nuances of riding fast.  There is more to getting around the track quickly and safely than just 'leaning it over'.

One thing that surprised me is how much grey hair I saw out there!  Going into this I figured I was going to be 'the old man' on the track and everyone else would be 20 somethings.  The reality is that a LOT of guys that hit track days are well into their 40's and at least around here there are more than a few pushing 60.  Don't think for a minute these guys are slow. Some of the Ridesmart instructors are well over 50 and those guys can flat rail around that track.  If you're reading this and thinking you're too old, well you are going to need another excuse. 
Pam made me a poster to hang in the garage as a memento...

Becoming a Better Rider (I Think)...

After that first trackday I posted pic's on some of the online forums and invited feedback. Most of what I heard was very useful and I got a lot of tips about things to think about.  One of the most useful was to "get my armpit over the gas cap" and the guy posted a nice picture of himself in very good position showing exactly that.  While that doesn't sound especially helpful it clicked in my head and is something that I was able to actually 'feel' when riding.

I stayed in Level 1 for the next few trackdays and worked on my body position and the things that the instructors were pointing out.  One was a habit I had of not looking far enough "through the corner" which caused me to run wide on corners with iffy sight lines.  On about my 4th trackday I realized that I was passing almost everyone in L1 and spending a lot of time just floating around corners because I was being held up by slower riders.  To move up a level you need to have very consistent lines and be able to ride a smooth pace around the track - no drag racing down the straghts and parking it in the corners. After talking to a few guys in the faster groups to get their opinion I moved up to Level 2 and found that I was easily able to keep a good pace (not cause any traffic jams) and I was spending more time riding and less time just coasting. Some of the guys in L2 are really riding at an L3 pace but since L3 is something of a free-for-all and they don't want to ride that agressive they stick in L2.
Progression of pictures from track days in 2010...

July 17

August 7

August 22

September 11

From this

To this

So I had made progress.  By this point I was riding in Level 2 and running a middle of the pack pace without a lot of trouble. Along the way I switched to a more aggressive tire (Michelin Power Pure) and had my suspension set up for my by OnRoad OffRoad Cycles for the bargain price of $30.  Having the suspension tuned made a huge difference and the bike was much easier to control and infinitely smoother around the track.

Oops - Don't Do This...

The fear of all track riders is of course crashing.  I had scared myself a few times but only by nearly running off the edge of a turn and that hadn't happened since my first couple of trackdays.  My luck ran out in October when I had a massive high-side while running down a short straight.  There were no witnesses to what started the problem but someone watching from the paddock said that me and bike 'summersaulted down the track' eventually we both slide off the track at the entrance to the next corner.  I was knocked out and stayed out for several minutes and I have no memory of anything after the first two corners at the start of that session. My lap timer shows I was in the middle of my fourth lap when I went down.

Damage Tally:

• Me
• Concussion
• Broken right scapula (shoulder blade)
• Broken ribs (6 or 8 depending on which doc I asked)
• Partially collapsed right lung
• Not a single scratch or bruise on my body!
• The bike
• Fairings trashed, right clip-on broken, bent rear subframe, broken front fairing mount, instrument cluster smashed, various other small parts tweaked.

Based on where I crashed, how I crashed, damage to the bike and the experiences of other riders we determined that I crossed a bumpy section of the track at a high-speed corner (which I always did) and got into a tank slapper that I could not recover from.  The front tire slipped off the track and kicked it sideways which threw me over the bars and both I and and the bike flipped down the track at about 100 mph.  I slid face down for a while before I rolled off the track and napped.


Back on The Horse...

I got spend a few days in the hospital while they monitored my collapsed lung to make sure that the tube they stuck in my chest did whatever it was supposed to do.  A few months of physical therapy to get the right shoulder back to working order and I'm as good as new.  Well at least no worse than I was before.

I spent the winter learning about motorcycle rebuilding.  I assumed the engine internals were OK so it was pretty much a case of finding all the bent and broken bits and replacing them with new parts.  Actually I got several parts used from the guys on 600rr.net so I saved quite a bit of money.

Rather than put the bike back to street condition I decided it was both cheaper and easier to make it a track bike. The new parts:

• Optimal Fairings
• Vortex Rearsets (black)
• Vortex race fairing stay
• Puig Double-Bubble Windscreen
• Used rear subframe
• Used OEM clip-on
• Used OEM instrument cluster
• New front brake reservoir cover

Everything else was reusable or I was able to fabricate something to make it work.

I decided to save money and just rattle-can paint the fairings so I could play with repainting them if I got bored or just wanted to be silly.

Along the way I needed to get a new helmet because the Shoei got trashed!

I talked to the helmet guru at MotoLiberty and he was adament that my Shoei was probably fitted wrong and that lead to my concussion.  After trying on every damn helmet in the store I settled on a Arai RX-Q that fits like it was made for my head.

Various damage and stages of rebuild...

The final product ready to go...

But what about ME - The first ride after the crash was a bit of a nail biter.  I was totally stiff and not about to lean the bike any more than I had to.  Cornering was slow and I probably looked like I had never ridden a bike in my life - and this was on the street not the track.  I kept riding and after a few outings "the feeling" started to come back.  If you ride you know what I'm talking about - that connection you feel when the bike works like it's a part of you instead of being something separate. I needed to have that feeling before I was going to ride another trackday because I wasn't going to "just do it", I wanted to do it right.

OK, what did Pam say about all of this - Getting myself back on the bike was easy enough.  I've banged myself up a few times in my life so I knew it was just a matter of getting psyched up and starting over.  Pam however was at the track and saw me laying there motionless for a while and was the one that drove me to the hospital.  She had to get past the urge to tell me to stop riding and I KNOW that had to be hard.  We talked about things several times and I think she understood that I was going to ramp back my track riding to a more sedate pace so something like this crash wasn't likely to happen again.  The track is a pretty safe place to ride and my crash was something that just doesn't happen very often.  Guys fall down plenty but most of time it's just a few scrapes and maybe a jammed thumb. I would stay in L2 but I wouldn't be pushing for faster times.

Back on the track -  As luck would have it the first trackday I could make was at Motorsports Ranch at Cresson (MSRC), the same track where I crashed.  To be honest it wasn't that bad.  I probably held my breath when I crossed those bumps the first time but by the time I finished the first session I was feeling good. By the end of the day I knew I would be fine.

I didn't get to do as many trackday as I wanted this summer just because of schedule conflicts but I have managed to have a lot of fun at the days I did.  I am certainly slower than I was and I'm more focused on good riding form versus turning faster laps.  I didn't even put the lap timer on the bike this year.

First day back on the track

Eagles Canyon

Barber Motorsports Park

Victory in finishing

Now What?...

The learning never stops. I plan to keep doing trackdays and I'll probably stay in the middle of the Intermediate group as far as speed goes until my body just won't let me do it anymore.  Avoiding a crash is a bigger priority for me than going fast these days.  When I find that it's more work than fun I'll quit.

The guys who started riding track at the same time as me last year have become friends but they are younger and more motivated to improve.  Most of them now have their racing licenses and while I could stay with them last year I just watch them drive away this year.  Unlike in my youth that doesn't bother me at all these days.  I know I can ride with all but the fastest amature racers out there and that's more than I expected when I started out.