Actually it was my first track day ever. location: Toronto Motorsports Park - Road Course
To start off let me first say that I was a bit nervous about the whole being on a racetrack for the first time and on a bike to boot. On my first 3 lap installation to warm the bike and get a look at the track a rider binned it right in front of me and I had to dodge bike parts and then ride around under a full course yellow not really knowing what the hell I should do...Stop to help or get the hell off the circuit. It wasn't the best start to the day. But he was OK and the day just got better and better from then on...In the end I was just soooo happy to have done it and I'm planning many more next season. You owe it to yourself to try track riding. Period.
About the bike on the track. I have a completely stock FZ6R with Pirelli SuperCorsa SC1 front SC2 Rear installed. Got them used from a racer at Mosport from the SV650 class. These tires are amazing...
The bike ran great all day. The way I ran was to take it easy on the straights and not beat on the brakes too much. And I tried to take corners so that I could be on throttle pretty much right after turn in. The bike is very easy to control the throttle and the bike tracks a line excellent. After a few sessions I felt so at ease cornering and the bike at no time ever scared me in the turns. But that being said I didnt try to beat track records and I feel I kept the bike on the safe side of the limit. The tires work so well that I pretty much rode like I was on stock street tires and the race tires gave me a bit of a margin for error.
Now as this was my first day ever on a track I dont know how much my comments will help but I did find that the bike has some issues with track riding. First the front fork dives quite hard under braking and this kind of causes your reaction to ease up and not push the brakes too hard. I didnt like braking too hard and this was a bit of fear on my part and not wanting to beat up the bike. Brake forces on a bike are something to get used to and I wasnt really out there on day 1 to work on brake limits so like I said I kept the top speed under 100mph/160kph and braked earlier than needed...I was there to corner
Trail braking into turns was very good and easy to do...the brakes at no time gave a hint of fad and looked as good as new after the day was done. Very happy about that as I had visions of fade and cooling laps...not even maybe.
Now during higherspeed corners the bike holds a line pretty good but the soft suspension in damping will make the bike bouncy on some rougher turns and kind of limited how hard you could push the bike and my pucker factor kept the speeds within a margin I felt the bike could handle. I was much more confident on a friends R6 I took for 10 laps or so during the highspeed turns. Probably that was a mistake to change bikes. Took a bit to get into the rhythm with the FZ6R because I could really tell the suspension was soft and spongy. But all in all the bike ran pretty good and the lower speed tight turns were done feeling very smooth and stable. I tried to keep throttle on for all turns and that kept the bike pretty stable and kept weight off the front forks. I did turn the rear up from 2 to 3. Not sure how much that changed anything as the change is small. The rear ride height seemed ok so I didnt go any higher.
Started to drag pegs near the end of the day and I must say that the first time it happened I had a smile on for the rest of the lap
Now I need to work on body positioning as I wasnt hanging off the bike much...especially in the beginning. But I was getting better near the end and now after looking at the pics of the day I can see I need to get off more
All the pics are at: Show My Photos / Images By Lorelei / Galleries
You can see all 70 pics of me at this website and of course I'm the yellow yamaha :iconbeer:
To start off let me first say that I was a bit nervous about the whole being on a racetrack for the first time and on a bike to boot. On my first 3 lap installation to warm the bike and get a look at the track a rider binned it right in front of me and I had to dodge bike parts and then ride around under a full course yellow not really knowing what the hell I should do...Stop to help or get the hell off the circuit. It wasn't the best start to the day. But he was OK and the day just got better and better from then on...In the end I was just soooo happy to have done it and I'm planning many more next season. You owe it to yourself to try track riding. Period.
About the bike on the track. I have a completely stock FZ6R with Pirelli SuperCorsa SC1 front SC2 Rear installed. Got them used from a racer at Mosport from the SV650 class. These tires are amazing...
The bike ran great all day. The way I ran was to take it easy on the straights and not beat on the brakes too much. And I tried to take corners so that I could be on throttle pretty much right after turn in. The bike is very easy to control the throttle and the bike tracks a line excellent. After a few sessions I felt so at ease cornering and the bike at no time ever scared me in the turns. But that being said I didnt try to beat track records and I feel I kept the bike on the safe side of the limit. The tires work so well that I pretty much rode like I was on stock street tires and the race tires gave me a bit of a margin for error.
Now as this was my first day ever on a track I dont know how much my comments will help but I did find that the bike has some issues with track riding. First the front fork dives quite hard under braking and this kind of causes your reaction to ease up and not push the brakes too hard. I didnt like braking too hard and this was a bit of fear on my part and not wanting to beat up the bike. Brake forces on a bike are something to get used to and I wasnt really out there on day 1 to work on brake limits so like I said I kept the top speed under 100mph/160kph and braked earlier than needed...I was there to corner
Trail braking into turns was very good and easy to do...the brakes at no time gave a hint of fad and looked as good as new after the day was done. Very happy about that as I had visions of fade and cooling laps...not even maybe.Now during higherspeed corners the bike holds a line pretty good but the soft suspension in damping will make the bike bouncy on some rougher turns and kind of limited how hard you could push the bike and my pucker factor kept the speeds within a margin I felt the bike could handle. I was much more confident on a friends R6 I took for 10 laps or so during the highspeed turns. Probably that was a mistake to change bikes. Took a bit to get into the rhythm with the FZ6R because I could really tell the suspension was soft and spongy. But all in all the bike ran pretty good and the lower speed tight turns were done feeling very smooth and stable. I tried to keep throttle on for all turns and that kept the bike pretty stable and kept weight off the front forks. I did turn the rear up from 2 to 3. Not sure how much that changed anything as the change is small. The rear ride height seemed ok so I didnt go any higher.
Started to drag pegs near the end of the day and I must say that the first time it happened I had a smile on for the rest of the lap
Now I need to work on body positioning as I wasnt hanging off the bike much...especially in the beginning. But I was getting better near the end and now after looking at the pics of the day I can see I need to get off more
All the pics are at: Show My Photos / Images By Lorelei / Galleries
You can see all 70 pics of me at this website and of course I'm the yellow yamaha :iconbeer:
