Adult Education - Level 3

 

I am a bit behind with my blog posts the last few months, as you can see from my Part 2 of our Japan MotoGP trip, which went up almost eleven weeks after the fact. I have a good reason and I may blog about it at some point, but not here or yet.

No, this one is about getting back to Morgan Park to attend Level 3 of California Superbike School back at the end of October. To add to the fun my young bloke, Will, had booked in for Level 1 on the same day. About a week before the day CSS emailed to say that they had secured the track for another day and would anyone like to book more levels. I would have liked to but I had only put in for the one day off work but Will already had the day off so booked in for Level 2 as well. I must say, I am really pleased with his desire to learn how to ride better. While he wants to do it to be faster, I know it will also make him safer as he has quite good situational awareness when on the road (for a young fella).

I was keen to use my GSXR750 for the day but rain was predicted and the Gixxer is on slicks. Another issue is that there is no time to put warmers on after each session as you need to quickly attend a debrief on arrival back at the pits. This would put the slicks through multiple heat cycles in one day, effectively wearing them out.

With this in mind I decided to use my R1 as it had treaded Michelin Power GP tyres on it. Will was going to use his Daytona come hell or high water - not his CBR500 road bike - so we needed to swap the CBR’s near new front Michelin Road 6 onto the Daytona and then purchase a rear Road 6 for it. All for the same reasons I just gave above.

As usual we drove up the afternoon before so as to get a good sleep before the early start. It is nice to have a support driver these days so ‘ol Dad can stare out the window.

We got interrupted sleep as a massive thunderstorm rolled over Warwick that night and proceeded to pound us for about two hours.

The morning dawned clear and calm.

 The Daytona had a belly pan absolutely full to the brim with water though. I had told Will to drill a drain hole and install a bung months ago. 

Now we would need to pull it off and drill a drain hole under the pressure of getting our bikes scrutineered and signed in for the day. I’ve lost count of the number of “told you so” moments over the last couple of years….. either way, I was still pretty much the first through scrutineering and parked up near the instructor’s bikes.

There had clearly been a lot of rain overnight and the volunteer marshals were busy cleaning up the track where run off had dragged mud aross a few corners.

After a introductory briefing we split up into our respective groups and went to class.

The day progressed as expected…well, with one unexpected mishap. One of the instructors was from the US and for some reason seemed to be carving up our combined Level 3 and 4 on track class. As we were taking it easy and following the drills which required the use of only two gears and minimal braking, it made no sense for him to be carving us up. Well, it ended badly for him after he went up the inside of a long train of us into Turn 4 and had a massive high side right in front of all of us. He fcuked himself up pretty badly and was eventually carted off in an ambulance. Chatting to the owner of this Aussie CSS franchise at lunch, he was pretty pissed off at this.

The rest of the day progressed well and I feel I learnt a lot of new little techniques on how to move around the bike without upsetting its balance and feel more “locked on” in corners.

 There were some “light bulb” moments where I realised why the bike was behaving the way it did in certain corners  - it was me upsetting it. Now I know how to make it smoother which will equal faster and safer!

Will was having a good day as well. I was hoping he was making notes in the booklet we were given. I think it helped when I told him that one of the fast riders told me she re-reads her notes before every track day to remind herself what she needs to be mindful of.

The day was hot and predictably it built up into an afternoon of thunderstorms. A couple drifted past and just missed during the mid afternoon but one hit us square on, right before our last session.

 The rain came down so hard that water was 50mm deep in our pit in about ten minutes. Needless to say we didn’t go out for that last session  - even with treaded tyres fitted. It just wasn’t safe.

No problem though, as I was very satisfied with what I had learnt. It is always good to quit while you are ahead, especially when it comes to roaring around at high speeds on a motorcycle.

We grabbed a feed that night at the Horse and Jockey Hotel which is right near our motel. Will needed to hit the hay for his Day 2.

There had been three days of track days prior to CSS and apparently three guys went off in one incident on the high speed Turn 8. This Gixxer belonged to one of the guys in the incident. 

Will has seen the MotoGP riders come off and jump up, run back to the pits and grab another bike so often that he probably has an unrealistic idea of what will happen if he has a decent bingle.

It was a sobering reminder of what happens in the real world when you come off..... but in the mean time,  shit its fun!😁

Cheers.

*** I didn't take many photos as it is a busy day,  so I pinched some from others on the day.  They are watermarked by the various photographers. I'm publishing hoping for forgiveness in lieu of permission.😉

Champion's Champion Day

 

With the Queensland round of the ASBK being cancelled due to more Covid related border closures, Champion's Ride Days snatched up the weekend to run two track days at Morgan Park Raceway up near Warwick, on the Granite Belt . A QANTAS mate was booked in to do one day on his ZX6 and I thought it would be a great opportunity to get the R1 out of the shed and into it's natural environment.

Not having done any track work since the California Superbike School day back in October 2019 I re-read their bible, "A Twist Of The Wrist II" during a work trip to Perth in the week leading up. It was interesting to note that I picked up some tips that I hadn't even registered last time I read it. This highlights the need to be continually reading and trying to improve - something I have sadly neglected these last 18 months.

Will was coming along to be my pit crew/official photographer. We threw the little TTR230 on the ute so that he could access different vantage points around the track, a sure fire hook to get him to come along!

We decided to head up to Warwick the afternoon before so that it wasn't a stupidly early start on the Sunday morning as the track is about a two hour drive from home. It was an early enough (and cold enough!) start from Warwick but we were at the track super early and got through the unloading and scrutineering process quickly.

We were so early that there was plenty of time for a coffee and a wander around the pit garages.

I noticed with some trepidation that I was one of just a handful of riders on a road registered bike and one of the even fewer that didn't have tyre warmers. I was glad I chose the second slowest group (Green group) but was wondering if that might even be above my pay grade!

It was soon time for the riders briefing and this was pleasantly easy to hear and understand, even for an old deaf bloke who hadn't done a track day since 1994.

We were going to be the third group out on track so we had fifteen minutes or so to chill before needing to gear up. The organisers gave a 5 minute warning, then a 2 minute warning for each group's start time. I struggled into my leathers - the leathers that were slightly loose two years ago for the CSS track day but today were just a bit too snug around the middle...... a thousand curses on 2020..... but to be honest, being able to fit into the leathers that I bought at the age of 23 when I am now just over half a century isn't too bad!

The 5 minute warning was the time to don the lid and get out to the pit exit. Mike and I were pretty enthusiastic and were at the front of the queue to hit the track. Whoops. Which way did the track go again?

Once allowed out I took a few laps to get my tyres warmed up and to figure out where the track went again. Mistake number one was being too keen to get to the pit exit and thus having the entire pack of Green group behind. Even though this group has overtaking rules, namely no overtaking on the inside into corners, I was carved up by all the people who knew where the track went, had slicks on their bikes AND had warm tyres. Already I was wondering if I should have started in the beginner group. 

Surviving the first session I resolved to make sure I was the last to leave in our group for the remainder of the sessions. This proved to be gold as I had a mostly clear track until maybe the second last lap of each session for the remainder of the day, as it took most of the session for the fast guys to catch up that lap.

This gave me more time to think about all of the "Rules" from Twist Of The Wrist and to try to apply them.

Meanwhile, the roving photographer had been cruising around the track taking some snaps for us. Access at Morgan Park is pretty limited in that you can't get right around the track or access the bridge over the track at turn 3, so Will did his best to find a decent vantage point. A great excuse to poke around on his dirt bike!

Mike on his ZX636

I settled in after a couple of sessions but to be honest I hit a wall (quite early on) speed wise during the day. I just couldn't make myself push any harder into corners as I was concentrating too much on trying to go faster, not on the basics that would allow me to be faster. Feeling like I was holding traffic up didn't help with just being able to concentrate on the mechanics of riding the bike smoothly and I wondered if I should have actually gone in the beginner (Red) group as there were some riders in the Green group who were significantly faster than me and who I think should have been up one group in Blue.

Another mental block was having "rain" tyres on and needing to do a couple of laps to warm them up when everyone else was at pace right out of pit lane on their warm slicks. Michelin PR4s and 5s probably aren't the best track tyres but I know they have way more potential than I used.

My tight fitting leathers also proved to be a distraction, making it hard to move around and to breath. It might be time to admit defeat and go up a size (or two if necessary!). Besides the fact that I don't know how 28 year old stitching might fare if I do take a tumble.

That isn't to say I didn't have fun. I had a ball in fact!! My problem is that I expect too much out of myself and I had just forgotten too much since I last did this almost two years ago. I am definitely going to do the remaining CSS training levels once they start scheduling their days again (they cancelled all 2021 days as of May as it was just too hard to organise with the Covid bullshit/border closures going on)

Mike again.

Mike and I.

There was an official ride day photographer in attendance and she cruised around on her Tiger snapping everyone doing their thing. Her photos are really good (sorry Will) and I may just support her yet by purchasing a package.

Lori Poffenroth image

Anyway, we finished the day with our bikes and ourselves intact and huge smiles on our faces. Their next track day is mid week, in a months time. Time to get the valve clearances checked and some stickier tyres fitted to the old girl.

Cheers.

Adult Education

Now, with such a catchy title you may be wondering what I am banging on about this time around? Well, as this blog is pretty much PG - with a little MA15+ from time to time you can rest assured that it isn't anything racey........

As I get back into some motorcycling, I have been thinking that I really should do some rider (re)training to freshen up my base skills. Heck, the last training I did was back in '93 or '94 when I completed a few training days at Eastern Creek, Oran Park and Amaroo Park raceways with Stay Upright and Roadsense. I got a lot out of those sessions and blind Freddy could see that I would benefit from a freshen up.

Cobwebs In The Closet

Well, maybe not the closet but definitely in the shed! On a recent trip to visit my folks in country New South Wales I was invited (requested) to clean out the old motorbike shed.

2871

With a mix of dread and wonder I eventually ventured down to open the door. The dread was knowing what a bit over 20 years of dust would look like and the wonder at what was actually in the shed. It had been a very long time since anything in there had turned a wheel under it's own power and quite frankly, I have mostly forgotten what was in there.

Well, I knew this old trooper was in there somewhere, under all of the dust. It is my 1970 Suzuki T250 Post Classic racer. 

Yep, first race and some work needed doing....

I last turned a wheel on it in the 1994 Post Classic Championships at the full GP curcuit at Oran Park Raceway(RIP). Well, actually I crashed on spilled oil in free practice the day before qualifying then during the warm up lap prior to Race 1 she threw a dodgy circlip off the end of a gudgeon pin and I was suddenly down to just 125cc of the 250cc that was meant to be available.....bugger! 

I drove the 400km home planning all the way how I was going to rebuild her to run on methanol and electronic ignition, not the breaker points and Avgas that I was running.

What happened then was ......life. I went back flying for a living. That made sure I had no spare coin to pee up the wall racing, so the little T250 was quietly pushed into the back of the shed......

Fast forward 23 years and as I waded through the dust and cobwebs she was unearthed again. Luckily for me my Dad had thought to cover her up years ago and while in need of a good tub, she actually wasn't too bad. I also have an almost complete road going version of the T250 as well and it had weathered the neglect equally well. This is due to the extremely low humidity in central NSW - a bit like the aircraft boneyards in Tucson.

This was the result after a bit of a scrub up.

After getting a few pictures it was back into the shed, covered with a nice clean sheet and a plastic sheet. Sparing no expense!

Little Bro, Steve was also in town and we laughed at some of his past indiscretions as well. The fairing panel he is holding here was remodelled on Turn 9 at Eastern Creek during a Sunday ride day. He then had to ride it the 400km home to be ready for work on Monday. The things you do when you are young and silly.........or old and...silly.......

Cheers.