Ok so first track day ever was a success - no crashes - and so much more fun than I even thought it would be. 65 degrees, cloudless sky. The instructors that were there kept talking about what a great track we have in NOLA. BTW - TrackTactics is a really fantastic crew. Friendly, helpful, and in the beginner group I was able to have 1 on 1 sessions and instructions for most of the day... very very cool.
The emotions from that day are still just... I don't know if I have adequate words.
Partly it was scary. Leaning into my very first turn ever, there was that slight fear of wondering what it will be like. This fear is something that actually increased over my day, because as I got better and better with each lap, I continued to push myself more and enter those turns faster and faster. You approach the turn as fast as you can, breaking as late as you can, trying to calculate exactly how to ride the right line to the apex. This is particularly poignant coming onto the 90 degree turn at the end of the main straight away, where I was seriously able to hit 165mph (true speed on my speedohealer-adjusted-speedo). Those 400, 300, 200, 100 foot signs come up awfully, awfully fast at that speed.
Once you make that lean, you're looking up through the apex to find the exit point. This is where you find out if you timed things right, and fear turns to determination. Leaning off the bike, trying to keep a neutral throttle and wondering if the tires will hold, feeling a little frustrated that the 600 in front of you is just pulling away from you through the turn as you're wrestling that ZX14 monster to the curb at the apex.
At apex, it's back on throttle and here is where all that fear and determination turn into pure exhilaration. You're focused on making that exit point, rolling on throttle, trying to hold that line on a bike that's pulling you like a freight train and making up any time lost in the turn against that 600 and then some. All the while starting those calculations all over again for the next curve that's coming up.
That part there - coming out of that turn... man that's the money shot. I thought I knew my bike, and appreciated the power and what it can do, but I did not. You street ride all the time, take up the occasional drag race and do some high speed runs, thinking "damn that's a fast bike!" But after a session on that track where my tach never dropped below 7 grand I realize I just had no idea.
The one tragedy of the day is that my Contour apparently spazzed out, and the videos I took were all corrupted. They came out purple, and won't play. The test videos I took of setting up the camera came out beautifully. But when I went to record my very first run apparently something in there broke. So I thought I was recording all these runs, but ended up getting nothing. The camera seems to work fine now on the first setting, but anything I try to record on the second setting apparently gets corrupted. So not one picture of me or anything from that day. That made me so mad I will likely can the Contour and go with a Go Pro.
Anyway, track day was amazing. I have no intentions of getting into racing or anything like that (though I would definitely not mind building a track bike instead of taking my baby out there). And it sure ain't cheap. But I can't recommend it enough to anyone that likes to go fast. Sure 175+ is pretty cool and exciting. But that thrill just pales in comparison to carving up those curves. Add in a safe environment with no gravel, oil , cars, trees, walls, etc where you know you can push yourself to the very edge because wiping out isn't really that big a deal... man that's just money well spent. Absolutely the best bucket list item I've checked in a very long time. I sure can't wait to go again!
C
* Last updated by: Caroobs on 1/21/2013 @ 9:46 AM *
'09 Candy Green ZX-14, flies out, Yoshi slipons, Pipercross air filter, PAIR blocked, PC-V, Speedohealer, Illumiglo gauges, Throttlemeister cruise control, Monster shorty levers, Corbin seat, 35w HID lights.
