Day 310: How Good Is This?

This morning was great, it was another glorious day at Phillip Island and my photo for the day is of the bike all set up ready for the day ahead. The morning sun was shining in through the back door of the garage and my coffee was still hot in my travel cup on the tail of the bike, what more could I ask for?

I was looking forward to getting out on track and putting everything I learned yesterday to practice, unfortunately as soon as I got out there I promptly forgot everything and just tried to ride really really fast. The funny thing is, when you try to ride really really fast you end up going slower than when you just work on being smooth.

Once I had the first session out of my system I was able to focus on my lessons from yesterday, I worked on keeping my vision wide and taking each corner using the three step method I learned. This helped to improve my lines and in turn my corner speed.

It's amazing how having a process to follow makes it feel like there's more time for you to prepare yourself and the bike for the next corner even though you're actually arriving there much quicker than you were previously. I'm not sure that this will actually make sense to anyone who hasn't been through the this kind of tuition but it seemed to work for me.

In any case, Andy, Pete and I all had another great day on the track. We all felt quick and we all came away unscathed, what a great way to spend a few days away with mates.

Day 309: End Of The Day

I had a big day at Philip Island today. It was a full day of California Superbike School with a heap of sessions on track and an equivalent number of session s in the class room. The weather was perfect, clear skies, sunshine and not too much wind.

The class room sessions are packed in between the on track time with barely 10 minutes for a debrief with the instructor before needing to be in class, this doesn't leave any time for putting bikes up on stands, fitting tyre warmers and plugging them in. I was a little worried about the effect his would have on my new rear tyre and also about how the first couple of laps would feel while the tyres were working their way up to the right temperature and pressure levels. It was ok, the tyres only felt mushy for the first half a lap or so and the wear seemed to be ok, certainly better than it was before I had the suspension sorted by Laurie.

Because it was so busy I really didn't have a chance to take any photos on my new camera, so tonight after a few beers with Pete & Andy and while getting organised for dinner I took this one. It's the view from the house we've rented, the sunset was pretty spectacular and the new camera has done a decent job to capture it. The best thing about today was knowing I'd be back on the track again first thing tomorrow morning.

Day 302: More Philip Island Prep

Pete dropped his bike over today so we could load it up with mine and they'd be ready for us early next Saturday morning, we loaded his and mine into the trailer and then started working out where to tie our stands and my wet weather wheels down. I like to take the wet weather wheels when going to the track, it usually works well to keep the rain away and when it doesn't I have them there ready to use.

I like having the two Daytonas in the trailer side by side, they are essentially the same bike with only a couple of years difference in age and one having a fancy red R after the 675. The real difference comes down to the one on the right being completely as it rolled off the factory floor and the one on the left being a fully race prepared version. Pete's bike, the right, is certainly the prettier bike but for now I still prefer my one on the left.

Day 300: New Hoop

I'm going to Philip Island with Pete & Andy next weekend and part of my preparation in the lead up was to replace the rear tyre of the Daytona. The old tyre was a few few track days and one race-your-mates at Wakefield old, it had also been fairly well chewed up due to the suspension setup being less than optimal.

Laurie Smith made some adjustments to the existing setup of mismatched spring rates and valving (the front was very hard and the rear was far too soft) before my last ride but it still didn't feel right. Since then I've had both the front and rear suspension removed and re-sprung so they are better matched and next weekend will be my first go on the bike with the new setup.

It will be interesting to see how the new tyre wears now that the suspension has been sorted, going on past experience with Laurie, the bike will feel much better and the tyre will wear a lot more evenly.