RS Track Day - 7.18.2009 @MSRC - FOLLOW UP

[ciaka]

As usual, a bunch did turn out for a full day of fun. We greatly appreciate your feedback about the day. So if you have impressions from the day, put them down here. Hope you all had a great time.

[Hockeybiker]

Was another great day at the track. Rode level 2 with Paul, Bob, Jimmy and Ryan. Thanks for all the great feedback and instruction. Had a blast and really like the 3.1 course at Cresson!!!

[connick]

:dude:

Man, I love the 3.1 configuration. It is such a blast with all those long esses and elevation changes, a couple of hairpins thown in, that looooong righthander with about two dozen different lines through it, and a completely blind heel-your-bike-over-to-the-left-and-pray-that's-where-the-track-goes hill. It is just a rockin' good time. Victoria and I both had a blast out there.

Not everyone was so fortunate... not sure if we're just bad luck or what, but both guys we were pitted with and the guy next to us all went down at some point during the day. The guy next to us (white and silver 600RR) got to go for an ambulance ride, but I think that was the only one for the day. Our two guys were both fine, with mainly cosmetic damage to the bikes.

Thanks to Dave, Ha, and the rest of the RS crew for putting on another great event. Also thanks to the cornerworkers for the honor of L2 smoothest rider (and pillion!). This was my thirteenth trackday (lucky, right?), so it figures this would be the one I would get smooth rider for.

Finally, thanks again to Ridesmart for letting Vic and I out on the track 2-up. It took alot of bugging Dave, but he finally relented this season and let us out there, and he's willing to let others give it a shot as well. So, if you do any kind of sport or sport-touring riding with a passenger, this is a great way to increase your margin of safety. It allows your passenger to get used to the way the rider leans off during hard cornering, and gives both people more confidence in that "holy crap, the bike actually WILL lean this far with both of us on it." Not that you'd ride on the street like you do on the track, but next time you accidentally go into a corner too hot, you'll both know how to react, instead of panicking. It's a nice piece of insurance to have when street riding... Oh, and it is a FREAKING BLAST, too! :trust:

[OldTLSDoug]

I was also in level 2. I was in Ryan's group, nice kid (he is a little younger than me as I am 50). I got some good feedback from him, and I appreciate the time he took with me. Also, Paul tried to help me out, I thought I whipped him good (not likely) when I didn't hear him behind me anymore, however, he just ran out of gas. That was pretty funny, but again, he gave me some excellent feedback, I was putting to use later in the day.

To Dave, the Level 2 class and use of handouts is great. All the instructors were good, Bob was especially good at speaking "rider" the whole day was "full whack". The mandatory classes were a good idea, I like the idea of participation, it was good for the day. Also I found myself attending when I didn't have to go. Nice show, lunch was great, you are correct, your wife deserves all the credit. Plus to top it off, because I could look at a photo on SBK.com I got 2 free $50.00 off coupons and brought a friend. Class act, sir, thanks for keeping it going.

I also want to plug Roger Albert and his suspension adjustment. I am a novice tweaker, and I think I do pretty good work, but Roger does a much better job, so I like to pop by when he is in town and I have a new bike to get her set up. Plus there is always bike talk near Roger's trailer. The Husky is much better now, I probably will get a spring in the future, or errr....umm....I could lose some weight.

Last, Blair Hartsfield of Hart photography already has the pics up on his website so I ordered my CD of all of them. Great work, love to see his stuff. Buy pictures from Blair.

Finally, I know how it feels to be the crasher, Dave and his folks, along with the ambulance guys were great when I crashed last year and got to ride in the ambulance. Great bunch of caring folks at Ridesmart. A quality operation run by excellent folks. I am happy to go on track with them anytime. Woo Hoo!

[connick]

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[UturnRick]

Kegan,

It was our pleasure to select you and Vic as "Smoothest Rider" (s) for the Level II session. In fact I had already written your bike down on my list at Station 3 just before my friend at Station 7 spoke up and suggested that we pick you all. And there were no other suggested bikes amoung the 6 corner stations and we picked you both without any arguments. I had a very good vantage point at station 3 to view the bikes coming through that tight sweeper at corner 12 and then going down to Station 4 and into corner 16, and your bike by far was the smoothest. In fact you were not only smooth but pretty darn fast for a VFR riding 2 up.

In fact earlier this year I took my Royal Star Venture (see attached) out to the track at Eagles Canyon after participating in 4 previous classes on my Ninja 650R. And like you, I had a blast.

But now that you have established a precident for riding 2 up in Dave's classes, I'd like to see if my wife would be interested in doing this. We do this type of riding when we go to Arkansas on sometimes unfamiliar roads and corners, so why not practice taking the best line along with better techniques for entry and exit points and throttle and brake with our partner on a controlled track?

I've taken a MSF 2 up ERC class back in 2004 with my wife and she came away with a better understanding of what goes on in the driver's seat under certain circumstances. In fact I'd like to do this again, but I understand that our MSF industry is concentrating it's efforts on the basic class for new riders and the advanced class for experienced riders is not being offered as often at it once was.

But in closing, I'd like to commend you and your partner for even considering doing this, much less talking Dave into letting you actually do it. I hope that what you have started on the track will extend to other riders that ride with passengers. In fact I'm going to start a dialog with Dave on this point, so I'll let you know what comes out of it. Knowing that Dave Wonder's long range objective is to get more riders (other that sport bike riders) involved with at least his Level I class, I think he would be receptive to this idea.

Hope to meet up with you Vic in Arkansas some time,

Rick