Hello All, Had a blast Sunday in the Novice class. Wish the injured have a quick recovery. Also hope everyone made it safely home. I wonder if anybody in the Novice class had a video camera on their motorcycle. It would be interesting to see myself flogging my FZ6 around the track. To Mike, Gina and their friend with the Ducati 1098s. Ya'll were great neighbors and thanks for the help. The free gas was a bonus. Mike, my old GPz750 had those eccentric chain adjusters on it and I rotated the axle 180 degrees for more ground clearence. Maybe you could do that to your ZRX. The photographer (Brian) has some good pictures of Gina if you have not seen them yet. Please let me know if there are any videos of us out there. Thanks to STT, Barber Motorsports Park and the rest of ya'll. Rob
No video's here, but like I said at the track your FZ6 has got some umph! I almost got my times back down to were they used to be, but then I ran out of tire and almost got run over by our CR. Completely my fault, and I apologize to our CR (I can't remember his name) I was getting a tow from another CR and was tired of getting caught in traffic, so I made a split second decision to pass him on the brakes going into turn 5. I made the pass clean, but ended up off line too fast into the turn and on my ass. (I'm the guy who was in your group with the silver 600RR and silver leathers.)
Hello Josh, You and the guy on the green Ninja 6 made me feel my choice of motorcycle was a good one. I had fun ridiing with ya'll and may do it again next year. Our CR was named Greg and he was very helpful and seemed to enjoy motorcycles like we do. My FZ6 is stock except for a K&N air filter, Scorpion exhaust, R1 rear shock (for adjustability) and Golden Spectro synthetic motor oil. The Pirelli Corsa Pro tires are awsome, after droping the air pressure, I never gave them a second thought. I ride to work as often as I can (65 miles round trip) and am too old for the sportbike riding position. My ride is comfortable and as you saw, pretty darn fast for (to quote my local Yamaha dealer) a little 600. Have fun and be careful.
I am eagerly waiting for the copy of my Shadow Video that we did on Sunday at Barber.... I hope it turns out good! Might be some of the other advanced guys in the video as well.... but I haven't seen it yet.... t
Video Trevor: I was trying to catch the film crew but you all were hauling the mail. You looked very smooth. Barber is wicked fun. JB
I was the one on the green 6r. It was good riding with both of you. That FZ definetely has some grunt, it took forever to finally pass you at the end there. You rode the hell out of that thing, you just need a some more ground clearance for the turns. Sorry to hear about your little mishap Josh, hope you and the bike are ok. You were riding pretty fast, what kind of times were you pulling. I didn't get one of the timers and kept forgetting to reset my built in timer so I have no idea what my times were. It was my first track day so I didn't expect much, but it would have been nice to have a benchmark to work from. Just a question, why were you running in Novice? You have ridden Barber before right? You looked plenty fast enough for intermediate.
I signed up late and all I could get was a sunday novice spot. I just wanted to ride so I took what was available. I had a pretty bad crash out there back in May, where I shattered a couple bones in my right hand and did quite a number on the bike, since then my confidence level at Barber particularly through 2-4 has been way off. But even with my little get off I got my confidence back. As far as my little crash, I didn't realize how tired I was and my body position was getting sloppy, combine that with a handfull of throttle at close to max lean and that back tire just couldn't hold on. I'm typically a mid pack intermediate rider, I got my times down to a high 1:46's, although I wold have liked to have seen a 1:45 or faster, the lap I crashed on my "tow-er" ran a 1:42 so I think it was possible had I kept it on both wheels. The bike was fine and had it happened earlier in the day I'd have just thrown a spare peg on and kept riding. The damage was limited to a scuff on the tail, a scuffed frame slider/spool slider/axle slider and a mangled vortex peg. I had the bike picked up and cranked before the corner worker even got to me, so I just rode it into the pit. $15 in parts and I'll be ready for my next day. It was just a dumb move on my part, had it been a inexperienced rider behind me instead of our CR there is a good chance I could have caused someone else to go down or been hit. Like Mark says "risk reward relationship" my ego got the best of me for the first time in a long time. I was finally starting to feel good out there and made a bad decision, I'm just glad I'm the only one who ended up taking a gravel bath. On a side note, this is the second time that I've crashed when using a new suspension setup for the first time. The first time was when I had my forks done and the second when I installed the ohlins shock. BTW that ohlins shock made my tire wear so much more even and smooth. Anyway nice riding with yall, maybe I'll see you out there at the beginning of next season.
I'm the guy with the 1098 - nice to have met you. My name is Brian by the way. Don't mention those eccentrics to Mike! I tried to talk him into flipping them for the last two track days. He was slapping himself for not flipping them once he lowsided. I know he's looking into a new pipe and maybe some suspension work for next year. I'll be back on the 1098 and will hopefully have my heavily massaged ZRX back together for next year as well!
Hey Brian, Sounds good, maybe Mike will flip that axle now. Was nice to meet ya'll and I hope you have a productive winter. That was my third track-day and could end up being my last. However, I had such a good ride a Barber (perfect motorcycle track, seems to flow from corner to corner) that I may have to do it again. I will ride in Intermediate if I do go back. Hope to see ya'll again. How do you get those paragraphs singled out and added to a reply?