Took the bolt to Grand Sport Speedway in Hitchcock, Tx. yesterday for her first trackday.
GSS is a nice 1.3 mile track that is tight & technical with only two small straights and perfectly smooth pavement. It's flat and you can see the entire track from anywhere, which I enjoy although I do love me some elevation changes like Cresson offers up. Weather was perfect imho, mid 70's, 5-10 mph breeze, a little cloudy.
The day was hosted by Fastline MCS which is a great group of guys that always feels like family not a business. I'm friends with the owner as well as the instructors and it's always good to just hang out and have fun.
So, the first two sessions of the morning were controlled round robins (novice group) and I did a few laps in both to refresh my lines & reference points. By the third morning session I was ready to see how the bolt could do and I set out to familiarize myself with her. I was uncomfortable the whole time as she felt soft & squishy and I just could not really push it any. Unknown to me (skipped class lol) this session was also supposed to be controlled without any passing. I was chastised (with love of course) for passing instructors and late braking into corners.
Anyway I didn't really know if it was the tires (2ct's) or suspension that had me feeling off so I went to the experts at P1 Racing. After hearing that the pilots should have plenty of grip I decided to get them to check out the suspension. Turns out the rear was set as soft as can be and the front was a little off. They made a few tweaks and told me to check it out on the next session.
First session after lunch I immediately noticed a huge improvement and felt confident in the bike's abilities so I began to push it. She responded perfectly and the tires never flinched as I dove and trailbraked through the turns. Ran around 1:17's in this session (the standing track record is like :52 or something right around it).
Second session after lunch, pushed her harder with more late braking and she performed like a champ. I kept getting stuck behind a guy on a gsxr 750 who would rocket down the straights and grab a hand full of brake in every turn so I pitted and let him go on. Let him run alomost a full lap then headed back out so he was comfortably behind me and I'll be damned if I didnt hit the same situation with a duc 748. In both cases I could not get them on the short straights. If I drove out in second gear she would redline before I could even get straight enough to hit third and if I drove out in third she would just hit her powerband at the next turn-in point. I kept showing the duc a tire and finally he let me pass. Still dropped a few and ran a couple of 1:14's.
Third session (and my last of the day) was the best, no ducs, no gsxr guy, just pure fun. Ran 21 laps and clicked off a best 1:12. On my ZX-10r my personal best was a 1:10.
Pro's:
1) No matter what I threw at her she took it like a champ.
2) Damn those brakes are good.
3) Initiate turn-in and she tracks all by herself.
4) Left to right transitions are like my wife's old Ninja 250.
Con's:
1) Um.... Well.... Ah ****, just me getting more acquainted with the motor/shifting and driving out faster.
2) Oh yeah too strong of a drive out in 2nd provided a floating front tire. Need a dampner before that is comfortable.
All in all a great day and the bolt handled exquisitely. GSS is my favorite track and Fastline is awesome! Hope to see some of you Texas guys out next year.
Are you the guy that wanted to remove your turn sigs instead of taping them?
Great picture btw! Im jealous.
That would be me lol, decided it was too much trouble. Oh, and thanks. Should have a few more pics this week, this one was snapped by a friend.
Really turn signals aren't to hard, then just zip ties to hold the fairing together.
But you sound like you have a good # of laps under your belt so you know what your doing.
Don't you just love reeling everyone in turn after turn?
Yep coming off a zx-10 and all prior td's on inline 4's it was amazing to me how hard i could dive in and trailbrake through or just ride it out.
Here's a good one, my buddy Nowell in front of me and the two Nicks chasing. Fun day indeed.
XB's are great on shorter tracks, especially if one knows what their doing. I loved mine at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix. Too short and tight for the I4's to do too much damage and they would come in too hot a lot of the time into braking zones.
Great write up!
Thanks, it would definately be a challenge at a track like tws with a big front straight. On the 10r 160ish was easy before braking for turn 1 and thats with little balls lol.
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