CROFT TRACK DAY

Wondering if any of you chaps are doing croft next friday ?? if you are ,your more than welcome to call round for a chat and theres always plenty of tea and biscuits on the go. just look for a beaten up black & white rsv or a crazy italian on an r6. jools

hi kev, are you sitting down mate £170 no limits, it might as well be outer limits, but its my local and it still works out cheaper for me  than cadwell, oulton etc  time i add on juice  and digs. i see your going down the in line four route, croft suits that type of bike.. i missed cadwell with the forum trackday as i had to go for an opp on my wrist , all do to with gravity and ending in tears as it always does !!!  although i did do cadwell a few weeks ago in a monsoon, i reccon i could of used a jet ski. it would of been faster. i will probably go to cadwell again some time this year. if you dont fancy croft i might meet up with you at cadwell sometime. ?? JOOLS

Should really sell with the mods etc youve got on there,, if you could afford to wait you get a lot more if you broke the old girl , but thats a real shame to do to a well sorted bike. yep , ive got my eye on a rsv4, but im going to wait about another couple of years when they come more affordable. last year at donnington i followed one around for a couple of sessions.  v nice !! on the third session i passed it on the old hairpin but as soon as the track opened up it went passed me as though i was in reverse. i then nearly killed myself trying to catch it up for the next three laps, i passed it again going down craner and held on until the straight before the chicane, where it passed me again, by that time i was i was mentally knacked !! i caught the rsv4 owner in the pits and he told me that he had just traded a 07 factory in for it. he said that it handled just like the factory but with bags more power everywhere. he said that the only fault with the bike was that the gearing was wrong for the track, and at the time there was no aftermarket sprockets available. should of changed by now me thinks. if you dont make it to croft i,ll catch up with you on some track no doubt. take it easy. jools

Ok Kev, thats my next bike like you said it looks as if its an easy bike to go fast on, should of had one at croft.  i was awful at croft on friday, couldnt put my finger on what i was doing wrong so im going to get some coaching next time out. body position wrong, missing apexes, you name it i was doing it; had no moments just felt really slow.  mind you there were some really fast blokes there on proper 200bhp superbikes which i was comparing myself to. i was that bad i was blaming the bike, but it was me !! with there only being 4 trackdays at croft a lot of the places are taken with riders like chris burns and the like., practicing for the bsb late in the year. some of the angles and speed they were going round were round were awsome. when you see the level they are at it shows how crap i am in comparison. i,ll keep on trying  what else can you do ?? im next out at croft again in june we,ll see how it goes ?? jools

Great weather for a change, great bike, with a great sh**y rider !! i was in the fast group on a beaten up black/white factory *10, there was also an 03 edwards rep. i didnt notiice any other apes in the other groups, but then again i was too buisy beating myself up after the sessions. i was in the first garage as you come into pitlane from the track. which group were you in and did you have a gud 1 ??  croft was even more bumpy than usual and the set up i had was no good. like you ive had conflicting advice on a set up, so i have played around to no great affect. i was going to get griff to set my bike up, but he has not ventured this far north yet. probably something to do with the lack of o2 up here   im at croft again later this month, give me a shout if youre going, first or second garage from the top: youre more than welcome to call for a chat or theres always some type of refreshment on the go. jools

hi graeme,  yes im at croft june july and august so with a bit of luck i,ll probably catch you at some point. like you said they were some extremely fast lads out there. with croft running only 4 trackdays what is happening is that the spaces are just getting grabbed up so you will find a lot of fast riders in both the intermediate and slow groups. 

Edited by jools - 05 Jun 2010 at 7:58am

if youre doing 50p im probably doing 20p,s

no one in particular graeme, but your friend sounds like he,s the man; especially as he is familiar with apes. i,ll seek him out.

OH NO !! sh*t graeme, was that you ?? didnt see it happen but  i saw a commotion where i was watching from the complex and it didnt look good, it would be on one of  the fastest parts of the track with no proper run off wouldnt it. What is it with SODS LAW ??? i didnt realise it was you and you were  injured that bad, im not one for getting off on others mishaps like rubbernecking, there was a lengthy delay so i started to pack up  missed all the afters. i really  hope  your on the mend mate , will probably take a while especially with ligaments damage .

Hi mate,im really  glad to hear your on the mend, and at least considering getting back into the groove.  Dont force it though and only you,ll know when the time is right. when you said your throttle stuck open i thought it strange as survival mode normally kicks in, brake clutch, gears kill switch anything to scrub speed off. but what youve described makes much more sense, if you have to make a sudden  avasive action then its a suck it and see situation and things are out of your control. a lad who was about about 50m behind you said you just went straight ahead at the esses, but i guess there was no way he could see the blade in front of you being a pratt. personally  thats the only thing with the the groups in track days is that there are riders who shouldnt be in certain groups given their ablity and i think more importantly experience.its provado and the truth is that no one has anything to prove !! we all can ride slow on track days and there is always someone faster but there is a safe way to do it. Slowing up there is suicdal, the fastest part of the track with over half the track to go. normally i dont ease off till the begining of  the complex where you can have a quick look around as its the slowest part of the track..

HEY GRAEME, THE AMOUNT OF CRASHES IVE HADIN THE PAST 12 MONTHS IM IN NO POSITION TO GIVE TIPS. MY LAST TWO HAVE BEEN HUGE ONES. BOTH AT CROFT.BUT NOWAY AS SERIOUS AS YOUR EXCURSION;; ..THANK GOD YOUVE COME OUT THE OTHER SIDE..