what's legal? - Motorcycling Matters

Good protection,
all the glass and
indicators taped
up: time to enjoy!
>
master the process. And there is
nowhere better than in the safe confines
of a track to try that out on the same
corner time after time. You may even get
to the stage where you can almost lock
one or other wheel (and be ready to let
the brakes off rapidly again!) to feel how
the bike responds, with the suspension
dipping and you being pushed up and
almost over the bars.
The beauty of a circuit is that you keep
coming up to the same corners so you
can improve your technique each and
every lap. That isn't just about shaving
tenths of a second off your times, it's
about gently coaxing your machine and
getting a feel for how it reacts and how
by changing your position on the seat –
forward and back and not just from side
to side – you get a different response.
What you need to be aware of is that
with little notable scenery about and wide
open spaces (unless you're at the
Nürburgring!), you will be travelling a lot
more rapidly than you think, so all input
into the brakes and
steering especially has
to be firm and sure
but gentle, lest the bike
be upset in its stance.
Once you are up to a
decent track speed you can
really begin to enjoy your bike.
A lightly modified road-going 600cc
steed in the Superstock category can lap
a track as quickly as a British Touring
Car racer on slick tyres, which is
staggering. If your road machine is a
top-range superbike, you can be safe in
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the knowledge that it will deliver that
sort of performance; it is here that the
difference between 160 and 180bhp
matters in a place other than a pub
argument. Give a bike its head on the
track and it will feel right at home,
which, with the potential to get into a
three-figure speed in first gear, it won't
on the Queen's Highway.
There are two schools of thought
about what happens when you have left
the track day and it is time to get back on
the straight and narrow homeward
bound. One school has it that you may
be tempted to travel at the same
TRACK DAYS
exaggerated speeds once back on public
roads, but the majority feel that the
opposite applies. Its fantastic to get that
speed out of your system, and you know
you've got nothing left to prove. Back to
James Whitham: 'once you have tried it
for yourself, you will still enjoy riding
on the road, but you won't have quite so
much of a need to go fast. And you will
have also found that you will have
honed your bike control by an
enormous amount, especially braking
safely from higher speeds and
generally getting a feel for your
particular mount. Once you get used
to knowing what it does at track pace,
you will be more aware of its limits
and what you have in reserve on the
road, and that can only make you a
better and ultimately safer rider'.
If there is one golden rule to bear
in mind with a track day it is not to
push beyond your own boundaries.
Build up to comfortable pace and soon
enough your speed will increase without
much effort on your part. Keep it steady
and you will gain enormously from the
experience. Crashes are quite rare on
such days, and you have much more
chance of running wide and going into
the gravel or onto the grass than you
have of being involved in a big accident,
as long as you keep your wits about you.
Back on the highway again, you can
revert to riding your machine in a more
sedate manner, but happy in the
knowledge that you will have extracted
more performance from it than you
could dream of on the road. And as for
your riding confidence, you can be sure
that the same skills you learned to brake
and turn hard on a circuit corner will
come in handy if by unlucky chance
someone forces you into taking evasive
action when they pull out on you. ●