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You’re probably looking at a minimum of around $500, more at most shops. Unless you know somebody who does automotive painting, it’s not a cheap endeavor.

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Eon: always saying what I’m too inarticulate to express.

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You’re going to completely change the steering geometry of the bike. When making adjustments to a bike at the track, engineers and mechanics usually make adjustments to fork length (actually they just raise or lower the forks into the triple clamp) in millimeters.

What you’re going to do is increase the effective rake (angle) of your forks, but because you’re not changing that angle at the steering head, you’re also tilting the whole bike backwards a bit. In theory, more rake means greater stability at the cost of poorer maneuverability (more resistance to turning, more effort on the bars to make a turn). I’m afraid I don’t know what other side effects your fork extensions might have.

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Like I said in my original post, I am 100% in agreement with your message. I really was just nitpicking the way you chose to express that one idea. I think a lot of people just don’t get how much fun you can have with (and how much there is to learn about) everything OTHER than the right-hand grip.

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First off, I’m sorry to hear you had a spill and I (think I) speak for everybody here when I say I’m glad that you made it out relatively alright!

It goes without saying that if you suffered major road rash, you should start by thinking about upping the coverage of your gear. Without getting into a “how much gear is appropriate” feud, I think that wearing more gear and building confidence in its ability to protect you will go a long way towards helping you lose any psychological baggage you’re keeping around from your crash. I know I gain a TON of confidence knowing that if I fall, at least I’m not going to lose skin.

Solid motorcycle pants (not chaps…which leave your butt unprotected), preferably with some sort of knee armor, riding boots (again, armored is better), a jacket with a minimum of shoulder and elbow armor, and a full-face helmet are the things to get you back on your feet. If you don’t like wearing all that gear, you can slowly start taking it off once you get your confidence back. I think you’ll find that you won’t want to, and I suggest you don’t, but to everybody has a right to their preference.

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Madjak, you offer a lot of great advice, and I agree with the spirit of what you’re saying, but I have to nitpick the way you got this point across:

“Am I faster than any car out there? Nope, I got beat by an Escalade the other day…I’m sure the guy told his buddies that he beat a “sport bike”, but my bike may be “sporty looking” but not a sport bike…similar to the Ninja…low power, but extreme fun!!”

Here’s the thing. You, or anybody, will get desensitized to straight-line speed really fast. I mean, really fast. On my first track day I was running down the main straight at 100 mph with the throttle at 40% and I was pumping adrenaline. By the end of the day, I was pinning it at 150+ and not sweating it at all. I ride a GSX-R (among other things), and I regularly catch myself thinking “man, I wish I had some more horsepower.” Straight-line speed is not the litmus test for anything…unless you’re drag racing.

Your GS, Madjak, is not “low power.” It’s “low power” for a BIKE, but in terms of power to weight ratio, it’s pretty damn quick! You have more power on tap per pound than an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, and that’s at sports car rocking 460 horsepower! Your GS has TWICE the power-to-weight ratio of an Escalade, so if you get “beat by an Escalade,” I’m afraid you can chalk it up to either safe restraint (my hope) or your own riding. Why am I harping on this? It’s because I hear it all the time: “my ____ doesn’t have a lot of power.” It used to be that bikes like your GS were considered the “big bikes” and the 250R would have been considered a “middleweight.” People need to be more aware that they’re talking about 250-450 pound vehicles here. 47 horsepower on a bike is a good chunk!

Lots of people get desensitized to the power of their car, bike, etc. while trundling around on the street. Then (assuming they’re executive vice presidents of DoofCo) they go buy a Mustang, then upgrade to a GT-R, and then a 911 Turbo with 500 horses. What I want to make clear is that you could put a local club racer against your average street driver on the track, put him on my Ninja 250R and the street driver in a 500hp sportscar, and the street driver’d get WHOOPED! If you know how to ride, your ability to go fast increases regardless of what you ride, as does your confidence, your safety margin, and your enjoyment. Unless you want to be the guy with the 130hp bike who floors it to 60mph on the freeway onramp and then nails the brakes and cruises the superslab, it makes a lot more sense TO ME to learn to go fast (or safe, or well, or whatever your goal is) on a “slow” bike than to be the guy going slow on the “fast” bike.

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Damn supersports cost an arm and a leg to insure. Then again, no insurance means I can only ride on the track…which is ok

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Yes, but don’t let her hear me say so

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1) Yes, I’m a Ninja 250R owner. I’ve had a 2008 model since late 2007. I also own a track bike (a GSX-R600) and a supermoto bike. While I may sell the Ninja in the next six months or so, it will be for space and money reasons. If I had my choice, I’d keep it forever.

Will you get bored? I don’t know. That has more to do with how concerned you are with learning to ride really well vs. going fast in a straight line. I know lots of people at the track that ride super fast bikes very slowly. That’s a reflection of not really knowing how to ride and not knowing the limits of their bike. So, will you want more power after a year? Probably. Do you NEED more power, and will you have tons and tons of fun on a 250R for many more years? Absolutely. You know yourself better than anybody (I hope), so try to figure out whether you’ll be willing to restrain the urge to accelerate meaninglessly to a super-low speed limit on a bike that’s more expensive, harder to insure, and more difficult to ride.

2) Most people do crash or drop their bikes at some point. I never have (on the road anyway). If you are prudent, patient, and you practice a lot, you can reduce the risk of any such incident dramatically. Drops are always a risk until you know how to manage the weight of the bike, but the lighter and lower your bike is, the less likely you are to drop it. Heavier bikes with higher seats will make it MUCH harder to prevent a tip if the weight of the bike gets away from you. As far as crashing on the street goes, don’t be an idiot. The rest is down to blind luck.

3) You get over this very quickly. A couple of rides and you’ll be fine.

5) It is very hard to stall a bike. You probably won’t ever stall once you’ve learned. In fact, I doubt you’ll stall by the second day of your safety course. Even weenie bikes have much better power-to-weight than cars, so stalling is much less likely.

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Amen to that. Too much work!

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They book out only when the reasonably short-term weather forecast says sun. However, the “relaxed” group is usually the most full, and if any group sells out, it’s that one. I wouldn’t worry about booking one of the late summer or early fall track days if that’s what you have your sights on at the moment. Those are a long way out.

I completely understand about money, and honestly you don’t want to push yourself. Especially if you ride down to the track, you’ll want to factor in the possibility of a flat or for some reason needing new tires, etc. Going into a track day without a spare dollar in your wallet can be dangerous, and I’ve learned that the hard way.

That said, don’t worry about being “slow.” The relaxed group is usually made up of 80-95% of people like you: people that think they’re slow, that have never been to the track, and who find themselves going 110mph down the straights by the end of the day. The other 5-20% are people who have been to many track days and don’t feel the need to go any faster. There’s a middle-aged woman on a GSX-R750 who is regularly the slowest person on the track…but she’s there every day. She just rides her own pace, like she should. There are actually quite a few people in the relaxed and intermediate groups (myself included) riding supermoto bikes that top out at 80mph and have less horsepower than your bike. So seriously, speed is not something to worry about. Passing is also restricted in non-expert groups, so you shouldn’t be getting stuffed in corners.

Also, do let me know if you head down. I’ve accumulated hundreds of dollars in “supplies” to make life easier and I’ll have them all with me at each track day (all of those on the 2-Fast calendar). In particular, I always carry spare oil (non-synthetic and synthetic), brake fluid, a full tool kit including torque wrenches and brake bleeding tools, tire pressure gauge and sometimes an air tank, ez-up tent-cover-thing (great for rain/sun alike), folding chairs, cooler full of drinks, etc. I like sharing. Enough said

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One tip to you to keep the image from spilling over the side: when your image is going to be big, add a “width” attribute inside your image tag. Maximum width for images is around 660, so your new tag would look like (not including angle brackets):

img src=”[URL_OF_IMAGE]” width=”660″

Cool?

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I don’t have NEARLY enough street-riding experience to really have skill predicting what is to come. I mean, I’d register obvious clues in the landscape and long-range vision, but I definitely don’t know how to “read a road” really well, at least not beyond what I can see.

I guess that’s what I assumed, with regard to line taken. In terms of visibility and navigating a road you haven’t seen, the line you guys take through 5 and 6 (that left-right S on the backside) definitely makes more sense than the “racing” line. Oddly enough, I think it’s arguably worse (from the point of view of safety, not traversal speed) if you DO know where the road goes…but then again that wasn’t the point of the course, was it?

Still, sounds like a lot of fun and a great learning experience. If it were free, I’d definitely do it. These things tend to be pretty pricey though, so I’ll have to think twice before shelling out the dough.

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Sounds like somebody needs to come out this summer *wink wink, nudge nudge*

2-Fast Track days

Eh? Eh? I could ride my DR-Z in the relaxed group.

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Despite being DOT approved, you’d be crazy to run DOT race tires on a street bike. A friend of mine does, but that’s because he’s a penny-pinching cheapo, and got a deal on Michelin Pilot Race tires as they got phased out. At least from what I can tell, they’re a lot closer to slicks than your standard “high-performance” street tire (e.g., pilot power 2CT, battlax bt-016, etc.). They take longer to warm up, and have much shorter lifespans, but give you a lot more grip if you get them hot enough.

You running warmers? I can’t afford them, or more importantly, a generator, at the moment, but damn I wish I could. Two squirrely warm-up laps every session is killing me.

How’s the first race season going? We haven’t heard much about it from you…I’m really curious!

I don’t know if I’ll have money for it, but I might try to hit up that Saturday trackday on August 28th after my orientation week. I’ll let you know in advance if I can make it happen. Either way, I’ll have to drop by and geek out over bikes while I’m there.

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