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Here are some pics from my latest trackday at NJMP Thunderbolt with Penguin. I was on my way to a wedding in Baltimore, and I didn't want to transport my bike, so I got to be the rental-bike hero.  This was my first time at NJMP and I really enjoyed the track. The first half has a really good rhythm without any hard braking zones, but I really like the end section with the tricky T10 righthander into a long double apex left handed carousel. Coming out of 11 on the SS900 I was on, I could pretty much hold it wide open through 12, 13, and 14 onto the front straight. It was very rewarding to get the whole section right and blast through the last kink at WOT in 4th at full lean and sail by some big bikes. Getting through some traffic:  T11:  Getting a good line on T6:  T10 (I think):  Overall Penguin did a really good job, the instructors were very helpful, and there were a bunch of AMA pros (Pegram, Narbonne, Fong) hanging out as well since it was a week or two before their round there, so it was cool to talk to them. I definitely plan on coming back to this track next year; its a shame its like 6 hrs away from me. Slamburger fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Nov 1, 2010 |
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Nov 1, 2010 17:39
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Looking good out there! Especially considering you're on a borrowed bike. I love those massive frame sliders. 
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Nov 1, 2010 18:34
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Z3n posted:Honestly, if you're looking for a track only bike you're way better off picking up a pre modded one. You can spend 2300$ on an immaculate 06 model, and then immediately have to dump a grand into the suspension, plus track plastics, plus rearsets, plus everything else...or you can go out and spend 3k-3500$ and pick up a bike that's already built and ready to go with spares. BlackMK4 fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Nov 1, 2010 |
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Nov 1, 2010 20:50
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BlackMK4 posted:I'm not looking to jump right onto a racebike - it'd be more like buy it and ride it stock and slowly go GSXR front, ZX rear, rearsets/clipons and that would be the extent of it. Either way, just a pipedream right now since I am going back to school full time in January. The track was really slippery and I found myself questioning the rationality of full braking from 145-155mph off the main straight or skating the rear end all over under accel with a bike I still owe on. Ahh, I see. Yeah, the issue with that plan is that you tend to end up spending way more in the long run. Of course, I've done that plenty of times because I like tinkering, so there's advantages and disadvantages no matter how you do it. 
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Nov 1, 2010 21:01
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BlackMK4 posted:I didn't see your post until I got home Nope on both of those bikes. The R6 had full street lighting with blue tape, and was one of the slowest guys out there in superstreet. It was his first trackday though. The SV ended up getting black flagged 3 laps in thanks to leaking oil goddamn everywhere. He was intermediate and had a massive cloud behind him for those 3 laps, also he wasn't running any fairings/tail so it was just a black SV with a thrashed tank lol. We should meet up next time out, we've gone to the past 3 firebird days and are getting to know the regulars now.
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Nov 2, 2010 22:20
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Ah, I remember the SV. I was sitting in the ramada there with MY GIRLFRIEND when it went out; I saw the marshalls flip a poo poo when they noticed the oil spots. What are you riding? Definitely down to goonmeet next time. (wow, that sounds goony) edit: Also, slipper clutches are the loving poo poo. BlackMK4 fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Nov 3, 2010 |
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Nov 3, 2010 01:45
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Is anyone planning on heading up to Streets on the 20th or 21st? I was planning on trying a new track next time but either date fits the schedule right now.
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Nov 3, 2010 07:16
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Bugdrvr posted:Is anyone planning on heading up to Streets on the 20th or 21st? I was planning on trying a new track next time but either date fits the schedule right now. I'm going to be up there on the 21st. Driving up in a giant white Mercedes Sprinter van the evening of the 20th and will figure out a way to camp on-track or nearby. I have a black/red GSX-R750 trackbike, and my friend is on a yellow CBR600F4i. French Canadian fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Nov 4, 2010 |
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Nov 4, 2010 19:47
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I'll very likely be there on the 20th, blue SV650S, B group. You should be fine to camp out in the parking lot there, a lot of people do that.
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Nov 8, 2010 06:37
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I'll be doing my first track day at Carolina with STT next weekend, anyone in te area going or have experience there? There will be a pair of noobies on blue Ninjas towed by a matching Hyundai.
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Nov 11, 2010 06:05
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Any tips for working on line selection? I was at Jennings last weekend and my lines were definitely my biggest limiting factor. I'm completely comfortable carrying high speed and lean angle through corners...except for the fact that my lines suck. Even at Jennings, which is about as retarded simple as it gets (connect the dots) I was still screwing poo poo up. I don't know, just something about how my brain is wired seems to make it hard for me to keep reference points so my lines are never consistent and I can never determine how quickly I should turn in, how quickly to drift out after apexing, etc. Is there any other secret to choosing and holding a good line? Jennings has markers set up all over the track and if you point your bike at them you will be on the race line, but even so I was having problems. Kind of frustrated me when I was carrying a pretty drat quick pace going into turn 11 and screwed up my line. Had to lean it over so far that my peg was folded up and rear end was kicking out. Thank you DOT race tires for sliding in a predictable manner. After that everything kind of went to poo poo because I was afraid of carrying a lot of corner speed and dropping the ball on my line. Bleh.
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Nov 12, 2010 07:18
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One thing that improved my lines was committing to one steering input before the corner, and holding that line throughout the corner. Before that, I'd be making lots of midcorner corrections and it was making it difficult to improve because I wasn't getting consistent results. Same as driving a car, dial in your steering and then don't touch it again until you need to unwind the wheel (with some exceptions, like double apex turns).
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Nov 12, 2010 14:46
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Inu, You need to slow down. Slow down to the point that you can acquire consistent turn in, you know where you're braking, where you can hit the same mark on a corner at the same speed for every lap of a session. If you can't be consistent, you'll always be playing with a crash because you can't guarantee that you're going to need the same amount of lean angle. If you can't guarantee that you need the same amount of lean angle, then that's going to affect your throttle application midcorner and on exit. If you slow down, acquire proper reference points, then you're going to go slower for a few sessions or maybe a day, and then you're going to get a LOT faster, while simultaneously having a lot more control and potential line choice available. Fuzzy is absolutely dead on with the single steering input thing too. But in order to have a single steering input, you need to be consistent on your turn in, otherwise your consistent input will be at odds with your inconsistent turn in point. Also, you should plan your line through the corner before you get there. When you're approaching a corner, you should be thinking about your turn in point. Once you've mentally and visually commited to your turn in point, immediately move up to the next reference point (ie, the apex), and lock in your lean angle so that you'll hit that next point, and them immediately move on to the next one. You always want to have your vision and your mind one step ahead of where you are on the track, looking forward and up track as far as possible.
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Nov 12, 2010 18:38
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Thanks as always...great advice. I think next time I'll work with the CR's more too. Last 2 sessions I had my buddy drop down to N and tow me around with his GSXR and it helped a lot. I just followed his turn in points/line/shift points etc and it set me up to carry a lot more speed through turns.
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Nov 16, 2010 03:13
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Looks like the weather is going to be complete rear end at Streets of Willow this weekend. It is supposed to rain a lot on Saturday and 50% chance on Sunday. It will probably be windy and cold, as well. gently caress.
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Nov 19, 2010 20:14
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Indeed, weather was complete rear end. Freezing and windy. Track got a lot of rain at night, but dried out otherwise. Didn't stop my from tossing my bike up the bowl turn on opening lap of the 3rd session. I was unscathed but my bike took a few tumbles. Fairings are trash, and a gnarly dent in the gas tank. I think otherwise the bike is okay but I'll be damned if I'm going to put any money into fixing a $2400 bike. Argh argh argh argh argh...
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Nov 22, 2010 19:24
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Quite the opposite for my first track day at Carolina Motorsport Park in SC. 70 and not a cloud in the sky. While there was at least one wreck every hour I came out unscathed and with a huge grin on my face. The first thing I did when I got home was look at my bike and try to decide what I could take off to increase lean, the pic below shows what will be my first victim. SMP is a 2 mile 14 corner course, fairly tight and technical (or some I'm told) which gave my little 250 plenty of chance to hang with the bigger bikes. One thing that bugged me, the first few sessions were supposed to be no shifting, but that's just not possible on a ninjette which quickly lead to my biggest problem, over thinking down shifting. I wound up hitting the rumbles twice and going off track once on the last corner, that corner frustrated me every time, either going too wide or a slow exit speed. I got some good instruction from the instructor, I think working on corner entry and braking will be my biggest goals for next time. Other impressions: the 3 Ducatis in my group sounded amazing, I could barely hear / feel my bike near them. The only other close track is Savannah at 5 hours, Atlanta is 7 which seems just too far although it also sounds fun. Definitely need a trailer of my own, and will camp next time I go. I had to skip out on the 7th session of the day, at the end of 6 I was making a lot of mental errors and it probably would have been dangerous even with a break to go out again. e: On body positioning, I take it proper position should be easier with a true sport bike right? The ninjette is more a standard upright position with lower pegs. Basically your chest is closer to the tank and you're lower than where you see me below? And a single pic: 
giundy fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Nov 24, 2010 |
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Nov 24, 2010 06:29
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I think with tyres that size, you just hang off like a motherfucker. Assume that motherfuckers hang off a ridiculous amount. Basically you displace the mass of your body more to the inside so the bike itself doesn't have to lean over so far for a given rate of turn. The physics is all explained in my John Robinson big book of complicated equations related to motorcycles which I've probably lost. I really like SCMP. I remember coming through the really fast right at about turn 5 or 6, having the back come around on me at quite a rate of knots, and then having recomposed my anal sphincter and stifled a squeal, coming out of the corner to be greeted by a massive fireball. Some guy had just slid his GSX-R off the track, smashed the tank on the kerbing, and the bike had gone up like a torch. You don't expect fourth of july fireworks on corner exit - I was a bit taken aback. It was also about 100 degrees, my back tyre started to go off and the bike would slide at the back as soon as you got on the power (a bit like riding through treacle), then hook up as you sat it up and wheelie out of every corner. I decided to switch to Supercorsas after that, figuring it would only be fun until I had a massive highside. The Keith Code response would be that you shouldn't be worrying about braking (on a 250?), just identify your braking, turn in, apex and corner exit reference points and ride to them consistently. The last thing you do to go faster is try to outbrake yourself. Rather, ride to your reference points, decide how and where you can go quicker, and then move those points as necessary. Of those guys crashing every couple of sessions, I suspect very few of them will have been doing this!
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Nov 24, 2010 16:02
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giundy posted:e: On body positioning, I take it proper position should be easier with a true sport bike right? The ninjette is more a standard upright position with lower pegs. Basically your chest is closer to the tank and you're lower than where you see me below? Glad you had a good time at your first trackday! Welcome to the addiction... I know Z3n is going to come in here and say body position doesn't matter BLAH BLAH BALH but it really looks like you need to get your upper body to the inside of the bike (or maybe that picture is misleading). And worrying about tracking a bike with an upright riding position? It doesn't get more upright than tracking a sumo...  (Yes, I'm wearing honda leathers on a KTM what of it ) Honestly it's a little odd to really hang off a bike that has such low pegs and high bars, but it's doable. It's tough when you're REALLY off the bike because the pegs are so freakin low I have trouble keeping my foot on the outside peg. And because I love posting pictures of myself here's another 
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Nov 24, 2010 16:31
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giundy posted:On body positioning My suggestion as a good first step for you (based on your pic): Think about your hips and where they are pointing. As you move your butt out of the seat, you also need to "open" your hips and rotate them towards the inside of the corner. It appears from your pic that you are twisting your body into the bike as you move your butt off the seat. When learning, it's ok to hang your knee out like a sail even if you aren't going to be touching down any time soon because it will help you open up your lower body and get your hips pointed in the right direction.
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Nov 24, 2010 22:10
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I went to AX practice with Spiffness yesterday. I'm not very good, but I made it out of there with only minor injuries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d8RFlzYj_Q
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Dec 3, 2010 16:00
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giundy posted:Bwahahaha what are those boots? They are awesome and makes it look like you just came out of a bowling alley. :iamafag:
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Dec 3, 2010 20:32
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Those are the glorious Puma Bonneville. My favorite description of them has been "my lifestyle shoes". Going back to CMP in 2 weeks, anyone else starting the season early?
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Feb 21, 2011 03:44
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2011 track season has officially begun for me Went to Roebling with STT on the 27th. It was my first time riding with STT, and I was kind of surprised how lax their tech was. When I put the bike through tech the only thing they said to me was that I had a ziptie hanging loose in my fairings (it was being used to HID stuff that I took off for the track). After the first session I was checking my pressures and realized I didn't duct tape my wheel weights. Turns out one of the guys I was down there with hadn't taped his weights either. They never said anything to either of us nor did they even ask if I had water wetter in the bike. Aside from that, gently caress, Roebling is a FAST track. I was completely tapped out at 19000 RPM at brake marker 5 on the front stretch -- speedo was reading 173mph. That number is off by ~15%, but still. You can take the entire track in 3rd gear other than the one straightaway. I fixed the body positioning issues I was having at my last couple track days. I'm still rotating my hips a little, but I am actually leaning off enough so that I can use my knee as a lean angle indicator which is super nice. A'la Jennings and Tally my lines were still pretty bad. I'm hoping that will simply improve with seat time. My confidence is still a little shot from my crash at Tally and peg-scraping at Jennings, but I'm working on it.    Unfortunately with a such a fast track comes bad wrecks. We had two red flags in I and one red flag in A groups. The advanced group crash happened right at the turn where we were pitted. The bike's rear wheel was about 4 feet about the ground -- poor bike came down and flew into pieces. Rider was completely okay though. Had two ambulances take people to the hospital. One of the crashes was a 14 year old kid who went off right at the beginning turn 1...the fastest area of the track. I think he was one of the STT-sponsored riders, but he left the track in an ambulance  . lovely way to end the weekend, hoping he's alright.Overall I was still disappointed with my riding; I think I'm trying too hard to ride well and not crash that I'm messing up my lines and not having much fun. Hoping to get a couple of actual 2 day weekends in this year so I can keep working at it.
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Mar 1, 2011 05:19
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-Inu- posted:It was my first time riding with STT, and I was kind of surprised how lax their tech was.Turns out one of the guys I was down there with hadn't taped his weights either. They never said anything to either of us nor did they even ask if I had water wetter in the bike. Do most US trackday operators make you do that? Here they're just interested in tyres, brakes, throttle return, and that nothing is going to fall off or leak all over the track. I've never had to tape wheel weights at a trackday.
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Mar 1, 2011 07:06
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-Inu- posted:Went to Roebling with STT on the 27th. My room mate was there as well getting some track time before the race there that is coming up, black/red R6. I knew I should have signed up for the day but didn't.
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Mar 1, 2011 14:10
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2ndclasscitizen posted:Do most US trackday operators make you do that? Here they're just interested in tyres, brakes, throttle return, and that nothing is going to fall off or leak all over the track. I've never had to tape wheel weights at a trackday. What group was your roommate running Nitro?
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Mar 2, 2011 00:53
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-Inu- posted:What group was your roommate running Nitro? Not sure, I would guess intermediate or advanced. Would have been the red/black R6 with yellow/black stickers with number 406 on them. Apparently he had a good time but came back sick as hell and has been in bed since getting back. edit:He finally came out of his room last night, he was in advanced. NitroSpazzz fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Mar 3, 2011 |
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Mar 2, 2011 20:40
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-Inu- posted:The two big orgs on the east coast, STT and NESBA both require it. I don't know about elsewhere in the country. All of the providers I've ridden with in SoCal say to tape your lights and wheel weights, cover the speedo, pull brake light fuse, remove/tape mirrors. At tech they check the tires, throttle return, body parts and chain in tech. I've always had a near stock, newish street bike so they don't look too hard at my stuff I don't think For cars it's always been self tech _everything_
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Mar 3, 2011 22:33
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Anyone at Texas World Speedway tomorrow? Ill be the dude on the red sv650s that you keep running up behind and passing.
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Apr 8, 2011 21:40
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This poor thread. Is no one doing track days or racing this year? I went back to Jennings this past Sunday. It was nice going back to a track I was already familiar with as opposed to wasting sessions learning the track. We had planned to ride Monday as well, but it was incredibly hot, humid, and there was no cloud coverage. The heat was so bad that there was literally ONE PERSON on the track for an entire expert session after mid-day hit. I spent all day taking it easy and working on different things (lines, braking, body position, et cetera). I wasn't pushing myself more than about 70% all day and was doing mid-pack intermediate pace, so I can't complain about that. Never went into a turn too hot or had any "oh poo poo" moments. During parts of the track where you should be WOT I was at maybe 70-80% throttle. Basically just rode around at my own pace for seat time, since I haven't really had the money to do many trackdays. I know where I can make up an incredible amount of time, but I figure as I ride more and my confidence builds I'll naturally push it harder. Also, holy jesus rearsets make such a tremendous difference. Just for fun: October 2010  February 2011  May 2011  
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May 31, 2011 07:40
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Going to do a gentle trackday (English summer weather permitting) on 4th of June. A buddy's taking my CBR out in the novice group and I'm going to circulate in my usual relaxed fashion in the intermediates. It will be interesting - the bike came with BT012s, the front item being so horrible that I replaced it with a cheap, barely used race take-off rennsport. The front end is now much nicer on the street, but I'm not sure what that combination's going to be like on the track. I just hope my buddy doesn't decide to get heroic with the throttle around the final hairpin. I haven't completed my collection of pre-crashed bodywork yet, for one thing, having been dicking with jetting and a Factory Pro kit instead. If I get a chance to ghetto-paint the fairing lowers, I have some suitably dumb stickers to put on them, including at least one which should meet with the approval of CA. I tried to find a suitable set of Hello Kitty ones, but no dice.
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May 31, 2011 10:07
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-Inu- posted:This poor thread. Is no one doing track days or racing this year? Yeah, can't wait to see more trackday reports now that summer's here for you US folk. We just had our last trackday before winter and it was awesome.  It was an awesome day but man there was some carnage. It was a cold morning so people knew to take the first session slow... And then they went apeshit in the second. Seriously, six crashes and a red flag inside of 3 laps. I was one of them  because I ran off track trying to avoid some clown on a Daytona who lowsided in front of me.So I slid off on the wet grass next to the track, picked the bike up and rode through the pits, stopping to check for damage. All good! I went back out, joining the tail end of a bunch of riders in turn 1... And one of them gets launched to the moon by his 848! Guy wasn't moving, jut lying there in the middle of the track. They red flagged the session and sent out the ambulance. Thank gently caress he was just unconscious. He came round eventually and seems to have escaped with just a broken collar bone. Anyway, the 20 minutes people spent waiting for the track to reopen seemed to calm everyone down and the rest of the day was fantastic.
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May 31, 2011 12:34
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I think I will be headed to little tally with x-act late June then again at a later date with STT. Getting the CRF prepped for gap/track duty now.
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May 31, 2011 13:08
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VIR 6/11-12 and Road Atlanta 7/2-3 Need to figure out how to perf my suit to try not to nearly pass out like I did last July. Brutal summers. Spring and fall are so much more pleasant to do these in.
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May 31, 2011 16:59
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NitroSpazzz posted:I think I will be headed to little tally with x-act late June then again at a later date with STT. Getting the CRF prepped for gap/track duty now. Hit me up if you do decide to go. I'll come chill and pit bitch for you.
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May 31, 2011 17:04
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lokigoesrawr posted:VIR 6/11-12 and Road Atlanta 7/2-3 frozenphil posted:Hit me up if you do decide to go. I'll come chill and pit bitch for you.
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May 31, 2011 17:16
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I'm considering taking the KTM out to streets of willow for giggles. Haven't decided on a time or date yet, the bike's just too much fun to ride on the street and offroad for me to feel like I really need a trackday just yet.
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May 31, 2011 17:17
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Z3n posted:I'm considering taking the KTM out to streets of willow for giggles. Haven't decided on a time or date yet, the bike's just too much fun to ride on the street and offroad for me to feel like I really need a trackday just yet. I wanna see that, so if you do.. please tell me.
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May 31, 2011 22:34
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| # ? May 14, 2024 11:46 |
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Yeah post before you go, I love Streets and I haven't been to a bike track day since the rainy one we went to last time
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Jun 1, 2011 06:25
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