Heading out to the Cathedral of Speed

[Nightbat]

Well, time to hopefully not put my new tracksuit out to the test

There's a yearly day at the TT track of Assen called the "Racing day" with a weekend filled with various races and demonstrations (bikes, carts, cars)
That I've been attending for the past 10 years (hey, it's free )
put my my vacation after the end of that weekend and planned 2 trackdays, first without instructions, second a course

Apart from the weather that could go wrong, my bike is vibrating under braking, sweating fluids and has a rattling camshaft chain tensioner
..this is gonna be fun

[Rsmacker]

"If you see me ridin' by, Do not stop me do not try.
Cause I'm a Motorcycle Maaaa-aaan" etc etc.

I bet that tarmac was lovely and sticky, I hope you had a great day.

[VitaminG]

dude. Looks like an awesome day out

[clifffclaven]

Beautiful. The chicane at assen is pure art when a stream of bikes go thru it.

[Nightbat]

Well ended day 1 on a high
Bike held up great, the old beasty didn't disappoint
Mirrors and licenseplate off and she still was the superbike they advertised her as
10 years and 50k miles ago

Got pretty lucky with the weather
1 session on a wet track and one session with the last 2 laps in a drizzle
Gotta admit my amateurism left me pretty exhausted, but technique is someting I hope to address tomorrow with an instructor to assist
Alas, the report for that day's weather is Bad
But we'll see how things go then

[Nightbat]

And wet it turned out to be

Luckily I was running on street/sport tires while some were on street/race and were slipping all over the track
Didn't prevent me from getting the best workout my sphincter ever had, keeping my buttcheeks clenched together everytime I rolled on the power
and there was no discussion about lean angles, without dedicated track rain tires, there simply wasn't the possibility
Had forgotten my anti-fog screen, so that didn't help either when the right side of the visor starts steaming up,.. in a right hand corner

4th heat was half with marshall and half free ride, but conditions deteriorated to the point I lost faith in the grip my bike had, that I
decided to start the 5th (last) session's warm up laps, and if it was as bad or worse, would go in, I headed for the paddock after the first of these
Rather lose a few already spent bucks than my bike


but all in all it was a great experience, I did manage to get my lines better, and still amazed at the amount of braking power that's possible, even in the wet
and the fact of having a marshall set the pace the first 3 heats, kept me (and most) keeping the rubber side down
If I had went out in these weather conditions 2 days earlier without a marshall, I'd probably went home without being able to do the 2nd day, and without a bike
To put it in perspective: Tuesday, my best avg speed was 107km/h one lap around Assen, not once had the idea of losing grip
On thursday, already gotten used to the layout, and with instructions, my best avg speed was 94km/h and that reaaallly wasn't fun having the rear tire break out on several occasions



Pics from last Thursday




...and here 2 pics from the tuesday before