Noob in VA

Hey all, so I've been riding on the street for about 10 years and always wanted to go to the track "one day" but I've always come up with convenient excuses (most based off of bad or incomplete information) to push it off. Well, last year I bought a house and came to find out that my neighbor across the street is a bit of a track junkie.

I went to a race weekend at Summit Point with him last month and have decided to pull the trigger!

One of my biggest concerns has been a fear that I may drop my bike on the track and be on the hook for replacing it. It is what it is though, and I realize now that I'm far more likely to have an off on public roads. If I DO drop it... well that's just an excuse to get race plastics and convert it to a track only bike!

I'm a long time CBR lover but I've been on an RSV-4 for the past five years. When I threw my CBR off the side of the mountain down at Deals Gap I ended up picking up the Aprilia as a replacement. The sticker prices were so close between the CBR1000RR and the RSV-4 that it was a no-brainer. So now I get to be a slow rider on a fast bike ^_^

I look forward to getting spanked by guys on the 600's!
 

tdelegram

Control Rider
Welcome aboard F-monkey! Regarding your concern about crashing, the chances are no greater than on the street and most likely lower all things equal. Where people get in trouble is riding above their head and not implementing feedback they get from the coaches. Since you have some experience from the street you also most likely have some bad habits that will need to be corrected to achieve a safe faster pace. I would recommend you look into the atp courses and try to do one on Saturday then spend Sunday implementing and reinforcing the good stuff. Regardless, ride you’re ride at a comfortable pace listen to the coaches
and you’ll be fine. We all started where you’re at so feel free to continue to post up questions. Finally go to the n2 site where you register and read the riders manual, it will help you make some sense of your first day so every thing isn’t a blur.

Tom
 
Good morning Tom,

Yeah, I'm sure I've got some bad habits hidden in there! Though, honestly I'd *like* to think they aren't too terrible since I've taken more MSF courses than I can remember (to include the sport bike specific ones) while I was in the military. I'm mentally approaching it the same way I've looked at autocross, in that I am not interested in competing with the other riders/drivers. Rather I view it as a good opportunity to improve on my own skill and hopefully bring my own lap times down.

I assume that the ATP is different from the Race Licensing school that's being held on July 6th, how would I sign up for an ATP specifically? I don't see an option for that though I have registered for the track day on the 6th. I am definitely interested in attending the ATP course!

I was looking through your toy list and I see you're a fellow FD owner, good show! Sadly mine has been down since 2013 when my T-stat worked itself loose coming home from DGRR, nothing like dumping an entire oil pan of oil on the highway! Now that the wife is graduated/working and I've got a grown-up job I can finally afford to get her back on the road.. All it needs is all new wiring (front body harness, dash harness, engine loom), a new ECU (thinking Motec M84), a new mani/DP (because EFR), and the list goes on.. Thankfully rebuilding a keg is pretty straight forward so I was able to strip it down, replace the munched internals, and slap it all back together myself without much hassle. Ah, the joys...

Cheers,

Fenda (Levi)
 

bmart

Control Rider
Welcome! Consider a 600 to start on. It has plenty of HP & you will develop your skills much quicker than on a larger size. Come say hi when you get rolling! I'm primary in the southeast.
 
Hey Brad,

Yeah, I'd really prefer to start on a 600 in all honesty. If I had the extra funds than I'd happily pick up a CBR600RR as a track bike, that was the first bike I owned and I friggin' LOVE them! However, financially it seems like a bad purchase to make before I even do my first track day. Eventually I'd like to have a dedicated track bike, but for now I'll have to be satisfied with bringing my street bike onto the track.

I fully agree that I'd probably pick up skills more effectively if I started with a lower hp bike, since I wouldn't be able to compensate for mistakes in the twisties by just blasting down the straights. I may be able to get the wife (boss) to ok a track bike this coming winter...

I'll be going to the Summit Point event on the 6th of July, so if you're there than I'm sure we'll meet! Most likely I'll be riding up and pitting with Jaycee (the ginger country boy that rides a gixxer), he seems to know everybody! lol
 

darth nater

Staff member
Control Rider
N2
Welcome. I'll be there helping on 7/6 at Summit. Don't be afraid to ask the director, coaches, or staff if you need any help. We are there to ensure your first day is successful (safe and fun).

In regards to ATP, currently there is not one scheduled for 7/6 at Summit which is why you don't see it. It is definitely different than the Race Licensing School. For more info on ATP, you can give the following link a read. I'll pass along your interest to our ATP staff in case they are able to make it available.

https://www.n2td.org/atp/

Look forward to seeing you out there!
 
Hey Nate,

Sounds good man! Yeah, I'm definitely not bringing an ego with me and I've got no shame about asking for help and/or admitting that I'm a newb :) I figure that it's hard to learn something new when you think that you already have the answers!

Hmm, the main calendar has the 6th marked with both the ATP and RACE tags. That stinks that they don't have anything setup for ATP right now :( Yeah, if they end up making one available than I'd happily jump in on it!

Right now I think I'll just be there on Saturday, as I'm sure my wife will be pretty pissed if I'm gone all Sunday as well since that's usually our day to get everything prepped for the week. Leaving her stuck home with chores while I'm out playing would be a quick way to a pissed off wife! Def don't want that, lol
 

TimTheAsian

Fresh off the Boat
Staff member
Control Rider
Leaving her stuck home with chores while I'm out playing would be a quick way to a pissed off wife! Def don't want that, lol

You may want to rethink this hobby then :)

JKKKKKK. Look forward to seeing you out there.
 

darth nater

Staff member
Control Rider
N2
Hmm, the main calendar has the 6th marked with both the ATP and RACE tags. That stinks that they don't have anything setup for ATP right now :( Yeah, if they end up making one available than I'd happily jump in on it!

You are right. Originally they were planning on ATP at Summit but due to the 3 event weekend (Pitt, Summit, and Road Atlanta) we wanted to make sure that the neither the track day or ATP would be sub-par and not meet expectations. So they decided to pull back on the ATP (I updated the system accordingly, so schedule should now be accurate). There are plenty of opportunities to take ATP and believe me when I say ATP gives you A LOT to think about (I just took it a couple of weeks ago). I think you would be perfectly fine just doing the day and learning how a track day works as that will be plenty for one day and then coming back to do ATP in the near future. I can't recommend ATP enough and you should definitely do it, but doing 1 or 2 days before isn't going to set you back.

Look forward to seeing you and if you have any questions keep asking them here!
 
Right on, either way I'll be there and I'm sure it'll be a good time!! So long as a deer doesn't come out of the infield and decide to commit suicide by bike!! >_<
 

HondaGalToo

Control Rider
Welcome, F-monky! Great decision to bring it to the track. You'll learn a lot of skills that will also help make you a safer rider on the street as well. I'll be there July 6/7. Look me up, I'll most likely be coaching in the Novice group! GSXR 600, black with red flames, number 75.
 
Welcome, F-monky! Great decision to bring it to the track. You'll learn a lot of skills that will also help make you a safer rider on the street as well. I'll be there July 6/7. Look me up, I'll most likely be coaching in the Novice group! GSXR 600, black with red flames, number 75.


Sounds good, I will thanks!!
 

Motofun352

Control Rider
Another thing we do for folks who get on the track for the very first time is dedicate a control rider for them for the the first two sessions. We practice the critical actions and safety procedures like how to pit in off the track, go over hand signals and answer all the questions you may have. The first day can seem to be over whelming but by lunch you'll be an old hand. As Tom said, we all started the same way.
 

chrisplm

Chris
600s are excellent track bikes, but the RSV4 is a great bike as well, its quite a bit heavier than the 600's, but it is a stable chassis, and they sound amazing! (In my opinion :)) I've been on mine for about 5 years.
I'll be at Summit July 6/7th as well, feel free to come by and say Hi!
Chris.
 
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