Advice for newbie

Hi folks/track day veterans....

Do any of you have advice for a newbie doing a trackday taster?

I'm guessing as it's a taster the pace is going to be slow and the safety rules "comprehensive" so we don't hurt ourselves but what advice would you give that could make the day more enjoyable?

Cheers

where are you doing it ?

Prepare the bike 2 weeks prior. Bring lots of food, snacks, and at least a gallon of water. Get good sleep 2 and 3 days prior cause the night before you won't be able to.

tyre pressures should be 28-30psi cold for street tyres on track and set with a calibrated gauge. The best rider on the best suspension will crash if the tyre pressures are off.

Go to have fun. Take your time and don't try to be a hero. It's the safest place to enjoy the bike capabilities but build up your speed slowly as you learn the track. If there is free instruction use it. Main thing is have fun, it really is the best fun. If it's wet be super smooth with all your inputs.




Oh and if you get a chance to stuff an instructor up the inside take it

Oulton is a great track and one the SD goes well at. Enjoy!

as klinck said oulton is a good track. what tyres are you using ?

are you doing the 16th as i might be there myself

This may be sacrilege, but the best advice I ever received for track days was "remember, this is not a race." Its a track day. There are no podiums. No trophies. The best outcome you can have is to take you and your bike home in one piece.

I once watched a guy wad his bike right in front of me. No big deal, stuff happens. But the fact that he did it on the second lap (first flying lap) of the day was pure stupidity. I knew he was going to wad it up when he zoomed past me. He was going in way to hot - just because he had to pass me (and frankly, I'm a somewhat late braker). He got to sit the rest of the day out and I got to warm my tyres up and start doing hotter and hotter laps.

So, just take the time to learn the track. Let your tyres warm up before you start pushing and, most important of all, have fun! If you are not having fun, you are doing something wrong.

I had never heard of a trackday taster so I googled it.

20 mins of queuing to sign on
20 mins (if you are lucky) of queuing to noise test
20 mins of boring waffle safety briefing

All for 1 x 20 minute session on track, less 3 laps of pootling along playing baby duck doing the ducks and drakes nonsense.

To me, this isnt so much introducing newcomers to the pastime as an attempt to get in the Guiness book of records for maximum boredom in a single hour.

A winter trackday costs less than 100 quid most places for 6 / 7 sessions. No one puts a gun to your head and makes you do all the sessions. However, if you are going to put yourself through the bullshit hour first you may as well give yourself the option to enjoy the rest of the day.

Just sayin.

just get out there these are fun bikes for it, don't over think it

Around these parts a taster is what you get to get you hooked and lining up for more. Is probably closer to the truth at the track too. It's exactly what you don't know yet that all the fuss in your head is about. After three laps on the merry-go-round you'll forget about all that wasted pretending and overshoot turn 11 Go have fun and lay all those worries to rest. I seem to remember that Oulten Park was Nielle MacKenzies first win. Have a great day.

I had similar questions for my not-so-long ago first trackday. Some great advice from members here:


Have fun, ride within your comfort!

Some really good advice and words of encouragement, that thread above was an interesting read too

Looking forward to it even though the weather is pegged to be 'orrible. I'l try and remember what you guys have said, I'm aiming to go back and do more so gotta keep it in 1 piece for that..

Had my first track day the other week. Had a great time!

I went out on my street suspension settings at first, then dialled in the sport settings later which made a good improvement.

Give your tyres 2 laps to warm before pushing them.

If you do a whole day it can be exhausting and fatigue can hit you. I chose to end the day early when I started to make small mistakes and loose some focus. (listen to your body)

Have fun!

People only mention to make sure your tyres are warmed up. While this is very important, your suspension needs to warm up too. Your first session out will be complete shit, don't push the bike all that hard the first session.

Don't try to keep up with the fast C group riders. Some of them are sand bagging and should be in B group, but ride C to get more open track, sort out their bike settings, or to have fun buzzing the noobs. Just stay mid pack or back of the pack unless its boringly slow. Also, some track days have instructors that go out with C group, try to get on one of their tails to learn the lines. I see so many noobs that thrash around trying to go fast and miss every breaking point, only to make up for their mistake with more throttle out of the turn. You're not really building up much skill by doing that. In fact, you just piss people off behind you by being so completely erratic, and scaring them to go slower thinking you're about to bin it (which usually happens). If they offer classes in between sessions, make sure you go because the instructor will point out where the breaking markers are. Once you can comfortably find all the markers, then pick up the pace. I think of it like playing pac-man in real life, where you want to collect all the dots, in this case the markers are the dots. Nearly every crash in C group is because the rider did not know the line and overshot the turn. Some tracks have a suspension guru that will sort out your settings as well for a small fee. It's more than worth it to get your bike properly setup and balanced.