Back to RDT with Turn2
Oooo… Look at those pretty.. loud.. supermotos
Weekend at Cayuga with Turn2
A full weekend at the track, Aug 25 and 26.
I know why I keep crashing!
Shannonville Fabi with Rider’s Choice
The little 125 returns to Shannonville.
Made the trip with Marlon and Claire. We hauled their trailer with my truck. We camped out Friday night on the Nelson side then Saturday morning moved camp to the Fabi side of the track.
I had one dramatic detour through through the grass, although after a little off roading off corner 2 I made back on to the track for corner 3. Things didn’t end so well next time I went off roading and ended up head first in the tire wall past corner 4. Over all it was a good day of learning and some great feedback from other track riders.
“Do you know how long Blackie has been riding? (AT ALL, not talking just track days)? Answer: 6 weeks!! I think she’s doing fine, and getting better every day. Darn good of Blackie to get right back on the horse that kicked her off, too.”
Thanks Brian
“I can attest to Blackies skills! I would have guessed she had been riding alot longer than that! I saw her hangin off her 125 pretty good, I was in the same group she was in! Great riding…and how hard core is it that as soon as she goes down I see her and her friends gettin the bike back in order to get back out there! Good for you, keep at it!”
Thanks Mogwai and indeed my spectacular crew!
..and Bernard, you bloody paparatzi!
Mosport RDT with Turn2 and Motoress
Met many fantastic people. Learned a lot. With the help of an impromptu mechanics team, we put my crashed bike back on the truck with the use of a screw from a wooden bench.
Met Johnny 
Vintage racing on the big track. A few people came over to the small track to say hi.
Got LOTS of wonderful help and tips from the Motoress crew. The leading lady Vicki was very supportive and enthusiastic, it was such a fun and welcoming atmosphere. Vicki told me she thinks I plain and simple out-grew my bike already, and should look into getting something bigger and more track friendly. Already??
GoLo or go home
Sat Jul 28/07
For my second track day on the 125 I went to Shannonville for the annual party track day extravaganza put on by Golo Racing.
[nggallery id=3]
My first track day
Saturday July 7th was my first ever track day on my bike. My thoughts? …must.. have.. more track time…
This day was so much fun! The baby CBR did beautifully on the track. Every one with Turn 2 was great and very helpful and the day ran smoothly.
I started off pretty nervous.. excited, but nervous. Sharing the track with bigger and faster bikes/riders was a bit intimidating, although every one was very good about passing me safely. A couple guys led me around the track and offered great pointers and instructions, thank you Phil and Mark! (and every one else who contributed advice). I essentially had the bike in 3rd all the way around the track all day long and focused on lines, turning, and some breaking. The bike would hit the rev limiter on both “streights” and would bog a little comming out of turn 7 (uphill hairpin) but staying in 3rd was sufficient.
Towards the end of the day I was the only bike left on the track (yayyy private track!!). My footpegs and stand were scraping and caused a couple hairy moments, but all was good… untill pretty much the LAST lap of the LAST session just before I was gonna get flagged to come in. Footpeg cought turn 1 and this time around lowsided the bike.
I basically need a new shift lever and the handle bar took a little beating. The frame sliders and the fugly turn signals (which survived, those things are increadible) kept the rest of the bike pretty much untouched.
Here’s a vid from the begining of the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_juVfyZWks
And a vid from some time after the lunch break, the scraping begins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKP07i9MAhU
I need to get the shifter fixed and the bike is good to go.
I also need to do something about those footpegs and kickstand. We tried trackside (before the slide ofcourse) swapping the footpegs for the passenger footpegs as they’re a little shorter and have angled ends, but they’re not swapable. They’re held in by different sized pins. So I’m looking at getting rearsets.
I was told that I should take the kickstand off next time and get a rear stand for the bike.
Oh yeah.. and tires. These ones did just fine (I think). The only problems I have experienced were caused by the foot pegs dragging and making the rear wheel skip on occation. I will look into picking up a set of Pirelis although I’m still not sure if that’s necessary. Once the foot peg issue is resolved I’m not sure just how much more the oem tires could give.
Over all however this has been a fabulous experience. I have to highly recommend coming out to the track with your bike to any one, just get over how intimidating it all seems at first, it really isn’t once you dip your feet in. Some people have said they want to ride on the street for a year or two before coming to the track, but I think they’re completely missing out a great learning experience. I learned so much about how my bike handles and what and how I should do on the bike to make it go how I want it to. It is so much easier to concentrate on learning to ride your bike well without having to always thing about any cars, or pedestrians, making sure I don’t go past they yellow line, the curb, intersections, traffic lights… and putting around in a parking lot sure doesn’t compare either since that parking lot ends eventually, has gravel, pot holes, parked cars, and lamp posts to watch out for. I will be highly recommending this to all of my riding friends.
Arriving at the track
Turn 1 of the RDT track
Turn 1 again
Left footpeg and kickstand took the most beating from the scraping and eventually the low side... bent shifter
Right footpeg got a little scrape action
First official CBR125R meet and first pull over experience all in one day!
Shaun and I organized the first ever Toronto meet for the all new CBR125R at Woodbine and 16th.
Running a little late as usual, I decided to take the DVP. Unfortunately, I got pulled over on the on ramp and was told my M2 does not allow me to go on the highway. I was under the impression that restriction was only for the 400 series highway, and didn’t think twice about it since I have already been on the 401..and at night! 
Oh the horror.
The officer told me to go ahead so that I wouldn’t have to make some weird U-turn on the ramp and just get off on the next exit. Good thing I did. When I exited and came to a stop at the red light, the cruiser pulled up beside me. Buggers were making sure I did what I was told to do.
CBR125R Rider Training Program
I took the delivery of my own CBR less then a week ago and oh so very eagerly I went up to King City on a very early Saturday morning for the CBR125R Rider Training Program put on for free by Honda.
Finally, my first bike has arrived.
Aint she purdy!
On Monday June 11th, 2007 at 3pm I took posesion of my first motorcycle! A beautiful, shiny, red Honda CBR 125 R.
On Wed Jun 13th I went for my first ever ride on the street with Ninja Sean. We rode down to Simon’s house to pick up a set of frame sliders for my bike.
One happy camper