Big Track, Little Ninja.

I have been working hard to align life around getting more track time. At my last kart track day I decided that I was done with testing. Both me and the bike were ready enough to venture out to a bigger pond for my little bike to swim in. I created a separate event calendar at work to use specifically to keep an eye out for track days, races and other motorcycle events. I compare it to my work calendar regularly and found the slimmest of windows open for me to get some track time in. I decided on a TrackXperience Track day at the streets of Willow for the Ninja Race Machine!

The scene of chaos leading up to the big day. I packed the car up in the afternoon the day before after spending the whole week getting ready. I planned on leaving early in the morning instead of going up the night before the track day. I went up the night before for my California Superbike School day and found it very helpful to get to the track early. Unfortunately traffic made the 2 hour drive a 3 and a half hour one. To avoid that I left before the sun came up to get to the track. Afterwards I would crash at a hotel in Lancaster to get some rest before coming home. Going it solo means I have to be careful and after my last trip I didn't want to repeat the falling asleep behind the wheel experience like I had last time. Track days really work you out!

This is a shot of my pit setup taken just after getting back from my tech inspection. Even though you can't see it from here the Big Willow track is that patch of dirt in the picture's horizon. They had some AHRMA Classic Motorcycle races happening the same weekend. It was pretty cool having the sweet  sounds of bar-to-bar motorcycle track action in front and behind me while chillaxin in the pits after my session. The pop up canopy was a MUST! While the air temp in the morning was 47° F, it changed to 93° F the last time I took a reading in my track data notebook. The sun was bright and it was a very clear day. I have another session of California Superbike School booked for June, I'm going to get cooked!

The all important Tech Inspection stickers. Without these puppies you're not getting on track. Every race organization and track day company has some form of pre-ride inspection. My bike sailed through thanks to all the hard work I put in at the shop. I had a nervous moment when my inspector asked "is the bike spitting something or is that just spit?" Someone had spit smokeless tobacco on the ground and it looked like my bike had dropped some oil. We cleared that up quickly and had a nice discussion about my inspector's old Ninja 250. He had an old '87 version. I did get some extra looks and double takes as my bike was not the usual type found on the track that day.

My wife picked this up for me at Cycle Gear the day before the event. It is a triangle stand usually used for dirt bikes. Without my kick stand, it can be a pain trying to prop the bike up. I used it pretty much exclusively between sessions. It was so much easier than my paddock stand. I really don't need my paddock stand too much at the track as I'm not running tire warmers just yet. I'd need to get a generator and the warmers as well as other accessories. Tire warmers are in the future, but only after I get 17" wheels on the Ninja or a different bike. No one really makes race/track tires for 16" bikes these days.

This was some of the fast group action on the skid pad turn at the Streets of Willow track we were running on. I had troubles with this turn. It reminded me of the 180° hairpin at Adams that I always have problems with. I saw lots of traffic jams here as apparently other riders also have trouble with it. There are two apexes and lots of bumps and cracks as the turn in just a set of cones set up on the flat skid pad. The apexes themselves are broken and chunky. When going counter clock wise like we did, you are coming off the front straight so you have to scrub off a lot of speed before the tight turn. It is also very flat so you don't have any banking to help you get through the turn. I got better as the day progressed, but still need more work.

Here are my tires after the day's work. I was getting temps in the 130° F range after my sessions. I had my tire pressure absolutely dialed in from all those sessions at Adams Motorsports Park. I'm glad I kept a notebook. There was a Pirelli Tire guy in the hot pit doing tires for the day. I swung the bike over and asked him to look at the tires. He said they looked really good, but that my chain was way to tight. The tight chain was keeping my back shock from working correctly and that if I adjusted that I'd get much better results.

Good thing I brought a full tool kit with me. I adjusted the chain before the next session. I don't know if it was the chain, but I got 3 seconds faster on average over the course of the session and got my best lap time of 1:57.242. The crazy thing is my best lap time at Streets of Willow on the FZ1 was 1:56.595. That is only 0.647 seconds difference on a bike that is 1/4 the displacement. I plotted my lap times in a spreadsheet and was able to see some nice trends. I was getting faster every lap and faster every session. My lap times were dropping and were a bit more consistent over the course of the day.

It was a great day. I went to my hotel and got my room. Found a great Mexican food place and chowed down really hard. I worked up a big appetite out there on the track. I can't wait to get back out. I have some time in May open for a track day and am booked for more instruction with Kieth Code's Superbike School in June. After that I will be off the track for a few months as the summer temps limit opportunity and I'll be busy with work. I have a few more articles coming right away so come back by the blog soon.

Thanks for visiting!

Blue