rchase Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 I ended up seeing this video on Facebook with a bunch of people making fun of the rider and remembered the first time I was on a track. Lots of horror to be seen in the video but give the guy a break. At least he's trying. We have all been there either on a track or stalling a motorcycle repeatedly in a driveway somewhere. I figured it would be a fun topic for us to share stories and photos of our "first time" on the track. I'll start. The first time I ever stepped foot on a track was in 2012 at the California Superbike School being held at Barber Motorsports Park. I was THE slowest bike on the track. I started riding in 2010 and probably had a year or so on a Sport bike before taking Level 1. I got assigned bike #21 and it was the first time I had ever been on a 1L motorcycle. I was pretty terrified. The bike's reputation was intimidating as was the sheer difference in rider skill I saw. The coaches tuned into this pretty quickly and provided me some amazing support and I made massive improvements by the end of the day. The photographer immortalized my noobness and I bought the photos. A photo of me in the hairpin at Barber straight up and down (I was afraid to hang off) and so slow you can count all the spokes on the wheels. Since that first day I have taken Level 4 three times. I even ended up buying one of those bikes that scared me so much the first time I sat on it. I'm still not the fastest guy out on the track and probably never will be. I can however tell you that I'm probably having the most fun. Learning about myself and how to ride has been a fantastic journey. Are you brave enough to share your terrible photos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StevenAthas Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 LOL Poor guy. He's freaking gunning it on the straights though. Was he mad at the first guy passing him because he passed him on the inside? What's tripping me out is how he's still keeping up with those guys; he keeps coming up on them just before the corners. Is there a speed limit or something? No embarrassing photos or videos of me, but this past week I tipped my bike over standing still on a banked turn lol... It was pretty embarrassing. no significant damage, but I broke my right side mirror, bent my rear brake lever, and got a little scratch on my clutch case. Bruised my ego pretty good though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryRobot Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 Is that from CSS? There's X's on the track and talk of the camera bike in the thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchase Posted November 19, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 Is that from CSS? There's X's on the track and talk of the camera bike in the thread. Nope. Not from CSS. A track day org. Anybody can put X's on the track. There's also no school bikes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tmckeen Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 Here ya go Robert here's a photo of me at my first CSS school, crossed up and straight armed , and yet I just knew I was a amazing rider back then .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FieryRobot Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 Let's see if this works. First track day ever. Sonoma. About 4 days before my first CSS day ever. This was last October, and I had been riding about 6 months after a drought of 15 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchase Posted November 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 Hey guys. Thanks for sharing those photos! Any other brave souls out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowDuck Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 Ha ha....what's with the foot off the peg thing? Is he trying to dangle a leg like the MotoGP guys, or was he going for a supermoto kind of style? BTW, you guys all suck. I was awesome from day 1. Okay, maybe not. I'l see if I can find the old youtube video.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowDuck Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 I am not the camera bike in this vid. I am the lead bike on camera from 8:20 to 9:30 (yellow tail). Basically holding up intermediate group. At one point (8:40) someone who probably belonged in expert passes the two bikes behind me under braking, then passes me on the *outside* exiting a tight corner. Nearly pooped my pants. I wouldn't say that my riding totally stinks in this video, but it was definitely in my "not trusting the tires yet" stage, having never yet come close to grounding a knee puck. There are some even older, more embarrassing videos of me out there somewhere, but I am not that motivated to find them... Edit: Okay, here is an even worse one. Watch from 3:20 to 4:45. Stiff on the bars much? And check out the awesome quick turn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rchase Posted November 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 Those are some awesome videos. I remember when I first time I saw video of my riding at the track. I was watching the video thinking to myself "hmmm it felt so much faster". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YellowDuck Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 Those videos were both taken the season before I finally found this forum and TOTWII and starting learning how to ride properly. I can't believe how much my riding has changed over three seasons. In that time I went from holding people up in intermediate group at track days to being a credible threat to podium in my local race series. I had one day of actual on-track instruction in there, but the folks on this forum get 90% of the credit for my improvement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stroker Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 Seemed like the rider was on a supermoto kinda bike and was trying to ride it so? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.