Great ride to Clermont. (...watch out for wooden bridges, theyr'e sneaky little buggers...)

Finally made my bike street legal again. Putting on the plates and lights and such. 

Wow! It's like taking a magic pill or something!

After going to the track for just those two days my riding has improved so much. At the very least, the one thing that riding on a track forces you to learn to do, is to look farther in front of you. Everything seems slower now. And corners that I used to take gingerly I now go around them much faster. Just by visiting the track, I've gained at least another 10 mph of corner speed on every corner. Which actually brings me to another very sad and disturbing point.

Visiting the track, has somewhat ruined riding the streets for me. I really have to watch my speed now, and the corners are just nowhere near as fun as they used to be (since everything is a lot easier, and a lot less scarier now). The only place you can actually ride the bike like it was built to be ridden,... is at the track.

This is still part of my first time coming to the track, but on this first trip we made it a 2 day stay. So this is the second day of my first time visiting the track.

I'm still just getting used to the track.

Ran off the track at Turn 13, after which all the butterflies were gone. My body position still sucked (however, at the time I thought I WAS hanging off properly, of course I wasn’t) and I was dragging pegs each and every time I was out there. However the bike never complained. I still got passed and I also passed others. My passes got a tiny bit better, however, they were still very rushed and I had the sense that I wasn’t seeing the full picture.

I wasn’t. I wasn’t riding my ride. Anytime I came upon a person that was clearly slower than me, it was so hard for me to figure out how to get around them. This was because I started “following” the rider in-front of me. Instead, I should have been holding my own line, riding my own ride and setting up for a pass on a controllable spot on the track.

When I finally did pass a rider I was always so focused on the “getting around them” part that I lost sight of and forgot about the rest of the track. This caused me to run off the track a few times. Hey, the bike and I are both still in one piece. That's a good day!

The good
I was comfortable leaning the bike over on the track.

The bad
I had terrible body position when hanging off the bike. My passes were not properly planned and rushed. I was not riding my own pace and line. I got drawn into the other slower rider’s line upon approaching them.

Work on
Getting my head and shoulders off the tank to achieve proper body position. Continue to ride my own line upon approaching a slower rider. Setup the pass in a controllable spot on the track. Don’t fixate on the pass, focus on my line around the track.

Wow!

Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!!!

I had so many questions, and so many fears before getting to the track. How fast is the average speed? What gears should I use in this turn? What if someone runs into me? What if I need to get around another rider? And, etc., etc., etc...

Basically, the track is just a road like any other road with corners and straights. The only difference is that there's no speed limit, there's no oncoming traffic, and if you run off the track there's nothing to run into. It was just plain AWESOME!!! And it's a lot easier to learn the limits of the bike on the track since it's a safer environment.

Since this was my first time at the track, I was just getting used to setting up, being called for sessions, riding with a whole bunch of people on a closed circuit, pitting in, and pitting out.
This was an open track day and very crowded. The track was booked to max capacity - 45 riders per group.

For the entire day I was fighting jitters and knots in my stomach. I was riding pretty confidently for my first time ever at the track, but my body position was very bad, and I kept scraping my pegs - on both sides.

I got passed, and I made some passes. But the passes I made were a struggle, were rushed, and would always put me out of my comfort zone.

The good
I was comfortable leaning the bike over on the track.

The bad
I had terrible body position when hanging off the bike. My passes were not properly planned and rushed.

Work on
Getting my head and shoulders off the tank to achieve proper body position. Figure out how to pass better.