[mharrison]

nice. So katana did pretty well on a track?

I was honestly surprised by how well she did. I found it hard to carry as much speed as a super sport into the turns. It takes longer to slow her down, and a little more umph to get her to drop into the turn...I eventually learned (last session of the day!) that I needed to drive her deeper into the corner and be much more forceful on the brakes.

BUT, she stuck to the line like glue all day long even with Pirelli Diablo Strada extended mileage sport tires on her. I can assure you that this is NOT the ideal track day tire, but as a new track day rider, I never got close to their limits. (An experienced track day rider said that if I had reasonably new tires of any decent name brand, they would be fine for a first track day, even if they were sport touring, sport, whatever.) I used the ENTIRE tire, but they never slipped, felt greasy or anything, but I sure cooked the surface into a gooey mess!

Also, I was able to pull (just a little) on the 600 super sports on the straights since my Kat is a 750. So, they damn near couldn't pass me. And I damn near couldn't pass them. There were several riders on 600 SS bikes that I swapped positions back and forth with all day.

Also there are ALWAYS going to be some people VERY new to motorcycle riding out there so you get some of the passing action pretty easy.

It was really a blast. I drug a knee at about 60 mph around a hard right hander. My tank-cam video, that I'll get edited and posted before the end of the week, looks like the damn bar-end weight is about to drag the ground. (You can't see that far out, but the ground looks REALLY close!)

Several of the Instructors/Control Riders commented that if I was doing so well on a "Ka-tuna" (their words, not mine) that I needed to get on a super sport and REALLY rip it up. I can't imagine that it would be more fun though!

I'd love to do a track day.

GO SIGN UP AND DO IT! SERIOUSLY, Just DO IT!

SportbikeTrackTime (better for first time track riders from what I've heard.)
NESBA and I'm sure several other track organizations operate in your part of the country as well.

Tony'sTrackDays does days at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. (I don't know anything about this organization, but the track looks fun!)

Here's another good non-organization specific site called TrackDayRiders

I still don't have any action pics yet, but I've got some stills to share:

Making my pit bit** fill up my bike. That's actually my buddy Brad that I rode over there with. He was on a Yamaha FZ6.


The Kat in the paddock by my friend's FZ6 and another friend's Kawi ZX-10.


Heading to tech inspection on the Kat


Hopefully the photographers will post the action shots soon and I'll get some of those up here.

[Psycho1]

I was told by the original owner of my 600 that he supposedly used to race it at Mid Ohio. He said since the Kat is only oil cooled, they grouped him in the watercooled 400 class, instead of making him run against the 600 super sports. I'd love to do a track day sometime just to see what it's like, and to see how I do compared to some friends.

[Action!Jackson]

Awesome thanks for response. Man now you got me all physc'd lol. I want to see the vid.

[Zepp]

I am going to buy a used 600 RR for the track next year.

[Alley_Kat]

I have been there before. Buddy use to race in WERA. They are having a trackday up here in Nashville in August and October. I am hoping to get in on the October one.

A couple of my friends from work did the track day in Nashville. They do several of them around the southeast. They did not like the Nashville track. They said the one they like the best around this area is Barber.

[mharrison]

Barber is sweet. It is a world class facility and a damn nice track. I hope to ride it before winter. I'll have to see what SWMBO says!

[sassyduck]

Great pictures! Now I really wanna do a track day!

[mharrison]

Still working on getting the video hosted, but here are some action shots:

Dropping into the corner


Finally getting that knee down!


Mixing it up in traffic....


More Traffic...

[rydethis]

awesome pics!!

[Zepp]

Those are some great pics!!!

[mharrison]

Here's a video of my next to last session. I've got to get the last one posted up too....Faster with better lines!

Excuse the crazy line on there. When the sun hit the lip of my windscreen it lit up on my camera. It's only in certain parts of the video though.

No sound.....That would make it MUCH cooler!

http://www.fadedcode.net/trackday/Day2Next2LastSession.wmv