Trackday Hints and Tips: Bike Preparation (Part 1 of 5)
Posted on | March 20, 2010 | No Comments
Since a new friend of mine recently signed-up for her first ever trackday, I’ve found myself giving advice and re-living my many track experiences. Since I had to learn quite a few things the hard way, I figure this is my chance to pass along some valuable information.
Whether it’s your first time at a trackday or your 100th, here are a few things that I’ve learned about having a successful experience:
(Part 1 – Bike Preparation)
Buy a set of extra levers (clutch, front brake, rear brake and shifter). Any crash, even a mild low-side, or even dropping your bike while unloading it is likely to snap a lever. Without an extra, you’re done for the day. How would you like piss away a couple hundred dollars over a $25 part.
If you are using a “streetbike”, disconnect the headlight and taillight (usually required by trackday organizations). If you tape over the headlight, but don’t disconnect it, the heat from the lights can melt tape and cause a seriously cooked-on mess that’ll be a bitch to clean-up later.
Remove turn signals and mirrors (again, usually required by trackday organizations). It saves weight and there’s less to break if you crash. If you can’t refasten stuff like bodywork with the existing hardware after you’ve removed stuff, zip-ties work great as a substitute.
I highly recommend aftermarket bodywork. Yeah, it’s not cheap, but it’s a lot cheaper than replacing your factory stuff. And just in case you think you’ll never crash, think again.
Use the stickiest tires you can get. It doesn’t matter what brand, we all have our preferences, but all the major manufacturers make tires that are designed for the track use. Your tires should be new or almost new (no less than 70% of original tread depth, again usually a trackday organization rule). I would also make sure the date of manufacture is within the last 2 years. The older a tire gets the harder it gets (which mean the slipperier it gets). And don’t even think about running a sport-touring tire.
If you’re planning to do this more than once you should safety wire your bike (some trackday organizations require it, but usually only for the Advanced riders). It’s still a good idea. Even if you just wire the various fasteners that keep the fluids in the bike, that’s a great start. There’s tons of information online about wiring a motorcycle for track use.
Things wear out fast on the track. Keep an eye on your tread depth, brake pad thickness and chain slack, these items can go away in a hurry, especially on a hot day.
Bring 5 gallons of fuel with you. While some tracks have fuel available, you will spend double or more at the track. And don’t fall for that gotta have the 100-octane stuff. Your bike won’t go 1 MPH faster on the expensive stuff, and believe it or not, it might actually make your bike slower. If you are coming from a long way away, wait until you get to the town where the track is before you buy your fuel (you don’t want to burn gas, toting gas or have a bunch of flammable liquid in your vehicle for a long time) and if you have even a remotely stock street bike, just buy the premium grade from the local gas station. It’ll work just fine.
As for fueling your bike, it’s easy to forget to put gas in your bike while you’re at the track; so many other things are going on. Put half a tank in the bike before you even leave for the track. Then after each session, pop the lid and check the level. When it gets down to a ¼, bring it back up to half. Why not fill it up you may ask? Fuel weighs roughly 6 lbs per gallon. Do you really want your bike to be trying to be pulling an extra 10 lbs around all day, that it doesn’t need too?
Next up (Part 2 - Physical Preparation)
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