4/28-29 track day in the rain, and one cancelled

[ceo012384]

Got the bike all ready, and loaded her up:





It had been unseasonably warm and nice for about two weeks in New England prior to the monday and tuesday that were scheduled for my track days. The forecast wasn't looking good. I got there and put in literally TWO DAMN LAPS in the dry and then got the pitter patter of rain on my face shield. It then rained torrentially for two straight days. Monday was actually a LOT of fun and I learned a ton about wet weather riding. So much flooding occurred overnight that they canceled the second day. They gave us a big break on a future date and a credit for a whole day since tuesday was canceled, so I signed up for the June 2nd and 3rd event. Guess I'll have to wait another month to get my fix.



Here's a shot from one of the two warmup laps I got in the dry... still trying to remember which side is the throttle in turn 1a:



Then, I threw a 2 piece rain suit on over the leathers and that was the end of that.

Wet:



Wetter:



I have never ridden like such a vagina in my life and had so much fun. The rear sliding around in turn 2 was a pucker moment at first, but I got used to and came to expect it.

Ridden hard and put away wet:



Took a couple photos with a nice camera I borrowed from work, still trying to learn how to take 'real' photos with all the manual settings and such. I think they came out pretty cool:







Cleaned the bike up, got her back to street condition, and gave it a quick detailing:



Home at the folks' place, exhausted, still raining out.



Next day it was nice and sunny WTF?!?!

[anyexcuse2ride]

What a let down, I feel for ya....

[DLIT]

That sucks. You got more balls than I do, riding in the rain.

[NONE_too_SOFT]

does it ever rain in the fucking desert?

[DLIT]

Originally Posted by NONE_too_SOFT

does it ever rain in the fucking desert?

Rarely, bro. Especially during the summer. Spring is the windy season. Big gusts.

[ceo012384]

Originally Posted by anyexcuse2ride

What a let down, I feel for ya....

Originally Posted by DLIT

That sucks. You got more balls than I do, riding in the rain.

Yeah, it wasn't ideal obviously. I really learned a lot and had a good time though. You just really need to be smooth with all your inputs, hang off, and be extremely r e l a x e d on the bars and weight the pegs. They taught us a bit about using 'brottle' and 'thrake'... i.e. mating the rolling off of the throttle with the squeezing of the brakes simultaneously, so you're only loading the front once and squatting the contact patch, instead of twice. Helped a lot. In a couple of the turns I was sliding the rear a bit. Scary shit. As the day went on I was getting tired and out of it so I called it a day a little early.

I think it will help a lot for any panic situations I ever run into on the street in the rain, for sure.

Still really fucking aching to get some dry laps in though... been waiting 6 god damn months!

Originally Posted by DLIT

Rarely, bro. Especially during the summer. Spring is the windy season. Big gusts.

That must suck... blowing sand and dust and shit all over the track. That's practically as bad as rain for chrissakes.

[DLIT]

The dust clears by 1000am, usually.

[Trip]

Corsa IIIs probably didn't help in the rain.

[ceo012384]

Originally Posted by DLIT

The dust clears by 1000am, usually.

So the wind just stops by the end of the morning? That's the opposite of here... usually early mornings are calm and if it's going to be windy it happens in the daytime.

Originally Posted by Trip

Corsa IIIs probably didn't help in the rain.

They may not be the best, but there were a few people running dots out there... like supercorsas... i.e. completely slick on the edges. Crazy motherfuckers.

[DLIT]

It's not windy everyday. And it doesn't just stop. The riders usually clear it off by riding on the track for a couple hours.