Ducati Sporting Club UK - Silverstone trackday report from 12/3/06

Continued from the original post

Quote:

Originally posted by andyb
I was cursing you lot all day...looks like you had good enough weather!!!:D

Weather wasn't bad considering what the had been forecast in the days leading up to the event.

Myself and Senna3 arrived at the circuit at about 7:30am and rolled up to garage 11, to find ourselve parked alongside Deej and his mate in their sickly van, we were soon joined by Andy900ss and Chris Woods and later by Nattyboy and Marchesini

My van was soon unloaded of my 996 and my DD bike along with paddockstands and the odd wheel fitted with wets just in case.
Next it was off to signing on which didn't take long as the que was quite short early on.
Next it was a bit more prep, getting leathers on, bikes warmed up, jump starting Chris's DD bike off my van and then heading off for the briefing.
With the briefing out of the way it was time to check and adjust all tyre pressures, enjoy some of the free coffee on offer from the organisers and I was ready to go. I had decided to start with the 996 running on pirelli Diablos which I knew from my winter riding would cope with the cold track conditions.
The first tracksession was to consist of 3 compulsory laps behind the instructor with no overtaking. As Senna3;s freshly rebuilt bike did not want to start he had to hop on my DD bike and take that out to do his 3 laps.
Those 3 laps were very very slow which didn't put any heat into the tyres at all, the 996 speedo never showed more than 60mph and most corners I was down bellow 30mph.
Still with the slow stuff out of the way the trackday proper got under way and so did the crashing on cold tyres.
My first session was going very well as I slowly upped the pace ans was very happy with the bikes overal performance although I found I wasn't using top gear so maybe a bit bigger rear sprocket will need to be fitted. Still it was pleanty fast enough down hanger straight,
but what really impressed me was the way it turned through all the chicanes even the really tight one onto the start straight. dispite the longer swingarm the adjustable yokes running 4mm less offset than standard proved the ideal setup, with the bike turning far better than my standard 916 or 748 ever did through those sections.
Also in the 996s favour was the slipper clutch which I was using to full effect at the end of the start/finish straight entering Copse and at the end of Hanger straight for the entry to stowe, sadly I couldn't get to hear what the 54mm exhaust sounded like from the sidelines as these down changes were going on.
The first session ended early as a GSXR1000 rider lost it into Abbey curve the fast left as you head towards Bridge.
As i returned to the pits I felt the front brakes binding so in the break I stripped the pads out, cleaned out the crap left from the winters riding on salted roads and re copper-slipped the required areas and enjoyed another free coffee.
Next session ran full distance and was throughly enjoyable, agsin when returning to the pits it felt like the brakes were binding, but as it turned out it wasn't the brakes this time, it was the Renthal sprocket carrier that had moved along the cush-drives and was now scrapping the swingarm.
That was it for the 996 for the day and it was also lunch time.
After lunch I did 3 sessions on the DD bike which was enjoyable although bit boring down hanger straight and was very frustrating continually havingh to brake mid corner/chicane to stop running into the back of bigger bikes, passing the odd 748 and SP2 was hard work and riding around the outside of a SRAD at Club was good fun, so I can certainly say I had a fair bit of overtaking practice.
I did find changing gear on the DD bike a bit awkward in the new boots so a gear change mod is on the cards before Cadwell to avoid the missed gear changes that I occasionally suffered.

Happy to report that all the DSC guys had a safe day :D

[Edited on 13-3-2006 by skidlids]