Ron Haslam race school @ Silverstone
- Thread starter Lakeland
- Start date
Well im back! No sign of an Adam, there were a **** load of instructers, it could have been anyone!
Just my luck it tipped it down from about 5am so the track was soaking wet. Mini review:
Seen as I live about 5 hours away and you have to be there by 7:30, I decided to camp the night before, best deal was about 30 minutes away in Milton Keynes. So up at 6:30, ready to set off at 7:00. Arrived at 7:30 and was sat around doing nothing for about an hour! I presume this is to catch the stragglers, annoying for people who turn up on time though.
Not sure if it's the norm for the cb500 groups or not but I had a one to one tutor which was quite good. First three laps were taken very gingerly to get used to the track. Gradually increasing the speeds and learning how to hang off the bike saw me going quite a bit quicker, confidence just kept growing every lap! I was lucky in that there was no one quicker on the day so I didn't have to slow down and move out of the way to let people passed, I can imagine if I had been on the receiving end I'd have been pretty miffed off by the end of the session though!
The instructor was great, helping me to push almost to the limit though he was holding me up (on purpose) in places where I could have went a bit faster, mainly backing off early into corners. There were a few corners which were just stupidly slippy, you could literally feel the bike moving like a fish tail for about half of the corner!
At first I was really hissed at the weather as I wanted to go there and nail it on some dry corners, can't beat that sensation of feeling like you're stuck to the tarmac! However, as a wet weather rider on the road I wasn't very confident at all, I've come away after the track day with a whole lot more confidence, I never realised how much grip/lean angle you could get in the wet!
45 minutes just isn't enough time on the track though. Does anyone know the track-time you get on the 600cc premier day?
In addition to the 45 minutes on track was the carpark training where you get to do slalom, sitting down, standing up, one legged, one handed, clutch hand only, on the tank.. tried it but surely not possible lol? Then did some throttle off free wheeling round a big U bend, lots of fun here inc knee down action. Finally ended with some braking techniques. Stoppies, locking the front wheel to find the balance (though I'm not sure you had to skid
) and then the instructor suggest some of us do the stoppie and then drive away straight after without putting feet down which obviously resulted in big wheelies lol!
All in all a good day, tempted to go back and do the 600cc but can't help thinking I'd be seriously hissed if it was to rain again, especially when it's £280!
Just my luck it tipped it down from about 5am so the track was soaking wet. Mini review:
Seen as I live about 5 hours away and you have to be there by 7:30, I decided to camp the night before, best deal was about 30 minutes away in Milton Keynes. So up at 6:30, ready to set off at 7:00. Arrived at 7:30 and was sat around doing nothing for about an hour! I presume this is to catch the stragglers, annoying for people who turn up on time though.
Not sure if it's the norm for the cb500 groups or not but I had a one to one tutor which was quite good. First three laps were taken very gingerly to get used to the track. Gradually increasing the speeds and learning how to hang off the bike saw me going quite a bit quicker, confidence just kept growing every lap! I was lucky in that there was no one quicker on the day so I didn't have to slow down and move out of the way to let people passed, I can imagine if I had been on the receiving end I'd have been pretty miffed off by the end of the session though!
The instructor was great, helping me to push almost to the limit though he was holding me up (on purpose) in places where I could have went a bit faster, mainly backing off early into corners. There were a few corners which were just stupidly slippy, you could literally feel the bike moving like a fish tail for about half of the corner!
At first I was really hissed at the weather as I wanted to go there and nail it on some dry corners, can't beat that sensation of feeling like you're stuck to the tarmac! However, as a wet weather rider on the road I wasn't very confident at all, I've come away after the track day with a whole lot more confidence, I never realised how much grip/lean angle you could get in the wet!
45 minutes just isn't enough time on the track though. Does anyone know the track-time you get on the 600cc premier day?
In addition to the 45 minutes on track was the carpark training where you get to do slalom, sitting down, standing up, one legged, one handed, clutch hand only, on the tank.. tried it but surely not possible lol? Then did some throttle off free wheeling round a big U bend, lots of fun here inc knee down action. Finally ended with some braking techniques. Stoppies, locking the front wheel to find the balance (though I'm not sure you had to skid
) and then the instructor suggest some of us do the stoppie and then drive away straight after without putting feet down which obviously resulted in big wheelies lol!All in all a good day, tempted to go back and do the 600cc but can't help thinking I'd be seriously hissed if it was to rain again, especially when it's £280!
Just 45 minutes? At least the 500cc ontrack one dragged it out from 9:00 till 12:00 with the extra carpark stuff. I don't think I could justify £280 + my £100 travel costs for 45 minutes!
Sounds like the best option (for me) would be buying a £500 cb500 off the bay and doing track days instead, using my van to transport, I assume no tax/insurance/mot etc is required? At a quick glance they are about £100-150 and you get hours rather than minutes worth of time on the track!
Agreed. I don't think I'd have been very good at a track day had I went on with no prior training. At least I can now go onto a track and press on
