Ducati Monster Forum

WEEEEEEEE that was fun  ;D

Was with ZZ at Infineon yesterday.  Great group of guys there.  Lot of fun, def improved by the end of the day, and was incident free.  What else can I say, it rocked.  Here are some pics (good job by 4theriders, great shots)

http://www.4theriders.com/viewpics.php?loc=/pics/trackdays/2008/05.07.08-infineon/DUC_RED/STEVE

I realize that I really gotta work on my foot positioning (was better last 2 sessions after 5 people told me to fix it, which I don't believe are pictured here).  Also need to try to lean forward a bit more more often and lean off a bit more, but hey thats what another trackday is for wt:

Congrats! Now prepare to be poor as the addiction grows and takes over your life  wt:

Congrats! And, As DQ said, prepare to be poor! ;:|

I can see from the pictures, that you definitely need to get in the habit of riding on the balls of your feet. You'll have way more agility on the bike...transitioning through corners will be quicker and easier, and you'll have more input over the rear end and what it's doing. wt:

yep thats basically the #1 thing im going to try and get used to doing

Nice pics.  A first track day has been on my list for some time now and I've been thinking this summer is the time.  Did you do the Novice class?  I'm curious how it feels to be getting the feel of a track for the first time, while others are zooming around as well.  I have less than 3 years street riding under my belt, and have never done a group ride let alone been on a track with a lot of high speed players.  Seems like their RoadRiding 2.0 might be a bit too novice for me, but maybe worth it as an intro.

Now you remind me , I still want to save some more  , been there done that . If I go again.. afraid won't stop until Mrs really complaint :e:v

It was with the C group, and there were tons of instructors.  I should have taken them out with me more often, but I was just addicted to being out there so I was just having fun.  Next time I'll def take advantage of the instructors more.

But being in C group, I didn't feel uncomfortable because of high speed people, because... it was C group.  I spent most of the time passing people.  The only people faster than me were a few people who signed up for the track day late and couldnt get into A/B group, so they just did C.

It's real easy to ride on the track, much easier than street.  Tons of road to work with, perfect conditions, no cars and shit, etc.  It's awesome.

Congrats, glad you had fun. [thumbsup]

Yeah ZoomZoom is great on the C group instruction, when I did Reno-Fernely with them I had a private instructor for the entire day it was pretty awesome. By the end of the day those that just did it on there own were trying to ham-fist it in the straights to keep up :D

Hey there, I just did the Keigwin's 2-day Novice School and carpooled/pitted with BK865er.  It was the most awesome experience!  I only had 6 months of riding experience and was trying to strategically ramp up my riding learning curve - definitely challenging for a noobie but a total blast nonetheless.  I'm sure you would have zero problems!  The 2-day format is great because it gives you the second day to work on all those things that you figured out at the end of the first day.  There were 20 instructors on site (including Tigre and Datv) and about 30 riders in each of the 2 groups.  Since there was an "A" and "B" group, the more "experienced" riders (i.e. those with previous track day experience, years of riding experience) were pooled together and it gave them a chance to really go for it.  I think a bunch of us are doing the 2-day again on Sep 21...

Now that's a stroke of luck, nice.  OK, now I'm all worked up about this. Time to make the call and sign up...

Not to thread jack or anything, but one other nagging item is that I believe shortly before TOB went all crazy I saw a few posts that talked about how it wasn't really recommended that people use their street rides to do track days (e.g., me taking my monster), but it seems that most of what I'd seen in the past looked like people had monsters or other Ducatis no problem.

I posed a "which bike to take" question to the DML MOB a couple of months ago and a ton of good input appeared there.  But don't let the lack of a superbike or supersport hold you back!  Monsters may not be ideal track bikes, but you'll still learn lots and have a perma-grin for about two weeks.  Get that Monster to the track!

BK

Hear Hear  ;D ;D
Ultimately, track days are fun no matter what bike you are on...

I took my Monster to the track, and it was ok, but it was terribly easy to scrape hard parts on it.  This is one of the big problems with it.

I still had a blast and accomplished my goal of improving my confidence on my bike. [thumbsup] [moto]

The S*R bikes probably better suited for the track than older monsters, raised exhaust and i believe slightly higher footpegs?  I didn't scrape anything the whole time and my tires were well worn to the edges.

I had a blast with the monster, it was fun the whole time.  A little extra power for the straights and maybe little better brakes would have been nice, but still real fun

Yes, there is some improvement in the higher-end monsters.

I have a 695 with high-mount exhaust, I scraped the sidestand nub on the left and the side of the rear brake lever on the right.

If DTM can race a pretty much bone stock EX-250 Ninja... it's an experiment in the de-evolution of a motorcycle actually. He runs 2 front tires, and when the one on the back gets too worn in one direction, he just flips it around ;:|... Well then, running a monster for a track day is perfectly A-Ok! wt:

(On a side note: If you ever get the chance to see Dan's 250 in person, politely walk to the other side of the RV before you start laughing! [cheeky] Honestly though, for as ugly-duckling as it is, it was the only bike of the 3 Tigerbike Racing boys that managed to start, and finish, all of its races in the last round of AFM. And it took a 2nd place podium in its class! Tigre had his huge get-off, and DatV had mechanicals.)

Wow, I didn't even think about stuff like scraping parts. That could potentially scare the crap outta one if not expecting that. Good to know.  Sounds like  others have made it work regardless of the bike type.  I'm going IN...

Check this though, on the topic of scraping.  A guy at CycleGear recently told me this story about some dude he knows that he claims is the fastest thing on two wheels and said he was riding a monster, two up no less, and he scraped the passenger peg.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but that doesn't even seem possible.  Oh well, maybe it's a different type of fishing story.

On my monster I scraped exhaust, and kickstand. I cut the kickstand but there was nothing I could do about scrapping exhaust cans... So I bought a different bike :D

Sounds awesome. What did you learn as far as your previous street riding vs. getting closer to the max use of traction of your bike on the track? I mean, did you finish track day and realize you have so much more traction available on that bike than you had thought b4? Hope that makes sense!

i never felt comfortable going too fast on a bike on the streets for obvious reasons.  the track gave me a place to let me stretch out my legs a bit.  the next street ride i did just after the track day, i was noticably faster, going through turns way faster than i'd ever consider.  the track basically gave me the confidence and experience to go quicker, better.  this is probably a bad thing, i'm gonna get in trouble... [leo]

plus i got a fresh set of corsa III's and they are awesome [thumbsup]

W00t!

i need to get over there and do that.
A bunch of us just did Go Cart Racing for hours. After... It was bad. We had to go to In&Out and chill the eF down.

No translation for 'The Street.'

Yea, guess I gotta start doing more track days.... Goodbye savings account