Should you have perhaps gone in to the intermediate group? I personally wouldn’t hold it against people who were in a place you didn’t expect them to be (could have been me!) if they let you past on the straights. There were one or two who didn’t though. One chap, who was particularly slow on the turns, would look in his mirror (!) as we exited and when he saw me he’d get lower on his bike and then pin it so I couldn’t get past. Then we’d go through the whole thing again at the next turn. Did he think he was racing me or something? Even as a newbie I had the common sense to let people past me on the straights if there was traffic behind me.
I have not been to a Ducati day since the old DSC days at Cadwell and Brands however the re occurring theme of these current events appears to be of discourteous riding and people in the wrong group. I find it strange that on a normal trackday, there is not generally too much bad riding - why is it that there often appears to be so much at these Ducati days? On a normal trackday, there is no need for the organisers to “maintain discipline” as overall the riders are in the correct ability level group and are mainly polite and courteous to each other. Obviously, there have been days where I have seen crappy riding from one or two eejits but I would say that the overriding impression is that the riding is normally fine. Strange.
I did chuckle ... morning briefing “overtaking width should be 2 metres.....” Tannoy announcement over lunch “just a reminder, overtaking leave space 6 feet!!!” Perhaps things were too good in the morning
On the whole I think it’s great to have a event like this and genuinely thankyou for it happening! However it is correct to say the same reoccurring issues arise Can the organisers not run a proper feedback survey so we can all learn and improve the day???
CSS are a rider training organisation not a track day organiser, despite running the current format of Ducati days for what, 5 years ? The conversation I had with CSS in the "control" tent at the pit lane exit consisted of "it's the Silverstone track Marshall's responsibility to pick up bad riding on the track". These will be the marshals that are a minimum of 10s of meters off the track and spread around the circuit. Nah mate, CSS just aren't a big enough organisation to manage that many bikes on the day. As to the riding standard, many of these riders won't get on any UK track due to noise limits and the behaviour is archetypal of that I've seen in Spain on days run by No Limits and Focussed Events but they don't get away with it for long with them, unlike at Silverstone. Never been to a Ducati day at Donnington so don't know if the behaviour of the few is the same. Andy
Had a great day yesterday, really good to catch up with a few of you guys again yesterday, the day does go so fast (unlike my riding ) ... as was mentioned the riding skills and etiquette in the inters group was varied to put it politely and I was amazed there weren't more clashes with the amount of hero's out there, but some of that I think is due to the spacing of riders out on track, they seemed to let about 10 out and then 5 seconds later 10 more and so there was a fair bit of bunching going on at the usual pinch points!..... oh and bugger me those V4's are quick!! had the 1098R pinned down the straights and they were just disappearing
What a brilliant day in so many ways, I've not found a trackday quite so funny in a long time .... Here are some of my highlights to chuckle at, or not, do as you see fit .... 1. Sign on 7am, but we'll make you queue from 7 to 7.40 before deciding the ticking the sheet thing at the gate is a pants idea, I was the first van let through when they decided enough was enough at that point and 2/3's the paddock were still behind me !!! I found my garage ok miraculously !!! Go figure .... 2. The briefing, Tim McDaddy wantonly suggesting that we may want to crash a bit because spares revenues are a 'bit down this quarter', classy as ever. 3. The idiot on the 1199 who at the beginning of the second session decided that the best place to overtake was up the inside, before crossing my nose with mm's to spare before passing 3 more bikes on the outside and pinning it away, now you may say this sounds impressive and why am I being a tit, well he managed all of that whilst still within the confines of the pit lane exit lane and the solid white line to our left !!!!! He definitely 'won' that session ..... 4. The poor guy that crashed the white 959, I had actually been to see him the session before as I thought I had overtaken him a little closely so went to make sure an apologise, all seemed well, didn't realise I had placed a target on my own back .... just prior to his crash I had outbrakked cleanly two slower bikes ( he wasn't one of them) and was peeling in to the apex when I see a white bike dive bombing me like a seagull out nicking chips ..... well I did my best, picked my bike up a bit to try and provide him some space, but it was too late, I heard the familiar sound of footpeg on tarmac and awaited my rear wheel being taken out, luckily he missed and I finished the session with all my chips intact ..... he was up and about later so presumed he was ok, was surprised the marshalls didn't move his bike off the corner though. So thems the highlights ..... Some lovely bikes there, some good people met and some old friends in attendance as ever, will definitely do next year but not in inters ..... Great to meet up with @cookster thats a lovely bike fella and @Android853sp glad you enjoyed it and you don't look a day over 50, special thanks to my Chief Tech @final_edition for slotting the new brake pads in and to @andyb for the pre trackday dinner arranging .... oh and @Desmo Dave for showing me how the Pani dash works .... lol I'm sure there are others I should be thanking, not thanking, kissing, not kissing but I have work to do Dibs
Personally I wouldn’t really approach a DUK track event as a normal track day. It’s a Ducati enthusiasts day. A day to chin stroke, admire bikes and put names to faces on here. I certainly wouldn’t be getting too excited about crap riding- who cares? Just keep a wide berth. Unless of course you’re taken out from behind. In which case kill them. Painfully.
the fast group didn't seen to bad, don't think I saw a flag all day, other than one yellow where one guy ran wide, my old 996 struggled against the fleet of v4s though but I did over take a few on the corners which made me smile until the straight. again nice to meet the crew. think il hire a bike next year though.
Good day, and pretty good weather apart from the wind. Defo agree with mixed riders in the groups, fast had quite a few mobile chicanes which made fast approaches rather tricky ...., but as they say everyone paid their money , so should be able to enjoy the day. The circuit, yes very sticky , to much i rekon - this was a new V02 medium after the second fast session, both sides where liek this, rear started like this, but cleaned up . Pressures were as FWR stated F35H, R25H and suspenson settings didnt help clean this up, but maybe it was to far gone before the adjustments where made . I can see MOTOGP having issues with tyres on this new surface .. Oh and apologies on any overtakes into the slower chicanes - i just didnt expect you to basically stop when making the turns
Blimey that’s going to get expensive! Have you checked your tyre warmer temperatures? (Using a heat gun or thermometer) The V02s need to be set to their actual track running temperature. From experience they run around 70->75 rear and 60>65 front hot. Most tyre warmers heat to around 80 (sometimes nearer 90!) degrees minimum which is too high to set the pressures from. This then causes massive hot tear for the first couple of laps in a session, then as they cool they’re then under inflated which tears them up even more. I now use adjustable temp tyre warmers so as to heat the tyres to the correct temp to avoid the problem you’ve got. Also have you lowered the forks through the yokes? (Or raises the rear ride height) The width & position of the tear looks like geometry could be exasperating too. I settled on 10mm through the yokes (up from the standard 6mm) after lots of trial & error in a bid to get my v4 to tip in better. I’ve used the medium v02s in the Uk with temps ranging from 12 degrees to the mid 30s & in Portimao with temps in the 40s and I’ve yet to get less than 5 days to a front and always 2 rears to a front with perfect wear. I always start with 24 rear & 34 front hot and then adjust the front up depending on feel/wear/pace through out the day but never more than 36. They’re unbelievable value compared to the Pirelli’s which lasted less than half that time and costs a load more, they just took a little bit of head scratching to get working properly, which is why I hope this will be of help to you to avoid losing precious track time and money unnecessarily!
Overall I had a great day! Glad to meet some new and old faces! Everyone was friendly and courteous off the track, on the track was a slightly different story! I echo the comments about the organisation and some of the riding though, could've been better! The memories of the ride through the torrential rain the night before seemed to have been forgotten about after the good track day.....until about 10 minutes before I got home.....the rain decided it'd give me a reminder and drenched me throughout again. Apart from that it was great, good to meet you guys and glad you mainly had a good time too!
I've done something similar. Don't know what's caused it though! Going to send it to Colin at 100pc suspension and see if he has any ideas!
Looks like geometry tear If you haven’t sorted it or want to learn more (than you may already) Dave Moss channel is worth a visit on YT, and there are some interesting article. Be a shame to ruin tyres for something simple to fix
That band on the rear is where you’re getting on the power, which is spot on the only problem is you’ve got too much pressure in the tyre. The Pirelli’s have a soft carcass and rely on it moving to generate grip. If the tread just moves it tears. I bet they’re also the SP compound which really aren’t upto dealing with a superbike ridden on track. Even with the correct pressures you can destroy one in a day.
Good day - I've done a few track days, but I still consider myself a novice - and stick to that group. I can pretty much judge a correct line, but will compromise it to give other riders clearance and not overtake mid bend etc. I've done track days with No Limits and MSV, this was my first with CSS. I had high expectations given their profile, but thought the safety briefing lacked somewhat - if you were in the Novice group, I was the annoying guy asking the questions, mostly as prompts to get a few things included that had gone unsaid. There no briefings on lines for specific corners, so no surprise it was a free for all regarding lines. I experienced one scarily close pass by a very fast rider in the novice group, but overall not too bad. There were some absolutely novices out there, but that's what you'd expect in the novice group, I'd say - it's advertised as an opportunity to ride your bike on track. The guy I was chatting with saw the Desmo go down in front of him. He said the Desmo leaned and just went down or no obvious reason (no collision) and rolled - a real shame. The Superleggera (his mate) seemed to stop to check he was OK, which is a big NO NO in itself, of course. Thankfully no one seemed to be hurt. I was amazed how many bikes came in vans (the vast majority) rather than being ridden there. I enjoyed filtering past all the vans to jump the queue As usual, my attitude to speed limits was more 'relaxed' on the way home, but you can feel straight away how much more comfortable and confident a track day makes you feel on the bike.
