- Joined
- Jun 6, 2014
- Messages
- 59
- Location
- Fort Bragg, NC
Well I took my '14 1199S out for its first track day this past Saturday, 9/12/15. It was only my second track day ever (first was on a '06 GSX-R 1000) and obviously the first one on the Duc. I'm obviously and definitely a novice so I know there is a whole lot of work that I need to do so don't be too hard on me. The track was NCBike up in Garysburg, NC with Team Pro-Motion and needless to say it was a blast. The bike felt great which I was concerned about going into the day how it would go considering the factory pegs are slippery as hell, my knees are nowhere close to where they should be due to only being 5'8" and the suspension being pretty stiff for my 135lb .... Those factors rolled in with the fact that I'm still a track newbie, I was a bit nervous.
Much to my surprise however the bike performed like a frickin' champ. It was crazy easy to flick around, held a line very well in my opinion, braking was perfect from what I could feel, and the bike just seemed like it was super easy to go fast on and at least made seem like I'm a decent rider. It was very confidence inspiring and I got compliments from the coaches all throughout the day. I know the next time I go, my main focus will be hanging off the bike more and working on body position and then also, trying to charge out of the corners harder instead of being lazy on the throttle and kind of coasting on exit instead of twisting that right wrist up to the next corner. One of the coaches pointed out about halfway through the day that my riding looked good overall, I just need to twist that dang throttle on exit. And then it felt like I was hanging off a good bit but judging by some of the pictures and videos, I wasn't hanging off near as much as I needed to/thought I was. So those two things will be my main focus but overall the bike felt like it was really easy to be fast on.
I do have a few negatives from the track that I want to mention real quick. First of all, I noticed over the lunch break that I had spots of liquid on my tank, dash and inside of my windscreen. After checking it closer it appears to have been brake fluid. I cleaned it off as best I could, went back out the next session and when I came back in there were some spots again. I couldn't narrow down where it was coming from as there were spots on my front brake and clutch reservoir but not enough to show where it might have come from. I did notice that the hose leading from the bottom of the brake reservoir looked fairly wet as did the rubber grommet on the mounting bracket of the reservoir. That's a pretty big bummer obviously.
Secondly, I cleaned the bike yesterday to get all of the typical track crud off and I've got tiny rock chips ALL OVER my damn front fairing and both side fairing upper and lowers. That really blows considering the bike is only a year old with 2700 miles and one track day on it. These two issues alone are enough to make me not really want to go back as I don't want a brand new bike to be full of paint damage all over from rock chips and brake fluid.
I do intend to get some rearsets to fix the slippery peg/knees in the tank issue and then new fork springs and shock spring should fix my stiff suspension problem. I just need to find a fix for the brake fluid dilemma and nip that in the bud and then figure out something to protect my paint from getting all chipped up out on the track. I had a WHOLE LOT of fun, learned a lot, and definitely think I've become addicted to the track crack, it's just these two issues aren't exactly minor issues and are kinda bumming me out.
Anyway, below are the videos I took from my GoPro that day from a few different angles. The first few are pretty short at about three and a half minutes each whereas the rest are about 17ish minutes long. Fair warning, turn your volume down at first so you don't get blown away. I will attach some pictures also. Enjoy and thanks for reading my long ... thread.
GoPro Videos:
https://youtu.be/qdzrXdLOx_8
https://youtu.be/ZU8F-Xb4naY
https://youtu.be/tSmdi15X_zs
https://youtu.be/Gr5EEWPczs8
https://youtu.be/eAsQqpJJRuk
https://youtu.be/W568Wa3pzGA
Much to my surprise however the bike performed like a frickin' champ. It was crazy easy to flick around, held a line very well in my opinion, braking was perfect from what I could feel, and the bike just seemed like it was super easy to go fast on and at least made seem like I'm a decent rider. It was very confidence inspiring and I got compliments from the coaches all throughout the day. I know the next time I go, my main focus will be hanging off the bike more and working on body position and then also, trying to charge out of the corners harder instead of being lazy on the throttle and kind of coasting on exit instead of twisting that right wrist up to the next corner. One of the coaches pointed out about halfway through the day that my riding looked good overall, I just need to twist that dang throttle on exit. And then it felt like I was hanging off a good bit but judging by some of the pictures and videos, I wasn't hanging off near as much as I needed to/thought I was. So those two things will be my main focus but overall the bike felt like it was really easy to be fast on.
I do have a few negatives from the track that I want to mention real quick. First of all, I noticed over the lunch break that I had spots of liquid on my tank, dash and inside of my windscreen. After checking it closer it appears to have been brake fluid. I cleaned it off as best I could, went back out the next session and when I came back in there were some spots again. I couldn't narrow down where it was coming from as there were spots on my front brake and clutch reservoir but not enough to show where it might have come from. I did notice that the hose leading from the bottom of the brake reservoir looked fairly wet as did the rubber grommet on the mounting bracket of the reservoir. That's a pretty big bummer obviously.
Secondly, I cleaned the bike yesterday to get all of the typical track crud off and I've got tiny rock chips ALL OVER my damn front fairing and both side fairing upper and lowers. That really blows considering the bike is only a year old with 2700 miles and one track day on it. These two issues alone are enough to make me not really want to go back as I don't want a brand new bike to be full of paint damage all over from rock chips and brake fluid.
I do intend to get some rearsets to fix the slippery peg/knees in the tank issue and then new fork springs and shock spring should fix my stiff suspension problem. I just need to find a fix for the brake fluid dilemma and nip that in the bud and then figure out something to protect my paint from getting all chipped up out on the track. I had a WHOLE LOT of fun, learned a lot, and definitely think I've become addicted to the track crack, it's just these two issues aren't exactly minor issues and are kinda bumming me out.
Anyway, below are the videos I took from my GoPro that day from a few different angles. The first few are pretty short at about three and a half minutes each whereas the rest are about 17ish minutes long. Fair warning, turn your volume down at first so you don't get blown away. I will attach some pictures also. Enjoy and thanks for reading my long ... thread.
GoPro Videos:
https://youtu.be/qdzrXdLOx_8
https://youtu.be/ZU8F-Xb4naY
https://youtu.be/tSmdi15X_zs
https://youtu.be/Gr5EEWPczs8
https://youtu.be/eAsQqpJJRuk
https://youtu.be/W568Wa3pzGA
