Mondello Training Day and Trackday-PICS

stewygriffin

Absolutely loved every minute of the Mondello training day and track day.

Seemed to learn the track quite quite quickly and the Marshals and trainers were fantastic at teaching us about body positioning,braking and acceleration through the corners.
We did lots of slow speed handling coarses in the carpark area and also class work too. Then it was track time from lunch onwards to 5pm.

Got me knee down in the wet and then absolutely destroyed the knee sliders in the dry.Absolutely spanked the R1 down the straight and loved seeing how far I could go before braking.

Paul,one of the marshals took the R1 out for a few laps and loved wheelieing it out of Dunlop corner onto the straight.

Very busy day there and lots of people booked this coarse,all sorts of bikes on track too.

Im going back for more lads,Im bitten by the bug.

Think the R1 is gonna be a track bike now.:)

stewygriffin

stewygriffin

Following Declan the instructor to see what wet lines I should be taking through some of the corners.

Mr Sheen!

Great pictures stewy. Great to hear you enjoyed it and learnt from it .

I did a track day about 2 years ago and it was the best day I was ever in a bike. I swore I would get a track bike and do a few every year. However 2 years on having got married and bought a house I still have not managed to get the track bike. Maybe in the next 12 months.

Its definitely addictive if your a speed demon!

stewygriffin

Mr Sheen! wrote: »

Great pictures stewy. Great to hear you enjoyed it and learnt from it .

I did a track day about 2 years ago and it was the best day I was ever in a bike. I swore I would get a track bike and do a few every year. However 2 years on having got married and bought a house I still have not managed to get the track bike. Maybe in the next 12 months.

Its definitely addictive if your a speed demon!

Tell the wife you got the track bike for both of yous,that you were thinking of her too....:pac::pac::D


Cotters Trackday here I come...:)


I have to say that Darren and his team of instructors are so sound to talk to,anything you dont understand they break it down and explain it to you.

I was guinea pig for sitting up on the bike when we were learning about "getting the knee down" and straight line speed positioning.felt like I was gonna fall off the bike,but soon learned about gripping with the inner thighs/legs and your feet/angles.Your hands really dont do that much on the bike.

I learned alot about counter steering and my leg positioning.
When I listened to Darren and then followed the instructors out on track,it all came to me in a few laps and I was getting the knee down in no time at all.
Then I was pushing the bike a bit deeper into the braking zones as each lap passed,but not getting too cocky either.


What I was surprised about was just how much I could accelerate and then push the front end onto the tarmac before setting myself up for the corners,you are allways on the throttle through the corners.

My corner speed improved with every lap and also watching the braking points and turn in speed of the instructors.


125 euro very well spent and lots of things learned too.

Cant wait to get back out on track now.:D

jay48

Wait till you get out on the full track , you'll love it . I think Paul has found his path to enlightenment after getting off the R1 !

Lumen

I've been thinking about buying a proper track bike, specced to take a few knocks.

Erring towards something like a Thundersport CB500 race bike on the basis that a litre bike is too much.

What say ye...?

stewygriffin

Lumen wrote: »

I've been thinking about buying a proper track bike, specced to take a few knocks.

Erring towards something like a Thundersport CB500 race bike on the basis that a litre bike is too much.

What say ye...?

Well the Supersport 6oo and Yamaha R6 trackbikes were absolutely flying around Mondello yesterday in the hands of the insturctors.

Id say go for it,it be a cracking good bike for Mondello.:)

stewygriffin

jay48 wrote: »

Wait till you get out on the full track , you'll love it . I think Paul has found his path to enlightenment after getting off the R1 !

Has he really?:D

Think hes made up his mind hes buying a big bang R1.;)

He said to me to stick a set of SC2 tyres on the R1 and it would be even grippier and quicker.

stewygriffin

Just paid for trackday on April 30th with Steve in Cotters there at lunchtime.:)
Feckin battery in the car died,so had to call the AA to jump start it so I could get home.:o

Was asked if I could get me knee down in the cage going around the corner in the industrial estate.
Cheeky bugger......:pac::P:D

Lumen

stewygriffin wrote: »

Well the Supersport 6oo and Yamaha R6 trackbikes were absolutely flying around Mondello yesterday in the hands of the insturctors.

Hmmmm.

https://www.donedeal.ie/motorbikes-for-sale/2016-honda-cbr650/15091078

stewygriffin

Nice bike indeed.

jay48

Lumen wrote: »

Hmmmm.

https://www.donedeal.ie/motorbikes-for-sale/2016-honda-cbr650/15091078

Have you done many trackdays?

Lumen

jay48 wrote: »

Have you done many trackdays?

None on a motorbike.

I used to own a Fireblade-engined Caterham seven which I tracked on UK circuits.

That experience (and hooning around the 'ring in a rental track car) persuaded me of the less-of-everything-is-more idea and so I'd rather have something with less power, track tyres, all-day brakes, no electronics, and replaceable bodywork. Even the stuff which looked like it would be OK on track (like Elises) suffered a lot and ended up knackered or very track-biased.

I don't know how well the thinking applies to bikes, but the race bike I linked to above is almost certainly way too fast for me.

jay48

Do you ride a bike on the road ? If so , what is it and why not do a few trackdays on that ?

Personally I'd go for a road bike with the suspension sorted if you can find something . You can ride it down to the track and have a bike to use at weekends . I've a cbr600rr , I've had it since 2005 and only ever ridden it on track , I put race fairings on it from day one as I was planning on racing it , TBH I should have just kept the road gear on it and used it on the road . There's rearsets on it for better ground clearance but again it wouldn't be a necessity until your pace is up . I ran standard suspension for years until I got an ohlins shock and fork internals cheap . Apart from that there's an end can and a brembo master cylinder on it .
You should find similar cbr's out there with the same bits on them , same goes for r6's , zx6rs , gixxer 6's /750 . The sv650 is raced in the mini twins and the only changes allowed are shock , fork internals , exhaust and master cylinder , they knock out 72bhp and in the right hands are capable of sub minute laps .
I use road tyres because I couldn't be arsed with warmers ,stands and spare wheels . I'd only bother going down the root of warmers and race tyres if I was pushing the front end of inters or advanced . Again , each to their own , some lads don't like wasting a couple of laps warming their tyres .
Buying ex race bikes has the advantage of getting a bike with everything on it and saves you a fortune to build the bike to that spec but the downside is there's no guarantees with a race bike , you could get years out of it or it could blow up first time out , they usually have a hard life .

Lumen

Thanks Jay, that's exactly what I was looking for.

stewygriffin

140 euro for Cotters Trackday on April 30th.

Info and booking here................


http://www.cottermc.com/track-days/

CaptainR

I'd love a track day like that where you're taught about body positions and lines just to be able to appreciate watching racing a bit more. I suppose its like watching football or rugby without having ever played a match.

I seen in MCN that Chris Walker does track days for people who have never been on a track before. I'd say it'd be a fascinating experience.

stewygriffin

CaptainR wrote: »

I'd love a track day like that where you're taught about body positions and lines just to be able to appreciate watching racing a bit more. I suppose its like watching football or rugby without having ever played a match.

I seen in MCN that Chris Walker does track days for people who have never been on a track before. I'd say it'd be a fascinating experience.

Thats what the Mondello training days are for....for people who never been on the track on a bike before.
Like me.:)

Its facinating stuff allright and you appreciate your bike even more when you learn new things.

You also find out that you have more ability by the end of the day,than you thought you had at the beginning.;)

CaptainR

stewygriffin wrote: »

Thats what the Mondello training days are for....for people who never been on the track on a bike before.
Like me.:)

Its facinating stuff allright and you appreciate your bike even more when you learn new things.

You also find out that you have more ability by the end of the day,than you thought you had at the beginning.;)

I understand the appreciation of the bike angle, I was doing a pre test last week and the slow speed stuff I was shown was amazing. For an absolute novice like myself, seeing how a bike can be so manoeuvrable at even walking pace was amazing. Even going through town I felt like I could lean a bike over much further than I'd been confident with after the lessons.

I live out in the country and I'd reckon 80% of my time is spent on national roads thinking I'm great :pac:

As soon as I've a set of 2 piece leathers I'll definitely be looking into trackdays

stewygriffin

Bumping this thread for any newbies who want to do a trackday and learn track riding skills.

neildyr

I'm booked in for the March training day and will most likely book in for a full novice day at some stage over summer all going well.

Was talking to a guy last night who mentioned about helmet requirements.

He said the helmet is required the to have the two ring clasp chin strap as opposed to the ratchet style one.

I emailed Mondello and tried calling to no avail.

Anyone be able to shed some light on this?Don't want to buy a new helmet if I don't need to.

Cheers

jay48

That's for racing , once it's not an open face lid you'll be fine

neildyr

Nice one. Thanks for that.

de_Selby

For the training day will you get by on any bike?

I've a bandit 650 so not exactly the fastest bike on the road, but the training day sounds like it could be great to improve bike control.

jay48

There's a bit of everything at the training days , from Harley's to full on superbike , you'll be fine on the bandit.

blade1

Do they supply any bikes?

jay48

No , there was a lad renting bikes but he packed it in , there was no money in it .

stewygriffin

All sorts and types of bike do be on the training day and trackday events at Mondello.:)

Goose81

Just to confirm you can do the training day in textiles? I know you need leathers for the full track days

stewygriffin

Goose81 wrote: »

Just to confirm you can do the training day in textiles? I know you need leathers for the full track days

You can do the training day in textile gear.

2 piece leathers that zip together for trackdays though,or a 1 piece race suit.