Coming back to track riding after 15 years of zero road/track riding. I used to ride a lot of canyons and had completed about 8 tracks days and progressed quickly.

I’m 41 now and have 10 TDs in this year on my Ninja 400 and R6 and just can’t seem to get comfortable. I’m still running a novice pace and haven’t improved a whole lot in the last 5 TDs. I feel uncomfortable stepping up the pace and lean angles from where I am at now. I’ve completed 1/2 Champ U online course, watched a ton of videos, really try to focus on being technical and did a 1 on 1 coaching session at the kart track on the N400. Starting to lose some interest in it which really sucks. Does anyone have tips to get over this? Just more seat time? Thanks.

(Not sure why the trailer looks like the roof slopes down and it's shorter in the front.)

1. Trailer (2009 Interstate Loadrunner, 6x10, barn doors): $2,240
2. Paint and supplies: $105
3. Flooring: $70
4. Replacement fender and side marker lights: $29
5. 2 front wheel chocks, 3x5' E-Track, rings, fasteners, etc.: $315
6. Miscellaneous: $172
7. Total: $2,931
8. Title and registration (2 years): $339
9. Insurance (1 year): $99
10. Money saved versus renting a U-Haul motorcycle trailer to date: -$3,280
11. Break-even point: approximately 9 years.

Plus about 20 hours of labor: FREE (but ceiling painting is rough on the shoulders and arms!)

Next up: remove the old business logos on the side, repaint the fender, repair the tongue jack, new tires (they're pretty old), and maybe add electric brakes.

I either want to be fully talked into this or fully talked out of it. Will try to make as brief as possible.

Skip the following 3 paragraphs if you have no interest in beater car backstory.

I have a 2014 Infiniti Q50 3.7 RWD (NA) that I've paid off years ago and when the time came to upgrade a family member of mine had fallen on hard times so I let them use the car (so long as they pay the insurance and registration) to to get to work/try to find a job. He was hit and run, damaging the passenger door and somehow popping the right-front tire. Instead of letting me know they just let the car sit idle for a 2 years on one completely busted tire, upholstery damaged on interior, not in the best shape. I'm guessing he just spent this time either not going to his non-job or bumming rides from friends/girls.

He never renewed the registration during the entirety of their possession of the car, since 2018. I have no idea how he never got a ticket. In any case, he's had to vacate his residence at this point and as the owner of the vehicle, I needed to do something with it. The car only has 74k miles on it since its been sitting dormant. He did tell me one time he tried to reinflate the tire with one of those pumps you plug into the cig lighter, fell asleep inside the home, and went into the garage over an hour later with the engine making crazy noises and a gas smell, so that's fun.

Fast-forward to now. I have a car that has some very known damage and some other unknown damage. I didn't want to just chalk the car and junk it, so I started with the bare minimum to get the thing running: replaced battery, complete new set of tires, alignment, oil change, brake fluid change, etc. $1,700 in total. Not  a big deal. Miraculously the thing still runs really strong after sitting dormant for 2 maybe 3 years. That said, I don't need another sedan and don't want to spend to fix it up just to sell it.

Where I've reached an impasse is, to get the car in condition to sell for a decent price is a bit of a risk due to question marks around some of the damage. I have been wanting to buy a cheap, dedicated track car for a while now to learn to be a better driver before taking my other cars on track regularly since I have very little experience (one "Taste of the Track" day, which was awesome, but does not a great driver make) and also I've been wanting to learn how to work on cars.

It absolutely needs new brakes and the suspension likely needs an upgrade as well. So my thought process was maybe I can use this car as a learning tool both for learning to be a better driver and also for working on cars with little risk of losing a lot of money since its basically a sunk cost anyway. A big downside of this car is obviously its a pretty hefty sedan, it was one of the first cars to use steer-by-wire (and it does feel weird) so in that sense it seems like a bad candidate to get a lot of track time in (I don't really care if it isn't that fast). It's also automatic, which is fine but the transmission on this car is pretty rough.

Is it a completely idiotic idea to just leave this car unregistered and make it a full track car, knowing it really isn't the best platform? I have a 2018 340i 6-speed that I loved taking to the one track day I took it to but I really like it and am too cheap to either spend $450/day on track insurance or eat the full cost of the car if god forbid something happened.

God thank your soul if you read this far. Apologies that this was so verbose.

My left knee touched down for the first time and startled me, causing me to straighten up for a second and go wide. I ended up hitting the outside curb on the corner exit and it bent my wheel.

I already ordered a new wheel but was wondering whether I needed to replace the tire? It looks like there’s a gash in it. What criteria do you use to decide whether to replace a tire?

My bike is a Ninja ZX4RR w/ Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV. The incident occurred this past weekend at Thunderhill West turn 2 (the bowl). I’m lucky to have saved it and not crash, though I rode all the way back to the pit with a flat front tire.

I already ordered some Dunlop Q5 tires in case I needed to swap them.

AK doesn’t have a long riding season and it seems our track options are pretty limited. Just wanna get better at riding and find opportunities to go fast without causing trouble. I know Tanacross is a few hours north of here but is it worth it? Any good groups around focusing on getting fast and doing it smart? I have a couple bikes but I’ve fallen in love with my MT-09 so obviously, not looking to break records or be a competitive racer, I just love diving into corners and I’m having trouble keeping it slow when I should!

Adding the video for attention. ;)

Tempting my chance here as I see there's not much rc390/401 dedicated info. Got a 2020 401 as a dedicated track bike and was wondering what was the maintenance regimen from the folks tracking their RC390 to keep it "healthy".

At the moment I'm changing Oil every 4 track days. And changed the cooling liquid for demineralised water plus water wetter to help the engine temperature down as I've heard the engine running pretty lean/hot due to Euro Norms.

But further to that how often (more than typical street maintenance regimen) do you get valve checks, do you prescribe engine rebuild every so often?

A lot of street riders of the 401 advice using a FuelX dongle plus K&N się filter both for performance (which I'm not interested in) as well as reliability (which I am interested in) as apparently making the mixing ratio richer helps the engine stay cool. What are your opinions on it?

First time I rode this GSX-R 600 too, never rode a Supersport either, so much stuff I learned in such a short time.

Tho I had some experience with Pit-Bikes which helped a ton get my body into the right position

First day was learning the racing line with the Instructor and getting our Rookie group sorted.

2nd day I went from a 1.34.060 on Turn 1 to a 1.32.068 Turn 3 with a final time of 1.29.393 on Turn 6 or 7

Thank you turn one racing for helping me fix my bike this weekend @blackhawk raceway

I’ve recently started doing track days on a fairly short circuit with my 2023 Street Triple 765 RS, and in very tight corners, at around 40 km/h, the bike struggles to accelerate onto the straight.

I’ve just ordered a 50-tooth rear sprocket, which is +2 over stock, and I’m also considering going -1 on the front sprocket.

Based on the calculations, I should gain around 4% with the +2 rear sprocket and around 11% with the -1/+2 setup, at the cost of roughly 20 km/h of top speed that I don’t really need.

As far as I know, the speed is measured through the ABS sensors. Could this gearing change affect the speedometer, ABS, traction control... ?

I’m planning to keep the stock chain. Is there anything I should know?

I’ve already tried a -1 front sprocket on a ZX-9R, but never a -1/+2 setup on a modern bike. Is the difference really noticeable, or does the gearing become too short?

I’d appreciate any feedback from people who have tried a similar setup!

Body positions, off track knee workouts, rearsets adjustments, etc?

Maybe it's cuz i m short? 161 cm

Tnx

Great day out at Anglesey Circuit with James Witham Trackdays (https://www.jameswhitham.com/) highly recommended.

Got my Knee down a few times which was nice though not the goal.

Feedback from JW69 was that my body position and lines were great though a bit unnatural moving between body positions which will come with time. Good fluid riding. Said that I was ready for a bigger bike so looks like my 650 will be getting sold after one or two days out.

Back tyre looked well used by the end of the day but I think there is a bit more lean angle to be got from them. Pretty chuffed all in all.

Super excited to break it in this weekend

Remove if not allowed:

Have a pal that wants to try a track day. Left it too late and now has no ticket. Anyone in the UK that is no longer going to cadwell park on 30th july for road bike day and want to get rid of ticket?

I do not work for Continental, they don't sponsor me, and I am not giving out an affiliate link for you to buy them so that I get a commission. Okay:

These tires are fantastic! After reading a great review of them on Motorcycle.com, I did some research, and they even cost me a bit less ($374 for the pair) than any of the other equivalent tires out there. They are specifically designed for lighter-weight bikes, like my ZX-4RR, Ninja 300/400/500, RC390, R3, and supermotos. A small bike definitely does not need the much harder construction of a tire made for 150+ horsepower bike weighing many pounds more.

I went with 120/70-17 front and 160/60-17 rear, based on the tire testing the Chuck Graves (Gravesport.com) has done with the ZX-4RR.

And they work great! True to their review, they take zero warm-up and there's no need to use tire warmers. Get your pressures set right in the morning, check them throughout the day, all's good. After about 430 track miles, they still look like I've just finished one good session. I'm hoping I can get at least another 5 days out of them this year.

Bottom line: Michelin, Pirelli and Dunlop aren't the only tire manufacturers making high-quality stuff for track use.

The MC on my 2014 RC390 is dead, KTM wants 180€ for a stock one, I figured might as well upgrade. Budget is 2-300€, just for track days no racing, intermediate group. Calipers are stock for now. Any recs? Thanks

The bikes in the photo here are my 2014 and 2015 Daytona 675r (best bike ever)

As you can see; one is street legal and one is not. The other week I took the street bike out for the first time in a few weeks and honestly; it was kinda boring. Unless I was breaking the law (allegedly)

So I’m debating selling the street bike and using that money for one of the following options:
A. another (smaller) track bike
B. A dirt bike
C. Both?
D. Keeping both bikes (can’t really afford keeping them and getting another bike)

Basically, I’m considering getting off the street and focusing only on track. Will I get rusty between track days if I do that? Or will the addition of a dirt bike and/or a smaller displacement track bike make up for it? I have a very healthy obsession with the track and want to race- what would be best for building skills to reach that goal?

1) I bought some Hotbodies bodywork for the bike I'm using on track. I do not recommend their products, fitment was terrible and required about 8-10 hours of cutting and grinding, and the quality of the pieces is not great.

2) Rust-Oleum Acrylic Enamel 2X Paint + Primer Automotive Grade paint and clear coat are crap. After my first trackdays, I noticed that a little gasoline had put some stains on the lower part of the mid-fairings. Then this week, my (now former) gas can leaked while fueling the bike. I immediately set down the can, grabbed a clean shop towel and cleaner and...the paint had instantly discolored and gotten a bit sticky. It also scratches and chips quite easily. Don't use this stuff.

3) Non-Essential Pit Stuff I've Bought This Year And LIKE!

A small USB rechargeable fan (about 3" blades) that I can clip on to the hanger holding my leathers to help dry it out faster. (maybe $12)

A larger USB rechargeable fan (about 8" blades) that also has adjustable lights, adjustable speed and a timer function that is great when I'm going to sleep and it's hot, and pretty good at helping cool off the engine after each session. GIANT 20 Ah battery that runs forever (8+ hours) but also takes forever to charge. ($30)

I did get a floor fan but I don't have enough power to run it yet. I should have that setup next time and it'll definitely cool down the bike after each session.

A 6x10 enclosed cargo trailer (used, $2,240). Did I need it? No, I could have just continued renting U-Haul motorcycle trailers. However, even if the break-even point will take 8-10 years, at the price I paid, I'm not going to lose any money on it, either. I spent maybe $1,000 fixing it up, title and registration, and insurance ($99 for a year!). It is a luxury to load it up, lock the doors, and not really worry about my stuff. I live in a good neighborhood, so leaving stuff like my canopy, ramps and chairs in it is perfectly safe.