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A fun track day at Laguna Seca June 8th 2010

What a fantastic birthday present. I spent the day at Laguna Seca burning gas and rubber. The residents around Laguna Seca have litigated against noise at the track establishing a 92 db noise limit and providing for an equipment shack to test for offending sound levels as the track days junkies zip up the hill between turns 5 and 6. The track organizers require a stock muffler so I borrowed one from TopNotch Motosports and had a custom midpipe fabricated so I could install the stock muffler on my existing Yoshimura header. As you can see in the pictures it looks goofy but it got me through tech and I was able to ride the entire day. Most of the day I just putted up the hill two gears too high, but during the final session I took the bike close to redline with middle throttle and didn't get the meatball flag; I might be able to use full acceleration up the hill but didn't get a chance to try it.

The bike was working great, and the only handling glitch I noticed was a tendency to "wag the tail" under hard braking. I was off line at the top of the corkscrew all day and didn't realize it until I was driving home and reflecting on the day. A clear reminder to reflect on what I'm doing on track as soon as I pull off and get the tire warmers on the bike. The Jordan Suzuki has lots of power and the third gear wheelies (see pictures) driving up the hill towards the start finish were effortless and fun!

On the way home I drove the coast from Monterey to Pismo and OH MY GOSH, what a fantastic coastal ride. Gonna have to do this one again on my CBR. The only downsides to the trip were the long drive and flying solo. With nobody to share the driving with I arrived home pretty worn out.

P.S. I managed a 1:44 without trying all that hard; still, I won't be qualifying for the MotoGP grid any time soon

See you at a track day soon!

Chris





























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