4/28-29 track day in the rain, and one cancelled
 

Got the bike all ready, and loaded her up:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...0016Medium.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...0018Medium.jpg

It had been unseasonably warm and nice for about two weeks in New England prior to the monday and tuesday that were scheduled for my track days. The forecast wasn't looking good. I got there and put in literally TWO DAMN LAPS in the dry and then got the pitter patter of rain on my face shield. It then rained torrentially for two straight days. Monday was actually a LOT of fun and I learned a ton about wet weather riding. So much flooding occurred overnight that they canceled the second day. They gave us a big break on a future date and a credit for a whole day since tuesday was canceled, so I signed up for the June 2nd and 3rd event. Guess I'll have to wait another month to get my fix.

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Here's a shot from one of the two warmup laps I got in the dry... still trying to remember which side is the throttle in turn 1a:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...031lMedium.jpg

Then, I threw a 2 piece rain suit on over the leathers and that was the end of that.

Wet:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...123lMedium.jpg

Wetter:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...071lMedium.jpg

I have never ridden like such a vagina in my life and had so much fun. The rear sliding around in turn 2 was a pucker moment at first, but I got used to and came to expect it.

Ridden hard and put away wet:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...1251Medium.jpg

Took a couple photos with a nice camera I borrowed from work, still trying to learn how to take 'real' photos with all the manual settings and such. I think they came out pretty cool:

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Cleaned the bike up, got her back to street condition, and gave it a quick detailing:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...1747Medium.jpg

Home at the folks' place, exhausted, still raining out.

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f...1806Medium.jpg

Next day it was nice and sunny WTF?!?!

What a let down, I feel for ya....

That sucks. You got more balls than I do, riding in the rain.

does it ever rain in the fucking desert?

Rarely, bro. Especially during the summer. Spring is the windy season. Big gusts.

Yeah, it wasn't ideal obviously. I really learned a lot and had a good time though. You just really need to be smooth with all your inputs, hang off, and be extremely r e l a x e d on the bars and weight the pegs. They taught us a bit about using 'brottle' and 'thrake'... i.e. mating the rolling off of the throttle with the squeezing of the brakes simultaneously, so you're only loading the front once and squatting the contact patch, instead of twice. Helped a lot. In a couple of the turns I was sliding the rear a bit. Scary shit. As the day went on I was getting tired and out of it so I called it a day a little early.

I think it will help a lot for any panic situations I ever run into on the street in the rain, for sure.

Still really fucking aching to get some dry laps in though... been waiting 6 god damn months!
That must suck... blowing sand and dust and shit all over the track. That's practically as bad as rain for chrissakes.

The dust clears by 1000am, usually.

Corsa IIIs probably didn't help in the rain.

So the wind just stops by the end of the morning? That's the opposite of here... usually early mornings are calm and if it's going to be windy it happens in the daytime.
They may not be the best, but there were a few people running dots out there... like supercorsas... i.e. completely slick on the edges. Crazy motherfuckers.

It's not windy everyday. And it doesn't just stop. The riders usually clear it off by riding on the track for a couple hours.

What kind of camera is that? Takes good pics.

It's a nikon D70. It's a couple years old but a very nice camera. I snag it from work whenever I want to dick around with it.

I'm getting better with my manual photography... I'd like to get into it myself but at least for now the funds aren't allowing it.

That sucks, but ateast you got to ride...some...and brought the bike back shiny. I've never ridden track in the rain, I'm actually a bit curious. Any oh shit moments? Obviously you have to back off a bit, but do you feel like you came out learning anything from riding around the wet track? Would be interesting if the first day was wet and the second dry. Probably enhances your feel of the track and what the tires are doing, in other words, in the long run....it prob makes you a better rider. :idk:
Sweet pictures!:dthumb:

Yeah, I was a bit nervous, but I learned a LOT.

It's all about being smooth, controlled, weighting the pegs, hanging way off, combining the braking and rolling off, combining the getting off the brakes and rolling on, etc etc. ... All things you should be doing in the dry anyways... but more so.

I feel like a lot of moments in the rain on the street that formerly would have caused me to crash, I could now handle very nicely.

And yes... had some oh shit moments... but I was gradually increasing each lap so I knew I would get those moments and made sure to be prepared/relaxed for them and the bike takes care of it. The characteristics of each turn are amplified in the wet. I found that turn 2, which is normally a fairly high speed turn with knee down the whole time is a BITCH in the rain. Rear sliding around all the time. Had to take a different line through it, and still had the rear moving around every lap, but I came to expect it to happen and being relaxed, it was fine.






Oh, and I forgot to mention this, and I know some other dudes did this that day.... I did a rolling burnout at around 90mph by mistake :lol:.... on the main straight I went to rip through the gears and as I got into the powerband the rear just started spinning. It was pretty sweet.