My first track day impressions and ramblings
Overall I had a blast.
I've been riding for 11 years and always wanted to do a trackday, but I never had anyone that was interested in going to the track with me.
Last winter my Uncle was looking to sell his cbr 600 pc37 and offered it to me quite cheap, and I thought "fuck it, I'll get an old piss missile and ride it will be my track bike, no excuses"
It was a 2 day event in Oschersleben, I had 4 goals for the event
Get familiar with the track
Get familiar with the cbr
Have fun
Bring myself and the bikes home in one piece
Day 1 - all rain open pitlane - well shit, saw it in the forecast the day before and decided to also bring my daily street triple to just have the familiarity of the bike.
Got 13 Laps under my belt and then I decided it was no fun anymore with 7°C and wet. On the upside the organizer did a bit of a theorie course for everyone.
Day 2 - damp track in the morning, dry around noon, 15°C - rode the street triple in the morning again to get a feel for the drying track.
For the 3rd session I went out quite nervous with the ol' piss missile but at the end of the turn I was already lapping a second faster than on my daily and I felt quite confident on the bike.
In session 4 is when I really got into a rythm and i was able to focus solely on riding. After session 4 I got bumped into group 3 (we had groups 1-4) and immediately thought "fuck, I just wanted to slowly get comfy on the bike and track, and now I'll be in the way of the faster guys"
My paddock neighbour reassured me that I'll be having more fun since I won't have the trouble to overtake the slower guys and can focus on myself, and he was absolutely right with that.
Session 5 and 6 I got way less traffic, could focus more on myself and kept shaving seconds off my time and to my surprise I ended up one of the faster guys in group 3 and ended the day on a high note for myself.
At the end of the day I know my lines were not great, my braking and downshifting wasn't the best and many more things - but I had a real blast sending it on the track with an older screaming 4 cylinder piss missile.
Also many thanks to you, the one reading this, and everyone here that is active and gives good advice in the comments or posts, I did learn a lot by just lurking in this sub.