[CrAzY dRiVeR]

"How sir its a TURING BIKE"!!!

(Note - Pardon the spelling, reciting verbatim)

And thats how the CSS weekend started!

I guess this question from our truck guy sums up (quite hilariously at that!) the situation as best as possible.



Not sure what I'm doing with an adventure sports machine at a track school - but then I think I'm going to learn a lot and I'll learn better on my machine than a rental. Hope I'm not proved wrong.

But anyways, thanks to Aprilia- I had a ton of fun two weeks back at Kari. So may be I won't miss out on a sports machine this time:



Took leave today to travel to Chennai and also get the bikes shipped down. I could have ridden down with luggage, but since that proved a little difficult for deepfreak15's RC390 - we opted for transport instead and drove down in his Skoda Octavia.

Finally decided against changing the tyres after talking to few of the BHPians who had attended CSS before. They seem to run a very tight ship, especially for L1 and L2 with only L3 upping the pace. Will see in the upcoming days.

Just had the basic checks done for the bike, washed and shipped to Chennai.





At Deepaks place waiting for the transport guy to arrive:



Very professional service so far by this vendor, will provide the details and overall feedback at the end of the shipment.





Bikes on the way:



Loading up the cavernous boot of the Octavia to the brim:



Deepak made it to Chennai in less than 5 hours from North Bangalore and I'm still scratching my head as to how this feat was achieved. Taking a quick breather outside of Sriperumbudur:



Excited, but fingers crossed for the weekend

Originally Posted by shyamg28

I'm attending Jan 26-28th, L1/2/3. Looks like we will miss each other by a week. All the best!

Noticed in the gear thread. Really looking forward to meeting you tomorrow! I guess we have another BHPian too, going by the names in their group.

[krishnaprasadgg]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Deepak made it to Chennai in less than 5 hours from North Bangalore and I'm still scratching my head as to how this feat was achieved. Taking a quick breather outside of Sriperumbudur:

Tell me about it. I too sat shotgun with Deepak in the Octi for a trip from MMRT back to Bangalore and that too was in record time.

This was a couple of months ago. Now at least i have someone to give company in the head scratching.

Cheers
Krishna

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

Tell me about it. I too sat shotgun with Deepak in the Octi for a trip from MMRT back to Bangalore and that too was in record time.

This was a couple of months ago. Now at least i have someone to give company in the head scratching.

Cheers
Krishna

Haha!

Google Map AI must be scratching its head too. The ETA was 5:34 PM when we started and we reached at 4:57 despite a long break (where I had a full thali meals) and a fuel break as well.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Graduated L1 to L3 from California Superbike School with the Tiger Sport 660

A quick summary of how things went and what an absolute hoot the Tiger Sport 660 turned out to be on the track.

Thanks to deepfreak15, shyamg28, and narula123 for the wonderful company over the weekend.

[Mr.Ogre]

Originally Posted by pravint

This is total ripoff, Why on earth brake pads should cost this much? Even brembo brake pads for cars like Honda city come at 1/3rd of the price.

Even I ask the same question. It costs way less to get my car serviced (AUD 300). Now with 2 superbikes at home it feels like I am earning just to keep my bikes in shape. Every time I get the bike serviced it is rarely less than AUD 800.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

The California Superbike School Experience

So as mentioned in the earlier posts, I completed CSS L1 to L3 last weekend at MMRT, Chennai - along with BHPians deepfreak15, shyamg28 and Narula123 as well. Overall it turned out to be a brilliant experience - and the confident feeling at the end of Day 2 and Day 3 was unforgettable. You learn that the limits of the bike far exceed that of your own, and your own limits can be pushed so much with just minor corrections to vision and posture.

Deepak brought his KTM RC 390, Shyam did it on the Suzuki VStrom 650 and Varun on his Kawasaki ZX10R. The motorcycles were largely divided into three batches based on the cubic capacity - so Deepak was in green batch, Shyam and I were in yellow and the 10R was in white batch. Obviously the white batch was the most spectacular one to watch - with the Daytonas, 10Rs and S1000RRs going full throttle down the main straight! Every single time - it made me wish for one and may be, just may be - the Tiger Sport could be succeeded by a supersport and not another tourer - just to scratch that childhood itch! Fingers crossed

That said, talking of the Tiger Sport 660:

Since this is a riding school - and not a quest for better lap times - I think I made a good decision to take my Adventure Sport motorcycle instead of taking a rental from the CSS folks. Now I understand my bike far better and would be better prepared to push its limits in case a situation arises! That said - I had an absolute blast on the track as well - the Tiger Sport 660 never posing any limitations for a rider with my skill level. I guess it did manage to surprise some people who rode together with me in my batch!

Shyam and I, along with a Doctor from Chennai (on a Tiger 1200)- were the only outliers in the entire school with adventure styled motorcycles and we were naturally quite apprehensive when we started off! What cooled us down was the fact that there were no expectations from us - like nobody to say "you are riding such a track-ready motorcycle, why are you riding like this then?". Just turning up with such a motorcycle was considered a plus, and anything we did thereafter was a bonus! Talk about having no pressure and being able to learn at our own pace! Lol!

The Trident (and previous generation Street Triple/Daytona) derived 660 motor was an absolute hoot - just like a triple is expected to be! 80hp turned out to be more than enough for my amateur skills and experience - and it screamed to 10k rpm without any fuss every lap after lap. Even the somewhat average quick shifter experience during touring rpms turned out to be a non-issue, both up and downshifts working perfectly at higher rpms. Hitting 9-10k and seamless shifting into 5th gear at the main-straight was quite a joy indeed!

As mentioned in the previous posts, one of my main concerns before this event was the tyres - the Michelin Road 5s already having completed 15k kms before the event and still having good amount of tread depth left! After consulting with a few BHPians - I finally let it be and attended the event with the same tyres. Frankly - the amount of grip on offer just blew me away - the Michelins allowed lean angles utilizing the full depth of the 180 sections without causing a second thought! Overtaking much more powerful motorcycles through a corner taking a safer and faster outer circle turned out such a confidence booster. Not much comments on the brakes - as we didn't have to push the limits of braking, since once again - this was a school not a track day.

If I have to point out one main weakness, it would be the suspension - the softness of an adventure style motorcycle can't be ignored. After the main straight of MMRT comes a long sweeping right hander which is quite wallowy and you really have to be loose on the bars and let the bike do its thing - otherwise it is quite easy to get rattled by the up and down movements of the suspension in a fast corner that sees speeds of around 100km/h. There is also some suspension sag under heavy braking - so you have to early on the brakes and release it slowly before the corner, else the bike can get unsettled while entering in the corner. Once again, just keep in mind that the bike was not designed with the track in mind at all - and you will do quite well! Considered the touring capabilities of this machine - I am frankly very deeply impressed by how it handed the track.

Overall, having ridden all of the competing motorcycles in this segment - I still feel that the Tiger Sport 660 is the most fun among the lot, if you plan to keep yourself on tarmac for most riding requirements.

Coming to the school format and coaching:

All three days had a very similar format - starting with a briefing session, followed by classroom sessions and 20 minutes on the track to implement what was taught! However, the absolute best part of the sessions were the world-class trainers. I am absolutely thankful to have received coaching with TT.Siddharth, who turned out to be an excellent coach - riding behind you and monitoring what is going well and not - and provided precise feedback during the debriefing sessions. The detail they are able to extract when riding behind you is quite unbelievable - and Sid especially balances the good with the improvement areas so well - you get a huge confidence boost while heading out into the next lap.

And boy - seeing them ride redefines your definitions of speed! If you think you are a fast rider on the road, you must be just making more risks! You end up realizing what real speed is - on the track and how slow you are in real compared to some of the track veterans. It is best to keep benchmarking yourself and keep chipping away towards minor improvements each and every lap!

I did take my recently-bought leathers to the event, but many including Shyam attended the event with textile riding gear and it was perfectly adequate. Thankfully, the weather in January was suitable for walking around in leathers provided you ensure to have tons of water and fruits provided. I am not sure how to do this in mid-year Chennai heat!

We arrived at the track on 26th morning to be greeted by this beautiful sight - such desirable machines all around!



Three outliers to be seen - the only adventure styled motorcycles around were my Tiger Sport 660, Shyam's Suzuki VStrom 650 and one Tiger 1200 from Chennai



As mentioned earlier - we did start off questioning our life decisions once again, at taking touring machines to the track. This sort of company doesn't help either! That said - it was easier once when turned the pressure around - afterall no one will ask us ""you are riding such a track-ready motorcycle, why are you riding like this then?" Lol!



The full class attending the morning briefing session. Those with keen eyes might spot a few familiar faces!



All the trainers introducing themselves - a truly international team of trainers here at CSS:



Tech-inspection in progress! They check a few parameters including tyres, brakes, suspension sag etc. I wonder why he has a smile on his face. Lol!



Big sigh of relief once the Tech Inspection was cleared!



Triumph is an official sponsor for CSS and most of the trainers rode around on their Street Triple 765RS and Speed Triple 1200RS bikes. The track-spec Daytona at the last was a treat to watch and hear though!



The rental bikes ready to roll out, there were also many RTR 200s for the event, not just the 310s!



shyamg28 rolls on the track, followed by my bike in the background:



Thanks to the official photographer Aditya Bedre and his team for making us looking good in all the images!



deepfreak15 rolls out with the Green batch:



Narula123 attending steering drills on Day 2 before the sessions begin:



Steering drills in progress for me:







Some images from the pits:







Some images from all three days of track sessions:

















Parting image, the full batch at California Superbike School - India, January 2024:

[deepfreak15]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

The California Superbike School Experience

So as mentioned in the earlier posts, I completed CSS L1 to L3 last weekend at MMRT, Chennai - along with BHPians deepfreak15, shyamg28 and Narula123 as well.

Thanks a lot for the awesome company you all! I really envy Narula123 for being in the white group and riding with all those exotic bikes. I wont lie, every time I watched them fly by I had a sense of yearning to be among them...sigh if wishes were horses...

I have had the pleasure of knowing CrAzY dRiVeR for a while so leading up to the first track session I was literally ragging him for not taking the rental RR310, I couldnt take such liberties with shyamg28 since I was meeting him for the first time so tried subtle manipulation (obviously it didnt work) but boy was I proven wrong after their first session. Both of them took to the track like fish to water and you could literally see them ramp up as the days progressed and were happily flying around by day 3.

I've said it before and Ill say it again, you meet some of the nicest and coolest people at any track day, its like its own eco system. Starting from our transport guy, Appu Raj, what a gem of a person.He was more excited than us and kept asking why were taking a touring bike to the track and why my bike was stock and I hadn't removed the number plate etc. Though all was good when we gave the bikes to load them for the return journey. He looked at both our tyres and was beaming like a proud father. Taking on the services of Aditya Bedre for photography turned out to be a good move as all these days I have been riding around a track I didn't have a decent picture to show for, this time round I cant decide which pictures to shortlist from the ~250 that he gave. Joe's garage was on hand in case anyone needed support albeit for a fee I guess, same with most of the other services (photography, transport etc)

I've been through a few on track training sessions but I learnt so much this time it was mind blowing. But the biggest difference was my mindset, in previous classes I would go with the intent to learn but the moment I got on the track I would lose all restraint and try to over do it. This time around I decided to do only the drills I was told and ignore everyone else on track (there will always be someone faster than you or ignoring the drills and blasting past everyone, you get your moneys worth only if you ignore that and just do your thing). I stuck to that and surprisingly everything felt so calm and relaxed and slow! Pretty soon I realized I was passing people and I guess I did learn to ride fast in the end.

The bike was a hoot to ride but it did have its limitations. The suspension wallowed a lot and the foot pegs kept scraping so I had to change my riding style and try to ride with the bike as upright as possible.

Literally cant wait for the next track day (hopefully it will be with a much better bike..)

Signing off with some pictures taken, I personally think I got my moneys worth

Hanging off the bike to keep it upright has its advantages (looks good)


Small bikes are a hoot on track..had the throttle wide open almost everywhere


Insert cliched "You go where you look ...focus blah blah blah"

[shyamg28]

Fantastic report as always!

My 2 cents on the event, learnings, philosophy and life -

I was nervous heading into this. Needed continuous reminders that I'm in this for me and me alone.

My aim is to be a better, self-aware and more responsible rider. Attending a school by itself, isn't the means to achieve that. Like every learning in life, you need to continually retrospect and introspect. If you don't practice what you've learnt, there's zero purpose to the learning itself, except in allowing one to participate in highly intellectual conversations as a "know-it-all" haha!

That out of the way, why was I nervous? This was a gift by my wife. Whatever said, it's a large sum of money. Put in perspective, it's not. We happily spent 10L on a motorcycle. 1/10th of that on learning how to ride, why that's a steal deal, isn't it? But the mind is a strange place. It doesn't always have the perspective one needs at the moment. With that playing at the back of my mind, I was constantly thinking of "maximizing" my learnings.

"Make the most of this opportunity".

Couple of things helped me relax a bit -
As I left to ride down to Chennai, my wife said, "forget about the money, you just have a good time and return home safe and sound. Don't think about the money. We'll do it all over again if needed." That did relax me quite a bit.
On day 2, I recall mentioning to Deepak and Sujai that I feel my learnings, and therefore application, was relatively slow. And Deepak said something that helped immensely - on his first outing, things were just going by, but 20 days later, he was able to realize the gains. Things were starting to make more sense. The application was getting better.

I headed down to Chennai on the 25th of Jan. Early morning start, reaching by 10am. Deepak had recommended that I get good amount of sleep the night before the 26th, as things can get quite tiring, which they did. I had a massive headache by the end of Day 1.

The school is run extremely efficiently. A brief on the schedule for Level 1,2,3 -

Day 1 - reach by 6.30, registration takes place, where you receive your batch color and number, along with stickers and a Level 1 booklet, with all the exercises for the day in them. I was Yellow 22.

Next, Gear check - Leathers are not mandatory, but recommended. While CSS themselves do not have an official rental vendor, there are plenty of them that can be contacted for this purpose, who can hand deliver leather suit, gloves and boots. A rough estimate I was provided was INR 3500/day. Just leather suit, would be about INR 2500/day. The condition of the leathers is suspect more often than not, as I'm given to understand. I decided to ride in my own textile riding jacket and pants, purely because I felt that would keep me most comfortable, allowing me to soak in the learnings, rather than focusing on a weird fitting leather. To each his own.

You're then ushered toward breakfast, which is a decent buffet. Class 1 for the day is all batches together in a large air conditioned classroom.

You are made to understand the 1st drill, the why of it (very important) and then each batch gears up to head out. For us, it was the White batch heading out first, followed by the Yellow, lastly, the Green.

As the White batch returns after spending 20 minutes out on the track doing the drill, their coaches return first, get into a briefing area (each coach has 3 coachees under them from each batch). The riders then head straight towards the briefing area to hear from their coaches what they did well, where they can improve, etc.

Meanwhile, the Yellow batch lines up and gets ready to head out on the track. This is the tricky bit - while each batch does 5 drills in the course of a day, the coaches end up doing 15 Last I checked, we were averaging ~100kms per day. That implies, the coaches were doing ~300kms each day, at seriously high speeds. Goodness!

The White batch heads to a classroom to learn about the next drill. As the Yellow batch returns, they head to their coach briefing, while the Green group lines up for their time out on the track.

And this is how the day progresses, with a total of 5 drills each day.

Day 2 - we're asked to come early for the Steering Drill. Followed by breakfast, and then, same as what you read above. 5 drills for the day.

Day 3 - similar as Day 2, except that at the end, there's a certification ceremony, followed by a group photoshoot out on the main straight.

E.F.F.I.C.I.E.N.T!

The other important bit is that they keep an assortment of fruits, lemon juice and water for consumption, throughout the day. This was seriously a game changer for me. Although the weather was most excellent, I don't think I could've survived the 3 days without the refreshments, given my current fitness level. In fact, when I got back home on Monday, I recall feeling exhausted and passing out for a good 5 hours in the evening, waking up for some dinner, and then passing out again for the next 8 hours. Highly recommended - get fit, stay fit.

A few notes on the V Strom - it held up pretty damn well! It can lean, it can go decently fast too. And keeps you comfortable as hell - even out on the track lol
The drills and my relative application of them, ensured that the entire tyre width was used up, with even the edges becoming rounded. It is a 150/70 rear tyre.
I had similar thoughts as Sujai - I wanted to learn on my motorcycle, and importantly, I want to stay onto ADVs for a while longer. So it made most sense to learn, on my ADV.

The relatively long suspension travel actually is a big time deterrent, especially with some of the body positioning drills. In particular, I recall on Day 3, I used the footpegs to move my butt across - wrong move - wrong wrong move - the handlebar wobbled quite a bit but luckily, I was able to throttle it out to keep it steady. In addition, the footpegs are relatively low as well. I scraped them on Day 1 (which actually shows poor application). The sump guard as well as the side stand extender was also scraped. It's a weird feeling. But exciting and fun nonetheless.

I made zero changes to the motorcycle. I could've reduced weight by removing a host of things - the rear side bag stays, sump guard, mirrors, visor, aux lights, etc. I "chose" to let them remain. Ok, I was probably just lazy. Regardless, like I said, I was nervous and didn't want my focus to waver too much from the essence, which was to learn.

The only change I did make was to ensure I replaced my front tyre. The previous one had about 3-4k kms left. Decided to let go of them.

Like Sujai said, our pics did look like we were out on a long tour and happened to land on the track lol. We tried our best!

I've probably rambled long enough already. One final thought I had about cornering - while one of the aims of the school is to learn how to corner well, the one common theme remained for me - how can you keep your bike as stable and straight as possible? Essentially, the lesser your lean, the more stable you are, therefore, the faster you can go! Sounds obvious no?

Lastly, a big big thank you to Sujai and Deepak for allowing me to keep their company for the 3 days. I also bugged Deepak a lot before the event with many queries lol. And Sujai, who was left with me in Yellow company, thank you for your patience!

P.S.: On a lighter note, Sujai has no idea he rides an ADV. Every single time that he started behind me, he overtook me in about a minute, making me look like I was at standstill! Probably start a petition to change his name to CrazyRider? :P

And Deepak - NO, I'm not getting a supersport :P

Some coffee on way to Chennai.


Breakfast on way to Chennai.


Fuelling up.


Entering TN.


Decent hotel. I didn't plan ahead. Wouldn't go here again ideally.


Day 1 - entering in early morning.


My Wee.


Bike inspection.


The 1st class of the day.


Briefing area where coach-coachee interaction takes place.


Individual coach briefing area.


This was my coach briefing us after we came back from the track. Tired face, but attentive as hell I promise.


Steering Drill.








Go straiiiggggghhhhtt...then take right.


...and then a left.


In some really scary territory...am I in the right place?


Day 3, body positioning class in session. Take note.


Group pic end of Day 3.


My tired, patient, but hopefully proud coach :P


My scraped side stand extender. Silly idea to have left it in there in the first place. Only noticed after getting back home I think.


The edge of my rear tyre was rounded off. I think the Wee did well.


Some cool shots of us were captured.








The birds bid adieu to us (or we to them).

[krishnaprasadgg]

Awesome write up CrAzY dRiVeR, deepfreak15 & shyamg28! Photos were icing on the cake.

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

[h3]
As mentioned in the previous posts, one of my main concerns before this event was the tyres - the Michelin Road 5s already having completed 15k kms before the event and still having good amount of tread depth left! After consulting with a few BHPians - I finally let it be and attended the event with the same tyres. Frankly - the amount of grip on offer just blew me away - the Michelins allowed lean angles utilizing the full depth of the 180 sections without causing a second thought! Overtaking much more powerful motorcycles through a corner taking a safer and faster outer circle turned out such a confidence booster.

I was always curious about this. Had even talked to a few about how advisable it is to take touring/road-oriented tyres on a track outing. The responses I got were that it's totally fine and it will perform great, and I always thought to myself that it hasn't skipped a beat on the road so should be fine on track even though the conditions are starkly different, shouldn't be that bad right?
Interestingly, the R1 also had the Road 5 on when it went on an outing at MMRT and the feedback on slow laps was similar to your experience but once the bike was asking more from the tyre it was a much different story, the TCS kept interfering in deep corners, I guess that attributes to the lean angles plus the amount of power on tap. So where the Road 5 held superbly well for the Tiger, it was not so great on the R1 and it was the TCS that kept things in check.

Cheers
Krishna

[VijayAnand1]

Splendid! "You meet some of the nicest people on track" A friend of mine was on his R3 and RC390 (all the way from Coonoor) yet was with white group guys. He sincerely was billowed with melancholy down with the fact that he couldn't get his track-spec CBR600R ready which per him is at Joes.

Shyamg28 put it perfectly - it's positively putting to use the little finer aspects one's garnered and inculcating into one's daily riding habits is how it's burned for the long term - using the right tool when needed. The right tool makes for the right decisions and right decisions makes it for a great experience. I always say, a good rider is great on a not so good bike than a not so good rider on a good bike. A tool in the tool box.

The fact that CSBK coaches emphasize on making one a "safer rider" rather than a "fast rider" talks about the top down approach they focus on which ultimately yields to a safer and faster rider. A safe rider is a fast rider and speed is an ultimate byproduct which I always believed and will continue to believe.

Lovely thread, lovelier pictures and even lovelier bikes. Need I say anything more?

Cheers!
VJ

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

I was literally ragging him for not taking the rental RR310

The bike was a hoot to ride but it did have its limitations. The suspension wallowed a lot and the foot pegs kept scraping so I had to change my riding style and try to ride with the bike as upright as possible.

Wait a minute! Are you saying you kept asking me to get a sportbike and your sportbike had the exact same two negatives as our adventure bikes?

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

I've said it before and Ill say it again, you meet some of the nicest and coolest people at any track day, its like its own eco system. Starting from our transport guy, Appu Raj, what a gem of a person.He was more excited than us

His enthusiasm was so addictive! He was waiting near the pits and just as I came in after the final lap, he immediately took the bike from me - but not before taking a look at the tyres and then exclaiming I've made good use of it! His grin was just the perfect ego boost needed for a great evening drive back home. Lol!

Originally Posted by deepfreak15

Signing off with some pictures taken, I personally think I got my moneys worth

Hanging off the bike to keep it upright has its advantages (looks good)

You absolutely did! Unfortunately I kept messing up my vision basics when concentrating on body posture- so I'll have to keep visiting again to learn better and get such nice pics in the process.

Originally Posted by shyamg28

P.S.: On a lighter note, Sujai has no idea he rides an ADV. Every single time that he started behind me, he overtook me in about a minute, making me look like I was at standstill! Probably start a petition to change his name to CrazyRider? :P

You exaggerate and how! Hehe!

Your pace improvement from Day 1 to Day 2 was like night and day. I kept telling Deepak the same thing on Day 2 - that i never saw you on the track the entire day - irrespective of where we started so our pace should be similar. And he also noticed you had become significantly faster entering into the main straight post Day 2. Some of the others in our batch did comment on the same as well!

Originally Posted by shyamg28

My scraped side stand extender. Silly idea to have left it in there in the first place. Only noticed after getting back home I think.

The edge of my rear tyre was rounded off. I think the Wee did well.

Need anyone say more! You absolutely lived at the limits of that VStrom and I must also compliment the bike for being comfortable even when pushing it so much! Looking forward to more outings together.

Originally Posted by krishnaprasadgg

So where the Road 5 held superbly well for the Tiger, it was not so great on the R1 and it was the TCS that kept things in check.

No comparision, hehe, with a first timer on a bike with less than half the horsepower. I'm not surprised the Road5s couldn't keep up with the power demands of the mighty R1. Your partial throttle input must be sending more power to the rear wheel than my full throttle!

For the Tiger Sport however, I remember noticing the TC kicking in only once. Out of the last corner on to the main straight I could fully pin the throttle once the bike was partially picked up post the apex and the tyres never complained. Most of my overtaking were either while taking a wide outer circle through corners (cutting inside was prohibited) and while powering out of corners.

Meanwhile - heading to your thread to read more about riding interstate on superbikes.

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

A friend of mine was on his R3 and RC390 (all the way from Coonoor) yet was with white group guys.

Pre- Facelift R3 right? Blue and silver. Was riding well if thats the guy!

I don't envy him being in white group. Lol. We were actually talking about this in the pits - I would have been absolutely terrified riding in that group amidst all those S1000RRs and ZX10Rs - all of them with mind numbing acceleration and modified loud exhausts to boot. He seemed to be handling it perfectly well - guess that's the experience showing!

[VijayAnand1]

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Pre- Facelift R3 right? Blue and silver. Was riding well if thats the guy!

I don't envy him being in white group. Lol. We were actually talking about this in the pits - I would have been absolutely terrified riding in that group amidst all those S1000RRs and ZX10Rs - all of them with mind numbing acceleration and modified loud exhausts to boot. He seemed to be handling it perfectly well - guess that's the experience showing!

My buddy was on a Black R3 and an RC390 with the number 11 slapped loud and bold on the visor of both. He did mention of another guy in blue R3, guess you and him are referencing him. See, this is why track days are fun, the aftermath of it just reels on, innit.

Cheers!
VJ

[100Kmphormore]

Amazing pictures guys! I had always wished to take my ex Himalayan to the track as I had never been able to understand how was it a decent handler especially in the ghats - the front slipping and the suspension wallowing even at very low speeds especially when entering a series of curves - that being issues on the RC is surprising. Shyam, as a long term Himmy owner what do you think about its abilities on a track now, with the extra skill set?

I had no doubts about the Tiger 660 it being a stilted Trident of sorts in my experience when I attended its unveiling and test ride being a very capable performer, but the Wees performance was eagerly awaited thanks to its ADV capabilities and hefty nature (it weighs in at 216 kg). Back in Aug 2022 when I looked for a replacement for my Himalayan, it was overpowering with its presence and it’s weight! Certainly muscled it, Shyam. Did you have to make any suspension adjustments and was braking emphasized a lot, mirrors, speedo taped up etc? Shumis account of “jumping the corner” on the Wee (referenced on the track episode on motorinc) - what do you make of it?

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by VijayAnand1

My buddy was on a Black R3 and an RC390 with the number 11 slapped loud and bold on the visor of both. He did mention of another guy in blue R3, guess you and him are referencing him. See, this is why track days are fun, the aftermath of it just reels on, innit.

Cheers!
VJ

Haha! Yeah... took me a couple of days to stop dreaming about lines and entry speeds.

My bad - the black R3 almost skipped my mind. The blue immediately came to mind because there were two - a brand new one that was brought in (I guess) by the Overdrive folks and one pre-facelift bike which I mentioned above - and I was trying to compare the differences between the two generations.

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Shumis account of “jumping the corner” on the Wee (referenced on the track episode on motorinc) - what do you make of it?

Possible to share a link to this?

[shyamg28]

Originally Posted by 100Kmphormore

Shyam, as a long term Himmy owner what do you think about its abilities on a track now, with the extra skill set?

The Himmie 411 will do. It will do very well. In fact, it will probably take me a long time to match its potential.
About the Himalayan 450, Mark Wells had shared something on his Instagram account - https://www.instagram.com/p/C2CZOIrx...o4cjVoOGt1ag==

...but the Wees performance was eagerly awaited thanks to its ADV capabilities and hefty nature (it weighs in at 216 kg). Back in Aug 2022 when I looked for a replacement for my Himalayan, it was overpowering with its presence and it’s weight! Certainly muscled it, Shyam. Did you have to make any suspension adjustments and was braking emphasized a lot, mirrors, speedo taped up etc? Shumis account of “jumping the corner” on the Wee (referenced on the track episode on motorinc) - what do you make of it?

At the school, they showed us how to relax. The way it was put, the bike will handle itself. It's weird rider input that causes it to lose its sh** So the less you muscle whilst on the move, the more your motorcycle will love you back lol.

Yes, we had to either remove mirrors or tape them up. They don't want anyone looking back, just forward. I taped up mine, but the first lap out, I found myself looking into the mirror before making any "lane changes" lol.
Taping up the speedo was also recommended. So I have zero clue what speeds I was doing.

On the Wee, you only get rear preload adjustment. I keep it at 10 clicks below max when it's just me riding. I didn't change it.

The recommended pressures for single riders is 33/36 on the Wee. Sujai recommended 29/30 front rear pressures. That's the one change I did make.

The point is, the coaches don't care much, at least not unless they feel your potential unlock beyond the basics. My coach never touched the point of suspension or tyre pressures. Safe to say, I came and left as Shyam, not Rossi.

Stiffer suspension would definitely help. The Wee's suspension is definitely basic. Overall softer than what one would prefer on a track. For someone like me, stiffer suspension would only assist in preventing my mistakes being exaggerated at speed. As added safety. Whether it would unlock more, was not the point at this level. I'm sure, L4 and then above (whatever that maybe), one would want to pay attention to the motorcycle specifics.

On a lighter note, the one huge advantage of an ADV - you go wide, just stand up and sail through. I went wide on one of the corners, stood up, went over the grass, possibly came out faster than the chap in front of me

Originally Posted by CrAzY dRiVeR

Possible to share a link to this?

Yeah I've watched the whole episode too...

https://youtu.be/oTKaVP4zgTk?si=f8WcLzEjaJVpe7jD

Didn't get the exact reference.