Had a mind-blowing time at the California Superbike School

I've said it before and I'll say it again, you meet some of the nicest and coolest people at any track day.

BHPian deepfreak15 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

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 won't 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 couldn't take such liberties with shyamg28 since I was meeting him for the first time so tried subtle manipulation (obviously it didn't 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 I'll say it again, you meet some of the nicest and coolest people at any track day, it's like its own ecosystem. Starting from our transport guy, Appu Raj, what a gem of a person. He was more excited than us and kept asking why we 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 can't 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 overdo 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 money's 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 can't 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 money's worth

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

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

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

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