28 May 2000 Part 2

Update 28/05/2000 Pt.2 : Track day blues…

Well, I’ve taken the Suzuki Hayabusa to my first track day event. I was a little nervous as I’ve never ridden any sort of race track what so ever. The venue was the Hidden Valley circuit which had seen the V8 super car race just last weekend. Arrived at 9am but didn’t get on the track till about 10.20am. And left for lunch after 12.00pm after 3 rides (by Hayabusa clock) Although I had seen the track as a spectator I didn’t expect it to be smaller than it looked. I went with my CBR600F4 owning mate who likewise had never ridden on the track.

Other riders had sports bikes including a very old GSX-R750, a ZX-9 and ZX-6 2000 model CBR900RR, an R1. So there was heaps of room. The ride day was organized by TERRA and we rode on the track between races. The track was damaged by the car races, the hairpin being the worst part thus being new and so forth I was quite cautious. Yes all bar the old GSX-R where faster than me. I certainly wasn’t worried as the Hayabusa had all the power but not enough suspension control. Or perhaps I just wasn’t a good enough rider – which is probably the case.

So what was it like esp with the suspension mods ? Well, everyone I had a lousy first session as I was unfamiliar with the track. And paranoid about hitting the damaged bits of the track. On the straight I didn’t realize I was hitting the rev limiter hence wondered why I couldn’t go any faster. Only on the 2nd last lap I realized what was going on and I did between 240-250kph before getting on the brakes. So I think 3 gear does about 180-190 before the limiter or was it second I really don’t know! Out of the 3 sessions for they day I had reached top speed of about 260kph. If I had a higher corner speed it would definitely be faster. So the straights were fine, untouchable as expected, even in a gear too high until the first corner. I tried to push it but it required more skill and daring than I was prepared to give. I’m not going to crash in my first track outing.

The best part was that when changing down the gears from high revs the rear never locked up ! That anti-lock thing really really works! The brakes where great too, heaps of power and feel. Vibes…what vibes ??? Gears used 3-5 mainly 4th – hey I’m new to this.

The corners where a different matter. The suspension was way to soft. The mods feel great on the road but on the track it was soft. Hence I was wobbling if I went too fast around the corners. On the good parts of the track it was fine. The lean angles felt steep but I didn’t touch down. Feedback was great but I think I need more weight on the front. The thing was trying to wheelie on the straight again. I also felt the gearing was not suitable as too low a gear and it would be easy to loose the rear end the ‘correct’ gear was too high. Use the lower gear and you’d run wide indicating the suspension or tyres was not up to it, no matter how much I tried to keep it on line. Leaning for the corners was fine, not much effort was required. I think the tyres should be a stickier compound as I don’t think they had enough grip either.

Summary until further modifications to make it more sporty are done … The Hayabusa is a superb road bike. The suspension mods make the Hayabusa even more perfect of road riding. On the track, it feels underdone, there’s heaps of power but you’d need to be a good rider to make the most of it, I certainly wasn’t game enough to push it.