The events of Silverstone GP

[Cav]

Firstly... I forgot my leathers. Yes, yes, I genuinely forgot my clothes !! Thankfully 2 of the guys that were coming with us were travelling up in the morning so I got the leathers dropped off at their house and they arrived by personal delivery in the morning - it helped take my mind of the riding though so I wasn't spending all my time on the toilet in the AM.

Mishaps and compulsory items done with it was time to hit the track. My tyre warmers REALLY didn't fit so I decided to run without them for the day. First session was very cold (ground temp around 6*c and air temp around 3*c) so I was rather nervous but the Racetec RR K1/K2 felt great when they warmed up. Bedded the new brakes in but was concerned as there was a lot of judder coming from the front and I hopped my way around turn one.. I thought I had messed the brakes up.

Next session (with a freshly fitted cable tie and my sag adjusted to 30mm front and 35mm rear) the judder had almost disappeared so I started to press on and the judder came back and I nearly tucked the front end mid corner.

Back in the pits and inspection of the cable tie shows that I'm bottoming out on the front end travel so I up the compression and head back out on track - being able to brake and push harder still I find the exact same thing happening on the fork travel but at least I am no longer getting judder. Thankfully the judder was not down to me bedding in the brakes badly. Tyre wear was looking spot on too!

Brembo RCS 19 Master Cylinder, Brembo 320mm discs and SBS DC pads review:

Holy sh!tballs this brake setup is good! Barely any lever travel on the 19x18 setting (didn't feel the need to try the 19x20), incredible feel, incredible stopping power and I arrived at every corner far too slow! It requires a complete brain recalibration. In my opinion anything else done to the brakes would subtract from them so I will not be getting calipers. The DC brake pads were agonisingly bad when cold but they warm up soon enough and were outstanding - brief review but everything that needs to be said has been said.

The circuit itself is bonkers; extremely wide, astonishingly fast and frustratingly technical. In part thanks to the brakes I was never getting the corner entry right for half of the circuit and we only stayed on track until lunchtime as it started raining and I didn't want to risk it - I came away very happy indeed!

Gearing was absolutely perfect hitting an indicated 170mph as I hit the brakes down hangar straight doing over 16,000 RPM in 6th gear and I was in 6th absolutely pinned to the stop through Woodcote onto the pit straight.

Sensational day with relatively few mishaps with people I like to be around - what could be better than that?

[Perkles]

glad you had a good day the weather was very unpredictable. Sounds like you need some work on the front forks,try and do a mallory day with me and kwacky at some pint this year

[Cav]

I think you're right. I'm sure I'd have got it sussed by the end of play if I could have gotten out all day. Thing is, It's almost entirely down to the brakes I think; before the upgrade I thought the forks were the best bit of the bike but since upgrading the brakes and revalving the shock it's the worst.

My next one is likely to be Snetterton in July/August then I will probably look for one more before I got to Catalunya so Mallory is a possibility - I'd enjoy doing one with you guys I think! I'm sure Mallory will be a lot easier than Silverstone to learn! haha

[Perkles]

I thought Silverstone wasn't to bad to learn except for braking markers because its so wide and open
I have memories of tricked up gsxrs thous going past me like I was standing still down hangar straight

[Kwacky]

Good review.

I know nothing about suspension. Was there no one there like Parkitt to talk to about it?

[Cav]

I'll go through my video over the next few days an post some stuff... at one point I went past some guys about 70mph faster down hangar, maybe more. I found lines and braking points very difficult to learn and I'm typically good at picking up lines.

Thanks Kwacky, I was going to talk to them after the first session back from lunch if I still couldn't get round the issue but I did speak to them about tyre wear and he confirmed what I thought was the issue - very nice chap who was very happy to help. Their tyre prices are good too !!

[Kwacky]

Good blokes at Parkitt.

[Monty]

Cav, before you change anything speak to Tom or Darren at MCT about the forks. You've just described exactly what they said was wrong about the damping on our bikes.

[Cav]

I looked on their site for an email address but only got a phone number, I'll try to call them but I doubt I will remember; I did forget my leathers after all!

Failing MCT, I could ask the guy that did my shock.

Here's a "best of" compilation from the 2 sessions I recorded for:
[video]https://youtu.be/llRklx6XrVU[/video]

[Kwacky]

I wish I could carry half that corner speed.

You're certainly hammering them on the brakes on a couple of corners.

[Monty]

You're in the wrong group again, bloody loon!

Note to self, must brake harder

[Frankie]

I was thinking that, then saw fast group lol..... made the rest of them look like they were going backwards, lol, enojoyed that

[edd1e]

great riding, some of those don't look like they should be in the fast group.

[Perkles]

Nice riding cav,your very confident and absolutely nailing it on the brakes

[Rossgo]

Superb cab, great review and love your video. How can you say you were too slow for the corners...looked like you were confident, precise and bloody FAST!! Haha!!

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[Cav]

It's me being me.. self analytically critical. I could have done better but that would have come with spending more than 4 sessions on circuit.

Don't take it the wrong way, I am very happy with how I did.

My main pointers are improving my lines, increasing corner speed in a few places (the circuits technicalities were something I wasn't used to) and using all of the circuit. As good as I may be on the brakes I was still braking too early for the corners (or too hard).

It was an amazing day though and I am very happy with how I did

[Cav]

I queried my sag numbers with some racers and suspension tuners and it appears my sag numbers of 30/35 are much too high for track riding, I need to aim for 20-25 front and 10-15 rear. I'll definitely start at the higher end (25/15) to see how that feels before I progress anymore but this should solve my issues with using all the suspension travel.

I may be unable to achieve these numbers at the front though which means hello new shock springs and revalve -_-

Don't want to spend more money

[Rossgo]

I suppose we are our own worst critic at times but I see where you are coming from you just want to improve on what is already at a good standard which is fair enough

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[duke63]

That is an impressive video. We all want to improve whatever level we are at.

Doesn't look like you have much in the way of faster riders to follow in that video that will help though.

[Cav]

That is an impressive video. We all want to improve whatever level we are at.

I think you're right, duke. I definitely can improve and it's in my nature to be competitive with myself. At the end of the day though, so long as I get enjoyment from it I'm happy

Doesn't look like you have much in the way of faster riders to follow in that video that will help though.

There was one guy I saw that was quick (probably quite a bit quicker than me) but I only saw him on the outlap and seeing as I wasn't using tyre warmers and was still bedding my brakes in I wasn't able to follow him. Also, he rode like a complete twit having witnessed him rub his shoulder against someones boot as he went round the outside