Euro track weekends

[jonzi]

Has any one done a European track weekend with any of the track day companies?

I fancy doing one in November.

Any recommendations on companies to look at?

I don't really want to take my bike. So if any one has experience of renting then I am all ears

Cheers

[slob]

I did 4 days at Cartagena (http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/showthread.php?t=20419) with Focused Events a few years ago, excellent week!
My personal favourite TD company is No Limits but have never been abroad with them.
I've also done Spa-Francourchamps with Bikers Days (safely briefing in Flemish, French, German and English!) and had a blast.... Spa ROCKS!

Funkatronic should be along any minute...

[jonzi]

You take your own bike?

[jonzi]

just read the thread. Yes you did

[jonzi]

Maybe I should just buy a track bike

I would like a Ducati, but that is too much.

I've never ridden a sports bike (except for 30 mins on a CBR600F)

Would any of these be likely to scare the sh** out of me or kill me?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280951161596
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110931476236
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110942803416

And any one know where I can find some where to put it in East London?!

[J.P]

All bikes are likely to kill you if you ride them wrong Jonzi.
Ride them carefully and progressively and you'll be fine.

No Limits, Focuses events, BSB Eurotracks, all do lots of Spanish trackdays. Cost is around £700 give or take.

[slob]

If you take your own bike you learn more about your and its combined limits, personally I'd save the money until you feel you're pushing those... and then get a track bike.

A grand is a bargain until you start adding van or trailer etc.etc.

ps they'll ALL scare the sh*t of you :-)

[jonzi]

Slob, in that report of yours you said that you track prepared your bike.

What did you do to it?

[J.P]

probably just took the wong mirror's off :)

[slob]

Pretty much what he said ^^^ ...'wing' not 'wong' tho ;-)
I removed mirrors, lights/indicators and pillion pegs. Fitted a new set of tyres (to last 4 trackdays)
put on the 'challenge' nose-cone(see photos) and taped over the speedo so as not to scare myself too much (leaving a bit uncovered so i could still read the trip meter for fuel guestimation)

[pegboy]

I went to Portimao earlier this year and took my monster, I came back and brought a 749s, since i have been to Snetterton, Friday going to Silverstone and looking at Brands next month. So if you are serious about track time, track bike is the way to go, but as Slob said get some under your belt and if you get the bug go for it.

My European track days was with No Limits and it was amazing, the track itself has 90% blind corners and scares the 5h1t out of you the first day, but by the third day I was having a ball.

It's not cheap, you could say around £1K ish for flights, trackday, petrol, personal insurance, food, car hire and bits and bobs as they say, but well worth the effort.

All compnaies have drop off points in the UK for your bike the week or so before, you load your own bike on pallets (for bikes) and the company will ship to the european destination, the cost includes insurance, but do check, drop off venues vary but always miles away in my experiance, so you will need to factor that in also. Then you fly over, rent a car, check into the hotel, usually you can register at the hotel the night before to start the following day. You turn up at the track and find your bike, unpack it and get ready to ride. You can take some other things also, paddock stands, pump, few tools, spares etc but you are limited with space and you need to pack it around your bike. At the end you repack your bike on the pallets fly home and a week or so later you collect again.

I would highly recommend it it is great fun and the evenings in the bar with everyone is dangerous!!!!

[jonzi]

I went to Portimao earlier this year and took my monster, I came back and brought a 749s, since i have been to Snetterton, Friday going to Silverstone and looking at Brands next month. So if you are serious about track time, track bike is the way to go, but as Slob said get some under your belt and if you get the bug go for it.
...

Sine April I have been to:

Snetterton
Brands
Silverstone for CSS
Snetterton
Bedford Autodrome
Lydden Hill (on Saturday if any one wants to come!)

I guess I am serious about it!

I think I might buy a track bike and keep the 796 looking pretty.

[Funkatronic]

im rather addicted to euro trackdays. have done portimao 4-5? times, almeria, jerez, cartegena and spa. am about to embarque on a 6 week tour of spain and portugal on the Monnie with the 998 being shipped between tracks at aragon, almeria, portimao and jerez

i like them for lots of reasons. The weather is usaually better, it feels like a holiday, you have a few days so you get more time to learn the track and dont get the nutters out hell for leather form the 1st session and if your tired can sit out a session without feeiling cheated. The social side of it is lots of fun too nice ppl from all walks of life just enjoying riding and being on holiday

I did most of my them on the s2r 800 monster which was fine tbh even on the big tracks like portimao an jerez. ok you get killed on the straights by litre sportsbikes but can do some great passing moves in the corners and the monster has bags of tourque to boot the bike out of the corners and into the next before the inline 4s have even hit their power band.
all i did was take the mirrors off and tape up the headlight so as not to drop glass on the track if i drop it. also made sure tyres were good

I bought a 998s last year which i have tracked a little bit but its a bit too nice to want to throw down the road so i might get something like an older aprilla mllle or even a cheap zx6 or a gixer 750

the biggest 2 compaines are Focussed Events and No limits, there is also Tracksense who are very good but a little more expenisve and only do a few events a year. There are a few other companies too who take smaller english contingent to trackdays organised at by local organisers (eg Brno, lemans, estoril etc)

i have met a few ppl who have bad things to say about Focussed (usually in relation to the Boss Kevin whos attitude can rub ppl (including his own staff!)up the wrong way a bit) but in my experience their events are well orgainsed, safe, good value and lots of fun . They usually have better accomodation then others also and you can have racers likes Neil Hodgson, Steve Plater, Simon crafar, Nial Mckenzie to teach you to ride better (which is quite cool imho).
Focussed euro events are all 'Chrono' events, each bike has a transpnoder and times are monitored and the groups adjusted accordingly. this means that you dont get the silly fast boys scaring newbies ****less in the novice group, or the plonker on a lightening quick bike in the fast group who cant ride fast round corners . this generally means less accidents and stopages and more track time for everyone. so all in i quite like them

if there are a few of you going you can also save on car hire and gas and getting the bikes to and from the drop off point

i have had very hit and miss experience with no limits both in the uk and on euro days especially in relation to their communications which can be a bit poor but apart from that either of these compainies will do a good enough job

whoever you go with, the MotoGP/WSBK curcuits like portimao, aragon, jerez and catalunya will set you back about £1k all in but Almeria and Cartgena are much cheaper, so will set you back around £750 all in. sounds like a lot but add up the costs of doing 3 -4 uk GP trackdays (brands, donnington, silverstone) inc fule acomodation etc and you wont be saving much and the weather is more likley to let you down

if you do lots of track days, buying a cheap track bike is really good idea as the more you push it on track the more likley you are to bin your pride and joy eventually . Feelin like you might not be too upset if you throw your bike down the road is quite liberating when learning to ride quick. there are plenty of cat c and d road bikes around for £1-2k

but as slob says once you have a track bike then you need a place to store it, get a van/trailer, and start blowing lots of cash on tyres, B&B's ....

lots of fun tho :-)

[jonzi]

I am feeling more like I should just take the monster. I can always use the scooter I have to get about whilst the bike is being transported.

Is it easy to disconnect the lights? Can I just take a fuse or something?

I guess I would also put new tyres on. Any recommendations for some good track tyres? Slicks?(!!)

Ali, when are you going to the days you mentioned?

I'd probably do either of these:

07/11/2012 Almeria
16/11/2012 Cartagena

with Focused Events. You going to be at them?

[slob]

I love Michelin Pilot Power 2CT for fast road and some track riding (reasonable life) but I'm considering trying Dunlop D211 GP in a road legal compound next, not sure how suitable they are for Monsters rather than 120+BHP sportsbikes. Only 10 days 'til Stephane Mertens school at Mettet for me.

[jonzi]

I just googled the Dunlops and this site come up

http://www.ducatibellevue.com/project-individual.php?project=4

Not sure if I like or not.

Let me know how the school goes and if you do get the tyres.

[slob]

Andypath (AKA Chuckles to UKMOC) just set the new Nordscheilfe record on his R1 using D211 and a few folks I've chatted with on trackdays really rate them, notably the guy on the RSV4 next to us at Cadwell a while back, saying you can really feel them 'dig in' as they warm up. R1 and RSV4 are both very different to a 2-valve twin though. I will let you know when I get round to it, probably next season now. How was Lydden last week?

[jonzi]

Lydden was actually a lot better than I thought it would be.

I arrived and thought I had the wrong place. It looked like a kart track!

However as there is only one left I have chicken strips on that side!

Some guy had to be taken away in an air ambulance though. Came off on the left. Dunno what he did.

[crust]

I've done them with english and foreign companies, If you've got a van or access to one then its worth looking at foreign companies.

I did Spa with Prospeed, a german company, as you can imagine they are very well organised, you get a schedule of your sessions and they run to the minute. Plus they run four groups so if your quick enough you can run in 'extra-fast', well worth it for the sticker alone. :)

Bikersdays, a Belgian company run good days, though watch out you are not booking the same day as one of their schools as the added school sessions cut your tracktime down.

[Funkatronic]

focussed owe me a freebie (you do 6 euro events u get 1 free) so i might be at cartagena will let you know

2ct is a good choice, good value and life and sticky enough for most eventualities

sticky track tyres are great but you really need to use tyre warmers as these tyres are not designed to take so many heat cycles as a road tyre before they start to break down
they also wear stupid quick if you push them hard
i went through 2 power one race compound rears and 1 front tyre in 3 days on the s2r800
£300+ on tyres for a 3 day event is too much for me

[jonzi]

Cartagena booked for 16th Nov. I think I'll take the monster.