Nurburgring trip report (LONG)

[James Gillespie <james.gillespie@xxxxxxxx>]

>>>>> Jonathan Schulster <Schulster@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> By coincidence I met Jim Gillespie on his black ST at the garage
> near the [Nuerburgring]. I spotted Jim straight away and walked over
> to shake hands -

    I had spotted a black ST and, thinking "what fine taste in
motorcycles", waved to the rider.  Who strolled across towards me.
"It can't be Jonathan," I was thinking, but it was!  Nice to see you
again :-)

> The sound of screaming engines as you get near the track, and bikes
> shooting up the straight at 250kph+ is enough to scare even hardened
> track day riders.

    Oh yes (not that I am (a hardened track day rider, that is)).

> We were warned of the one frightening, blind bend at the top of
> Adenauer Forst, where you come over the crest and it looks like the
> track bends right, when in fact it enters a left sharp bend!  No
> idea how this optical illusion comes about, but everyone noticed it
> :)

    S'funny, I didn't have any problems there...

> If you are there on a weekday GO AND DO IT!

    And if you get a chance to go on an organised course, GO AND DO
IT!  I did two laps during the public session on the Monday, both
times following people who know the track, and trying to figure out
where you're going while simultaneously keeping an eagle eye on your
mirrors is not easy.  Don't even think about going out at the weekend
unless you are either completely loopy or a 'Ring fiend - the local
boys come out to play at weekends and I hear they don't take
prisoners.

> Jim G. is there for 3 days of training and full day track sessions,
> with 120 other riders from the UK Nurburgring riders club.  If the
> rain lets up they will have a great time!

    On Tuesday we had alternating wet and dry sessions and Wednesday
was almost dry.

    On Tuesday we started with braking exercises, consisting of (a)
locking and releasing the back wheel, (b) locking and releasing the
front wheel and (c) hard braking without locking either wheel.

    Exercises (a) and (b) are to acquaint the rider with the feel of a
locked wheel, the idea being that if it happens under stress you will
recognise it and deal with it automatically.  Which is all well and
good, but deliberately locking the front wheel is a scary thing to do!
The briefing was to snatch the front brake and release it immediately.
My first pass was not satisfactory (*I* heard it squeal!) so I was
sent around again.  On my second pass I felt the front start to tuck
and I decided that I wasn't going to play any more.  Fortunately the
instructor agreed and no discussion was needed.

    I didn't feel any particular improvement from the locking
exercises; the hard braking to a full stop is always good practise and
I did quite well at that - I was only outbraked by a chap riding a
FireBlade (oh yes, there were eight of us in my group, riding: Sprint
ST, T595, FireBlade x 2, VTR1000, RF900, ZX6R, GSXR750.  The
instructor was on an old VFR and the coach was on an R1).

    Next up was section training, in which each group is sent to a
different section of the track and rides it several times following
the instructor.  The idea is that since the track is so long, it's
easier to learn one section at a time.  Also kind of boring and after
a couple of hours of that we went on to full laps.

    I'd been told before about riding in groups at the 'Ring, and that 
you're expected to stay right behind the bike in front.  And I'm
talking *right* behind, as close as you can.  This had always seemed
rather dangerous to me, partly because all my sources had neglected to 
inform me that the main aim of the British Nuerburgring Riders Club
courses is *not* to ride the 'Ring quickly, but to learn the line.  As 
a teaching aid, you're not supposed to use the brakes, and if you can
ride as smoothly as your instructor (ha!) it is possible to ride
*very* close to him without any problem.  Of course this does take a
little time, but it is by no means as difficult or dangerous as I had
supposed.  And it only works if you're behind someone who knows the
track; two or three bikes down the group it got a little more ragged - 
well this was our first time!

    As the day wore on some of us felt that we could go faster, and
others didn't.  Fortunately we had an instructor and a coach so we
were able to split into two groups.  Tom, the instructor, took the
slower half and Charlie, with an evil gleam in his eye, took the rest
of us for a slightly quicker lap.  He said afterwards that he upped
the pace by 20kph, and what a difference!  It went from "hello trees,
hello flowers" to "oh my God I'm going to die!"  Going into
Bruennchen, a double right hander, I think I was put off by the rider
ahead of me comfort-braking at the last moment.  Whatever, I went in
hot and didn't turn hard enough, with the result that I ran wide, over
the rumble strip and onto the mud.  Fortunately this was before it
started to rain, and the mud was baked hard.  I kept it upright, got
gently back onto the track and tried to calm down while at the same
time keeping up with the group.  For the rest of the afternoon I was
somewhat nervous of Bruennchen, but I think it had served as a timely
reminder that the Nuerburgring Nordschleife is a very unforgiving
track.

    Day two was more full laps, with the twist that it was now our
turn to lead the group, and see just how much of the line we could
remember.  After a warm-up lap behind Charlie, FireBlade #1 took the
lead and did a pretty darn good job of it.  The 'Ring is 21km (13
miles) long and has around 180 corners; learning it has been likened
to learning six normal racetracks back to back.  The only person in
the group (apart from the instructors, natch) who did better than
FireBlade #1 was, and I shall have to throw modesty aside, myself :-) 
And I have to admit that Diane had been drilling me since March, which 
was something of an advantage.  Apart from being a little vague
through the Kesselchen section, the only problem I had was decking the 
left peg at the left hander after Metzgesfeld, which always upsets me
a little.

    More laps as a group and I was enjoying myself, getting the pegs
down at Metzgesfeld, Breidsheid, Hohe Acht (both sides!) and,
memorably, Schwalbenshwanz, a medium uphill left hander which is one
of the few corners you enter early.  I turned in, decked out, sat up
and then realised I was heading for the rumble strip again =8-O  I
managed not to stray beyond it this time, but it did curb my
enthusiasm a little.

    Oh yes, getting the pegs down at Hohe Acht.  I cheated a bit
there, grounding the pegs on the kerb rather than the track.  And, I
discovered later, completely removing the starboard one =:-O

    The end of the course was a assessed lap, assessed by panels of
instructors at various strategic points.  Unfortunately Mr Cockup paid 
a visit to some of these, resulting in jumbled, er, results and no
feedback from the assessed laps :-(

    That aside, I had an excellent time on the course, learning about
one of the most famous and most challenging race tracks in the world.

    How did the ST cope?  Admirably.  When (not if!) I go back I'm
going to have to do something about the ground clearance, but that was
the only problem I had, and it was limited to the pegs touching down.
I had taken the panniers off but left the exhaust in the touring
position - not a problem.  Driving out of corners I was taking chunks
out of everything else, and as I've already said the brakes are well
up to the job.

                Jim
- --
      jim@         ,'_            I apologise for my obvious ignorance,
  ixion.org.uk    / -.--.    ___  I shall now take myself outside, cover
+44 171 721 2672 _\_  ~-.`--'_.-' myself in happy shopper oil, and set
                / /\\    \--'_ \\ light to my knackers.
'99 Sprint ST   \__/ `---'  \__/                    -- Robert Nelson-Cox

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
 The ST Mailing list is sponsored by the Unofficial ST Website
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=