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Well, had a great day at Thunderhill on Sunday. I rode in the B-group (hope I didn't hold too many guys up, lol). The day was full, and traffic was pretty heavy for the whole day. There were a few red flags, which messed up the order and cut us short, but you really can't blame Z2 for that. The weather was great and they ran a good day.

As I started to learn the track I picked up my times a little (XT timer is working great!). I slid the front end pretty bad in 14 trying to get by a guy when he grabed the brakes in front of me. I need to work on my passing for sure. Next time I'll be more patient. Had another "little" moment in 6 when I guess I got a little over zealous with some throttle on the first lap of a session and nearly high sided it... the bike gave me a hell of a buck (good chirp from both tires) but I stayed on and she settled out. I think it was the stable F4 that get's the credit for the save. Had it been a session later Ditto would have gotten some great pics of it... So, glad to take it home without throwing it down. I took it pretty easy for the balance of the day and just worked on being smooth.

I had the bike jetted before this day and it definitely made a difference. It took me a full session to get used to. The bike is much better on the top end, but I did notice some flat lower down(which did not show on the dyno?). Once I got used to it, I liked it. Maybe it's just me, but it really seemed to have less of a heavy buzz over 10K which made me more comfortable pushing the bike up towards red line.

The M2's were great as always, never a complaint, esp when the front bit again in the slide. I have a day at Buttonwillow and this day on them and will run them again on the 3rd. Not sure they'll make it past that... The BT002's are ready to go on after that. My buddy on a 636 ran H2's and liked them, but confirmed what everyone seems to say, you need to really heat them up before pushing them. They looked liked they wore really well.

A few pic's from bluemilk.com:





Looking forward to getting back and learning the track more. Hope to see some of you there on the 3rd or 5th!

shipsupt

Shipsupt, lookin' good!! ;)


Please tell about ZoomZoom's logistics. A friend of mine had done a trackday with them and told me it was a horrible experience, especially if you're not an A Rider. Basically he had said ZoomZoom had these things going against them:
- They let A ride in B and C groups and let B ride in C. So basically C gets screwed
- You have to really go out of your way to find an instructor to have them critique you
- Basically its just a bunch of A guys practicing for AFM and have little to no regard for slower riders

Is this still the case???? [BTW, I brought this up on BARF and Christofu, ZoomZoom owner, got all pissed off then people started flaming me because they're friends with Chris. So I never got a good, unbiased answer when I asked the same question]


I'm hoping we hook up at some time together at Thunderhill! ;)

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badfish '05 600RR Purple/Black

I agree w/ some of the comments above. Hence, I never do ZZ2 days. BTW, I do have first hand experience on the "fast guys" zooming by you very closely. grrrrrr

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"Leaders are like tea; put them in hot water to find out how strong they are." Anonymous

I think they ran a good day. Because the day was full they did not allow the groups to mix, except for instructors and a few folks who have season passes that let them ride all the groups. This seemed to keep the groups fairly level. They did say that they were going to consider letting A and B mix in the afternoon if the traffic allowed, but it didn't. Even when there were crashes in A and B (red flags), they didn't cut the time from the C guys, which I thought was cool. We had two sessions cut pretty short! The mixing certainly seems to cater to the A group guys because let's face it, the A guys can go ride in any group, while us slower B guys are going to be hard pressed to go out with the A guys. Impression I got was that they weren't going to let the B guys down into C.

All of the passes around me were cool, but I'm pretty comfortable with other riders around me. A few might have pissed off a C guy just learning to be in traffic.

The instruction is free, and the guy I had was excellent, but I defintely had to search him out if I wanted to work with him. He was a little too busy covering B group, C group, and doing his own A groups rides...

The whole day is pretty structured with tech, riders meetings, class for C groups, raffles with give aways, and a decent lunch provided. They also have lots of water, gatorade, coffee, snacks, fruits etc...

I will likely go with them again, but I am looking forward to trying some other groups to see how they compare.

Chris seems like a good guy. I think he is trying to all he can to make the day enjoyable for all and they seem open to criticism to be sure all get what they are looking for. They are always asking for candid input.

Comparing it to Canyon Strafers it is much more structured. CS is very laid back and you pretty much just get out for your session and go. They seem to keep the track open unless they really have to red flag, while Z2 (or maybe it's the T-hill gang) will shut it down pretty quickly when someone is down.

Not sure if that gives a good picture of how it was, but if you have anything specific I can certainly try to answer it too.

I'm curious how ZoomZoom compares to Keigwins. Keigwins is really hard to beat and is the best organizer that I've been to.

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badfish '05 600RR Purple/Black

I've done them both. Though sometimes I wonder if Keigwin has a "packed" day also, it never seems like it when I'm out there on the track.

Keigwin is top notch, imho. Though a little pricey that ZZ2, he offers great customer service and is very responsive to inquiries/questions.

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"Leaders are like tea; put them in hot water to find out how strong they are." Anonymous

I just signed up with zoom zoom for my first track day July 12th at reno-fernely raceway, ill be sure to report my experience with them. As far as the phone service goes they were great, I spoke to a person right away and he was very helpful with all my questions. Here is there schedule in case anyone else is interested: Link

abadfish:

Shipsupt, lookin' good!! ;) Please tell about ZoomZoom's logistics. A friend of mine had done a trackday with them and told me it was a horrible experience, especially if you're not an A Rider. Basically he had said ZoomZoom had these things going against them: - They let A ride in B and C groups and let B ride in C. So basically C gets screwed - You have to really go out of your way to find an instructor to have them critique you - Basically its just a bunch of A guys practicing for AFM and have little to no regard for slower riders Is this still the case???? [BTW, I brought this up on BARF and Christofu, ZoomZoom owner, got all pissed off then people started flaming me because they're friends with Chris. So I never got a good, unbiased answer when I asked the same question] I'm hoping we hook up at some time together at Thunderhill! ;)

My experience with zoom zoom at Reno-Fernley was good, it was my first trackday so I don't have anything to compare it too. But to address your concerns; I did see a few B guys riding in C, the A riders stayed in their group. I believe that it is more zoom zoom not enforcing the groups and people just taking advantage that is the cause of this. As far as instructors, they were on hand, but you were going to share them with 2-3 people.

As a trackday it was nice, Pirelli was on hand with plenty of tires, aftershocks was there (didnt give them a try) and some one else with a dyno was in the back making noise. Zoom zoom had free cold water all day which was great, and I saw the guy in charge even helping people load bikes at the end of the day. I would do it again, in fact im signed up for the weekend of september 11th and 12th already.

Here is a video of the track, 1 lap was 4.6 miles: video