My left knee has lost some range of motion so my track bike is probably going to go away soon.

Anyone ever take their bike to a track day? Any unanticipated problems?

The Roadster has decent brakes and I've upgraded the suspension and tires. The organizers say "Bring it!"

P.S. I mean a real track day run by a real organization at a road course, not a riding school. There are usually a bunch of requirements for safety wiring things like oil filters and drain plugs.

 

I run my bike successfully quite a bit at "Shady Side" and "Greer Drag way".

 

Are you talking about a roadrace type course? if so I'd be there in a minute!, nothing like that available around here though.

 

The Marines have brought folks out here from the Keith Cdoe sprt bike school a few times for track days. At the 1st one a couple years ago a few of us talked them into letting us go out (the local folks in charge weren't too keen on it but the guys from the school said go for it). There have been HD's at every one since - and not just the Sporty's.

Go for it - some of those sportbike guys get real surprised when they see what a HD can do.

 

Yep, trmac ain't lyin'. MSF sponsors track days through the Marine Corps and we do track days. I've taken my Nightster to a few of them and have a blast. I'm sure it would be even more fun if I had a set of drag bars or T bars, but I had a blast throwing my bike around a track even with my ape hangers. Seeing peoples' faces when a Sporty with ape hangers starts taking turns like I do is priceless.

 

Too bad, it's a lot of fun even on a slow bike. Most of the ones I do are at NHMS in Loudon, NH, run by Tonys Track Days.
http://youtu.be/bN031G_xn_o

I own both, so I'll also be surprised if I can do a lap at NHMS under 2 minutes.

Most sport bikes lap in 1:20 to 1:40 (that's why they call them sport bikes). In other words they'll lap me every 4 laps or so. They are going to make me run it with the Novice group so I don't hold everyone up.

Watch this video. The"slow" bike coming by is a BMW 1200GS with around 110hp. The Sportster has 80. I'm not complaining, I knew what it was when I bought it.
http://youtu.be/ZDG-4-S_gec

No possible way you would pass a tech inspection at any track day. They'd hand you back your money and send you on your way. My bike has flatter 883 bars than the normal Roadster bars, so they're fine.

 

No possible way you would pass a tech inspection at any track day. They'd hand you back your money and send you on your way. [/quote]

agreed.....i ride the track with tpm and they take tech inspection pretty serious and i couldn't see them passing a sporty with apes on it. plenty of buells rippin out there but i've yet to see a harley.

 

It's not a club track day. MSF has a contract with the Marine Corps and they set up track days that we don't pay for. It's to get riders out to learn, refresh, and hone their riding skills. There were more motorcycle related deaths across the DoD in 2009 and 2010 than there were combat casualties, so the Marine Corps is pretty adamant about getting us out to ride in a supervised environment to learn new things. We even got the day off work to go.

 

agreed.....i ride the track with tpm and they take tech inspection pretty serious and i couldn't see them passing a sporty with apes on it. man am i glad i don't ride the beginner group anymore! bad enough having to bunch up behind slow pokes in the beg. group let alone having to weave around a bunch of 1st timers on harleys. lol.[/quote]

I'm very much not a first timer. I'm not saying by any means that I'm an expert rider or need to go track racing or anything, but I'm by no means a new rider either, if that was what you were implying.

 

i'm pretty new to the track too, only my 2nd year man. what i was trying to say was the beg. group is just that, beginners who haven't been riding the track that long. well they put the 1st timers on the track with the beg. group and it sux because you can't flow around the track and stay on the race line, then when everyone hits the straight away it's WOT until the next turn so basically if you want to pass the 1st timers you gotta out brake them all to the turn and that gets dangerous. i couldn't imagine harley's out there on top of all this, that's all i was sayin'