what

I stopped by at 2 and got the cool wristband, waited for the 3:30 ride and then found out they never put me on the list :| Probably for the best, I don't need my bike thinking I'm cheating on it with an Italian hottie. Another time, Hypermotard, another time.

I heard the sportsters down in GA are real fast. I'll jump on the "I rode a Road King and it was bad" bandwagon too. I felt like I was piloting the hindenburg and had my life flash before my eyes when I hit the brakes and not much of anything happened.

I guess we'll see. Point is, the media needs to stop glorifying these assholes. They need to disappear into an unmarked grave or thrown into a dark hole somewhere to live out the rest of their life in obscurity.

Uh oh Tim, there's your ride.

Shoot at cops and kill a bunch? Media complies with request to not name suspect(s). Shoot and kill a bunch of kids or whatever else? La de da let's all take a gander at THIS walking freakshow. It's a spectacle!

So your answer to your initial post is 12? If you're wrong you have to ban yourself remember.

Tonik, I want you to post your guess, I'll post mine right after.

That's the plan right now. Might even do a 2-fer. 5th and 6th. I'd go down in late August with Derek & Co but I'll be stuck in Vegas :|

Labor day.

Generally there's a sale over christmas/new years. You can use the cert as a walk-in without pre registering but I thought I heard somewhere that they are charging the $20 late fee on top of the cert this year(?) Someone else may have a more definitive answer. **Keep in mind that if you show up as a walk-in and the novice group is full you're SOL. I used a cert last year as a walk-in though and it was no problemo.

With a track bike, there's the buy-in at the beginning picking up the bike, tools and knowledge to keep the bike running/get it set up for you. After that the only money you'll be paying out is for new tires once or twice a season (at least on something like an sv650 or the duc that I have) and the cost of the track day, which, if you get on the sale day is as much as or less than a hotel room for 1 night. If you can do most of the maintenance work on your bike you won't need to pay to keep it running either, at least not much. In comparison, to get set up for the track this year I have spent less than what I've spent to keep my street bike on the road and running. As for riding the same corners, the track lets you push yourself, and because of that it exposes your weaknesses really quickly. Knowing every brake point, every dip-in, every apex, lets you concentrate more on yourself rather than what's coming up next. You get into a rhythm and can start with fine tuning technique and so on. Tim, you are a really good rider, you're god damn fast on that connie - keeping a steady speed in the straights/corners I was having trouble keeping up with you when I finally cut loose on the Cherohala. I know I have a long way to go before I'm fast and I feel like track time is the quickest way to improve my own skills. That's my reasoning anyway. Plus it's fun

Mmmmm Hyper S. Might try to get off work early tomorrow and head over for a bit. I don't need more bikes

No, Tom rides an S1000RR. I think I know (of) the dude you're talking about though, that sucks. I wasn't complaining. Years ago when I was a snowboard instructor I would do the same thing if someone did something stupid, it made them stop and think before doing it again. That said, it looks like about everything's been covered that I can think of. Maybe one last thing - start saving for a cheap track bike for next year?

I'll be up Saturday too, look for the bright orange tea & crumpets mobile.

Hope it wasn't Tom? Novice has different rules from Intermediate and Advanced groups, but it's not a bad thing to go by the Intermediate requirements as I have no doubt you'll be moving up as soon as you want to Derek (knowing how you ride). Anyhow, as for things I wish I'd done on my first track day: Trailer the bike to the track and do all the prep work beforehand - I had to ride and get there extra early to disable/tape up all lights and so on. Kind of a pain in the ass, especially having to put everything back together after a pretty intense day of riding. The ride home was also a bit hairy because you get used to being at 70+mph, I caught myself doing triple digits on the way home and could have sworn I was only going 65. Bring a chair - Turk was nice enough to lend me one of his chairs but I felt like a dolt. See if you can go halfsies with someone on a paddock - Being able to get out of the sun between sessions is worth the extra $$. Bring fuel - There are fuel pumps there but I think the lowest they run is 98. Not a big deal but a way to save a few bucks, if it matters. Everybody there was friendly, even if they were assholes about it. If you know how to take criticism constructively then you'll learn a lot. That said, if you do something that's seen as dangerous you will get reamed for it. I made the mistake of looking behind me to see if another coach's group was catching up and boy oh boy did I get it after that session. Don't take things personally and learn from your mistakes and you're good. I can imagine the track gets all kinds of yahoos doing stupid shit so the best thing to do is shut it down quickly. I will be going up to the the track on the September 5/6 dates this year. Sadly I'll be out of town due to work on all the days before then.

Kinda sad, but good. I think it's on Netflix or Amazon or something too.

There are a lot of really nice roads in Vermont. Lake Champlain is really warm up in the Inland Sea area in August too if you get some time to stop.

In general, things aren't as bad as the media wants you to believe. That's how they make their money, keeping you scared and coming back for more. But what do I know.

I don't think there's any refunds :/

Brand new Yuasa battery and freshly bled brakes as of today. Considering riding it this weekend down to Hocking or something... it's so smooth in the corners, hurts to think about selling it but it needs to find a new happy home

If I can get out of work on Friday I'll be heading up, but I'm definitely going on Saturday. Sadly I have to fly out to bumfuk Missouri on Sunday for work.

Pricing?

It's your birthday, you can cry if you want to.

exactly.

I will cast generalizations on groups of motorcycle riders and/or people in whichever way I choose, thank you very much.