Trackday
This weekend marked my final trackday of 2016. My season traditionally finishes each year with the final event on the Snetterton calendar. Last year it was on 23 Nov 16 but this season it was a little earlier. Suffice to say conditions were cold and wet with track temperature never exceeding 7?C.
Tyre choice was simple and the easy decision was made to fit my HP Forged Wheels with Metzeler Racetec Rain tyres already mounted. All electronic settings were then placed in 'Rain' and compression and rebound (front and rear) were softened to take into account the wet conditions and the inevitable lack of heavy braking and aggressive acceleration. I enjoy riding on a wet track as there are generally few people around and it's nice to just circulate and feel what the bike is doing beneath you. The BMW is quite easy to ride fast in the wet especially when it's properly set-up for the conditions so you can generate heat in the tyres.
The morning sessions were uneventful however the afternoon didn't go quite to plan. The crash occurred on the entry to T1. Strangely I lost the front just prior to corner entry with a lean angle of only 15? on the penultimate session of the day. On reviewing the data I had started braking from 157 mph but I was approximately 11 mph faster at the point on the circuit where I would normally turn in compared to the previous four laps of the same session. That and braking force was slightly higher so with those two factors combined it would appear that I lost the front on a wet track due to carrying marginally more speed, and applying a little more brake pressure, than normal. My previous lap had also been much slower due to circuit traffic so I can probably attribute part of the cause to having lost too much heat from the front tyre. This is not my first crash on track, and certainly won't be my last, but the data has helped significantly in understanding the cause. In this particular case it was rider error resulting in an extremely fast lowside.
The damage to the bike on first inspection isn't to bad and appears to be mainly cosmetic. The alpha Racing and HP crash protection performed superbly and exactly as advertised. That said the bike will be picked up by Lind Motorrad shortly and assessed fully to check for any faults or issues.
With regards to my kit I can categorically say that I will never wear else anything other than Dainese. The airbag in my D-Air race suit deployed before I had even hit the tarmac, most likely saving me from any serious injury or broken bones. My race suit, boots and gloves, despite some very minor scuffs, have all survived fairly unscathed. Unsurprisingly, the only piece of kit that I will need to replace is my Dainese wet weather oversuit. That and I will need to send my suit back to a Dainese D-Store so the gas cartridge, integral to the D-Air system, can be recharged. Fortunately my brand new Arai helmet didn't come into contact with the ground so it doesn't need to be replaced.
Unfortunately this was not as positive an end to my season as last year but if you ride on track long enough crashes occasionally happen. On a positive note I have the entire off season to repair the BMW and get it ready for the start of 2017 and back out on track.