Croft 21st April 2016 - James Whitham Track Training Day
- Thread starter soofsayer
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Iain-s1000rr
Well-known member
I feel for u mate, i really do 
Iain-s1000rr
Well-known member
woohooo, have a good one
Happy days
At the track now with demo sthou.
Brilliant mate, will be interested to hear how you find the gen3 v your hp4
Could be more expensive than just a battery!
So as you may have gathered if you are reading this thread, my day at the JW Trackday at Croft didn't go entirely to plan. I was up and out just before 7am on the HP4 making my way up the A1 on what was supposed to be about a 1 hour journey, plus a fuel stop near Croft to top up for tracktime.
About 20 minutes into my ride I noticed that the ABS warning light was lit yellow on the dash. I thought to myself it might just be a glitch and maybe the sensor had a bit of crud on it from Saturday's ride, so I continued on my way, I can live without ABS if I need to.
Then 5 minutes or so later the engine management light came on yellow too, in sympathy I thought. Perhaps this was one of those 'turn it off turn it on' scenarios where the bike has got itself muddled up. So on I went.
Then a few minutes after that another yellow light on the other side of the dash came on, not one I have ever seen before, and below it the display read DDC!. That's not good, but being positive, it could just be a off/on to fix. Then the warning changed to VDC! (or something like that). Hmmm. I was riding through the roadworks, no hard shoulder just some gravel trench alongside the road, and a big embankment. Stopping here would mean either blocking a lane or going off into the gravel and still being only a few feet away from passing traffic. Thankfully I spotted a slip road so took that, it was junction 52, less than 20 miles from Croft. As I got to the end of the slip road, pulled in the clutch and started to drop the gears, then the engine died. By fluke there was a coned off (Highways job) area on the side of the road so I rolled into the space and stopped. Called BMW recovery (bike is on extended warranty) and waited. This was about 8am.
Alex sent me the number for Paul the TD organiser, so I spoke to him to explain my predicament, he was very cool and said if I get there wherever it would be fine...
At 9.15 the recovery van turned up. We agreed the bike was dead. Battery was showing 11.2v, maybe that's the problem? Anyway, nothing else to do but load it in the van and go to Alan Jeffries in Shipley. Thats my day toast.
After horrendous traffic around Harrogate (theres a flower show on ffs, so the entire Saga magazine readership must have been descending on the place with their high quality driving skills, not), we got to AJ at 11.15.
11.30 I threw my leg over a 800 mile demo sthou....
Got to Croft for just after 1pm to get the afternoon sessions, so I missed half the day, not a total disaster. Got put with James Whitham himself (result and a bit surreal at first) and by 2pm we were out together (obviously I was now on another, *cough* bike I got to use for the TD).
The feedback he gave me was very positive (to my surprise he said I wasn't much off being spot on) and gave me a couple of things to work on to further improve, top bloke. What was better still was that the advice worked a treat and by the last session of the day I was faster everywhere. So miuch achieved in such a small amount of time, mission accomplished.
It was a very good format, more expensive than average days but so much less traffic (50 riders for the day in three groups). Less traffic works really well as I could concentrate on what I was doing and not worry about some arse trying to be a clever tw@t and dive up the inside. There was an R1 trying it on in the second session but I got the better of him.
I like Croft 100% more than I did before today having only been there once before, last year on a standard trackday.
Really good to see Stephen and his father there with their bikes (and thanks for the fuel guys. I must say they were flying when I was watching them.
I saw the most stunning HP4 ever today, will do a thread for the pics of that.
I'll do a HP4 v 3rd gen sthou thread too.
Will be booking more of these TDs with these guys for sure.
P.S. Apologies if its a bit of a slog to read, its been a very long day.
About 20 minutes into my ride I noticed that the ABS warning light was lit yellow on the dash. I thought to myself it might just be a glitch and maybe the sensor had a bit of crud on it from Saturday's ride, so I continued on my way, I can live without ABS if I need to.
Then 5 minutes or so later the engine management light came on yellow too, in sympathy I thought. Perhaps this was one of those 'turn it off turn it on' scenarios where the bike has got itself muddled up. So on I went.
Then a few minutes after that another yellow light on the other side of the dash came on, not one I have ever seen before, and below it the display read DDC!. That's not good, but being positive, it could just be a off/on to fix. Then the warning changed to VDC! (or something like that). Hmmm. I was riding through the roadworks, no hard shoulder just some gravel trench alongside the road, and a big embankment. Stopping here would mean either blocking a lane or going off into the gravel and still being only a few feet away from passing traffic. Thankfully I spotted a slip road so took that, it was junction 52, less than 20 miles from Croft. As I got to the end of the slip road, pulled in the clutch and started to drop the gears, then the engine died. By fluke there was a coned off (Highways job) area on the side of the road so I rolled into the space and stopped. Called BMW recovery (bike is on extended warranty) and waited. This was about 8am.
Alex sent me the number for Paul the TD organiser, so I spoke to him to explain my predicament, he was very cool and said if I get there wherever it would be fine...
At 9.15 the recovery van turned up. We agreed the bike was dead. Battery was showing 11.2v, maybe that's the problem? Anyway, nothing else to do but load it in the van and go to Alan Jeffries in Shipley. Thats my day toast.
After horrendous traffic around Harrogate (theres a flower show on ffs, so the entire Saga magazine readership must have been descending on the place with their high quality driving skills, not), we got to AJ at 11.15.
11.30 I threw my leg over a 800 mile demo sthou....
Got to Croft for just after 1pm to get the afternoon sessions, so I missed half the day, not a total disaster. Got put with James Whitham himself (result
and a bit surreal at first) and by 2pm we were out together (obviously I was now on another, *cough* bike I got to use for the TD).The feedback he gave me was very positive (to my surprise he said I wasn't much off being spot on) and gave me a couple of things to work on to further improve, top bloke. What was better still was that the advice worked a treat and by the last session of the day I was faster everywhere. So miuch achieved in such a small amount of time, mission accomplished.
It was a very good format, more expensive than average days but so much less traffic (50 riders for the day in three groups). Less traffic works really well as I could concentrate on what I was doing and not worry about some arse trying to be a clever tw@t and dive up the inside. There was an R1 trying it on in the second session but I got the better of him
.I like Croft 100% more than I did before today having only been there once before, last year on a standard trackday.
Really good to see Stephen and his father there with their bikes (and thanks for the fuel guys
. I must say they were flying when I was watching them.I saw the most stunning HP4 ever today, will do a thread for the pics of that.
I'll do a HP4 v 3rd gen sthou thread too.
Will be booking more of these TDs with these guys for sure.
P.S. Apologies if its a bit of a slog to read, its been a very long day.
Stephen
Forum Vendor
I'm really glad you managed to make it today Soof, after all the problems you had to overcome.
I've had the most fun today on a motorcycle than i've ever imagined and I would recommend the James Whitham Track Training to everyone. If you're a complete novice as I am It's quite possibly the best start to riding on the track you could hope for. All the information and feedback I received from the instructors has given me excellent base on which I can now develop my riding on future track days (Stopping me from building up bad habits!)
I will definitely be taking part in a James Whitham Training day in the future, once I've had a chance to practice, build up my speed and my confidence... Only 18 days 'till Snetterton!
I've had the most fun today on a motorcycle than i've ever imagined and I would recommend the James Whitham Track Training to everyone. If you're a complete novice as I am It's quite possibly the best start to riding on the track you could hope for. All the information and feedback I received from the instructors has given me excellent base on which I can now develop my riding on future track days (Stopping me from building up bad habits!)
I will definitely be taking part in a James Whitham Training day in the future, once I've had a chance to practice, build up my speed and my confidence... Only 18 days 'till Snetterton!
Thanks to Stephen for the heads up that pics were online from the day. As I was only there for the afternoon sessions very little action shots (not a bad thing ).
However, here's one of me doing my best to look like a total mincer in leather whilst having a bad helmet hair day:
And talking again to the guy with the Martini HP4 and 3rd gen bike (front shot of the HP4 afterall is why this one is posted):
And a random action shot of someone on an sthou???
That corner is a rubbish corner for getting good pictures because it is quite slow in and a good line is slightly wide, but the photographers always seem to go and wait there, probably because it is a short walk to the paddock and you can see the bikes coming from a long way off.
).However, here's one of me doing my best to look like a total mincer in leather whilst having a bad helmet hair day:
And talking again to the guy with the Martini HP4 and 3rd gen bike (front shot of the HP4 afterall is why this one is posted):
And a random action shot of someone on an sthou???
That corner is a rubbish corner for getting good pictures because it is quite slow in and a good line is slightly wide, but the photographers always seem to go and wait there, probably because it is a short walk to the paddock and you can see the bikes coming from a long way off.
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