He had been running with the little lever at the Turtle setting and moved it to the rabbit....op: I snapped a picture in the paddock...
My first track day weekend was at Jennings in 2006 or 2007(I cant recall exactly) as a novice of course. First day went great. I felt good on the bike and I was a good bit quicker than most so I was stuck in traffic most of the time. Day two I decide to be the first one out on the track so I wouldn't be stuck behind anyone. I say to the worker at the track entrance, "I got out here first so I wont be stuck in traffic". We laugh and when the time comes he releases us.. I didn't make it around the track before I spun the rear in turn 9 and low sided like a damn noob. No cut frame slider punched a hole in the engine case and I was done for the day. That was pretty embarrassing!
Nick, LoL I have so many embarrassing moments I don't know which one to share. Okay... here's one. In an MCRA race in 2011 in the rain I was so far out in front that I rode wheelies at Putnam and ran off course into the wet grass.
The answer is usually improper foot position.. Do you ride with your feet pointed the same way the bike is going? That severely limits your ability to shift your butt. Get with a coach and specifically work on foot position.
So in a career which started late in the 1990s, I could write the dictionary of embarrassing moves. Here's my favorite: Lap 1 of the Expert F40 race at Blackhawk, Spring of 2003. My first expert race ever. Got to turn 5 in the lead! I was on a Kaw 600. Eddie Bingham passed me on the way to 6 on his GSXR750. I KNEW that if he was leading when we got to the front straight, I'd never see him again. I tried to go inside Eddie at the kink before 7. Now, THAT move is going to fail 12 times out of 10 but my balls were bigger than my brain that day. Sure enough, Eddie apexed right to the edge of the rumble strip and I had nowhere to go but over it. I launched into the air and then went totally out of control for a second on the landing. The bike settled and I was a mile late getting the brakes on for 7. So I grabbed a handful and up I went into a gawd-awful wobbling stoppie. I was praying that Eddie wouldn't turn in but he had no clue how bad I'd screwed the pooch back there, so turn he did. (Mind you, this was lap one and the whole damn field was three feet behind us at this point.) I was about to T-Bone Eddie. He's a little guy, so I would probably kill him. Just couldn't do it. I braked a little harder. The bike went past 12 o'clock. My helmet missed Eddie's tail section by inches as I slammed headfirst into the track with the bike still firmly between my legs. When the corner worker got to me, she was bawling. She thought I was dead. OK, this was in front of the whole damn pack and I'd really shown them what an expert I was, huh? Well, we haven't even gotten to the embarrassing part yet.... Back in the pits, all I could think of was fixing the bike for the next race. My friends knew I wouldn't be riding any more that day and were trying to get me to sit down but I wasn't hearing it. As they later told me, my eyes were pointed two different directions and my face was bright red. They just wanted me to go to medical but I was in "fix the bike" mode and not listening. So they tried REASONING with me.... Now, anyone who knows me knows that's an ask on a GOOD day. At some point I screamed, "Either help me fix this bike or get the %$#@ out of my way!" "But K3, you've got a concussion." "I'm FINE!" "You're not. Your eyes are rolling. You're combative and argumentative." "I AM NOT ARGUMENTATIVE!!!! It was at about this moment that I actually heard what was coming out of my mouth and had the sudden realisation that I was going ballistic on my entire circle of closest friends. OOPS! To this day, "I'm not argumentative!" is all that any of the people who were there that day have to say to make me blush. Don't think I've ever been so out of control before or since. Even 12 years later, I think that one tops the pile.
This is my favorite so far. I love this thread. It reminds us that everyone has, at one point, been "that guy." Sometimes you make an ass of yourself, but at least we learn from it and keep coming back for more.
The first time I pulled a small bike trailer to the track, it took me forever to back the trailer up into an empty spot. Embarrased that it took that long to back the trailer up. Needless to say, before the next trackday, I practiced in an empty parking lot the day before :nod: Also, on my very first trackday after I finished a session, I stopped in front of my pit and was gonna try to back the bike up under the canopy. Well, being 5'4 and having short legs, the bike tipped over to one side a bit too much and I had to fight the bike to keep it up. Didn't dropped the bike but I'm pretty sure I looked stupid struggling to keep the bike upright
I've helped guys out in exactly this same situation. Don't sweat it, it's honestly not that uncommon, especially for the more vertically challenged in the pits.
For a while I used a front wheel chock instead of rear stand on my 250. I was getting ready to head out and the tire was wedged in the chock pretty tightly so I started rocking it from side-to-side... From someone else's perspective, it probably looked like I walked up to my bike, grabbed the handlebars, and just immediately threw it on the ground.
I managed to have one before even making it to my first ever rider's meeting. I went to Gingerman by myself and pulled into a random spot, dropped the U-haul's ramp, took the straps off and tried to back the bike out of the Ebay wheel chock I'd set in the front of the trailer. I double, triple, and quadruple checked to make sure the bike was in neutral, but couldn't get it to budge. My struggle went on long enough for the guy pitted next to me to notice and come over to give me a hand. With his help, we managed to wrestle the front tire out of the chock, but it still refused to turn... The tire would just slide when we tried pull the bike back. "It's like the front tire is loc..." I just about made it to the end of that sentence before remembering the disk lock on the front wheel. The night before, I had decided to load everything up and leave it in my driveway overnight so I could just roll out of bed and go in the morning, and figured the disk lock wasn't a bad idea. I, of course, forgot all about it when the excitement of being at a track for the first time being combined with a.m. brain fog. The guy helping, Sean Flynn IIRC, naturally flashed a wordless, quizzical, "Are you really that stupid?" expression when I mentioned the disk lock that took me way way too long to remember was there, but was super nice about it and let me hang out and shoot the shit under his ez-up with him and his friend the rest of the day.
^I've seen someone drop a brand new BUSA pulling out of a parking space at the local bike night because he forgot about his disc lock. LOL!
well, this isn't even slightly track related, but the level of embarrassing/stupid more than makes up for it... It was a very nice day for early March (in Michigan). Low 50s, sunny, really a perfect day to get the bike out of the garage and let it warm up in the sun before tucking it back in the corner until all of the snow melts and the salt and dirt clear off the road. So, of course I pull my barely broken in FZ09 out to let it warm up and think to myself... F* it, I'm going around the block.I run in and grab my coat, gloves, helmet and start putting them on. The bike gets up to temp right about the time I get back out to it and I hop on and gingerly roll out from my parking lot towards the road that leads out of the apartment complex. I start heading toward the main road and, well, its 50 and there was about a foot and a half of snow that had been melting away all day so it is completely wet for about 150 yards. No big deal, I've ridden in the rain so it wont be too bad i think. As I got to the first 90 degree corner there was a lot of water on the inside of the turn so i swung out a little wide. I think it is important to note here that im still in my apartment complex... Then, just as I'm almost completely out of the turn the back of the bike steps out far and fast (mind you I'm going maybe 10-15 mph when this happens). I was not even a little bit prepared for this as I was past the water to what i thought was dry pavement. so next thing i know I'm rapidly accelerating and trying to hang on to the bike as it gets crossed up and mini highsides me off... I land square on the side of my head/left shoulder and roll to a stop a few feet from the bike. "are you fucking kidding me!". I walk back over to the bike and start picking it up and just then I notice someone walking their dog and they ask me if im ok, which I hadn't really thought about yet. All I can think is holy shit... someone just saw that and if they got it on camera I'm definitely going to win a moron of 2015 award. Anyways, I got the bike up and rode it the 150 yards back to my garage with a bent bar. Then I started taking gear off and start to feel how you feel after you land pretty much strait on your head. I pull my glove off and look at my thumb, the end of it is a good 45 degrees from where it should be. An ER trip, a surgery, and 5 weeks later I still have a pin and wire holding the inside of my right thumb together and i have yet to make it onto a public road on two wheels. The bike got off with just some minor scuffs and a tweaked bar but i completely ruined my RS1 helmet :frusty:. I will say this though, I can say with confidence that I had the first motorcycle related ER trip of 2015 in the area, so I won that race :first:. Lesson learned: if there is snow on the ground its too damn early to ride a motorcycle.
One particular example comes to mind involving your old 600RR in the driveway. :sorry: I'm pretty sure I was more upset about that than you were.
I had a new one last weekend... At the end of the day, I loaded the R1 in the truck using my 2 ramp method and went to load load the pit bike. Except I decided to ride that one up the ramp I just used to walk on. My left foot got caught in the side of the truck bed. Hurt to walk on and it bruised up pretty good. I can still feel it and my toes are still a little purple...
I did this a few years ago (-) the crash. Same scenario, bike laid up all winter, nice warm early spring day, I take the bike out, slow right turn rear end slides out almost tosses me. I get back to the house and check the tire pressure from sitting all winter and gage reads "ZERO" pounds! I learned yet again, to op check all the gear before I head out on the asphalt jungle. Now I run through a checklist that starts up front to the rear, up and down, checking all major components of the bike. Now I never forget tire psi!
I earned myself a good one this past weekend at Putnam. Second to last Novice session of the day on Sunday. I had already lowsided on Saturday in turn 7 and was still a bit nervous about riding it hard. I had run into the grass once on Saturday too and once already on Sunday so all that was in my head as well. The track was eating me up and begging me to crash again on Sunday. To recap I rode into the grass once but didn't spill, and lowsided on Saturday, and rode into the grass once but didn't spill on Sunday. I was pushing as hard as I could, but Coach Kenny was going just a little to fast for my comfort zone (only my 6th track day ever) and gawd damn I was exhausted after how freaking hot it was on Saturday. BTW I told Coach I wanted to push.. This second to last Novice session on Sunday I already said in my head would be my last for the weekend. About 10 min into the session I completely blow a few apexes. I'm still learning about apexes, so I'm no expert, but I know enough to know I completely blew them. Coach is going way to fast and its time to call it a weekend, I'm clearly done. So going into turn 9 halfway thru the session I decide to throw my hand up because its time to get the hell off the track. I am so concerned there may be someone behind me, I leave my hand up a little too long I guess, and I'm going to fast into turn 9, I ride right through the turn into the grass and I get tossed. I see the bike flip a few times as I am getting rolled and banging my head on the ground. As I had already been in the grass a few times without crashing this weekend, I tried the rear brake but it decided to spill me anyways this time.. I've been in a haze for 2 days now, they didn't say concussion, but I have not felt good. And the rear subframe broke one of its mounts off of the main frame. I spent some time this morning calling welding shops getting quotes on aluminum. Had I gone in one lap earlier because I already knew I was tired and I was just a bit out of my comfort zone with the speed, I would have had a much better weekend. I will not forget this next time, especially when its been that freaking hot out all weekend. Long story short; I crashed on what was to be my last lap of the weekend, one turn before the pit... IDIOT!
Last year (or maybe the year before) I took my shiny new S1000RR (under 700 miles on the odometer) to the first Barber event of the year to ride in the advanced group. This was my first time at the track and third my track weekend on the bike. Spent the evening safety wiring everything and next morning I suited up. If I'm not mistaken we were the first group out. I nervously pulled the tire warmers off, adrenaline was pumping, heart was racing, mounted the bike and headed off for pit lane. As I approached the entrance to pit, I passed over the one or two inch wide metal divider in the concrete. I heard a very strange noise come from the front tire and next thing I know I'm laying under my bike. That's right, I some how managed to dump my bike going less than five mile per hour. As I laid there trying to keep the bike off the ground, sacrificing my own body, I helplessly watched three or four riders pass by me staring at me like I was pink unicorn from some far off magical land there to spread happiness and riches across the land. I finally managed to summon up the strength to lift 450 pound bike off of myself and idle back to Marc's pit area. Total damage done was a broken turn indicator and a scratched bar end. Got the signal ducted up back together and enjoyed two full days of tire shredding fun. Didn't miss a single session! Thinking back, I'm convinced the noise I heard was a combination of the tire sliding on the wet metal plate, across the concrete and the abs doing it's best to save my dumbass.