#Honda CBR1000RR SP (2019)
We skipped the first session for the same reason we missed the second day. As you can see in the photos, the K0 tire took quite a beating from the previous session. Unfortunately, fitting a new one wasn’t within the budget. The tire tech said it was risky to keep rotating the tire, but hey—I’m the boss 😅.
When you have multiple days at the same race track, you often pick up the pace right where you left off the previous day, and this time was no different. We skipped the first session because the track was still a bit cold, which would have only worn down the tire faster. We didn’t want to risk a crash since we had plenty of track time ahead.
And yet it is already the last time for me this 2024 year at Circuit Zolder!
Hot hot hot! It was a day where the weather was very hot. We brought hoses that we could use to cool ourselves down.
First time on Zolder with good weather. Due to many riders saying the have fast laptimes the fast group was full. So we had to start in the less fast group and that was not very nice. The first session there was already a red flag and the second session to.
You might be thinking, hey is this the 5 hours of TT Circuit Assen? And yes it is. But why don’t I see pictures of them? Well, that is because Peter the other rider was ill and not able to race.
The last day was also with a cold start. Although in the beginning of the last (my last) session it all went wrong. I thought I turned into the corner correctly but it was to soon. Had to correct and start the corner again but I had way to much speed. I needed to bailout of the corner because the tarmac was ending and went into the gravel. So far so good, BUT! The wall came way to close where I had to drop the bike in the gravel and came to a stop.
The second day was as cold as the first one at the start. But the racetrack was a not new anymore. Did many laps but it is a difficult and technical racetrack. So worked a lot on which line worked and which didn’t.
When we arrived we drove through snow and freezing temperatures and not the 20+ ℃ you would expect from Spain. The circuit is in the middle of nowhere but easy accessible from the main highway. The hotel Trackdudes arranged had nice rooms.
The last day on the track and what a present! Sun shining brightly and the temperature was climbing fast!
Yet another day on Zolder. The weather was more or less in the early morning. The first session I went out and came back in without passing the finish. The reason for this was that the track was still wet from the rain that fell last night. Some riders stayed out but there was no fun in riding around the wet patches and the back part of the circuit was completely wet.
And yet again back on the track. The weather was nice but it had rain in the forecast. Little but it had. The sessions went fine and had a reasonable rhythm but not a very fast one. The other guys that I drive with where just faster. Not by much but enough to loose them.
Code yellow was the rain forecast and yes it did get bad. But we had a good 2 morning sessions with nice speed. The first session was a good one but it was HOT 🥵, despite there was no sun it was very humid and which made it extremely hard to ride. But the speed was there and had some nice laps.
And here we are in The Cathedral of Speed (TT Circuit of Assen) 🤗
Yet another day in the same wee as we visited the TT circuit of Assen. It was yet a nice day with lots of sun and a cool breeze. Because we already had the Assen day everything stayed in the van. This made it easy and we just needed to appear on the track and take everything out. We where the first ones of the tay in the expert group (fast) and it went fine.
We went the day before because Assen is a long drive. But we met with some new friends which we had a nice evening.
As always, even with all good things it comes to a end. But not before we had more fun on the track!
You can see that the video’s of the previous day and also this day are not the usual. I have prepared a custom project of the KIXZ app with 2 camera’s. One for the front and one for the back. GP style 😀. This is still in experimental phase and as you see some improvements needs to happen. The colors, duration and sound need more love. But it has some cool footage that I want to share. Due to cable connector issues the recording button stopped to work after the 1st session of the day. Since I didn’t want to take the seat appart this was the last video of the trip but we still have the photo’s!
And here we are back in the Spanish sun! Left The Netherlands where it was raining and 6℃ for the 20℃ sun. It has been some time since I rode the last time. And that was when the gearbox of the bike broke. Preparation did not go all that well. When I was preparing the bike the bike showed error code on the screen. Brought the bike back to MVR Racing and he tried to find the issue. Back on the track the issue appeared again but also the quick-shifter and blipper where not working because the traction control light stayed on. But there was no quick fix far away from the garage but we went out to have fun even though I had to learn to shift again 😅.
The day was a nice and hot. Did some nice laps and had a lot of fun with Peter. Some good overtaking actions and decent speed. Unfortunately in the middle of session 4 the bike started to make a lot of noise in turn 1 and 2 and I decided to slow down and finish the lap. Back in the pits the engine was making more noise then a coffee machine and I had to call it a day.
It has been a week since we went to Circuit Zolder that was halted very quickly by black flags due to the noise. So today we “tried” to avoid it.
A very sunny day and a lot of fun to come! After the 5 hours of Assen I had to change the breakpads. They where completely gone. With the new ones I had to break them in for a few corners. After the session the break leaver was on the handlebar but that was fine. I always do the first session in a slower pace to feel hoe the bike and track is.
WE ARE BACK! The 4 hours of Assen got upgraded to 5 hours 😯 but we where up for the task.
We where in Spain but the weather was not like Spain. It was cold 8℃ and the people of the team told us to skip the session. It was to cold, little grip and it could only end up wrong. So we did. As I mentioned we had 7 sessions in a day so we didn’t care much.
A new year and a new track. Flying to Alicante with Peter to have fun on the race track Cartagena. We both saw some YouTube video’s on the internet about the track and we both thought that it would be a difficult track. Heavy breaking in the corners and also accelerating under a decent lean angle with some blind turns made us sweat before we even drove 😅.
The last day of the 2021 season has arrived. The day started cold but we where in a good mood. The sun was shining and I wanted to continue my work on the Honda even more. The first session I’m always careful and today was not different. Lots of riders passed me like I was staning still. The track was still cold and I didn’t felt the grip and therefore I took it “slowly”.
It’s a sunny day 😎💖. Today the weather is very good. It is my first time back at TT Circuit Assen with this new bike. First session was not good, had some issues with the brake leaver being to fast and I had no feeling when I needed to brake. Second session I had made some adjustments to the brakes and it felt good right away.
I have forgotten the last day of Assen and we are back at Zolder.
Rain rain rain, the day was not a day to remember. Due to not having rain tires I didn’t ride.
Building up the bike from the last crash at SPA took some time. Dashboard was not working and all fairings where destroyed. Brought the bike to Ten Kate Racing and they fixed up the bike very fast.
Not a day to remember. 1,5 lap and the bike went to the ground… I was braking into the corner still going straight and in my calm sighting lap where I did not close the throttle completely and suddenly I felt a push from the bike accelerating while breaking and I went down.
New day new results. The weather has been good all week and this Friday was not exception. 27℃ and a cool breeze made the day perfect for riding. The rear tire I had on the bike a Metzler K2 was a little worn due to wrong suspension settings. During the first 2 sessions the rear was sliding and I decided to change the tire before the 3rd session. When I switched to a new K2 tire the bike felt very good and the lap times dropped each time I went out.
Last minute trackday and it was a GOOD one! A slight delay because of the highway being closed. Mounted new foot pegs that allowed reverse shifting but one screw got loose and could not shift. I was at the end of the start finish line so I could enter the pits pretty easy, mounted a new bolt and got on my way again in less then 9 minutes!
Happiness and tears at the same time. I sold the old 2008 FireBlade 😥 and bought a newer 2019 SP model 😍. First track day at Zolder with the new bike and not all went well. The day was cold and the temperature only got up to 11℃ which for the time of the year is pretty cold. During every session there was without any exception a red flag 🚩 that caused the session to stop because of a accident.