Pirelli Track Day At Bira Circuit, Sunday February 6th

Dec 27, 2007
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Hey Ladies and Germs,

Just a quick heads up on the next Pirelli Track day scheduled for Sunday February 6th at BIRA Circuit!

Here's the poster:
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See you there!!!

Tony
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May 6, 2009
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Tony
What is the procedure for participating in the track day? Does one just turn up and register, pay the fees then ride?
Should I be there before 8 am to go through the registration and maybe scrutineering?

Are the riders segregated into groups in relation to experience and bike capacity or is there some form of racing format in place?

I have a slight chance to be there for the first time and I would go alone so I do not know the ropes. It would be nice to know the procedures
 
Dec 27, 2007
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Cheers Brian,

Like most things Thai, it's a very relaxed and casual event.

There are three groups-

Blue = Beginner
Green = Intermediate
Red = Race

Lots of newbs in Blue so that's the most dangerous group IMO.

Understand you're quite an experienced rider so Green or Red should be no problem for you. They don't mind if you switch groups.

No scrutineering, but if they notice a bike in poor repair they may pull the owner aside. Likewise, there seems to be no firm rules about gear, but helmet, gloves, jacket and boots are de riguer.

A lot of guys in the Blue Group wear "strap on" armor over their jeans, like this guy with the flaming Honda for example:

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As the Thais like to say, "Up to you!"

Hope to see you at BIRA on Sunday!

Ride On!

Tony

brian66;264856 wrote: Tony
What is the procedure for participating in the track day? Does one just turn up and register, pay the fees then ride?
Should I be there before 8 am to go through the registration and maybe scrutineering?

Are the riders segregated into groups in relation to experience and bike capacity or is there some form of racing format in place?

I have a slight chance to be there for the first time and I would go alone so I do not know the ropes. It would be nice to know the procedures
 

FrankT

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Sep 10, 2010
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Registration between 0800-0830
Briefing between 0830-0900
Then go riding, there will be 3 groups i.e.beginners, intermediate and racers, each group has a 20 minutes slot each hour between 0900 and 1530
After 1530 there will be races for each group and finally a price giving.
You can register beforehand by calling Khun Charlie at Pirelli, tel numbers on the flyer above.
 
May 6, 2009
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Thanks Tony and Frank for the info.
A lot different to what i am used to in Malaysia!!! Pasir Gudang and Sepang have beginners and racers on the track at one time. Unlimited track time for the 3 hours.
I just did two days at Sepang last week and the beginners are slow.
Luckly it is a wide track

I arrived in Bangkok from Malaysia this morning. Now i have to see if i can get my bike from KK and be there. Is there some way i can get the scheduling of track days so i can plan a little earlier in case i miss out on Sunday?
 
Nov 11, 2006
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Track days seem to be published at best about 2-3 weeks in advance,sometimes less. For guys like me in Chiang Mai it often doesn't allow much time
to get ready and get down there.
I must say though that the Pirelli track days are reasonably well organised and I've enjoyed all those I've done and you can't beat the price.
 
Dec 27, 2007
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Recommend you email Charlie and Ko and ask to be added to their mailing list- that's usually the best way to find about upcoming events.

[email protected]

Ride On!

Tony

brian66;264901 wrote: Thanks Tony and Frank for the info.
A lot different to what i am used to in Malaysia!!! Pasir Gudang and Sepang have beginners and racers on the track at one time. Unlimited track time for the 3 hours.
I just did two days at Sepang last week and the beginners are slow.
Luckly it is a wide track

I arrived in Bangkok from Malaysia this morning. Now i have to see if i can get my bike from KK and be there. Is there some way i can get the scheduling of track days so i can plan a little earlier in case i miss out on Sunday?
 
Dec 27, 2007
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Fantastic fun at the Pirelli Track Day at BIRA Circuit yesterday-

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West showed up with TWO bikes! His Ducati Multistrada and his Suzuki GSX-R K5-

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LOTS of impressive hardware!!!

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The Suzuki GSX-R 1000 seems to be the top choice for most track junkies-

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These guys got up at 2am and drove all the way from Hua Hin with their Buell Thunderbolt!

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First time at BIRA and they went on to win second place in the Blue race!

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Ko had his beautiful S1000RR on display but unfortunately he didn't take it out on the track this day...

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KTM RC8!
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MV Agusta F4!
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Ducati 749s (never seen one of these before)-
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another beautiful Ducati-
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Honda CBR1000RR-
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A bright pink CBR... :wtf: He was fast so I forgive him his color choice ;-)
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Pirelli had a couple of pretties on hand which of course put a big smile on Banana Boy's face-

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I didn't mind posing for a shot either:happy5:

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Dec 27, 2007
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Things were going well and I was clocking some decent lap times when I nearly crashed... Got to the end of the straight doing about 240kph and then on the front brake hard going down the hill when my front brake lever suddenly sank all the way to the grip and I lost my front brakes!
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Got on the rear brake and managed to scrub off some speed but there was no way I was going to make the corner so I went off the track but managed to keep her shiny side up and stop before I hit the wall- whew!

Pumped the brake lever and the pressure came back, but was still pretty spongy... Got back to the pits and tried to figure out what made my brakes fail. I installed a new ZX10R reservoir a few months ago and bled the brakes myself so I knew there shouldn't be any air bubbles. Fluid level was fine and still quite clear. No leaks. What else can cause brakes to fail like that I wondered?

I looked and it seemed the pads were still ok. Turns out, they weren't! Got home and took apart the calipers and finally figured out the problem.

Here are the pads out of my right caliper-
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The pad on the left, which is the outside pad, is cracked. Probably no big deal, and it still has over a millimeter of pad left. That's the pad I can see when the calipers are on the bike. I always assumed that brake pads wear more or less evenly. Looking at the inside pad (the one on the right in the picture above) I now know that my assumption about even pad wear is wrong. The inside pad is down to almost nothing- there is only about a fingernail's width of pad material left!

Left caliper pads were even worse:
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GixxerBrakePadsLHSSR.jpg

Here again, the outside pad is ok, but the inside pad is toast- only a bit of brake pad left, leaving the backing to press directly upon the disc, no doubt creating a lot of heat, but not much braking power.
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I actually did a few more sessions yesterday with the bike and only figured out the problem when I got home and took the calipers apart. But I was a lot lighter on the brakes and they stayed with me for the rest of the day.

Lesson learned! Just because one pad appears ok does not mean the other pad is ok! Check ALL pads regularly!

I'm not even sure what kind of pads these were, but I'm replacing them with EBC HH sintered pads and expect good things from them.

Ride On!

Tony
 
Dec 27, 2007
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So after losing my brakes I decided to take it easy and slapped on the GoPro hoping to get some decent footage while following people.

Well, turns out my placement of the camera, while fine on the road (where despite what some like to say I ride rather conservatively), was not fine for track where I lean the bike over a bit more-

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Ended up rashing the camera case and bracket on some of the right turns and unfortunately the impact/vibration caused the memory card to pop out so the video was corrupted...
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Ah well, at least the camera is fine, so I'll just have to be a bit more careful where I put it next time
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Ride On!

Tony
 
Dec 27, 2007
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So, not trusting my brakes I decided not to race, which earned me the SOFT **** of the day award
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Ah well, better a soft **** than a dead one!
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West entered the Blue race on his Ducati Multistrada-
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His umbrella boys were a bit, um, distracted
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Weren't we all!
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Grid positions were determined by random draw and West took position 4 with three Gixxers in front of him-
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Trio of Gixxers-
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Ready to race!!!
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Go West!
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As always seems to be the case at these events, there were a lot of fast racers in the "beginner" group...
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I was particularly "impressed" by the "beginner" on the GSXR who pulled a wheel stand for the length of the straight and lapped half the field... . Yeah, he belongs in the Blue group... NOT!
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Green Race next!
 
Dec 27, 2007
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There were some professional photographers at the track. Just found this nice action shot-

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And the SSR team in the pit-
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Ride On!

Tony
 
Dec 27, 2007
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Trent and his lovely Beer getting ready for the Green Race!

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Trent got the pole position!
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You're number one baby!!! ;D
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On your marks, get set, GO!!!
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Some good action shots!
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Good job Trent!!!

Looking forward to the next one!

Tony
 
Dec 27, 2007
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And here are some pics of the other guys that joined us-

Frank sporting his GoPro snorkel-cam ;)
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Esat- first time ever on a track! Good job man!!! 8)
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Joe on his Ninja 650R in borrowed leathers which he ended up buying.
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Bet he's itching to hit the track again soon!

Some good shots of West-
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And we can't forget Andrew and his girl who came out on a scoot to watch the fun ;D
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Dec 27, 2007
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A lap at BIRA circuit-


I was taking it easy at this point on account of my failing brakes but still managed to drag my GoPro through Maximus... Ooops!
 
Oct 17, 2006
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Fantastic thread and thanks for the hard work mate , as to your mysterious brake faliure , i have seen this before on race bikes ...but also on road machines ..in fact it happened to me last week on the mountains in Petchabun but it was my rear brake...Now i have dismantled it completely and can find nothing wrong except heavily scored pad s,,,i reckon the cause is overheating causing a temporary loss of pressure but as the system cools the pressure comes back ,the pads and fluid havee now been replaced and i will get a rebuild kit for the caliper and master cylinder o rings

its a nasty feeling when they go all spngy and the lever goes to nothing ... you were lucky.
 
Dec 27, 2007
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monsterman;265377 wrote: Fantastic thread and thanks for the hard work mate , as to your mysterious brake faliure , i have seen this before on race bikes ...but also on road machines ..in fact it happened to me last week on the mountains in Petchabun but it was my rear brake...Now i have dismantled it completely and can find nothing wrong except heavily scored pad s,,,i reckon the cause is overheating causing a temporary loss of pressure but as the system cools the pressure comes back ,the pads and fluid havee now been replaced and i will get a rebuild kit for the caliper and master cylinder o rings

its a nasty feeling when they go all spngy and the lever goes to nothing ... you were lucky.

Cheers, very lucky indeed considering I lost my brakes at the worst possible spot on the track! I'm still pretty surprised I didn't bin it!

Oh, and the brake failure was entirely my fault-
GixxerBrakePadsLHSSR.jpg


The disc where the pad was mostly gone was gun-metal blue from the heat!

Never realized that pads can wear at different rates and until this incident I've only ever eyeballed the outside pad when checking pad thickness.

Lesson learned- check ALL pads!

Ride On!

Tony
 

Franz

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Jun 28, 2007
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Wow, they really look fo...d......., Tony you did loose ? Didn't ya ?? According to what's Gerhard posted as his Motto: You brake, you loose......55555, just joking. amazing Fotos and especially West on his Duc !!! I love it....cheers, Franz
 
Dec 27, 2007
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Franz;265388 wrote: Wow, they really look fo...d......., Tony you did loose ? Didn't ya ?? According to what's Gerhard posted as his Motto: You brake, you loose......55555, just joking. amazing Fotos and especially West on his Duc !!! I love it....cheers, Franz

Yeah, West did awesome on his Multi- I think he's faster on the Duc than on the Gixxer.

There was a Thai guy on a beautiful white Multi who was ripping it up as well-
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Awesome!!! 8)