V11 Track Time - MN

[JBinMPLS]

 

I want to plug a riding class that I finally got around to doing. I had heard about this from a few riders in town but it took my big brother to finally get me signed up. My brother John signed us both up (in the pics, he's riding the red Sprint ST) and on Sunday (9/26) we had beautiful weather and a fine learning experience. It is a riding class held on a local technical school's truck and police car training track. It costs $75 and the first time you go you must go through the classroom training. Anytime after you complete this classroom day you can come back for open track time for $75. It is taught and coordinated by a loose group of former professional racers and mechanics. Here are some links so you can read all about it, they did 13 sessions over the summer and I only got in on the last one. I'm still buzzing over my day and can't wait for next year. I'll need to get a paddock stand and remove the kickstand though, that was the only scraping I did. The last few sessions on the track (no photographs of that I guess) I really settled into it and was able to hang off quite a bit more. I was very happy with my ride, she took great care of me and always felt rock solid. I know the limits a little better now and feel more comfortable with my ability to accurately control the position and movement of my guzzi. This was my first class other than the MSF back in 96 and it's taught me some good techniques to practice. I guess I need more track time!

 

http://www.ridingcourse.com

 

The pic's are of me on my V11N while I was still getting comfortable out there for the first couple of sessions, mainly learning the track. I have to admit that I was very anxious. There were a lot of fast and aggressive people out there, some went down. My goal was to not take a $75 class and turn it into a $1000+ repair bill. They had a pro photographer out there to document and sell us our pictures and they just made it to the web today. You can see the rest @ www.momentumphoto.net.

 

Sorry, no great performance stories, I didn't look at the speedo once - eyes looking into the future the whole time. If anyone in the upper Midwest would like to go next year let me know, I'm definately in.

 

 

 

[jrt]

Aw, man that is great! Let me know when you go next year. I'm in. I'm probably hell of slow, but I'm in.

 

Jason (Iowa City)

[JBinMPLS]

Aw, man that is great!  Let me know when you go next year.  I'm in.  I'm probably hell of slow, but I'm in.

 

Jason (Iowa City)

34446[/snapback]

 

 

Awesome, I'll post to this topic to let you know. They stress that speed isn't important and that technique is everything, with good technique will come speed. I picked up steam throughout the day, and there will always be people who are faster, there were some pretty fast lady's out there too. Seems like next spring is a long time away though... I won't be putting my V11 into storage until the end of Oct I hope.

[Guest Steve_W]

...there were some pretty fast lady's out there too.  Seems like next spring is a long time away though...

Any fast, pretty ladies?

[jrt]

leave my wife out of this.

[JBinMPLS]

I'm a little late in updating this thread with info for the '05 season. Go to the link below to get info. I haven't picked a date yet, Motoprimo is waiting on a new engine case for me and I am not sure when I'll be on the road again. It looks like all of May is already booked, a couple of advanced slots left for returning riders. June 4th looks pretty good. It would be fun to get a Guzzi convention out there, post possible dates (after looking at the available slots on the ridingcourse.com calendar) and perhaps we can make things coincide.

 

Ridingcourse.com

(I'm in that picture somewhere...)

 

Here is a new link for more cheap and safe track time at DCTC. I haven't gotten in on this yet but it is run by the Minnesota Sportbike association. Links below:

 

Track Time Link

 

MN Sportbike Org

 

 

~JB

[DeBenGuzzi]

I live in Minneapolis, I got my bike at motoprimo, hey we should ride out to someplace sometimes with our somethings.

Anyway I've only seen 2 other V11's on the road. How do you rate motoprimo(personal experience) they have a strike for and against in my book I'm thinking of giving the dealer in mora a try if things get hedgy next time. But they've been pretty good to me. they no hitching post(and thats good) I won't ramble on but I can't get any of my buddies to even get a bike so anytime a ride is going down throw me a line if you have the room for another goose.

[Guest caffreydog]

Hey JB,

 

I can vouch that that the cornering class is very informative. I won't be going this year since I grashed my V11 there last year. Chalk it up to innexperience (only second season riding and only 150 miles of city riding on the V11 before going). I got fatigued halfway through the day... it's more work than it looks like. But I did learn some good techniques and pointers.

 

One of those V11's is probably mine... 2000 silver. I hope to get it out of storage next month. As far as Motoprimo goes, the people there are excellent, but I think they're occasionally so busy that the service slips. I had an issue with my headlight after I bought the bike last year (purchased in FL, not MPLS). They couldn't find the issue and ended up tearing apart the wiring and suggesting I needed an entire new wiring harness. Boy were they wrong. After doing research on the web and posting to this forum, people suggested replacing the relays. I mentioned that to Motoprimo and they assured me that wasn't the problem. Instead they ended up bypassing one of the relays which tended to cause another issue, and they almost made me pay for the 6 hours they speant searching for the problem.

 

Long story short... took the bike to a mechanic in South MPLS and he fixed it right up and sold me two new Bosch relays for $60. I've been going back to him ever since. He even helped me straighten my bike out after the cornering seminar crash.

 

DeBenGussi, hope to see you around this summer. Maybe the three of us can meet up for first Thursdays at Dulano's...