SOWS: 6/15/07

My 2nd trackday at Streets of Willow Springs was last week. I headed up with a couple of friends w/ the f4i, freshly kitted out with some new parts. I've always liked SOWS in a car, much more than big willow anyway, so i was excited to give it a go on the bike. I'm pretty familiar with the track, or at least the layout, but as you'll read, on a bike there's much more to it than that.

I was riding in the intermediate group, which was a tad ambitious, since this was my first session at Streets, but i figured that i wouldn't be holding too many people up. I picked up the line from other riders in the group, but experienced issues with the pavement surface. It's pretty rough out there, and with my current suspension setup, hard to get good drive coming out of certain corners. Plenty of pucker moments with losing traction with the rear end, and issues at corner exit with some very ill-placed bumps and disturbances. I struggled to find a comfortable rhythm all day--too slow through some corners, too fast for traffic in others--and battled posture issues and Literbike Syndrome all day.

Guys on 1000's were parking it in corners in intermediate, and making it hard to get any consistency throughout laps. Setting up passes at track exit along the outside, i'd catch them at the apex on an outside line, but get blown away by the straight line speed of the liters. Unwilling to fully commit to my passes, unsure and untrusting of people's ability to hold a line and leave the door open, i found myself stuck behind a lot of liter bikes. it's frustrating.

Reality check

A friend of mine went down on the crest this morning. I wasn't there, and details are as of yet unknown, but he's in stable condition and out of surgery. Considering the rumors, it's luck that he's alive and not in worse shape. I'll update as i get more info, but my prayers and best wishes go out to him and his family.

It also brings into focus that anything can happen on a public road, and especially a road like the crest. It serves as a reminder that even when you are riding responsibly and in control, terrible things can happen. I beseech everyone to be safe out there, especially as peak riding season ramps up. It's not enough to keep me off the bike, but also a reminder that the sport is dangerous and fate is fickle.