Finally I was able to hit the track on the CBR1000RR after a winter of patience. I went home to Italy over the Easter break and decided to bring the bike along with me on the trailer. Managed to fit in 3 sessions on Easter Monday at Franciacorta and I could finally see how this bike feels, and also how this track feels on a bike.

I headed down there late morning for an 11:00 start and then 3 sessions of 20 minutes followed. Before heading out I decided to soften up the suspension by reducing rebound and compression to 1.5 turns above min to see how it feels. Franciacorta is a relatively bumpy track, but after my first ride I was pretty happy with how it handled the bumps and rode; unfortunately I don’t really have the experience to say how adequate the setting was, but I felt great so I left it.
I tried to concentrate on all the other areas which I need to improve on, which are all about me and not the bike.

Body position was key as it’s the first time I ride a clip-on bike on the track, and second time out in total. I tried my best to get off the bike in the turns and was surprised how straining it is on the arms during turn-in. I know I must be doing something wrong with my legs and not supporting my upper body enough with them. Once on the power you sink in and it frees up the arms a bit, but I need to work on my corner entry.

Second point was the feet position. Due to how busy the track is, with barely any straights to break the lap up, I was struggling to get my feet in the right place at the right time. This meant that I would often scrape my toes as I wasn’t tip-toeing on the peg.

Despite all this it was a great day and I’m very pleased with how it went. My target of the day was to get under the 1:30 barrier which I managed, with a 1:28.25. It was also a great chance to get a hang of the bike before next weekend where I will be spending two full days here.

Until next weekend.