Another great weekend with the Horizon Defined gang has come and gone at the small but tough track of Bresse. The same track I went to last September, for my very first bike track day on the mighty Honda X-11, and it was great to return on the CBR1000RR.

The weather was almost perfect if it wasn’t for the insane heat, with temperatures over 30C, which made it incredibly tough to survive just the 20 minutes sessions.

The plan of attack as usual was to continue improving and increasing the confidence on the bike, which is slowly reaching good levels. I’m getting to the point where I’m very happy with my body position and the elusive elbow drag is approaching.

The main improvement this weekend was the bum position during corner approach, where I would usually move over during the braking phase, but worked on getting it moved before the braking point. This made quite the difference as I was much more confident during braking and turn in as my body was stable and ready for the corner.

On the first day I concentrated on learning the track again and also on this bike, but I had to miss a session as I finished my front brake pads and forgot to bring my spares. Luckily I managed to find someone who would sell me a set, which ended up being TRW CRQ Hyper-Carbon pads. I was pleasantly surprised with the performance of these pads as their bite, once warm, was incredible and they gave a nice stiff lever pressure which made it easier to feel the front. I think I’ll try carbon pads in the future again.

I also swapped the rear tire, which was a Metzeler Racetek RR K3 at my last track day, with a Pirelli Superbike SC2 in 180/60 size. I will definitely keep the 180/60 size over the 200/60 as its simply too big for this bike, as explained in my last post in Anneau du Rhin.

The latest setup is now:

Front Tire Rear Tire Pirelli Superbike SC1 120/70 Pirelli Superbike SC2 180/60

On the second day I worked on the body position, as mentioned above, and was able to set my fastest lap time of 1:38.152. A nice 10 seconds faster than last year on the X-11. I also spent an awesome time riding together with Argyris in the afternoon.

Part 2 to come…