We’ve got an Estoril trackday coming up shortly. Various bits of prep needed for this:
Full suspension setup by @B at BNRS for the Ducati Panigale V2. I’ve struggled for the last year to find a good setup and went totally in the wrong direction at the last trackday at Donnington Park. Even just on the ride home, it felt massively better. Far more stable and confidence inspiring into corners. Yay.
New tyres fitted to @pricetta Aprilia RS 660’s wheels. Some new, near-slick Metzeler Racetecs. Nice.
Removed the windscreens from both bikes at the trackday organisers instruction. They are not liable for breakages, apparently!
New SBS Dual Carbon front brake pads for my V2. I was running quite low and didn’t want the hassle of changing them at the trackday. Took the time to clean up the callipers and surrounding area.
Removed the tail-tidy from the RS 660. It’s not going back on the road. We have ordered some track fairings, but they won’t arrive in time. We’re a bit disappointed about that.
Test-fitted some new Spider race clip-ons and new top-yoke to the RS 660. They are clearly advertised as for race fairings only, and that was our plan, but without the race fairings, we got a little eager. They kinda looked like they might fit, so I committed to fitting them, then realised, no, lol, they were never going to fit. They’re a good couple of inches or more lower than the stock ones and the only way they were going to fit was by cutting away some of the original in-fairing. In for a pound, in for a penny… got the multi-tool and Dremel out and now they fit
The amount of RS 660 fairing I cut away to fit the new clip-ons.
Just need to wheel them out and give them a wash and load them for transport to the depot where they’ll be loaded onto a HGV and driven down to Lisbon.
Hrm, just realised the black marks on the discs are old pad material. As I’ve changed pad type, I need to get that off. Have ordered some 600 grit sandpaper.
I did use a scotch pad to clean the discs, and whilst it did remove a load of fine material from the surface, it didn’t touch those marks.
Nice, haven’t done Estoril, and having just watched WSBK its now on the list.
Euro trackdays are just so much better than UK ones, been a bit skint this year, so haven’t done any, but looking at my facebook feed its Jerez and Portimao time of year
On my R1 I have the clip ons near straight, and it sticks out the edge of the pallet, so I have to loosen them and turn inwards, no biggy though.
No Limits?
Have a good one, prepare to be addicted!!
PS Don’t forget your euro adapter for the garages and the warmers!
We were up at 6am on Saturday this weekend to get to the depot for 9.30am to drop the bikes off. As seems quite common, we got minimal help from No Limits. Absolutely no idea what we were meant to do as first-timers and they even got a bit funny after telling us we drove in the hanger the wrong way… err, so maybe put signs out if you want people to go a non-obvious way? Also the entrance to the hanger was like a battlefield. Huge pot-holes which trailers really don’t like.
The stillages were absolutely filthy, covered in all sorts of grime. I was really hoping it wasn’t oil, but didn’t fancy finding out the dirty way. Hoping none of our gear gets stained. We’ll see on the flip-side.
Yeah, we had to loosen and fold in a clip-on on each of our bikes.
Somehow we managed to fit everything we brought with us onto the stillages though. I was surprised. I thought we would have to prioritise our gear and leave some stuff behind like the two big camping chairs we have.
All loaded! In their defence, they did offer a couple of free straps as we didn’t have all ours in the trailer, now that we’ve moved to Pit-bull trailer mounts for securing the bikes. My bad.
They advise to take the screens off as they can be damaged in transit, as stillages are stacked on top of each other. About half the other people there loading up had done that. Some didn’t seem to care, despite those being on very nice bikes.
The bikes all wrapped in cling-film. They sell you a huge roll for £10, which we hope will be enough for the return trip as well. It was a bit of an effort to do this. Could do with some sort of device to help avoid getting dizzy running around the stillage and getting cardboard-burns
Oh, and one of the other guys bikes fell over in the stillage. He hadn’t secured it and presumably was hoping the front wheel chock would hold it in place. It didn’t. Poor geezer. I hope it hasn’t badly damaged the bike. Bet he’s going to get a ribbing for crashing before even getting to the circuit!
@Jay wasn’t part of the suitability of the correct towing vehicle for the trailer the fact that you would be driving all over Europe for track days and taking all your own gear with you.
Don’t tell me you have had enough of the trailer already and are now flying.
Hah, not quite mate. We love the trailer. It’s uses are:
Attending trackdays in the UK.
Going on road-trips into Europe with the touring bikes.
For these scenarios we get maximum flexibility and we’re really happy with how the trailer has worked out for these so far.
Euro trackdays - it’s just the done thing and part of the standard package to have the trackday organiser ship your bikes there and back and you fly. It would be more expensive money wise to drive the bikes over ourselves, would require taking holiday off work for just driving, and would mean at the end of a three day trackday when we’re absolutely knackered, we would then have to drive all the way home. That would be pretty miserable, and potentially unsafe when really tired.
Saw a few NL posts on FB about Estoril, think its day 3 today? Weather looked fab, how is it going?
Hooked?
If anyone on here is considering doing them, but unsure:
Weather is better (if it rains, it normally drys quick),
more relaxed, as in riders are not normally doing stupid things as there are three days (not trying to cram it all in one day) and you will see them in the hotel in the evening for a “chat” if they did
tracks are normally good,
none (if any) sound tests,
3 days on the same track naturally brings your speed on
Can add extra days to make a holiday (I do this for some tracks, bring the kids and mrs, they go to the beach whilst i’m on track)
Nothing better than belting round a great track in great weather, then going back to the hotel for a drink and discuss the days riding. Its great seeing the other riders doing the same.
Only one noise test at the start of the first day.
Only one wrist-band check at the start of each day, then just ride out, no queueing!
Free teas and coffees all day. Fresh Pizzas and booze on sale at end of day.
Well run event by No Limits. Significantly better than their UK organisation.
Only one off-track excursion. Kept it upright.
Made loads of new friends. Had a great time after each day.
Organiser-run timing so people got shuffled at the end of the first day to keep group speeds more consistent.
Tyre service was super fast. Cost £40 to change the tyres on two loose wheels.
I had serious handling issues with my V2. It just wouldn’t turn/lean. Something was up with the geometry. This is a long running issue. It used to be great. Tried a lot of things with remote help from @B. Managed to make big improvements, but it wasn’t a total fix. This did end up ruining things for me as I just couldn’t get up to full pace. No apexes or knee sliders were harmed.
Absolutely cannot wait for the next one now. Euros are evidently a much better trackday experience!
Lessons learnt/things to improve for next time:
Take a fuel jug. Instructions from NL suggested not to bring anything fuel related, but you need a jug out there as their rental fuel cannisters are too big to man-handle over a bike.
Make sure you have a reliable tyre gauge, mine wasn’t seating properly
Make sure you have a full tool compliment. I had some missing sockets for some reason.
Don’t fly back home on the last day of the trackday. Make your own hotel booking for one more day and fly out then. Lost track time and it adds stress to the day.
Mix a bit of holiday with the trackday. Maybe stay a few days before or after (see above) and mix with leisure time.
Bring hangers for hanging leathers/airbags up at the end of each day to dry out
Take some small towels to pad the stillage post seats as these can scratch your lower fairings when loading.
Get some palm-protectors to go under the gloves, as three days on track will give blisters.
Make sure your bike is handling well before you go.
Because we’re idiots, we arrived a week earlier than we should have to collect our bikes, but managed to blag finding them on the truck that had JUST arrived from Lisbon. As luck would have it, our stillage was on the accessible side.
The brilliant No Limits team helping get our bikes unloaded.
Wicked glad you enjoyed it, pics are great!
Ahh you learn to “bend the rules” on euros, jugs are OK, and most people will fill leave enough in their tanks for a couple of sessions, so its not a mad rush for tubs and getting down the petrol station.
I think the noise tests are a tick box thingy, I have seen some pretty noisy ducs go through without battering a eyelid.
I really love the social side of a Euro, chatting in the hotel in the evening, breakfast in the morning, chatting to the other riders.
The Spanish marshals are a bit more “relaxed” about flags too, as long as you get out the way pretty quick, they will let the session run until the end.
Yeah, we had hardly any red flags. When people ran off circuit, they managed it under a yellow flag. This was a breath of fresh air compared to UK trackdays.
Noise testing - Estoril is starting to have issues, oddly there’s some houses nearby. We even had a 60kph limit when noise limits were busted near the houses. We had to run at this speed through the section for a few laps. It was disappointing, but didn’t ruin it (in my eyes at least) as it was in the esses section which is slower anyhow, but No Limits were quite annoyed as they weren’t notified in advance, and even said at the end of the trackday that they probably won’t come back to Estoril whilst this issue persists.
Total: £3,320.12
For a single person, maybe £1,851 if you need new tyres as well. £350 less if not.
The trackday fee includes haulage, track time and hotel.
To quote Dune:
