Test at Snetterton

Took some time out from my house move on Sunday to test the little Suzuki SV and the BAMF at a Snetterton trackday. I got there early but the organization was piss-poor. Queued for 1/2 an hour to sign only to be told I have to go to the room next door and fill out some forms. At signing on there was only one staff member... and she was taking cash. Both bikes also had to be noise tested.

Early morning start with a Chevy packed with house contents and dragging 2 race bikes to Norfolk

They only started noise testing 45 minutes before the first session... of course they had the compulsory riders briefing during this time. Another queue. My session starts and I'm still waiting to be noise tested - I get out for 2 laps before the end of the session. It was run by a well known trackday company called 'No Limits' - they're shit.

Between sessions I queued again to get the BAMF noise tested. Despite the exhaust being repacked, she failed miserably. Limit: 105 dB. BAMF: 107 dB. Not good.

Got out on the Suzuki for 3 more sessions before lunch. She was great! She's a bit slow down the straight for the fast group - late model 1000cc superbikes would fly past and gap me by 50 yards before we got to the end of the longest straight on British soil. I'd then claw some back all the way to the chicane and they'd gap me again on the next straight. There were a couple of really fast boys out there... but most of the riders didn't get too far away from the 9 year old SV which had less than 1/2 the horespower than just about all of them and was on Pirelli road tyres.

Finally managed to get some air-ride suspension fitted to the Chev-dawg last week. You just load her up and pump up the pressure... fully loaded trailering 2 bikes she just eats up the bumps at 90mph! Brilliant!

During lunch I tried to botch a dB-killer on the BAMF - but wasn't accepted by the noise tester. :-( Got out for another session on the SV after lunch, but wasn't learning anything new. As Colin Edwards once said: If you're not riding at 110%, your just wearing out the machinery. Besides... I had a house-move to continue. So I skedaddled.

I was very happy with what I'd learned on the SV. It's dead-easy to ride quickly. Very forgiving. A bit slow, but quite a bit quicker than the Wee Monster. On standard road gearing I was still revving her out before braking - so need to sort that for the ultra-long straights on the Isle of Man. She's a lot lighter than the Wee Monster and easier to throw around, but still has worse brakes (no Brembos!) - got some new Performance Friction pads waiting for her so should be a bit better. Nothing broke or fell off. No surprises. Lovely! The bloke who built it, Gary at SDC Performance did a good job. :-)

The well mannered little SV and the fire-breathing Badd Ass

I was bit disappointed not to give the BAMF and run with her new-found horses and magnesium rear wheel - she's just been one disappointment after another since the rebuild - but I have faith that we'll get the old gal right.