STAR School, Second Creek Raceway, May 24 and 25, in 2004  If one admits to liking fast pavement riding, it implies one also disregards the speed limit. Nearly everyone I ride with speeds some or a lot. Experienced speeders tend to know which roads are regularly patrolled. It's asking for trouble to speed (I define speeding as true speed more than 5 over the limit) on an Interstate Highway but out here in western Colorado we have hundreds of miles of great canyon roads that are rarely, if ever, patrolled. Still, we get speeding tickets now and then. I got two on my DL650 in six weeks time. Disappointing, since I worry about riding sport bikes because I'm afraid of getting a ticket. Most people who ride fast are more interested in corner speed than straight-line speed. There is nothing like a track school or open track day to do some serious fast riding. I attended track schools once each year in 2001 through 2004. It's great! No cops, no cars, no surprise gravel in the turns, everyone is going the same way (most of the time) and there are instructors there to clue you in if you are doing it wrong. My first two track schools were with Reg Pridmore (3-time AMA Superbike Champion a few years back) CLASS schools at Second Creek Raceway in Denver. These were great schools to learn track discipline and cornering techniques. But Reg Pridmore is retirement-age and want's to trim down the out-of-California classes he does; hence, no CLASS in Colorado anymore. However, his son Jason Pridmore (active AMA racer and Champion winner) now brings his STAR performance-oriented track school to Second Creek Raceway. My first experience with STAR and Jason Pridmore's teaching was in 2003 at Streets of Willow in California. It was one of the most rewarding and satisfying experiences of my motorcycling life. Report. In 2004, I signed up for two days of STAR at Second Creek Raceway, May 24 and 25, in 2004 and even got a $25 discount for riding a new 2004 Suzuki; Suzuki is one of their sponsors.
You may think a mid-displacement, multi-purpose motorcycle is a poor choice for a performance-oriented track school. Not necessarily so. I learned this lesson my first year at CLASS, at Second Creek Raceway, when it took me several laps to pass an aggressively ridden KLR650 in the "B" group, even though my 2000 Triumph Sprint ST had about 2 1/2 times more HP. Track schools are typically held on tight, technical and sometimes rough tracks. For riders of modest ability, multi-purpose motorcycles may be the bike of choice. (BTW: many STAR instructors ride Suzuki SV650s by choice and they are not slow.) My second year at CLASS, I rode a 2002 Buell M2. The torquey twin was an ideal mount for me and I did well, advancing to the "A" group, finding myself a niche near the middle of the pack. I really enjoyed it. My first ride with STAR, at Streets of Willow, I rode a rented SV650 Suzuki. Because I expected it to be a faster school, I moved back to the "B" group, a wise decision as I rode well back in that pack. It was a faster school; many of the riders were club racers from the L.A. area, even in the "B" group. For 2004 at Second Creek Raceway, riding my own DL650, I again chose to ride with the "B" riders. I approached this school with complete confidence but with no misconception of my own middle-of-the-pack abilities. After 6000 miles on my DL650, I had no doubt that it was the appropriate ride for me. Possible thunderstorms were forecast for both days. I left racing leathers in the closet and wore Aerostich with track boots and gauntlet gloves, all acceptable for tech-inspection. The STAR school is two days of intense activity divided into alternating twenty minute sessions in the classroom or on the track. Riders are divided into expert or "A" groups and less-experienced street or "B" group. Riders can vary from national racers and club racers in the "A" group to club racers or club-racer hopefuls and street riders wanting performance-oriented instruction in the "B" group. I do well in the "B" group. The fast riders in the "A" group, as well as instructors, are much faster than me. Second Creek Raceway, known as a tight, technical track, is 1.7 mile's long with 10 turns. We run it clockwise. After the second day I was tired. The muscles of my thighs were painful from lifting my butt left or right for more than 200 track miles (125 laps of the 1.7 mile track), "hanging off" as the young guys say for the purpose of reducing lean angles as much as possible. Both hands were blistered from gloves I've used for four years. My butt was sore. That's 1250 turns, maybe 2500 times I had to lift my butt and move it to one side or the other. Of course, that's over two days. It was worth it. The DL650 performed flawlessly. The handling was perfect within the range of this riders ability. Never did the front end show any sign of breaking loose and I wore the tires to the edge of the tread surface, even on the front. The rear stepped out a few times during a cold session the 2nd morning, even after what I thought was sufficient warm-up laps. Other than that, the rear stepped out only twice in 200 miles, both my doing. Once, I did a modest power slide out of a tight corner. It was fun and I would have repeated it if I thought I could. Another time, I missed a down shift to low approaching a tight turn due to the awkwardness of my left foot while hanging off to the right. No big deal except I accidently bumped it into low gear after letting the clutch out. The rear stepped out with a chirp but otherwise didn't interrupt my cornering. I was riding fast. Several instructors cautioned me that I was approaching dangerous lean angles. It didn't seem that way because I was able to complete 125 laps with no incidents of pucker-factor. The springs were a little soft for my weight -- probably 200 lbs. with riding gear -- and hard track riding. This did not affect handling as far as I know but I did bevel the ends of my IMS Pro footpegs and grind the bottom of the lower exhaust heat-shield even though I was making a serious effort to "hang off" and reduce lean angle. I did notice some abruptness when applying the throttle, something I never noticed in street riding. I bumped the rev-limiter all too frequently but this is not the bikes fault. I have a habit of working in the upper third of the rev-range when on the track. With the DL650 I should run 1 gear higher everywhere. I might even have gone faster considering the DL650's strong mid-range. The "B" group had several race-prepped bikes (club racers), Japanese sport bikes of all sizes, two Aprilias, several Ducatis including 749s, a ZRX1100, an R1100GS and an R1150GS Adventure (with Metzeler Tourance tires like mine) and perhaps some I missed or don't remember. The DL650 had less horse power than any other motorcycle in the group. Now remember, this was the "B" group but some of these people had been to track schools before. This was my fourth track school and I had been on this track twice before. By the second day, my lap times were among the fastest in the group. I was passing motorcycles with more than twice the power. I credit this to the tight, technical and somewhat bumpy track and the remarkable appropriateness of the DL650 to these conditions. Also, several riders suffered from the all too common misconception that buying a 140HP sport bike would make them a fast rider. The truth is, the DL650 was in it's element no matter what the other bikes were. How can I fault it? I set tire pressures at 31 front and 35 rear for track riding (but not necessarily for street riding). In preparing for track school, I checked static sag. A balanced setting for me, about 30 percent of travel front and rear with my weight on the motorcycle, turned out to be no preload in the front and 3 lines of preload in the rear. I perhaps could have increased preload front and rear to reduce peg-dragging but it was handling so well I didn't want to change anything.
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